Minor crash

Had a little off today and the bike and me are a bit worse for wear.

Country back road with a little ground water seeping over about 20m from the sharpish corner - looked dry from the distance but as I got close to it could see it looked wet or oily - What The - had to slow for the corner. Both front and rear locked and in a flash I was sliding along the road at about 80kph. I instantly heard my helmet scraping along the road and felt my shoulder hit the road. Damn it hurt. It still hurts.

When I came to rest I was on the grass with my bike, 120K from home. I rolled around a bit and picked myself up but there was no way I could pick up the bike. My mate came back and picked it up and we surveyed the damage.

BIKE: front faring , RH faring, RH mirror, RH indicator, magneto cover big chunk missing, RH handlebar bent around and muffler hanging off.

DAVE: Very sore shoulder can't raise right arm much over waist high, hole in RH jeans at knee and two sore bleeding knees, the bunch of car keys in my jeans pocket caused a few wounds and bruising on my upper thigh, My RH steelcap boot had a hole worn in the toe and in to the metal (I suspect it saved the back end of the bike from damage by keeping it off the road).

ACTION: Examined crash scene to see what I did wrong, picked up the pieces and threw them off the road.
Re-attached muffler and I started the bike and it ran on about 2 cylinders for a minute (flooded) then went normally on all 4.
Swivelled the handlebar back straight. Hopped on and rode back home.

Spent 2 1/2 hours at hospital getting checked out. 1 tetanus injection, 4 painkillers, 10 xrays, no bones broken, lots of soft tissue damage (read sprains, a few cuts and bruises).

Now I need some parts and rest.

PS: the Dri-Rider stood up well. It's just a slight bit scuffed and dirty.

 

Thanks for all the wishes - The most embarrassing part is I was just following behind my mate on his 250 intruder. He also slipped a bit on the corner, but survived. I must have been coming in a bit quicker.

I did not get a real good nights sleep and am finding a few more aches and pains. Filling in all the paperwork for third party compo (they pay for hospital visit) and have to report crash to police as well as part of that process.

I might post a few pics of the damage later. I think I should invest in some kevlar pants.

I was planning to sell at the end of the month too, now it will need a freshen up. Custom paint job, HHMMMM.
I have all the gear for spray painting.

 

I got a few prices and parts on order and SUPRISE SUPRISE new alternator cover part No. YAP 2KR 154 11 00 available from japan 2 weeks delivery $87

I am amazed

 

Here are a few pics


The side is shattered worse than it looks


The front is also broken in about 3 places but all sitting together and does not look bad as it is - might be repairable


Badly bent 40mm circular spring steel key ring- Was in my RH front jeans pocket - source of small cuts and much bruising of thigh. There is a lesson to be learnt from that. My other pocket had the mobile phone in it

 

Any time you are bouncing along the road is not funny. Perhaps we need a riding "hints and tips" section and have people pass on their collective wisdoms.

Progress report: 1 week
I am going to physio for my shoulder. It still hurts and I am very restricted as to what I can do although it seems to be getting better, my chest and neck (sprain on RS) hurt as well. The leg is getting a lot better, I can walk at normal pace without limping now. Knees still sore to touch as the wounds heal.

Have ordered new (fibreglass) front and right fairings, mirror, indicator and brake lever. Have got magneto cover lined up at local wreckers $40 (they had two engines, both low on compression)

I might leave nose fairing on and take off sides till I get ready to repaint

I am thinking metallic red would be a nice colour

 

PROGRESS REPORT: 5 weeks Well I have received my fibreglass fairings and am priming them up ready for painting. The side fairing mold was taken off one that still had the stickers on, and a not very well repaired dent. A bit of bog and a lot of sanding has got it into good shape. Also a lot of pinhole imperfections and small marks in both fairings. Now I have to prepare the original other side fairing which has a few scratches on it.

I have also learnt a bit of plastic welding and fixed up the original nose fairing and it looks almost as good as new, I found it very hard to get the surface of one repair right as it runs down the crease in the plastic, which you can see in the photo of the damage. I have given it one coat of white and put it on the bike sunday morning and with the new indicator and mirror it is roadworthy. It sort of has the half naked bike look. I will post a photo of the bike later to show how it looks.

I then took it for my first short ride in the 5 weeks since the crash and it felt good to be back on the road. I should be able to take it to work now, provided the weather is not too cold, while I get the rest of the bits ready to paint.

The torn ligaments in my shoulder (AC joint) are still a bit tender, but for the last week I have been able to sleep on my right side again. My ribs still hurt when I sneeze but all the other injuries have healed, and the wounds on both my knees are just red marks now. The physio is helping with the massages to my shoulder and stretching my neck. The dude reckons that footballers half my age take six week to get over that type of injury.

 

The fairings are brand new fibreglass reproductions and cost $320 each. I bought them thru Tasmanian Motorcycle Wrecked in Launceston who had a supplier in Melbourne. I could have got them thru

http://www.showandgo.com.au/rep/rep1.htm?rep1_bf.html~mainFrame

For $300 each + postage. This crowd is in Adelaide so postage would have been up there

it's good to be back .... and I came off before the corner under brakes, I was sliding along the road by the time I got to the corner. I suspect the road surface offered much less grip than I would normally expect as I came off well after I had gone thru the damp patch.

I will be selling the nose cone fairing after I get the new one painted.

Here is a picture of the repaired nose. It has only had one coat of left over white acrylic paint and not cut and polished yet.



and the fibreglass side and nose. The nose is ready to paint and the side needs a final coat of primer

 

The nose fairings was reasonable but required a bit of spray putty and sanding to get rid of a few pits.

The side fairing was very ordinary. the mold had been taken off a damaged and repaired fairing and with the stickers still on. It required a lot of sanding to get rid of the raised bits where the stickers were, a bit of bog to fill a dent in the lower front corner, a lot more spray putty and sanding to fill a lot of imperfections.

It also cracked in two spots where they had ground off the fibreglass backing too far around a couple of edges leaving only the gelcoat. The cracks were only 5 - 8 mm long but I also had to repair these.