Have you ever ridden a motorcycle? Do you know what it's like to gallop down a country road, letting the wind whistle in your ears and things drift in the corners of your eyes?
My feelings are free, wild and hot-blooded, and I can say that most men have a motorcycle dream in their hearts, especially in the eighties when cars were still rare.
I remember the first time I came into contact with motorcycles was in 1977, when I worked in the Taiyuan office of Shanxi Nylon Factory. For the convenience of work, the factory equipped me with a Jinan light ride, that is, a 50cc moped. Work required, I naturally learned to drive, riding back to Yuci from Taiyuan every Saturday afternoon, and riding to the Taiyuan office on Sunday afternoon.
Once, when cycling to Taiyuan Sanyingpan, the car stalled. I am mechanically blind, needless to say maintenance, I don't even know the minimum driving principle. I had to push my motorcycle for more than two hours before I reached the office premises. The next day, as soon as I talked to my friends, I checked it, took out the spark plug and clamped it with pliers. Ay! All right!
My friend asked me, who did you have nothing to do with the spark plug? I said it was the car mechanic in my lover's factory, and he said that the car was not very strong, so he adjusted it. The friend laughed and explained that the gap between motorcycle and car spark plugs is different. So it was, fortunately, I rode to the south of Hezhou Road to put out the fire, if the fire was extinguished in Wusu, it would take more than five hours to walk for thirty miles at both ends, and it would not tire me into a dog!
In 1983, the organization was merged, and the Yuci County Foreign Trade Bureau was changed to the Native Animal Obstetrics Department of the Municipal Foreign Trade Bureau, with me as the section chief, and the unit was an entity with a business license. There are offices, financial offices, native products, livestock products, acquisition, storage, etc., as well as special personnel in charge of water and electricity and family dormitories. In fact, the original county foreign trade and the city's foreign trade of the local livestock products purchase business were merged together, and the old site of the county's foreign trade was used to make a native animal products purchase station.
At this time, a problem arises: in the past, the cash income from financial purchases and sales was sent to the bank by car every day for storage, but now the car belongs to the storage and transportation section of the bureau, and we can only use bicycles to run the bank here, which is a very unsafe hidden danger. A custodian was anxious in his eyes, so he took advantage of the difference in the price of the purchase and sale of goods to buy a Lion 250 motorcycle. He said to me, "I know that you are too timid to buy it, and if the leader blames you, you will push it on me." But our unit business is so large, thousands or even tens of thousands of transactions every day, and we have to go to the countryside to run business, why do you need a motorcycle, you ride as a driver, and usually everyone can use it when they go to the countryside. "What I want to say also makes sense, but when it comes to expenses, I still hurry to report to the director." The chief began to be very angry: Isn't this a first cut and then a play, you did this? But the director is very cultivated, criticized a few words, and said that "there will be some exemption from foreign military orders", you kid can't control it! It is also said that the original site of our county foreign trade bureau and the municipal foreign trade bureau are not together, and I can also be regarded as a "general outside"!
Since then, I have been going to work every day to pick up the cash I had saved the day before from BOC Yuci Branch and deliver it to the finance office. Before leaving work, I return the balance of the day to BOC. If I go to various townships and neighboring counties to run business, I also run on a motorcycle, and I am a section chief, a salesman and a driver, and this motorcycle has really helped me a lot.
When I started riding this bike, it was really difficult. The Lion 250 motorcycle is big and bulky, and I still need to change gears to learn, and I still have to work hard to become proficient. I also had a dangerous accident on a motorcycle, but fortunately I was lucky and there was no major incident. I remember that the most dangerous one was near the Yuci Dadongguan yarn factory, the road was full of private houses on both sides, and the road was very narrow, which could only be missed by two horse-drawn carriages. When I was passing by, a carriage ran behind me, and as soon as I was in a hurry, I fell, quickly got up to help the cart, crossed my legs on the side of the motorcycle, and dragged the car twice without standing up. Looking at the carriage only more than ten meters away from me, one of the rushing handles pulled the reins and shouted "Call", and the other pulled the brakes behind him, and the creaking sound was in the alley, piercing the eardrums. God knows how I was so energetic that I grabbed the handle with one hand and slammed the car against the bottom of the wall. As soon as I left, these three sets of carriages swept past me, and I was shocked and lost all of my strength. The car boss turned around and scolded me fiercely: "Housheng, it's not like you to play rich like this, look at my mule!" "I was just gasping, just uh-huh. Looking at the car again, it only scratched a little paint. My legs are only scratched and the skin is grazed, and everything else is fine. Looking back now, I still feel incredible, how great power people will burst out in a critical moment, and the dexterous evasive action, is it really protected by the gods.
