I was working my way through a 180 degree hair pin turn that also slants down hill and just off the road is a rather steep drop off down the side of the mountain (Snickersville Turnpike at Route 7 for those of you who know the area.) I was going too slow, I think I was worried about over shooting the turn and ending up sliding down the side of the mountain.. well, I lost my balance and ended up rolling off the road way, anyway. Landed on my left side on the road while my bike was just off it in the gravel, slowly slipping away!!
I jumped up and grabbed my bike and man-handled it back on to the road. This was about an hour ago now and my arms are now starting to feel sore!
As for the damage report. The underside left some paint on the road while I was dragging the bike back, the drop off is quite big. My left turn signal lost it's orange glass and popped out of it's socket, but the bulb didn't break and it's still fully functional. I have some tiny scratches on the very front/left corner of the bike and the gear shift is bent around itself making it VERY hard to use. It went down in the gravel save for the very front corner so that saved me for the most part.
As for me, my head did bounce off the road once and my visor is all scratched up on the left side but the helmet itself is undamaged.. I have a bit of a headache now, but nothing like blurred vision, trouble speaking or anything else, so I'm fine. No apparent damage to my jacket, pants or boots (yes! I was in full gear AS ALWAYS
).All things considered, it wasn't a bad experience. All I need to get back up and running is to straighten out the gear shifter, and replacing the turn signal glass is mostly cosmetic. I can probably even polish out the scratches. It could have been a lot worse considering the location.
So, coming up to 2,000 miles in and with my first minor wreck out of the way.. now the learning can begin
