| Author | Message | ||
     Fl_billy |
First let me say I was rear-ended one year ago by a knucklehead driving a Ford Sporttrac. She ran over my arm and clipped my helmet (have the tire marks to prove it!) after she slammed into the back of my right leg at about 40mph as I was turning into a gas station one mile from my house. I had full gear on (except riding pants) and came away with only some minor rash, nasty bumps and bruises and a cracked right shoulder with lots of soft tissue damage. Overall, I was VERY lucky. Since then, wearing the proper gear has been mandatory for me on EVERY ride, even if just around the corner. Had another reminder today, though the results were quite a bit better for me. I was headed over to my chiropractor (yes, I'm pushing 40!!) on my lunch break today came to a red light where I had to make a left turn onto a busy 6-lane road. I was first in my turn lane and figured it was a good opportunity to gun it around the corner and get some good lean angle. As I waited at the light, I did my usual quick scan of the lane ahead and didn't see anything, so when the light changed I clicked into first proceeded to wind the throttle open as I leaned it around the corner. As I was getting to the point where I wanted to upshift and bring the bike back to upright, the rear let go, caught again, let go and caught again which then caused the front to start shimmying pretty badly. With the bike still leaned over I at first thought I was going to get high-sided, then when the front started wagging, I was thinking this is going to be one nasty tank-slapper! In any case, I never really paniced and just stayed on the throttle until the bike was fully upright and somehow rode it out. Disaster averted. Upon going back to the spot where it happened, I saw a very big, very wet oil spill. It looked like someone's oil plug fell out about halfway through the turn and then just spewed oil all over the lane for a good 40-50 yards after that. Anyway, the moral of the story is, even with perfect weather and very little traffic, there is always the possibility of something going drastically wrong, even on those short little trips. I do take comfort in the fact that if I had high-sided I most likely would have survived it very well with my TourMaster leather jacket, Icon gloves, Oxtar boots and KBC helmet. That concludes today's lesson everyone...........ride safe and WEAR YOUR GEAR!! Billy | ||
| Hogs |
Hey Billy, A GReat reminder to us all, been there,done that , and went down another time because of that...And a friend just last year went down in a park same oil on the road etc.. A Hidden Disaster when its mostly too late.!!! You were lucky as well...A Point you made well to be repeated...! | ||
| Daveinm |
What intersection was it? | ||
| Cataract2 |
Close one. Good to hear you pulled through that. I've had one similar to that with sand. Dang white sand around here. BTW, shouldn't Vegasbueller be getting into his new home soon down there? | ||
| Whodom |
Billy, Thanks for the reminder and glad you got thru the incident OK. The question is did the onlookers think you were the most amazing stunt rider they'd ever seen, or did they realize you almost lost it?  BTW, how is your seat upholstery? I can imagine there was a severe "pucker factor" for a few moments there. | ||
| Midknyte |
Time to add a pair of kevlar undies to the list. 100% with you on gear. Been there... Crashed that... | ||
| Cataract2 |
Been there... Crashed that... True.... least, for my FZR | ||
| Spatten1 |
Full face helmets are stupid because you can't smoke when you ride. | ||
| Joele |
Here here on all that gear. | ||
| Fl_billy |
Dave, it was at Hillsboro and 441. I was turning from westbound Hillsboro onto 441S and never saw it until I went back. It was in the far left lane of 441S. What a mess. Someone is going to go down there if they don't get it cleaned up. Whodom, actually, I didn't really freak out until after the fact. Basically stayed real cool during the whole thing and just stayed steady on the throttle. Kill it or cure it I guess, and I got lucky and cured it!! It wasn't until I had time to really think about just how close I came that I had the little panic attack!! And yeah, I'm guessing everyone behind me must've thought I was some-super-cool-joe-racer-guy or something!! Hahahahaha!!!!! | ||
| Daveinm |
I take that turn on a regular basis. You're lucky you didn't end up in that median. Between Sawgrass and 3rd on 441, that's the third motorcycle incident I've seen or heard about. I hit a possum heading North on 441 just South of Holmberg/Johnson at like 60 mph. Went into dirt bike mode and tried to use him as a ramp, but I didn't get very much air  Another buddy with a '04 12R (you didn't meet him) had a van stop short in front of him and he grabbed too much front brake and went over. That was at the light right by that fire station(don't know what road it is). If he wasn't wearing his helmet, his face would have gotten so f'd up. Face first into the pavement with no helmet is a very scary thought. Anyway, glad to hear you're alright. |
