Man Down
 

Well i took my first real spill tonight. cruising through some backroads i know pretty freaken well some friends and go into a left sweeping turn that starts off going down than back up in the middle of it... went in a little wider than usual and there were some nice rock piles where my line was heading so i tried slowing down before i hit the rocks, i slowed a little then let off the brakes on the rocks so i wouldnt slide out, made it out of the rock pile but was on the edge of the road basically so i applied some break then laded in the dirt in the side of the road probably at 15-25mph and it was the soft sand i wasnt expecting and just turned my bars to the left and down she went. landing in the sand was kind of a ggod thing because it only scratched my fairing slightly but the fall did mess up my lower can on my shot gun, popped out of all the rivets besides the bottom one so its kinda just hanging in there. i had my helmet and jacket on but still got a little rash between my left side ribs and hip...

Time for the undertail exhaust and possibly the start of my street fighter project.

Glad you are ok. Parts are easily replaced, but people are not. Hope your rash heals painlessly, and may you find all the parts you need quickly.

That sucks but glad to hear of only minor bike damage and not much about you being damaged. I keep saying any time you can get away from a mishap with no permanent damage you have something to be thankful for.

Glad to hear you're OK.

Target fixation. When in doubt, turn.

yea now i have to figure out if i should make a street fighter out of it, fix up the little crap and sell it to my dad and get a new bike, possibly a rc-51 or a supermotard, or just fix it up and ride it like normal without dumping money into when i should dump money into my photography career startup/school

i tried turning but it didnt work out to planned specifications lol

That sucks. Glad you are OK. I hope you can get right back on the horse!

yup back on it no problem, just need to take a break to sort out my mind and fix the exhaust haha.

glad to hear youre ok

Yes, you fixated on the problem instead of looking where you needed to go and turning. Unless you had a knee on the ground and were grinding hard parts before that, you had plenty of tire traction and bike clearance.

It's a natural reaction that is hard to overcome. Practice on a leaf, small rock, or dark spot you see in a turn. If you watch/concentrate on it, you'll ride your tires right to it so do the opposite (look for the safe line).

You know what they say???? " Any landing you can walk away from is a successful one. " Glad your hear to write about it.

Glad to hear you are all right. I wouldn't worry about the exhaust, it couldn't be any louder than before...LOL

been there done that.

I agree the target fixation thing is a strong possibility. It was my undoing. Wet plus too fast. I got all involved in slowing and never even looked through the turn.

And it is VERY hard to "look through the turn" with out PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!!

I turned mine into a sport tourer

Miles of Smiles
Tom

Glad you are OK... Just fix the necessary things and ride it

Man reading your post hurt my brain :D. That is one hell of a run-on sentence :)

Seriously though, glad you are ok. I have learned over the years to drop or drastically reduce my bad habits of target fixation. It will bite you as I too have run off the road when I know the bike could of made the tunr. It's just my skills were not up to par with the bikes capabilites. Had I looked thru the turn like I should have an just let the bike do its thing, I would of made it without running out of road. But I paniced and grabbed a fis full of brakes only to stand the bike up and throw my line completely off.

You live and you learn.

ya i was trying to look through the turn after the rocks but i was on the edge of the road so it distracted my thought process then i was down... ill post some pictures of my damage soon.

Like they say, "there are 2 types of riders, those who have gone down and those who will".

Be thankful that you did yours with minimum damage to you and your machine.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3176/...b83232de_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3165/...445ef30f_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3213/...5bb5cfa7_b.jpg

so i am very very likely going to be making this into a street fighter styled superhawk. and will fix up the scratches by filling them in and such with bondo and primering the front plastics and probably selling... and the lower as well. now i just need to research what i want to do for a head light. dual large rounds or a monster mask type thing.

Shit I wish any of the bikes I've dropped came away that well :) Looks like you got lucky with the exhaust-is there any damage besides having to rivet it back together? Honestly you'll probably get more money selling the fairings as is rather than bondo and primering them up...don't think it's worth the trouble. Besides I'll buy the left side if it's for sale, pm me, I need a good painter for my project. Lemme know...

+1

Glad you are ok.

I dropped my bike (not the superhawk heh) at less than 5mph in a driveway after hitting a small patch of ice and it sustained far more damage. lucky. :(

i am still up in the air with the selling of the fairings, i need to price out front end stuff like headlights and maybe even a 929 or 954 front end and some renthal bars

Glad to hear your ok. But i'm confused. The pics don't show any damage to the bars or front end other than some scrapes. Are you taking the experience as an excuse for modding? Cuz really man you could have done the mods without putting it down. I might go scratch the side of mine so I can justify a new seat. :)

glad you didn't get f'd up too bad. I would just fix it up rather than going streetfighter style.

i like the street fighter look alot, i was planning on street fightering it but this just gives me more incentive to do it. im not sure if i will buy a new front end like a 954 or just beef up my forks and brakes and buy some renthal bars or LSL superbike bars. Now i have to do my undertail because its pretty messed up now.