| Author | Message | ||
     Cesler |
That looks painfull. I ate it today in a light rain. 30mph and just tapped the front brake. The thing slid right out. I did the ' ride the bronco' routine for 2.5 seconds and donated some skin from my left arm to the pavement gods. The bikes are strong though. I picked up the M2 and rode home. That damn footpeg in the shifter broke.. I must have looked like a just had a bran muffin and coffee while riding home. I was trying to shift pidgeon toed to get under the shifter arm... | ||
| Rick_A |
Well, I didn't bail...but I did get 5 tickets and my S1 impounded last night. Fun. | ||
| Tripper |
Rick: more please. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I always wondered what it took to get impounded... Were all 5 tickets at the same time? Yikes! | ||
| Rick_A |
Well, I was riding alone with only a permit and without registration (two tickets)...so, of course it wasn't inspected either (another ticket), and I was using plates off one of my brothers bikes (yet another ticket...I guess I would've been better off with no plates at all). At least it was insured otherwise they would've nailed me much worse (minumum $500 fine). I got pulled over for "failure to use the designated lane" which was pretty bogus. I was close to the white line exiting a corner but I was certain I didn't cross it. The cop claimed I did. I was speeding too (doing 75 in a 50), but thankfully he somehow overlooked that! Well, I got my S1 before I even had my permit...could you have such a bike in your garage for a couple weeks without wanting to ride it? I've been riding it illegally for the duration about every other night, so considering I had pushed my luck for that long...I'm somewhat lucky. There aren't many sportbikes in this area, and no other Buells, and this being a small town word gets around, unfortunately. I was going to go get it registered/inspected and make an appointment for the road test tomarrow, so the officer stated that he'd see what he could do for me in court...but I'm definitely not counting on it. I'm certain I'll be paying for at least 3 of those tickets. I can pick my bike up tomarrow after registering it. That's the story. I was also carrying a concealed weapon, but in 4 years nobody has ever caught it anywhere... | ||
| Mikeyp |
Hey 99Buell... Some people are curious about your condition. http://www.sportbikes.dhs.org/ShowThumbs.cfm?Category1_ID=All&Category2_ID=8&Category3_ID=All&Since=All You'll see your pics posted. | ||
| Rick_A |
Now I did it. 65 mph...both bike and rider suffered minimal right side damage after landing in a grassy clearing. | ||
| Jmartz |
Rick: Please give us more details. The experience of others is valuble when it comes to accidents. jose | ||
| Reepicheep |
Rick... Bike impounded and a 65 MPH get off all in a couple weeks? You might want to step back, and take a deep breath, and re-evaluate some of your decision making processes. Also, it sounds from above that your first bike was a S1. That is... errrr... a lot of bike for a new rider. Thats a lot of bike for ANY rider. I am not trying to attack or mock. I waited until after I was over 30 years old to start on a street bike, a smaller standard, and put in two years on that bike before getting my Cyclone, which is still probably too much bike for me. Had I gotten a bike sooner, I might not be here now. I had to wait out my 20's without a bike so the brain damaging effects of testostorone could wear off a little. The impound was a pretty clear warning sign. A high speed get off less then a month later leaves no doubt. You are (literally) lucky to be alive. Motorcycling is not something to screw around with. I hope you are aware of how lucky you are. Again, I am not trying to be a jerk, or insult you in any way. Just saying to you what I would hope a friend would say to me in the same circumstance. Bill | ||
| Rick_A |
I appreciate any input you folks may have. As far as the crash...I went riding with some of my friends on some twisty barren backroads. The two most experienced riders had the lead and were riding hard. This was my first time riding at such a pace and I was rather surprised to be keeping up with them. If we had been hanging it out any farther we would of needed knee pucks. On the way back I took it a little easy and let them get away from me. Later I decided to try to catch up and overcooked it transitioning from one corner to the next. It was a choice between downing on asphalt and possibly hitting some barrackades or taking my chances on the green. So, I hit gravel on the shoulder, slid onto the grass, and still had it upright. I got launched over a hill and got seperated from the machine where we then slid side-by-side for about 150 yards or so after landing. The airbox exploded upon impact, the handlebar, front brake lever and rear brake lever were bent, and both turn signals broke. I was able to ride it home without much problem. After having my right boot dig into the ground, followed by my knee, I tucked and rolled onto my back. The knee is a bit swollen and quite sore, and my ankle feels a bit unstable. Other than that it feels like I've seriously overworked myself in the gym. Repicheep...the bike was impounded for getting caught riding unregistered after a few weeks and had nothing to do with my riding ability. I got dimed out and that was that. This situation is a different story. The S1 is an easy bike for me to handle under any normal situation...I would've crashed any lesser machine in this same situation. I did, however, have no respect or concern for myself or the machine and I definitely need to keep a cooler head. I guess it's a lesson I had to learn the hard way. I have no fear and that's got me into trouble before. | ||
