Ride your own ride!

[gbw]

Happy to hear nothing is broken. Hope in time the bruising, swelling, and pain decrease.

As far as helmets go, I don't think the industry, either R&D or standards bodies (SNELL & DOT) are keeping up with brain injury research. Sure, the helmet performed as designed and protected your head and skull from the pavement. But nothing in the standards is designed to protect your brain from sloshing around in skull.

Let us know if you find something new and innovative that will help prevent concussions. I expect if there were such a thing it would be huge and cost a lot of money. But maybe the technology is catching up. I haven't looked at it in a long time. But last I checked neither the industry nor the standards bodies were working on it.

 

[Buffalo Bill]

Well best of health and safety for you Joe.
I have nothing to add, but I can say I prefer not to ride with other people, because I have gotten cocky/show off in the past. Keeping up with anybody, I just let them go, and stay with my own pace.
I would never ride in city commuter traffic, it's ruthless and cruel. Drove to work in Chicago for years, so I know.

 

[Joe Garfield]

Happy to hear nothing is broken. Hope in time the bruising, swelling, and pain decrease.

As far as helmets go, I don't think the industry, either R&D or standards bodies (SNELL & DOT) are keeping up with brain injury research. Sure, the helmet performed as designed and protected your head and skull from the pavement. But nothing in the standards is designed to protect your brain from sloshing around in skull.

Let us know if you find something new and innovative that will help prevent concussions. I expect if there were such a thing it would be huge and cost a lot of money. But maybe the technology is catching up. I haven't looked at it in a long time. But last I checked neither the industry nor the standards bodies were working on it.

After reading this I thought, "Wouldn't it just need to be some kind of dual-density or layered padding?" and then found there's a helmet company that's doing it!
https://www.cnet.com/news/smart-motorcyle-helmet-cushions-you-from-concussion/ (this article talks about motocross, but they now make road helmets)
https://www.6dhelmets.com/ats-1/

 

[Joe Garfield]

This just gave me another idea, and I bet we'll see this in the future:
(actually, I deleted it and am doing a patent search )

 

[gbw]

Very interesting looking tech. I'd seen this a while back for dirt helmets. Didn't realize they'd branch out into street helmets too. Looks like my local moto shop is a dealer. I'll have to drop by and try one on.

$850 certainly isn't cheap but I suppose the cost of recovering from a concussion isn't cheap either.

 

[Joe Garfield]

Yeah, it put me out of work for a week. I'm sure I'll get paid for at least part of it, but I can easily imagine me or someone else being in a different situation and having to go to work.

My idea was to use a layer of soft armor between the helmet shell and the EPS layer. It would be soft and damp energy at low speed impacts, but hard at high speed impacts transferring energy to the EPO layer. I started looking around and there are people doing all kinds of research on different materials. It takes time so we haven't seen much on the market, but there are a lot of different concepts being tested. I'm certainly not the first one to think of using soft armor. I don't know if I'm the first that thought about a dual-layer helmet with soft armor, but I doubt it.

Edit: Ahh, Bell has something similar it seems:
https://www.bellhelmets.com/powersports/helmets/street/pro-star
https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/bell-race-star-helmet-solid

 

[gbw]

That Bell helmet looks pretty cool too. Price is high but hopefully additional innovation and competition in this space will drive the price down. $1200 is out of my price range for a helmet. In fact I've owned a few motorcycles that didn't cost that much Including a GS.

 

[Joe Garfield]

That Bell helmet looks pretty cool too. Price is high but hopefully additional innovation and competition in this space will drive the price down. $1200 is out of my price range for a helmet. In fact I've owned a few motorcycles that didn't cost that much Including a GS.

It already is! I updated the above post to include the Race Star, which starts at $700. Still not cheap, but it's a big step in the right direction.

All this has led me to look at helmet safety, technology, and ratings. There are too many variables to come out and say one is better than the other, but personally I don't think I'll buy another helmet that isn't ECE rated (the European version of our DOT. The Bell Star helmets are DOT, SNELL, and ECE - if the Race Star fits, I'm buying one.

 

[Joe Garfield]

Today was a bit of an emotional roller coaster (I guess maybe more of a kiddie ride) - I got a call this morning from the adjuster who said the estimate looked good, and I should be OK to get the bike repaired. Then I get a call saying there might be a bent rotor ($150), which could put the bike over the limit. Then I get a call saying it was actually a bent wheel ($600) and they found a damaged radiator when they looked at the wheel. So they want to total it.

He said they approved repairs up to about $6,000 (which I pay $2k of). I don't know what they would give me for a total loss, but it would be quite a bit less than I owe AND it's reduced by my stupid deductible.

Fortunately my head has been feeling great today - pretty close to normal I'd say. So I started thinking and scrounging for parts, and found a way to shave the estimate down to within a few bucks of the limit. If I live with a scraped mirror I save $100.

I told the adjuster how it's a new bike and how much I love it, and when he heard it was new and financed he got on my side and is motivated to help me keep it on the road. He didn't submit his proposal and will wait until the repair shop and I come up with a plan.

