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I'm healed up and bike is repaired--so now I can tell it

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    I'm healed up and bike is repaired--so now I can tell it

    Well Scotty, Dink, Jean and Hap, As they say this is my story and I'm sticking to it and then I AIN'T gonna talk about it anymore. It will be history and hopefully a learning experience.
    I rode the 1150 to John's about noon Wed. and had two bowl's of taco soup with him and his wife Margie. Afterwards we saddled up for a afternoon ride, me on the 1150 and him on his 88 BMW RT100. He is going to sell it and he wanted to get the battery up. We rode the back roads of Blount county for 60 to 70 mi's. We were riding on a really rough back road, paved but extremely rough. I was behind him when suddenly I heard and felt this clanging on the front end. I looked down and my right front brake caliper was banging against the fork leg. I stopped and saw that both bolts were gone. Well John came back and went back to see if he could find the bolts in the road and could not. So I tied the caliper up to the headlight bracket with a bungee cord and I limped in to a bike shop in Oneonta. Within five minutes they replaced the bolts and we were on our way and they would not even charge for it. I wish now that they had'nt had the bolts and I would not be hurting now. We went back to John's house, me feeling great about getting my bike fixed. When we got there he rode the BMW in the garage and rode out his 1150ES and said he would ride to the top of the mountain with me.
    We took off, his bike not good and warm yet and he kind of hung back. A couple of miles up the mountain road he came buy me like a bullet. I grinned and thought, look at that 68 year old brother of mine acting like a kid, but I also begin to plan just where I was going to get him. Well I followed him for 7 or 8 miles making my Plans. [from here on it gets painful] We came up on the spot, a 90 degree curve to the right that had a little lose stuff in it and I knew he would be slowing. Halfway through the curve and out of t
    he loose stuff, I drop a couple of gears to third and got on the throttle big time and blew by him smiling like the *@%^$*@%^$*@%^$*@%^$*@%^$*@%^$*@%^$ that I was. No, old David could not be satisfied with just the pass, he had to keep pouring on the gas, flying up hill at a very fast pace. After about a 1000 feet cresting a rise in the road that hid the curve that I knew was there, 8O I was on it before I could think straight I got on the binders and began to whoa it down. I could see around the up hill right curve and thank God there was no traffic. The bad thing was the curve slopped off to the left, the wrong way and I began to feel the bike wash out to the left and then I was in some some lose gravel on the side of the road. I could see where I was headed, right up a shallow grassy ditch. I thought, I will ride it out in the ditch. What I did not see until it was to late was the two foot washed out hole at the entrance to the ditch and that was where the bike stuck and came to an abrupt stop and flipped up in the air and coming down upside down on its tank. I went over the bars through the Plexiglas windshield, landed on top of my full cover helmet and did a complete barrel roll, several I guess and luckily landed clear of the bike. The next thing I knew John was kneeling over me calling my name over and over :? . My first thought was, boy you have royally screwed up now.The cause of the crash??? Lame brain, wrist, throttle, speed and STUPIDITY. The bike is repairable. Main damage is front forks and gas tank. I consider myself very lucky and blessed to have survived this crash. It was a very violet one bike crash. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID
    I hope I hav'nt bored you to much and that's all, except you guy's don't know how much I appreciate your support. Thank's again, David

    This was two months ago. Now I am healed now and the bike like new so I thought I would reveal to all how it only takes a moment of stupity to mess up your whole day or life. While I walked away from this without any phsical pain at all [I p
    robably was in shock], the next morning I could not get out of bed and could not put any weight on my left leg and I was bruised bad from the waist down. My wife took me to the emergency room and they ckecked me all over. No broken bone or organs, just badly bruised all over. They did find two things that could have possibly caused the crash. A few loose screws in my head and my right wrist was infected with the trottle ITCH :roll:

    If any of you out there are infected with these disease's please have them treated. How? I'm sure I do not know. I only fessed up hoping it might save someone else. Thanks for listening, David





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    #2
    Ouch... That's about all that needs to be said, eh???