| Mikej |
A 150 yard slide? You must have been cookin'. Yeouch. | ||
| Hans |
Rick, Congratulations, you did very well when you saw you could not make it. Saved you from worse. Sure you have balls and brains. Why did you change your mind and catch them up after letting them go? Thanks a lot for describing. It is such a common situation we all known from experience and we did make about the same decisions as you, mostly with more luck, sometimes with much less. Thanks again. Hans | ||
| Newfie_Buell |
Rick, Good to see ya still alive and the bike in one piece. Its not the fall that gets ya its usually the sudden stop. Lucky there was nothing in your way. Learn to have a bit of fear, may save ya the next time. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Well, at least there was a little good news  Time to go get a forcewinder. Seriously Rick, I'm not trying to slam you or be a jerk, just saying things to a friend that I would want a friend to say to me if it sounded like I might be riding too aggressively. There are way too many voices in the sportbike community saying "go for it". I try to be a voice that says "be carefull". That's all I am trying to say here. And thanks for posting, it helps remind all of us to think about what we are doing. Bill | ||
| Rick_A |
Mike, I was definitely cooking...at least 65. Hans, I have more balls than ability at this point, unfortunately. I was a little overwhelmed from the first leg of the ride...I was following these guys and taking corners at speeds and lean angles that almost felt impossible...so I wanted to take it a little easy on the way back. The leaders started getting pretty far ahead which is where my ego took over. I was doing great following them...but on my own I'm a bit shaky when it comes to entrance speeds...so I've been in the habit of taking the corner entrances cautiously and pinning the throttle on my way out. This is what I was doing as I was exiting this fast right hand sweeper, and got caught by surprise at the sharp left hand turn that then confronted me. Well Newfie, the scary part is that I crashed on about the only clear corner throughout the ride, and I came to a stop about 15 feet from the woods. Out of the group of five riders everybody had at least one really close call. We were all a little overly competitive. Reepicheep...That is very true. Everone who's seen the bike hated it too. I already purchased an S&S aircleaner. On the plus side is that it served to take the brunt of the impact. I also hated the handlebar I was using...a drag bar with a poor angle...felt too high, too...so clip-ons are replacing it. I can understand where you're coming from. | ||
| Reepicheep |
It seems only fair that after busting Rick_a's chops, I am the next person to post here  . Fortunately, it was a very close call, rather then an official accident. I am treating it the same as if it was though (give or take $300 ). I was running up to Blockbuster to rent a movie, down a very familiar route, riding at a pretty normal conservative pace. I have about 12,000 miles experience in about three years of riding, 5000 and 1 years which were on the my Cyclone. I took a right turn onto a less travelled road, and the next thing I know I was thinking "Wow.. I just about had an accident". I can remember back to what happened, but it was all so quick that it was pure muscle memory, and had nothing to do with rational thought. Don't think you will think your way out of an accident, if you have not practiced it and ingrained it into your brain, you will likely not do it. Anyway, there was a very fine layer of sand on the turn that extended about two feet out from the curb. The sand matched the coloring of the road EXACTLY. When I went back to see what happened, the only evidence of the sand at all when you were more then 5 feet away was the marks my tires left sliding through it. You could not have laid a better trap. I probably hit the turn at between 15 and 25 mph. Lean angle was pretty far, but I was not scraping the pegs. From memory, the evidence on the tires and left in the sand, I lost traction on both tires completely and slid sideways at least two inches. The front wheel then likely caught, and the back continued sliding for a few more inches. My right foot went down to catch the bike (still moving) and hit pretty hard, and popped me up at about the same moment