What's nice about all this is, I'm pretty much OK with whatever is going on. It would suck to lose a bunch of money, but still I'm so lucky to walk away from this with no serious injury or broken bones. I have a job, sold a bunch of tools, and things will be OK. That's a good place to be

I wonder if I'll get my 1100g done before my S1000F comes home...

 

[gbw]

Glad to hear you're feeling better and that the adjuster is working with you. Hope you get it all taken care of to your satisfaction within your budget. Then you can get that thing out to a track day where you'll be a lot safer!

 

[Joe Garfield]

It's totaled

With a bent wheel, bent forks, apparently a damaged tree and stem, I feel the forces at the head must have been pretty significant. Spending a bunch of extra money when Insurance says it should be totaled, and when the mechanic says 'take the insurance money and run', seems like I'm working against the grain.

I'm sad to see it go, and feel a little bit like I wronged my bike. But I'm grateful I wasn't seriously hurt and have the capacity to make decisions like this.

I'm a bit impulsive and my gut wants me to go shopping tomorrow for a new bike. I'll try to be patient and see what happens with insurance, the salvaged bike, etc. Unfortunately the 2017 models are only grey and I really want another blue one

 

[Jedz123]

Just grab another blue one... Probably walk away with an extra grand in your pocket, help with a new helmet.

All my bikes/cars have full coverage for I know the pay out will likely give me much more then I could ever get if I flat out sold them.

 

[Wingsconsin]

Sorry to hear this news.
But it is only a THING -- you walked away relatively uninjured.
Thank your God for that one and move on.
Take the money and be patient - shop for a great deal on a BLUE one - it will show up when the time is right.
Work on the GS and get it road worthy.
Where you live it is always spring so plenty of riding time in front of you.
I have full coverage on my 'Wing for this reason = because I will never be able to replace it if I don't
But the GS is not ...I could afford to replace it if it totaled ...but hopefully I never have to deal with that.
Breathe deeply and focus on what you can do moving forward.
Best wishes for a full healthy recovery and the patience to wait for the right bike to come along as a replacement

 

[Joe Garfield]

I saw one on Cycle Trader for $8500. All the rest are listed at $10k. They said it was a demo bike with 200 miles on it, so I went to take a look. I didn't want to be impulsive (too late?) so I told myself I wouldn't pay more than $9 out the door for it. They wouldn't budge on the price or fees, so I walked out. I was about an hour away and near another dealership that I knew had one still on the floor.

"I'm interested in this bike. I had one and just lost it. The guy down the street has this ad (I show him the Cycle Trader ad on my phone), and I know you've had one sitting here, so I figured I'd ask if you could do $9000 out the door." Now this guy is a good salesman, and does his diligence and finds the Suzuki rebate for $1000. Lo and behold,


They actually screwed up and ran the price against the naked model. I saw them pull the wrong bike from the floor, and they ended up asking for another $200, acknowledging their mistake - they really wanted no less than $10k. I really lucked out...again!

The best part is that it doesn't feel like 'another' bike! I don't know why I thought it would...although I haven't ridden it yet, but I know how to make this one even better I wonder if this is what it would be like dating twins....

 

[Joe Garfield]

Another pic of 'the twin' - The first bike was #100645, this new bike is #100712.

 

[Joe Garfield]

I'm actually a little nervous about riding it home tomorrow. I was thinking it was good that I'd have a few weeks before getting back on a bike. I'm going to take it easy, be super careful, and just bring it home. I've been feeling myself again since about 2 days ago, but still just a little slow mentally.

 

[dorkburger]

Well thats cool! Glad you found another. Regarding regarding feeling "slow", our neighbor was in a pretty nasty car crash last summer, and among other things she had a bad concussion. It took her most of the summer to get back to normal. Not saying this to bum you out, just saying that it may take a while and to be patient.

 

[GS1150Pilot]

Well done, Joe. Baby steps now ...

 

[GSXR7ED]

Wow!

Lots done in a short amount time. And you got your Blue bike under $9K!!!

Sorry about the other bike. This new one (relatively new) will get your mind off her.

Gradual steps is always good...take it easy!



Ed

 

[argonsagas]

This is quite a thread! Thanks for opening it.

You learned the reason why many of us do not care to follow other riders: there is a tendency in some people to push their own envelopes and the following rider(s) often fail to think about the risks and try to keep up, so it can get tricky quite quickly.

I will not ride in groups for the opposite reason, however, as there you usually MUST follow the individual group rules and whoever decides them for that group can often be stupid.




The ADD comments were VERY interesting, as I had never really thought about ADD and bikes before. but I still do not believe it is an asset in and of itself.
Instead i think that, because medical research has long said ADD people tend to have a bit higher IQ than average, thus there is an innate ability to think faster than average and, once thoughts become tightly focussed, as in an emergency situation, that ability comes into its own.


Back to your head injury.........get outside in the sunlight and spend a few hours there every day....without a hat.. Staying indoors and/or in darkened areas will definitely deplete you, while sunlight can bring you back faster than anything else.