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Life came at me fast :(


Harb67

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So on the way home from the Coshocton ride I managed to clip an Acura. Sweet.

SliderandFairing.jpg

whathappened.jpg

Riding through some small town on 62, had a lapse of attention, and bam. Saw the guy too late, locked the brakes with maybe <10 feet to go. Managed to swerve mostly out of the way, I sort of bounce off of him and into the grass. Couldn't have been doing more than 10 mph. What I think happened was that there was originally someone between us slowing down, while the guy was already stopped. The person who was slowing down in front of me turned left onto another street and I wasn't paying enough attention to notice that I still had to stop because there was stopped traffic just ahead. It would have been a lot worse if I hadn't tried to turn away; otherwise I'd probably have been in his back seat.

As you can see from the picture of my bike, the slider ripped through his bumper and ceased motion as soon as it hit the edge of the quarter panel...which was very much made of metal and not plastic like the bumper. After the hit I was thrown sideways a bit and onto the grass, which was at a fairly steep angle and probably too steep to have safely swerved onto anyway. There was about 6 inches between his car and the grass, so I really had nowhere to go. The bike ended up on its right side, and the right frame slider and foot peg took all of the damage. Slider is worn down a little bit but can be used another day; my foot peg broke in half so I get to replace that soon. What you see in the pic of the fairing/slider is pretty much all of the damage. There are scuffs on the tank from my leathers, but they'll buff out just fine. Virtually everything else can be taken care of with a good wash and several coats of wax.

The guys car didn't fair too well. As I said my slider ripped through his bumper and hit the edge of the quarter panel, "wrinkling" it up a good bit. My knee slider took out his taillight. I forgot to take pics of the car; it didn't dawn on me that I had a camera (just bought it...I'm new to this photography thing :p) until after he had left.

Also, as is evident from the lack of pictures of injuries and my complete focus on the material losses so far, I am perfectly, 100% fine physically. Not one scratch. Why? Because I was in FULL GEAR like a good motorcyclist should be. My glove took the worst of it; there's a small tear and there was some shards of tail light plastic embedded in it, which is good evidence that if I hadn't been wearing them, I would have had some pretty significant damage to my pinky finger. My knee slider seems to have been what saved my entire knee. Guys we were riding with today: remember me joking about how shiny and unused my sliders were, and how I probably don't need them cuz I won't use them? Damn good thing I had em on I guess :lol: Hell, my leathers aren't even scuffed. Helmet never touched the ground. My right boot is a bit worse for wear, but it's nothing serious. If I had been wearing tennis shoes like I used to, I would be MUCH worse off; I'm pretty sure most of the bikes weight was on my Sidi, but the sole is so rigid that I got away just fine.

If I didn't have frame sliders, I probably would have just scraped the car, but the slider destroyed the bumper and caught the quarter panel, which threw the bike sideways with the slider as a pivot point. Honestly, I think the frame slider and my pants/knee slider puck saved my leg; if the bike hadn't been thrown sideways like it had and I didn't have that big hunk of plastic velcroed to my knee, I probably would have crushed my leg from the knee down.

So, yeah. 75$ ticket for stopping distance or whatever, and some hurt pride. If I buy new OEM plastic and a new OEM peg, I'll probably be out 350-400$ for bike repairs, but I'm going to try to get some used stuff and save money. I won't be fixing it any time soon though; it's all cosmetic and I don't have the money right now :( Also, my insurance rates are going to go up to retardedly high amounts. I pay 88$/month right now. I have a ticket on my record that the insurance company hasn't noticed yet, so I'm betting that when I report this on monday they'll also take notice of that ticket, so my rates will be going up for the wreck AND for that ticket. AWESOME! I'll be shocked if I end up paying no more than 160/month for the next 3 years.

Anyway, other than that, great ride today guys :) Sorry we lost half the group on the way to Coshocton; I havn't even looked at the other threads here yet to find out what happened there. I'm sure I'll be weighing in on that shortly in the appropriate threads.

Edited by Harb67
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I freaked out when I saw you hit the ground. It was one of those "passenger hitting the imaginary brake" things...I saw it comming in slow mo from a distance and wanted to get you to see it in time. I was thinking stop STOP STOP...bam!

Make good out of a shitty situation and chalk it up as a lesson learned. I bet you will give cars PLENTY of space from now on,won't you? :) And the bike was ridable...and you still had half a right foot peg to get you home. That couldn't have worked out better!

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Make good out of a shitty situation and chalk it up as a lesson learned. I bet you will give cars PLENTY of space from now on,won't you? :) And the bike was ridable...and you still had half a right foot peg to get you home. That couldn't have worked out better!