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      #3
      I got the message.

      Well ya don't have to hit me more than twice to get the message. Thanks.

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        #4
        David:

        Thanks for telling us about your accident. Being reminded that your day (or much worse) can be ruined in a split second by a bad decision is always of value. Bad decisions can be really sneaky because 99 times out of 100 you might get lucky and not have something bad happen, so you don't always learn. However, given time and enough poor choices, the 100th time will come round. So thanks again for reminding me to ride within my personal limits and the prevailing road conditions.

        I am very glad to hear that you weren't seriously injured. I hope you and the bike have recovered completely by now.

        Simon

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          #5
          Thanks

          Thanks for telling your story. If someone reads this and decides not to be "stupid" you will have done a great service. Glad to hear that you are well and the bike is fixed. YOU take care and be safe.

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            #6
            Great story mate we need more honest self appraisals like that.
            Cheers B

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              #7
              I feel your pain. Glad to see that you made out OK.

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                #8
                Honesty is a prime virtue! I respect and admire people who can honestly evaluate their own errors and share their experiances with others. Glad you're still with us!

                Hap

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                  #9
                  Glad to hear you're ok, David. I'm sure you've relived that crash a time or two. Hang in there!
                  My wife picked up her GS1100G"L" today from the shop after a little service work and a new rear tire. The shop manager was advising her to be careful with a new rear tire (and she was). A few miles from home and we ran into a brief shower ( which didn't help her confidence much), but she made it home safe and sound and has a small ride planned for tomorrow and another for Monday.
                  She's also planned an eight day ride down the California coast and back in early July. So when my eye surgery is completed in early June, I'll be ready to see the ride she has planned.
                  Take care, David, and thanks for sharing your experience.
                  Bob Young
                  GS850G/GS1100G

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                    #10
                    Wow I just read your story and I qam glad that you are okay.......We all get itchy wrist and throttle happy at times and sometimes we are lucky and sometimes not....It could have been a lot worse it sounds 8O

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                      #11
                      Owwee! Good to hear you're OK. I've found that I get myself in more trouble when riding with buddies than solo. Ah well, those deadly murdercycles. Heal well and keep riding!

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                        #12
                        Similar, but not bad...

                        In a similar story (but not nearly as bad) I was out on my second ride of my life when I got the fear of God put into me.

                        I had just completed a 40+ mile trip to my brother's house where we had completed about a 20 mile trip on windy backcoutry roads with several switchbacks and snaking curves. Needless to say I was an inexperienced rider (I still consider myself one) and the trip, while it had been fun, had taken more of a toll on me than I realized.

                        My trip home would be an easy on though, the 40+ miles were on a flat nearly straight highway that was very light in traffic during that time of day.

                        Before I got going to far though I had to stop to refuel. There was a convenient gas station on the way and decided it would do just fine. The problem lies in the fact that the entrance is obscured by several bushes, you can't park there even temperarily (lest you get your car hit) so I wasn't worried about hitting anyone and began to pull in at about 15-20mph.

                        What I couldn't see until to late was the fact that they had dug up some cable or something and had left a sharp 2 in deep and 1 ft wide canyon across the drive that was not filled in yet.

                        Knowing (guessing) :? I couldn't handle that at my current angle and speed i decided to take the bike across the shallow ditch where I could stop safely and re-enter the pavement.

                        At the last second I notciced that they had moved a guy wire on a telephone pole and at my angle it was about neck height. 8O I quickly forced my bike to dump and rolled right as it slid on it's side and stopped just short of the pole itself.

                        Broken mirror, rear brake lever, front brake lever, right front indicator... and mud in places i didn't even know a bike had. I was very lucky, only my pride was hurt. It took me a week to repair the bike and two months to get back on.

                        If I hadn't taxed myself with all that riding or had more exp
                        erience I would have been able to think more clearly and only splattered myself and the bike with mud.

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