The Midwest GS ride, or how to harvest corn with a Nighthawk

[Nerobro]

Well... I have a morbid story of sorts.

Today started off wonderfully. The weather wasn't bad, the sun was to our backs. The bikes all ran well. I must congratulate Joe Nardy on picking a wonderfull route.

I'm city folk, so the concept of curves is a little foriegn to me. The roads we were riding on were of the sort that keep your attention, but didn't require much in the words of downshifting.

The plan had 80 miles before lunch, and 80 miles after lunch. We gathered at the gas station at 10 am like planned. We got pictures of everyone and their bikes. We even got individual pictures of each person with their bike, so we'll finally have few pictures to match people to bikes.

We had Thirteen bikes with us this morning. It was a fun sight when we all backed the bikes up against the curb at a senic overlook in indiana. The next fourty miles were uneventfull. The line of bikes streching out as the fast guys made time, and the slow guys took their time. If it weren't for enjoying the curves so much I might have enjoyed the scenery ;-) What I did gather in was absolutely stunning.

We stopped for lunch at huckleberrys family resturant. Lunch was decent... about what you'd expect at a faimly joint. We got gas.. My bike was making some funny noises from the chain so I doused it in oil. After gathering gas we took off. Our ride deviated from the plan. And we went down a wonderfull set of roller coasters.

This led to a somewhat challenging set of twistys and hills combined. I was enjoying myself.. probally to much. I didn't notice the lack of riders behind me. I was with Joe, First Timer, and.... I can't remember the other few guys names. We got to a stop sign, and as per protocall we waited. And waited. Then.. a car came. And another car. There was no way more than one car got between us and the rest of the riders. We sent our brittish contingent back to check for the rest of the group.

Shortly thereafter, we decided to follow him. We returned to see two thirds of our group parked on the side of the road, and blender in the ditch by the side of the road.

Blender had been looking around. Between feeling pressure to go faster, and a moment of inattention. (I had taken off following the fast group...) He looked the wrong direction, and as we all know, bikes follow where you look. Before he knew it, he was at the edge of the road and had a decision to make, try to save the turn or ride the bike off the side of the road.

Short of having a nice wide runoff aera, blender lucked out and picked just about the best place to exit the road. The side of the road did drop off quickly, but it had 8" of soft thick grass. And beyond the grass, a cornfield. Blenders rode the bike off the side of the road, and tried to ride it out, but the slope was to great and the shoulder to soft to handle the weight of the bike, and the bike slid out from underneath him. The bike dug in, and he rolled over the top of the bike.

In his own words. "It was earth, sky, earth, sky, earth, sky, earth, sky." We kept him still, we made sure he didn't move. within minutes we had a first responder on scene. And within an hour blender was packed up and on his way to the hospital.

He was very lucky. The bike needs new bits on the front of the bike. But the bike is in amazingly good shape. As for Blender himself, he has a bruized knee. Beyond a superficial abrazion on his knee there was no bleeding. And... from what we see, there's just a little bit of bruising on his chest. It's not even as impressive as the welt on my arm from last sunday.

I pray we never have to deal with another incident like this on a ride again. But this is the "best" way it could have happened.

On another note... this is a guy who rode armor and helmetless up untill two months ago. I'm having him buy me lottery tickets tomorow.

[Anonymous]

and now, my version

Yes, I did have a motorcycle accident.

Yes, I'm alive.

And, yes, I was wearing my helmet.

I will give you the short version of the story and will be more than happy to give details on the voice server tomorrow night.

Was going through a hilly area, lots of s curves, 13 of us. I was int eh middle. I came to a Blind S curve, and geared up for the S curve to be about 50yds longer than it was...I was riding the outside to cut it in to make a tight right hander to come out of the S curve..well when I got over the hill and saw to my dismay that the S curve was that much shorter , I had 2 options.

1. Try to make the corner, slow down as much as possible and make the corner, and try to recover in ONCOMING traffic, for the right hander. And, if that fails, your tires fall from underneath you, (I would have had to scrape my knee on the ground to get it over that far) and kiss pavement.

or.