I've been riding a motorcycle and I've been out of the ocean a lot. Once the motorcycle suddenly couldn't move, he drove an hour from Fort Street to the kiln. The maintenance master looked at it, it turned out that the battery connector was oxidized, the contact was poor, and the power was gone! I didn't expect such a simple question, it's really embarrassing!
Once I went to Shouyang on a business trip, on the way back to Yuci, the motorcycle exhaust pipe cracked, I still don't know, as soon as I walked, it was like the sound of farts kept going, and I naturally couldn't find the problem.
Another time I went to Shouyang to go to the countryside, I didn't see if the oil was enough, came back and walked near Dongzhao Village and found that there was no oil, fortunately I found an acquaintance in the Dongzhao Public Works District, and I was able to return with a Coke bottle of gasoline...
At that time, the quality of motorcycles was really not very good, and people like me who did not know how to repair would be helpless when they encountered a little problem during riding. I still think that if I could ride at that time, I knew how motorcycles worked, and I had some necessary maintenance skills, I would have traveled safely and made my family feel more at ease. It's a pity that I never learned to repair, and I made mistakes and changed them once and remembered them once, which was really stupid and an incompetent motorcyclist.
The saddest thing about riding a motorcycle is to go to Shouyang to collect honey, when I wore a white really good shirt, it was very hot, and the asphalt road was dried. When I got home, I saw that the white shirt had turned black and spotted, and I threw a tarry black dot on my back, and the clothes were directly scrapped after wearing them once.
The most breathless time riding a motorcycle was to go to my cousin's house in Taiyuan. When I came back, I passed by the Beiying supervision station, and at that time, the motorcycle was not under the control of the traffic police, and was blocked by the people at the supervision station, saying that there was a violation. They searched for a long time and said that the brake lights of my motorcycle were muddy. You can't wipe it clean and leave, you have to detain the car! He actually told me that he is also from Yuci, and the fellow is easy to discuss. What to discuss? See the fellow, buy a red plum cigarette! It's okay in the first place, isn't this looking for trouble?
In 1984, Yuci City just opened up the Maoerling section of Dongshuncheng Street to the source vortex, I rode on this road every day, wide and comfortable, there were few vehicles, riding a motorcycle rumbling down from Maoerling, the taste and feeling as if this road was his own, which teenager is not frivolous, our wild heart is overflowing.
The worst time was in the summer of 2015, when I was riding a motorcycle and carrying a single sofa. A big car in front of me walked slowly, I overtook the car, and the road took a 45-degree right turn. As soon as I arrived at the end of the big car, a big car came from the opposite side, which happened to sandwich me. The terrible thing is that a large pit suddenly appeared in the middle of the road, two meters in circumference and more than a foot deep. I braked quickly, trying to follow behind my fellow car. Slow is slowed down, but the pit did not dodge, as soon as I got on, I couldn't hold the handlebar, and the car, people, and sofa came into close contact with the road. The car and the sofa were fine, but I was miserable: the right side of my face, arm, hand, and leg were bleeding. In the surprise of passers-by, I gritted my teeth and rode back to Yuci from Beiheliu, put down the good car and sofa, and hurried to the hospital for disposal. Because the small clinic does not give treatment, I am afraid of sequelae, so I am recommended to go to a large hospital.
I have been riding a motorcycle for more than 40 years, and I have an inexplicable feeling for motorcycles, which seems to be like my legs have grown, and my thoughts when riding will immediately give to my hands and feet, and the movement without thinking will become the behavior of the motorcycle. Some people say that this is called the integration of people and cars, I am not so godly, but I think that the motorcycle is the same as the pen I write, and it is uncomfortable without people.
In 2018, I was in my seventies, so I sold my motorcycle. Never ride it again in this life, never again, my motorcycle!
Looking back on my decades of riding motorcycles, I look back on an eternally young heart, which not only carries my youth and career, but also my soul. I think that everyone's life will eventually end, but the soul and body, there is always one to be on the road, and that's good!
About the author
Li Zhixiang, a veteran of 1973, likes to read, likes to write casually, has no professional study, and hopes to get help from teachers.