Lesson certainly learned :D

I think ultimately my problem is that my mind was already at home watching TV while my body was still on the return trip. Got too relaxed after having survived a ride in Coshocton with all its crazy inhabitants, and didn't bother paying enough attention to survive the ride home. Gotta stay alert all the time, not while just in the twisties. Come to think of it, I think this is something that was bound to happen because when I got pulled over last year, it was on the way home from a Hocking ride and I was on autopilot then as well and didn't notice the cop behind me.

Plus, at least I'm more or less guaranteed to not have any more stupid mistakes this season, having had this happen so early in; the lesson is fresh in my head :p

Now...anyone wanna start a betting pool on how high my insurance is going to go? Winner takes 40% and I take the other 60% to put towards said insurance? ;) ;) :broke:

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If you're not going to claim the insurance claim, why report it?

ticket plus active claim = -2

ticket and no claim = -1

Leave it to them to do their annual or random driving record check.

Depending on your insurance company, some will give you an automatic 2 pt overlook.

Hell roll your dice and see if it gets up to you, what do you have to lose.....

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If you're not going to claim the insurance claim, why report it?

ticket plus active claim = -2

ticket and no claim = -1

Leave it to them to do their annual or random driving record check.

Depending on your insurance company, some will give you an automatic 2 pt overlook.

Hell roll your dice and see if it gets up to you, what do you have to lose.....

My bike got off easy, but the car would have been at least a thousand bucks to fix: new rear bumper, taillight assembly, and rear quarter panel, plus labor? No way I could afford that much. Plus I think the insurance company will know anyway because the cops gave the guy my insurance info so I didn't have much choice.

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wow good to hear your ok. i was riding that way when saw some of you guys in coshocton. i was riding the black r6 trying to get back on 83 south. i didnt make it to marrieta because it was getting late and still had my tinted visor on and wanted not to die because of vison.

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Crap. Good thing you're ok. The bike can be fixed up. This might have been one of those tired and dehydrated things. Running low on water really messes up the concentration. Frequent stops on a bike are almost a necessity. Sometimes when you stop, you realize you were not feeling those messed up dehydration effects while you were still moving. But it hits like a ton of bricks when you stop. Over the years, I've learned to quit cutting it up after a length of time, and just take it easy, real easy sometimes, for the rest of the day, or on the way home.

BTW, attackpainter could probably plastic weld that panel up. Especially if you got all the pieces and parts. I wouldn't throw it out just yet. Proper adhesive and patched on the back side work also. Putty and paint.

Edit: ehhh, looked at the pic again, maybe not keep it. Be sure to check around that slider, and make sure nothing where it's mounted got broken (engine or frame). Check the bike over, and make sure nothings loose, check front forks in case they twisted a bit in the triple tree, and that both wheels are still straight and true.

Edited by ReconRat
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Glad you came out unscathed. Scary what a small lapse of attention can do. I would have been into the side/rear of a van today myself that pulled out right in front of me at a McDonalds. Luckily I anticipated him doing it and was able to stop in time. I was going to go off on the guy, but he had his kids in the van...so he got the death stare instead. lol

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The way I look at it, who cares about $$. What really matters is that you are fine, the other driver is fine, and that $$ can fix whatever is hurt. Well except your pride..

Exactly. I'm not too torn up about it; could have been a helluva lot worse and this way I'm sure as shit going to be more aware for the rest of the season and hopefully avoid any other stupid mess-ups like this :)

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Thinking back that dude driving the TL was amazingly chilled out about the situation. All I heard him say was "are you ok" and then he calmly got on his phone and reported the accident. He didn't even seem remotely pissed! I had a woman rear end me last fall while I was sitting at a stop light. I was REALLY pissed...just because accidents, estimates, insurance, repairs and rental cars are a huuuge pain in the ass. Ironically, the woman who hit me was driving that identical Acura TL...even the same color! wierd.

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Crap. Good thing you're ok. The bike can be fixed up. This might have been one of those tired and dehydrated things. Running low on water really messes up the concentration. Frequent stops on a bike are almost a necessity. Sometimes when you stop, you realize you were not feeling those messed up dehydration effects while you were still moving. But it hits like a ton of bricks when you stop. Over the years, I've learned to quit cutting it up after a length of time, and just take it easy, real easy sometimes, for the rest of the day, or on the way home.

:them: the dehydration usually doesn't hit me until I park the bike and forget to put the stand down.

Thinking back that dude driving the TL was amazingly chilled out about the situation. All I heard him say was "are you ok" and then he calmly got on his phone and reported the accident. He didn't even seem remotely pissed! I had a woman rear end me last fall while I was sitting at a stop light. I was REALLY pissed...just because accidents, estimates, insurance, repairs and rental cars are a huuuge pain in the ass. Ironically, the woman who hit me was driving that identical Acura TL...even the same color! wierd.

It was prob that chick's husband:eek: Glad you're OK

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