The Prime Directive

As a lifelong "Biker" I have a few guiding principles.....

As a lifelong "Biker" I have a few "Guiding Principles", one is "treat every other road user as if they are an idiot" another is, "always stop for a biker in trouble". It was this part of "The Prime Directive" that I obeyed one January evening in the late eighties....I was in the works van trundling back to the yard through the freezing fog and snow when the headlights picked out a biker stood forlornly alongside their obviously stricken motorbike.

I stopped to offer assistance and through multiple scarfs and full-face crash hat the muffled the voice appeared to say, "just spluttered and cut out". There was fuel in the tank and power in the battery, so my diagnosis was an iced carburettor*. This affliction occurred in damp subzero temperatures and righted itself if the carburettor* could be persuaded to get above zero degrees.…the time-honored method needed to achieve this was an application of warm liquid, if a thermos flask of tea was not available, a certain bodily function would suffice. With neither of us able to contribute the former and the biker seemingly unable to provide the latter, I supplied the necessary and the biker was again mobile.

Upon returning to the yard the boss told me he'd received a phone call from the stranded biker thanking me for my intervention; "as without my help.........……………. SHE wouldn't have made it home!

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*The carburettor is the device that meters the fuel & air entering the engine.