8541Hawk

Well instead of rewriting the whole thing. Here is my post about my recent get off on my local forum..... guess you guys get sloppy seconds.....lol

After a couple of day to reflect, I believe I have figured out how I did myself in and what lead up to putting the bike in the ditch.

My biggest error of the day was not listening to my own damn advice...... I turned down a ride in the East Bay that morning as it was on roads i really didn't know and figured it would be better to stay on that wouldn't wouldn't catch me out until I had everything dialed in, good advice, too bad I didn't frickin' listen to it....

Then as I was heading to STP to ride that morning, I started getting rained on at the bottom of the hill. My first thought was to head home and wait until another day. Should have listened there also..... But I really wanted to get a ride in so I headed over to Mehran's ride with the excuse of "I'll just grab a coffe and then head home"...... That would have worked also but nooooo.......

The final warning was me commenting that the bike was working good but was a bit too stiff. At this point I'm not sure if I have a little too much compression damping dialed in or possibly too small of an air gap in the forks but either way the front is a bit stiff the way it sits right now.

So after ignoring all of these things I ended up heading up the road that would kick my ***.... After putting together what I do remember with the pics and what the bicyclist said here is how it went down.

We were carrying what I would consider a medium pace up the hill. I was just playing with the motor, as it works so well now, and just kind of farting around.
So we come to the "spot" and I remember coming out of the previous corner and seeing the relative straightness of that section and giving it a little goose.....
That's when things got ugly......

For those of you that have never ridden a liter twin, the roll on is rather impressive. In 3rd 40-60 is just under 1 sec. So I would say i went from an exit speed of around 35 to around 55. I was taking a line to the left of the gravel, which put my right in line for the pot holes.

So I caught the hole and the combination of a too stiff front end and accelerating caused the bike to pop the front wheel off the ground and stand the bike up. The front wheel came right back down but the front end was still very lite at that point.
Also that is when I found myself, not in a easy left hander, but crossing gravel heading straight for the ditch.....

At that point my choices were to just hang on and go straight in or give it a go......
So to try and get a little weight on the front end I rolled off the throttle a little (no I didn't chop the throttle, just bleed off around 500-600 rpm, kind of like brushing the rear brake on a I4) then, as there really wasn't time and i didn't want to unsettle the chassis anymore than it already was, I didn't try to hang off the bike. I did want to use the smallest lean angle possible, so I weighted the inside peg and dropped my upper body as low and to the inside as possible. At that point I was about out of road so it was now or never and I tried to pull the bike back to the left.

That's about when things go blank. So with the pics and stories, plus looking at where I'm hammered, this is how I believe things went from there.

It kind of obvious that I lost the front end at that point. I also believe that the rear broke loose also, in fact I believe the whole bike was off the ground at that point.
Then I hit first on my left shoulder and the side of my head. Followed by the left clip on (that is why there is one narrow scrape mark in the pic) which drove the front fairing into the ground. That is why the entire left upper fair in blown off and the left bar, clutch master and controls are FUBARed. Then that is when the rear of the bike landed on me. So that is also when the peg tried to stab my foot and the frame rail blew my leg open. Then we hit the mud right as the slide was going to start.

That was a lucky break as it did keep the damage to both me and the bike fairly minor. I will say that my gear did save my *** big time and here is my run down on that:

Helmet-

While there are many helmets out there which "test" well and are far more affordable, I believe the fact that I was wearing at Arai RX-7 played a big part in walking away. I still believe Shoei & Arai make the best helmet and I happen to have an Arai "shaped head" but I basically went in almost head first at around 40mph or so and walked away
So yes I am a Arai customer for life now.... and I don't think I would feel comfortable in anything less than a Corsair after this.

What I will try to pass on is: Buy the best helmet you can find. I know that if I had been wearing at cheap hat at the time, I would have been in bad shape not just dazed for a min. or 2.

Gloves-

Another place to buy the best you can afford. I'm using a pair of Helimots right now and after this get off. they are the only piece of gear I have that can be used right now. They are a little beat up but no holes or pulled seams, what more can you ask for?

Boots-

Another place not to go cheap..... My A* SMX-plus boots also did an outstanding job. So well in fact I will not ride without a boot with some type of exoskeleton.
Sure the "squeaky" boots aren't so fun to walk in but without them, I wouldn't be walking right now. The reason I say this is not only did they stop the foot peg from stabbing my foot. When the bike landed on me, my foot was twisted so my heel was driven back into the bike. This had so much force that I sheared the cast in heel protector off of my rear set. With a standard pair of boots I'm pretty sure I would have broken my ankle at that point. With these boots I have no injuries except for a small bruise on the side of my foot. In fact the bruising on my leg starts at the top of my boots and goes up to about mid thigh.

Jacket-

No top of the line here.... but I will say for a jacket in the $300-500 range, you really couldn't ask anymore from it. Sure the shoulder padding could have been better and i wouldn't have as big a bruise on my shoulder but the jacket itself held up very well. No seams split and there are no holes in it. Granted I really didn't slide very far but say what you will about Icon leather jackets (don't know about their textiles) but I wouldn't hesitate to use one again.

Pants-

Once again, poor guy skimping a bit here. Though for a set of textile mess pants, they did a fine job. With a good set of leathers things might have been a little different but in this case my main injury came when the frame rail landed on my leg and that 440lbs just blew my skin apart. So the fact that my pants didn't tear or split is the reason I had no idea my legs was damaged until I took my gear off when I got home....

With all that I guess I can move on...... Thanks for listening
And what was learned???

Always listen to yourself and never let the want or need to ride make it so you don't listen to that inner voice. Just head home and ride tomorrow.

Also, wear your gear.....

The only reason I'm here to write this is good gear, take it for what it's worth.

Cheers,
Mike

zmaniv

Glad to hear that you are still here. Hope everything goes well with the recovery.
On another note inform the insurance that it was an unavoidable accident (if you are going thru insurance) the gravel was unseen/ blended into the road.

AdamK

Good write up. Recover quick we need experienced riders like you to help the non's like me informed.

cliby

real helpful mike. much better trying to learn from these things than simply reporting someone went down. and we all benefit more when it hits closer to home because it really could be us. agree with all the gear comments.

comedo

It's a lot easier to get back on the bike if you've been able to figure out the cause of the crash.