I caught traction again and started to high side. I was flopped up pretty high, and was trying to muscle my butt back on the seat at the same time as I was trying to control about three oscillations of tank slapping at the same time I was trying to steer away from a post and curb just off the right side of the road. Somehow, I did it. It took about 18 feet to stablize and get things back under control. So no lowside, no highside, just a lot of adrenaline. The front and back tires have scuffs and shreds of rubber that wrap around the lip and onto the sidewall, and the front tire actually has a crack in the tread within one of the rain grooves that wraps around into the sidewall (so that tire is now toast). Must have been a heck of a jolt, and that front was getting old and harder (though still had decent tread). I never left my lane of travel. What saved me? Luck mostly. I think I came about as close to wrecking a bike as you can come and not go down. Also, I have gotten some time on dirt bikes volunteering for NYPUM with a local church (takes inner city kids out and trains them to ride), and so had recently gotten some experience riding out slides on a powered vehicle. I was looking through the turn (my MSF training) which no doubt helped as well. The Cyclone took a pretty hard shot, and stabilized very quickly, which also probably saved my hide. Even though I was only going 2 miles, I had all the protective gear on (armored jacket, helmet, armored gloves, heavy boots, jeans), so if I had gone down at 18 or so mph, I likely would not have been too seriously injured... but it would have been expensive. Take homes? Get some time on a dirt bike on a muddy field and learn how to use the throttle and the pegs to manage a bike that has lost all traction... a dirt bike at 5 mph sliding on the mud really does feel a lot like a street bike at 20 mph sliding on the asphalt. Learn where it won't kill you to fall, and where you can practice where everything is happening slower. Always wear your gear. Always keep the bike tires on the same path as car tires are likely to have scrubbed. Had I been a foot wider in my turn, I would have never even known the sand was there and had no problem. Always keep a very high margin on your riding, even when you know the road. Make that margin as large as possible by BOTH being conservative on the road, AND by learning how to be able to make the bike do more (becomming a better rider). Think dirt bikes, track days, training, and battletrax. The sand really was for all effective purposes invisible and slick as ice. My speed really was pretty conservative. I don't think there is any alternative to gearing up to protect yourself, and getting the training to better handle this sort of thing when it happens. You can't avoid it forever, no matter how carefull you are being. Bill | ||
| Rick_A |
It's good you made it through allright. I had a similar situation with a couple wheelbarrels worth of gravel dumped on a turn recently...and going 40mph. I caught it early enough and hit the binders hard before I hit it. Sick ••••. | ||
| Rick_A |
Yesterday a friend of mine crashed his sister's ZX-9R. He held a wheelie through the first 3 gears, hit the binders hard and pulled a stoppie...then tucked the front wheel and tumbled across the pavement. He has some scraped up elbows and hands...and the bike has mostly cosmetic damage to one side (fairing, turn signal, mirror, etc.). My neighbor tells him he pulled a Rick  sh**t happens | ||
| Lake_Bueller |
Not crash but a example of drunken stupidity.... First the background: I work in a resort hotel on Geneva Lake in Wisconsin. Every year our boss has a pumpkin decorating contest in the hotel lobby. This year my office desided to do "headless horseman". Instead of a horse, we thought there would be a great "ooh & ahh" factor from my S3. I brought the bike to work on Thursday (with a wind chill of +4 degrees, brrrrrrr). We had the bike in a room in the back halls of the resort. Now comes the "mishap". We had a group of medical interns from a major state university staying in the hotel Thursday night. Well, some of these drunk idiots decided to take a private tour of the hotel. Guess what they found?!?!?!?!? That's right, my shiney Buell. Being in a state of drunken stupidity, they thought it would be fun to "ride" the bike around the hotel. From the reports I received the next day, they were taking turns PUSHING each other around. At some point during this "fun" activity, they managed to drop the bike!!!!! Now I have a broken left mirror, cracked front fairing and scratched front fender! I called the university and raised holy hell!!!! Can you believe within 1 hour I received a phone call from the colprits!!! Needless to say, they are paying for the damages. Just one more example of when drinking and bikes don't belong together. Mennis | ||
| Buelliedan |
Mennis, Do you work at Lake Lawn? Homecoming 2000 was great there!! Glad to hear that your bike is going to be payed for. That fairing is expensive. | ||
| Rick_A |