2. Slow the bike way the eff down, and take it off the edge of the road, into the soft grass with cornfield on the right side, and TRY to keep it upright while i ride it out...but was prepared to put her down.

So, I chose option 2, because I didn't want 1. to kiss pavement, 2. to have 6 other riders fall because I wrecked in the middle of the road and they couldnt avoid me. And, because grass is soft.

Well, got her slowed down from 65mph to about 20-25mph. back wheel caught the gravel on the shoulder, and pushed me to the left side of my landing (a grassy valley ditch sort of thing between the road and the corn) and the wheel came out from underneath me, I pushed off the bike, tucked and rolled. I layed around and waited for the EMT's to get there, (I figured someon who Just hadn't been in an accident would have a better idea of what to, and what not to do.) Got taken to the hospital, got x-rayed, and luckily...came out of it wth a bruised knee and sore as hell body.

I was wearing, my helmet, my Teknic motorcycle Jacket, my teknic leather gloves, my former law enforcement boots, jeans and sunglasses. My bikes front end, sans forks and instrument cluster is FUBAR and I'm deciding whether to replace or scrap the bike at the time. If I scrap it I'll be buying another one. It was a lucky, cheap and good lesson to learn..

SLOW THE F$&% DOWN in areas you don't know, and WEAR YOUR HELMET and protective gear. If I hadn't had my helmet on I would have DEFINATELY had a concussion or worse, my helmet isn't cracked but thrashed. I rolled 3 or 4 times, and jsut tucked and rolled and let the leather and helmet do its job. It was pretty wicked and scary but thank god I'm alive...As of 2 months ago I didn't wear helmets...then I started wearing mine religiously because a friend of mine on IPR wrecked his and I saw his helmet...and thought that could have been his head...thank god I learned from his wipe out.

And yes, I still plan on riding...just smarter and safer.

[Planecrazy]

We're all glad he came out of it so well! With the exception of his mishap, the weekend couldn't have been nicer. I believe a good time was had by all, and new friendships were forged in the "real" world!

...and now I need a nap!!

Regards,
Steve 8)

[skreemer]

****UPDATE****

Greg AKA Nerobro went down on sunday and broke his right wrist and left arm. Attached is the link to the story.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/viewtopic.php?t=23864&start=255

[Hoomgar]

I look forward to hearing more from Nero. Glad your OK Skreemer.

[skreemer]

I'm still pretty shaken up. Jared went to his fiancee's place for R&R and Greg gets to stay in probably the most technologically advanced involuntary hotel for the next day or two deoending on how he's getting along.

The drive from Debuque to Aurora was very long, very tiring and I'll admit it also very lonely. Thankfully Greg's mom had to be in work today as well and I had her lead and light the way ahead of me so I could follow her car.

The road from Galena to Winnebago just outside of Rockford is very dark, fairly twistie with lots of rolling hills. Going over the cres of some hills even with the car in front of me we couldn't see the bottom of the hill and it looked like I was descending into some sort of never ending abyss. Driving home last night after all that I went through emotionally and physically yeterday put me well beyond my comfort level. I Greg's mom keep the speed slow and we made a stop in Winnebago. I stuck with I-90 and cruising down route 31 even though the route was longer and had more tolls simply because I knew the roads better and the I-90 is better lit and traveled than taking route 20 or I -39.

[earlfor]

I'm glad everything turn out OK and the damage was minor. Youre correct that the bike will go where ever you look. Its very disconcerting when going down the highway and have something off to the side catch your attention for a moment and when you resume looking ahead, find youre over the line and pointed at an oncoming car. When the road is empty, I practice this......
ride down the centerline and look off 90 deg to a side for 10 or 15 seconds at a time. Then check to see if youre still straight down the centerline. With a little practice, you can "disconnect" the tendency for the bike to follow your look. Once you can follow a straight line while looking 90 deg aside, youre there. :-)

Of course, that isnt going to help you if youre busy looking at the scenery while going through twisties. :-)

Earl

[Anonymous]

Wasn't looking at the scenery, was dodging roadkill...

