enenen

Have any more info? It's easier if you say where the last tag actually was each time

Yeah, I guess that might help haha. It was in Gates Mills, near the intersection of Chagrin River Rd. and Old Mill Rd.

Plus, like snodgrass said, there aren't many covered bridges around here.

Where the hell is everybody?! Get riding!!!

And I even took the time to find a new tag on my way home...

This covered bridge goes over a 10 mile long stream, and is about 30 miles south-southeast from the previous tag. Shouldn't be too hard with that info.

And if you come or leave on the road to the south of the tag, be careful because there is some gravel in the road. Must have washed across the road from all the rain.

TAG! (My first one!)

my CBR, because it is the only bike I have ever had!

if you take home over $32 an hour then your base salary is at 6 figures.

32.5 * 40 * 52 = 67,600

i like the orange better than red.

So on 9/4, I lowsided in turn 5 at BeaveRun, going about 60 MPH. Wearing my Alpinestars RC-1 one-piece suit, SMX Plus boots, and Astars gloves. Everything held up great, except for the suit. It did its job, and protected me, but there was a 2-3 inch hole above the knee. Needless to say, I was disappointed. So Thursday night at about 11PM, I sent an email to SportbikeTrackGear, and explained what happened. Here's the email I sent...

I recently purchased an Alpinestars RC-1 suit, and lowsided at BeaveRun on September 4th. It was in turn 5, going maybe 50-60 mph. I'm pretty sure I rolled off the throttle mid-corner, and overloaded the front tire, and down I went. I slid on my right knee/hip for a short distance before going off into the grass. I was unharmed, and the bike was relatively undamaged, but I was somewhat disappointed in how the Alpinestars suit held up. There are two holes where the seams tore apart, one of which goes through to bare skin. Luckily, I didn't have any road rash because of it. The other hole goes through to the foam padding below the knee puck. I would think that the $1,000 MSRP suit would have held up much better after one minor crash. I realize that every crash is different, and a suit may not hold up the same in every situation, but I have seen videos on your website of suits with similar damage and know that you guys expect better durability than this. I realize that I should be happy that the suit did its job and I walked away uninjured, and I am, but I think for the price, this suit would be more than one-time use. I'm sure it can be repaired, but I thought I would make you guys aware of my situation, and see what you recommend I do. Lucky for me, I at least got my crash on video so you guys can see what happened and how fast I was going. I'll also attach some pictures of the damage to the suit. I was glad I just bought the SMX Plus boots a week or so before this track day. The bike got stuck on my foot, and I may have been hurt had I been wearing the SMX 5 boots. And the Knox back protector and Bohn adventure shorts did their job as well. Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing back from you.

By noon Friday, I got a call from Brian Van, the president of STG. He told me that he contacted Alpinestars and sent them the pictures, and they would be sending me a brand new suit free of charge. He said they have never seen a suit come apart like that from such a minor incident, and Alpinestars wanted the suit back to look and see what happened, and what changes could have been made to prevent it from happening in the future. So he gave me the options of the suits that they were willing to send, I made my choice and they are shipping it out from STG. I should have my new suit by the end of next week at the latest.

I feel like a kid on Christmas. So happy to deal with two companies like this who stand behind their products and are willing to help out their customers. It would have been easy for Brian to take my email and do nothing with it, but instead he went the extra mile and contacted Alpinestars to make the situation right. I think it's pretty rare to find companies willing to do what these two did, and they have definitely guaranteed more business from me.

Big thanks to Brian Van and everyone at STG, and the people at Alpinestars. I wanted to make sure people hear about this, since all too often customers only go online and tell stories of bad experiences. I will definitely recommend Alpinestars and Sportbiketrackgear.com to everyone.

Here's a video of the crash for anyone who didn't see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKzFe5SE7lY

good meeting you, Ian - I wish i'd been able to hang out more. I didn't think the race school would take so much time OFF track.

You got back up to speed really well considering your get-off. I know you ended up taking turn 5 way faster at the end of the day then you were going when you laid the bike down.

Do you have stock fork springs in your bike? between stock springs, rolling off, and the fact that the track goes UP hill there (which the video doesn't really show well), you could easily have over-loaded the front tire and tucked it.

live and learn, i guess. Any video of me? ;-)

- Chris

Nice to meet you too. Thanks again for sharing the ez up.

Yeah, the suspension is all stock, haven't messed with anything.

I'll have to watch the full videos and see if there is any of you passing me.

That was another thought, that I touched down with something hard and lifted the tires. I know for a fact I had my knee down in the video, before the crash, and like you said, that didn't make any noise. So maybe you are right. The roll-off may have been the cause as well. I'm about 99% sure I didn't grab any front brake though.

I dunno. Either way, not much damage, and I was fine and rode the rest of the day, so no biggie.

Here's more videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-baD55s51o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMg8BpX3meg

i really don't know what happened exactly. it definitely sounded like i rolled off the throttle, but I don't think I hit the brakes. i remember thinking "wow, i'm leaned over way too far" and the next thing i knew, i was on the ground.

yeah, i was fine. got a brake lever, missed one session and rode the rest of the day. paint is scratched, but that's it. leathers got a little beat up. Kinda disappointed in how the astars suit held up. I was going probably 60, and was off the track into the grass pretty quick.

well i went down in the first session of the day. trying to go too fast, too early, on an unfamiliar track. i got it on the gopro camera, i'll get that and some other vids posted up soon.

I'll be getting there in the morning.

No, I have no idea where I'm going at BeaveRun. This will be my first time there. I'll text ya when I get there, probably around 7:30.

are these the pictures from the track day on 8/11 or no?

because if so, where the hell are mine? They said three weeks!!!

Hey redkow, how am I going to find you?

I'll have the black Nissan frontier and the all white cbr.

I'm registered for Intermediate. woohoo!

so is anybody else going, other than redkow?

Wow, I might have to do this. Should only be an hour and a half or so from my house if it's close to Pittsburgh. I'll have to think about it.

http://www.playcornhole.org/rules.shtml

See rule number 6 of the official rules. Don't have to get exactly 21.

damn now that i think about it, how would they know if we had the right amount of experience to do this?

this could be a newb fest and be worse than I group during the 3 group day...

the honor system apparently haha. because that always works...

man, i wanna go to the track again sooooo bad. I wish I could do this. too bad it's sold out and I only have one track day under my belt. wish i could be there.

you spelled "wrong" rong.

yeah, that's what I was leaning towards. Seems to be a good boot for the money. I probably should have just gotten them to begin with, and worn them on the street. Oh well. Too late now. I could always sell the S-MX 5s if I never wear them.

i have the A* S-MX 5 boots. I bought them for street use, so I want to get a more track-oriented boot. Not sure what I want though. A* S-MX Plus, A* Supertech R ($100 more), some Pumas, or SIDIs. Decisions, decisions.

But, I wasn't going to skimp on boots to get a lap timer. I figured I'd get boots firs anyway.