Messing with a man's bike is freakin' sacrilege | ||
| Bullitt |
I did a stupid thing last night and wanted to post it hoping someone else will read and not make the same mistake. I work nights and leave right about when the bars are closing. Unfortunately, it's a 40 mile commute all through town. I end up sitting at a lot of stoplights. I pulled up to a light last night and apparently wasn't positioned right to trip the EMF wires in the pavement to change the light. So I knew I'd be there a couple of minutes. This is the stupid part. I put the trans in neutral. Pure laziness. I looked up at the light, then back down into the mirrors. I am terrified to see a car barreling down on me! I jammed the bike into gear and got out of the way just in time, but boy, was it ever close. If for any reason I hadn't been able to get her into gear quickly I would likely have been killed. I normally feel safe about leaving the trans in neutral if there is already a car stopped behind me, but I knew better than to leave myself a sitting duck. I wasn't as angry with the drunken/sleepy driver as I was with myself. People doing stupid things in their cars is nothing new. Doing the same old drone back-and-forth every day made me complacent. My message is this: Leave your bike in gear unless you're sure it is safe not to! Nevermind all that clutch wear crap. As they say, it could be the difference..... | ||
| Djkaplan |
Luck was with you. I feel terrified sitting at stops without a car behind me. Thanks for the wake up. I hate it when I see a recent post in this thread. At least the one has a fairly happy ending with a moral to boot. | ||
| Jmartz |
Bullit: Having been struck from the rear several time during my driving carreer I take great care when stopping at a traffic light while riding my cycle. This is one instance where if lane splitting was legal one could always as a matter of habit slip between the cars that are already stopped. If you happen to be the only or first one then this would not be of any help. Eternal vigilance until you are satisfied whomever is approaching you from the rear is reducing speed fast enough to stop behind you is bout the only protection there is is. | ||
| Bullitt |
I don't have any excuse at all for having this happen - I KNEW better. I've just gotten really slack about good riding habits lately. Now that I have had the wits scared out of me I'm back on the S.I.P.D.E. program. Want to know the worst part? This road is six lanes wide! (SR436 in Winter Park, if you're familiar with Cen Fla) I just happened to be in the right (wrong?) lane at the right time when Mr. Sleepy Von Drinken came careening through! | ||
| Pilk |
Back-off brake light modulators are a great way to gain the attention of car drivers approaching you from the rear. But as you found out complacency can get you killed. Very happy you made it out of the intersection alive. That poop about clutch wear,yadayada,I'd just as soon put a clutch in my bike every month than die on it. I'll just keep leaving my bike in gear at the lights, thanks. Pilk | ||
| Jasonl |
I can vouch for the backup lights. I used to ride through the city a lot during rush hour. I had at least on car come screeching at my rear a week. After I installed the backup light I haven't had a one do this. | ||
| Mikej |
Are you talking about the "Backoff" LED light strips? Or the tail/brake lightbulb replacement that has the circle of LED's that appear to rotate when the brake is applied? I had the LED row, full width across the bottom of my license plate panel, and the guy who rear-ended me still hit me. He said he saw me stop but due to med's and his age his reaction time was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too slow to connect his brain to his foot to apply the brakes. I plan to add the LED's to the S2 sometime this winter unless I find something brighter. (Maybe I'll just mount a derringer pointing rearwards with a lightbulb in the barrel ) | ||
| Pilk |
The LED strips are cool, but I am talking about the module that wires into the brake light circuit and modulates the brake light on a predetermined pattern. I plan on installing the LED strip to my bike this winter sometime. I think if I could figure out the engineering for a rear pointing RPG?? hmmmm. Pilk | ||
| Ccryder |
I have the 2 LED strips plus, a halogen tail light that flashes quickly then slows to a steady on when brakes are applied (I think it was from Kisan, but can't find it on their web site). Between those 3, the backend of my X-3 and my intentions really stand out. Riders who ride behind me say that the flashing light really gets their attention and the bright LEDs show up the rear. To carry this further, I have two sets of red LEDs mounted under my seat that shine on my hugger. THis make the X-3 much more apparent from either side. Anyway, I keep it in gear until my "Six" is covered by a few tons of steel and even then I'll tap my brake to make sure the Cage is aware of myintentions. Being "right" on a M/C is not the issue since we usually end up "Dead right"! Later Neil S. |