But, good points earl!

[earlfor]

I'm glad you were lucky. If a car had been coming that blocked your chosen path, it could have been bad. For what its worth, good tires will adhere until the footpegs are scraping plus some. Its the pegs scraping that upsets the trajectory, not the tires. The tires will stick beyond the nerve of most riders.
Not at all trying to preach.......but I will offer a suggestion.
I try not to take an unknown curve at a speed greater than about 60% of what I initially estimate I can. For a "surprise" decreasing, down hill 2nd half "S"curve, (assuming my speed will be too great to negotiate it) my reaction would be instantly straighten the bike up, use ALL of both brakes right down to lockup on both wheels, downshift one gear, scrub as much speed off as possible in 1-2 sec and then hang the bike over and get back on the throttle.

Its a good thing to find an empty, open curve to practice speed scrubbing, downshifting and throttling back up. Its good to know exactly how hard you can brake before you have to worry about snapping the brake levers off. :-)

Practice things like this. You never know when you will need them, but when you do, I can say for sure, it will only be about 1/4 second after you realize it. :-)

Earl

[quote="Blender"]
and now, my version

Yes, I did have a motorcycle accident.

Yes, I'm alive.

And, yes, I was wearing my helmet.

[earlfor]

LOL :-) :-) I thought you were going to say Nick was dwaddling along and blocking your path. :-) :-) :-)

Earl

Wasn't looking at the scenery, was dodging roadkill...

But, good points earl!

[Anonymous]

I'm glad you were lucky. If a car had been coming that blocked your chosen path, it could have been bad. For what its worth, good tires will adhere until the footpegs are scraping plus some. Its the pegs scraping that upsets the trajectory, not the tires. The tires will stick beyond the nerve of most riders.
Not at all trying to preach.......but I will offer a suggestion.
I try not to take an unknown curve at a speed greater than about 60% of what I initially estimate I can. For a "surprise" decreasing, down hill 2nd half "S"curve, (assuming my speed will be too great to negotiate it) my reaction would be instantly straighten the bike up, use ALL of both brakes right down to lockup on both wheels, downshift one gear, scrub as much speed off as possible in 1-2 sec and then hang the bike over and get back on the throttle.

Its a good thing to find an empty, open curve to practice speed scrubbing, downshifting and throttling back up. Its good to know exactly how hard you can brake before you have to worry about snapping the brake levers off. :-)

Practice things like this. You never know when you will need them, but when you do, I can say for sure, it will only be about 1/4 second after you realize it. :-)

Earl

and now, my version

Yes, I did have a motorcycle accident.

Yes, I'm alive.

And, yes, I was wearing my helmet.

Heh, and thats the problem, If I had gotten it over as far as I NEEDED to I would have been DAMN NEAR the footpeg scrape-a-thon, then have to rack it over for a right hander out of the S, I'm glad I made the decision I did and posed with the same problem again and again, I would do the same thing....A wrecked 800$ bike is worth me not having the chance of kissing pavement.

[earlfor]

Just take it a bit easier until you have had the chance to rack up some miles and more practice. When things go wrong, they do so instantly. At this point in the learning curve, your response may have been the best choice. A few years down the road, that could change. Then too, "a few years down the road", decreases the chances of getting "sucker punched" anyhow. :-) :-)

Earl

Heh, and thats the problem, If I had gotten it over as far as I NEEDED to I would have been DAMN NEAR the footpeg scrape-a-thon, then have to rack it over for a right hander out of the S, I'm glad I made the decision I did and posed with the same problem again and again, I would do the same thing....A wrecked 800$ bike is worth me not having the chance of kissing pavement.

[80gs1000e]

...........Before the incidents I felt that everybody was doing a fine job of riding and never would have predicted 2 crashes. Take care fellas, you both slipped one by the reaper. I got away with one of those a year ago, not a wreck but blew a stop sign which could have been fatal to me and friends. I cherish my freebie and will never forget it!

-D