I crashed....

Message

onlystring · Tue Jan 09, 2007 2:46 pm

Well, about an hour ago I low-sided my bike. I was on the way home from a day out on the apache trail (fun twisty road) when the guy in front of me suddenly hit his brakes hard (I found out afterwards it was because he almost missed the entrance to a parking lot). I saw his brake lights and immediately started stopping (fairly hard, but I've had to stop harder before) and about a second later my front wheel just flies out from under me. I was going about 50mph before I started braking and by the time I fell it was probably around 40. I knew my tire shouldn't have lost traction and I was really mad and confused but I managed to get my bike up and off the road and into the parking lot next to where it happened. I looked back in the street and low and behold, a manhole strait in the center of the lane marked the beginning of a 25ft long green skid that just so happened to match the color of my bike's faring perfectly. As it turns out, metal isn't a very good traction surface and when you're asking your tire for ALOT of stopping force things don't end well. I'm not really sure what I should learn from this. If I was presented with the same situation again tomorrow I would still do the same thing. I don't know.....the weird thing is I had thought before what it would be like to crash, and it was exactly like I expected.

Ok, so here's a damage report.

I'll do the bike first. - scratched up faring with a small crack, engine/clutch cover broken (oil leaking/BAD), mirror scratched up and cracked and a scraped up exhaust.

And now myself - road rash all along my left arm and left hip area and alot of bruises. For my gear I was wearing jeans, and leather jacket I bought from good will, and my new helmet. Let me tell you, cheap leather jackets and jeans don't do much at all in the way of protection, both of them just tore open and let the asphalt grind into me. But my helmet did it's job. It's all scratched up and now worthless, but if I hadn't been wearing it, all that damage would have gone straight to my own fragile head. Honestly I expected things to be worse, I think I'll be back to normal I just a couple days.

Overall it was a weird experience............................................................................................................................................................

Sev · #2 Unread post by **Sev** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:17 pm

Glad to hear you're mostly okay.

Road rash takes a LONG time to heal, so go easy on it.

Bikes can be fixed, try not to think about it too much.

sharpmagna · Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:19 pm

Wow that sucks man. It's just a bad occurence that the man hole was there when you had to apply maximum braking.

Get yourself a new helmet and a REAL motorcycle jacket and riding pants next time. Hope you get your bike fixed. Damage doesn't sound too bad, but it's going to cost some $$$ for repairs.

Social Distortion · Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:31 pm

hey man
thanks for sharing and i am glad to hear you are somewhat ok.
i'm surprised you didnt give that person in the car a piece of your mind or even, possibly thrown your damaged helmet in his direction. Knowing how mist cagers are, they probably pulled in the driveway and told someone...."i was nearly hit by some wreckless motorcyclist" and totally oblivious of thier role in the whole incident.
Good luck getting some gear and your MC fixed and get back on the road soon buddy!

Lion_Lady · #5 Unread post by **Lion_Lady** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 1:51 am

Glad you're mostly okay. Don't rush the healing process.

P

Johnj · #6 Unread post by **Johnj** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:42 am

I don't understand why anybody is putting blame on the cage driver here. String lost control of his bike, while braking, had he run into the car he'd be getting a ticket for failure to stop.

String get well soon, I'm glad you didn't get hurt worse. Check the motorcycle salvage yards in your area for the parts you need. you might be able to save some coin.

Shorts · #7 Unread post by **Shorts** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:48 am

Johnj wrote:I don't understand why anybody is putting blame on the cage driver here. String lost control of his bike, while braking, had he run into the car he'd be getting a ticket for failure to stop.

String get well soon, I'm glad you didn't get hurt worse. Check the motorcycle salvage yards in your area for the parts you need. you might be able to save some coin.

"pee" and moan for what? Like folks here aren't use to cages doing things to put bikes between a rock and a hard place? That's nothing new and it isn't worth getting worked up about.

The important thing is String's ok. Get better soon.

Sev · #8 Unread post by **Sev** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 4:09 am

Johnj wrote:I don't understand why anybody is putting blame on the cage driver here. String lost control of his bike, while braking, had he run into the car he'd be getting a ticket for failure to stop.

String get well soon, I'm glad you didn't get hurt worse. Check the motorcycle salvage yards in your area for the parts you need. you might be able to save some coin.

No one put any blame on the cage, all he said was, "I saw his brake lights and immediately started stopping. Yup, it's all the cages fault.

-Holiday · #9 Unread post by **-Holiday** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 9:16 am

glad you're ok!

Not to place blame, but it sounds to me like you were following a little too close. Giving a little more room would of allowed you to either swerve around the car, or not have to brake as heavily. I might have found myself in the same situation, but I think the lesson to be learned is to back off a bit more then usual from cars, especially in conjested areas. There are any number of scenarios that would warrant the car in front of you suddenly breaking heavily, and not all of them would be his fault, so be prepared for it by giving yourself more time to react.

Oh and get some real riding gear

sharpmagna · Wed Jan 10, 2007 9:25 am

Is your bike doing a 12 O'clock by itself?