<SIGH> - Lowsided this morning

<SIGH> - Lowsided on 8-11-07 - UPDATED

Exec. Summary: I am ok and rode the bike home... I need parts - see buy/sell forum.

I was only 18 miles into a nice leisurely ride... I was not in a hurry to get anywhere.. This morning was the first beautifl morning after a two week heat wave.... I was just cruising and taking it all in...

I was just passing through Yorklyn going south/east on 82 and lowsided by the arts center at about 35mph... I've been through this section of road dozens of times by car and on the VFR but this morning was my time...

I've of course replayed the whole event in slo-mo a dozen times in my mind by now.. Right after I picked up the VFR on the side of the road, I walked the short scrape marks and looked at the pavement.... nothing... Momentary lapse of reason ? Damp road due to the cool weather ? Small Stone ? I really wasn't pressing the hard .... Whatever the reason, "This sucks", I thought.

I took inventory of me and the bike.. Nothing major.. bike: cosmetic me: bump on the shoulder and tailbone - no sharp pain, or bleeding... I was of course wearing all my gear.. My head/helmet never hit the ground ! Pants are shredded thru, and my nice leather jacket is well scuffed. A group of bicyclsts rode by.. I heard them mumble "I wonder if he fell... yep... I'm not a big fan of....." and they rode RIGHT BY.... no "are you ok ?", "everything alright ?" - nothing... so much for friendly citizens....

I fired up the VFR and rode home... Told the wife what happened... She was worried about injuries, and checked me out...

Stuff happens.. I'm glad I am ok and the VFR is easily repaired, even if it is a little expensive. I am lucky no oncoming cars were present - that certainly would have changed the outcome of this event.

Ride safe and remember - even the most familiar roads can bite you...

PLEASE SEE MY WANTED TO BUY THREAD IN THE BUY/SELL FORUM...

I NEED SOME PARTS !

-Stephan

P.S. I've been riding motorcycles 20 years as of this spring including dirtbikes. I've owned the VFR for 7 years - bought new in 2000. I have taken and taught numerous MSF rider courses. Eventually, I guess the statistics catch up with you.... We're only human.

 

sorry to hear about your crash. Glad you are ok and that the bike isn't too bad.
It happens
danimal

 

Glad your ok, but am confused (as you seem to be) as to why you crashed. From reading your post I gather you were going in a straight line at 35 mph and the rear just slid sideways for no reason and you went down? that just doesnt make sense.

 

My description in my first post of the situation isn't so great... You'd have to be familiar with the area to know the corner I was talking about...

Here is the corner in question:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=39.80927,-75.673056&spn=0.003775,0.007231&z=17

I was proceeding from the west to east on Creek Rd (82) and went down immediately after the lower snuff mill split in the road. There is a change in pavement in 82 there but the incident happened before that.

It's a decent right hand corner, but nothing insane. The front end washed out and I slid straight across the oncoming lane into the grass/dirt shoulder.

I guess ultimately it was my error, but it sucks to have to say that...

-Stephan

 

Sorry to hear about your crash, but glad to know you are ok. Your gear just paid for itself and more. :thumb: The local group I ride with had a rider go down in a corner (though he was turning left). He had ridden it numerous times before and also a number of times the day he went down. It appears he took the corner the same way he did each time, tho from the pics, he may have leaned just a bit to far adn the bike washed on him. Nasty crash, totaled bike, but he was not injured. Oh, and he was probably doing all of 35 mph. Still, glad to know you are ok. Yep the bike is easier to fix than you might be.

 

Thanks for all the kind words, guys...

My ego is bruised more than my body...

Actually, I think I am more pissed that I dumped my pristine 2000 VFR sith 22,000 miles on the ticker...

Uggg... Not many peeps out there with parts... I added up all the bits and they total just over $1100 on bikebandit....

The gear will be another $400 or so... -SIGH- That's what overtime is for, right ?

Thanks again for comiserating with me guys...

-Stephan, 2000 VFR on bed-rest :wink:

P.S. If anyone knows of a good reasonable source for parts, let me know.

 

Last year I ran off the road and crashed in the grass. Had to replace a broken upper and right fairing.

I got all that taken care of and had the bike back on the road earlier this summer. So what do I do?

I drop the bike.

Not crash. DROP.

I'm backing it into my garage, walking alongside it because I try to park it as close to one wall as I can... and the bike begins to fall away from me. I couldn't stop it, but I did slow it down. It suffered some minor cosmetic damge to the brand spanking new, previously flawless upper and right fairings.

