The wheels haven’t completely stopped and the kick stand is down and I’m standing behind the bike. Sure as it is that I am currently standing in a baking oven in my race gear, sweating like I have never sweat before, my right saddle bag is spewing 6-10 inch flames. My feet haven’t completely settled from running to the back to have a look see before I’m back up on the flame trying to slap it out. Nylon can only burn so hot, right? Maybe the exhaust lit the bag on fire. I’ve played with fire before, this is nothing but a thing! But the more I smack at the bag the bigger the fire gets. Strange. I can’t handle the ambient heat, so I yank off my helmet and gloves and a woman in white appears out of no where asking me if I need help.
I tell her “hold on a second” because the thing to do is to get everything on fire detached from the motorcycle. If I have wheels I can move, but I would be stuck with a smoldering pile of plastic and metal if I didn’t move fast. Possibly 45 seconds from the time I stopped I’m wrestling a burning set of saddlebags from the 250. With the saddle bags off I start tearing the Velcro straps connecting the right side bag which is on fire from the left side bag so the one doesn’t catch the other one on fire. Once apart, I proceed to yank everything in the burning bag from the bag, amid what has grown to between 8 and 12 inch flames. I scald my hand in a few places in the process. After the clothes, journal and toiletries I pull on the laptop and as it pulls free form the melted nylon bag the inside of the battery – bare cells, fall back into the bag. All of a sudden everything makes sense.