So its laying on its right side. I put the kickstand down, climb over the bike and heave it back upright, and allow it to fall onto the sidestand. Which promptly collapses (must not have put it all the way down), and the bike now falls onto its left side. Right up against my Suzuki DRZ400SM.

At this point I curse.

A lot.

Then I climb over the bike again, so now I'm standing between the VFR and the DRZ, and I try to heave the VFR upright. But when I do, the DRZ starts to fall towards me. I stop, push IT back where it belongs and try the VFR again. And again the DRZ starts to topple. I catch it, right it, and examine the situation a little more closely.

The clutch lever from the VFR is wedged between the rear brake lever and the engine case of the DRZ. Normally it would be pretty easy to pull it out of such a spot, but the process is complicated by the fact that the clutch lever is still attached to a 500 lb motorcycle. But being already in a rage, I elect to forego the intelligent option of simply taking a screwdriver and removing the clutch lever from the VFR, and instead, opt for the caveman approach.

I take the VFR with one hand, the DRZ with the other and start screaming a long stream of obscenities ( a little known process which grants you the strength of ten ordinary men), and just yank the bastards apart. Then I get the VFR back onto its wheels and examine it for damage.

Its got a couple gouges in all of the brand new body work, that will have to be filled, sanded and painted.

I love my VFR, but I've tossed that DRZ down a flight of stairs without it causing half the damage the VFR gets from just ONE garage tipover.

 

Holy shit If that happened to me every neighbor within a mile would hear me :rant: The closest I came to dropping my bike came two weeks ago while I was filling up, just got done topping it off and while I was putting the nozzle back in my boots slipped on some gas that someone previously spilled and I was diffently going down, but at the last second I put my hand on the pump to right my self to keep from going completely over :scared:

 

When in doubt, blame the squirrels.



Glad you're ok!

 

DeathWysh: Thanks for that awesome story.. it made me feel better. Anyone else have to call on the gods of the four letter words to do some heroic feat ?

-Stephan

 

Glad you are OK. I can feel your pain. I'll keep my eyes open for any parts that come up. What color was your bike? - MotoMax

 

Try www.hondapeninsula.com for your parts. They are cheaper than crotchrocket.com and bikebandit.com.

 

Sorry to hear about your wreck, hopefully after the adrenaline wears off after 2 days you won't have soft tissue injury. Give it some time, I didn't even realize I was really hurt for 2 days and I had a broken foot and knee surgery, adrenaline is amazing!

Good luck in the parts, forget the ego thing everybody crashes I'd just leave it behind and not kill yourself over it.

I HATE SQUIRRELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got infested with them in our home in Alexandria and it was a bitch trapping/killing them all.... the one outfitted killed me!!!:lever:

 

I'm over it for the most part.... The part that sux is having to tell the four dozen people that asked my why I didn't ride into work this week what happened over the weekend.

Got parts CHEAP @ Service Honda in Hammond, IN... $833 shipped... Pants @ NewEnough for $134

http://vfrworld.com/forums/53543-post3.html

All that's left is waiting for the parts, wrenching and riding.

-Stephan

 

Parts arrived Monday 8-20... 90% on the bike by bed time 8-20... Lower Cowl came fully dressed with VFR logo sticker and noise insulating foam on the backside. Just had to transfer all of the rubb captured nuts on the backside from the original part.

Paint match ? meh... it's ok, but it matches better than scraped bare black plastic. The new cowl is lighter than the original parts on the bike so I am thinking that it might actually get darker as the clear/pearl has time to bake in the sun a bit.. If I am lucky, it'll catch up to the original panels. AEasiest way to describe the color difference is that the new panel looks like a more pure yellow while the originals have a tinge more orange in them.

I was even able to salvage the TBR Ti pipe... I drilled the rivets out of the inlet and flipped it 180 degrees and riveted it back on.

The only signs of a slide are now a scrape on the header pipe and the TBS slip on S-pipe. Everything else is replaced/refinished.

I even took the VFR for a 5 mile spin tonight to ensure all was well, and it is.

-Stephan

P.S. upon even CLOSER inspection of the front tire, I found what looks to be a rock impact mark off to the side of the normal wear area... it's quite possible that this little stone could have caused all of this havoc... out:

 

.....just popped in here for a sec..im running late 4 work.....geez that sucks 4 sure!!!...glad it wasnt TOO serious....anyway...things will seem better in a few days....take care!!

 

Yeah right.. after all the years and miles riding on new and challenging roads in 6 different states, I fall on a road 10 miles from home that I have ridden numerous times.

-S

 

Good to hear its back together! I know my bike was ready before I was..... And I too blame the squirrels for making my rear tire coming loose