Wouldn't have happened on my GSa!

[scootertrash]

The following is a quick cut and paste of an email I sent out yesterday to family and friends. This took place last Monday on my '99 Yamaha Roadstar, the only non-ABS bike I own....

OK, I crashed my Roadstar in Arizona on Monday. I’ll be fine. A fractured left shoulder blade, a golf ball sized bump on the left side of my noggin, big ‘ol bruise on my left hip, and plenty of “road rash” on my forehead, left shoulder, left elbow and forearm, and left knee. After 6 days of reflection here’s what happened, and what new convictions I come away from it with.



The set up:



Kaye and I wanted a quick break from the cold misery of winter in the northeast, and during her spring break we blew out to Mesa for a quick three days of sun and fun. Day three (Monday) we had just finished a nice long bicycle ride around 2:30 in the afternoon. (Picture sunny and 80*) We were going to take about a 2 ½ hour motorcycle ride into the mountains before meeting up with her son Josh for dinner to celebrate his birthday. As Kaye doesn’t have a motorcycle helmet there, the plan was to stop at a Yamaha dealership two blocks from our house there and get one. During our bicycle ride earlier, I had left my trusty “Starbucks” water bottle on the table at a lunch stop, so since Kaye wanted to go to a local bakery to pick up a cake for later with Josh, She took the car to make a quick trip to get a cake, and I took the bike two blocks to a Starbucks to get a replacement bottle of water. I did change from shorts into jeans and put of a pair of motorcycle specific shoes called BMW “street sneakers”, basically a comfortable set of motorcycling shoes with a reasonable level of protection. As I walked up to my bike in the garage, I considered grabbing my helmet for this errand, but the short distance and beautiful day won out and I opted to go without. Arizona doesn’t have a helmet law, and most riders there ride without one. The weather there is very seductive, and at low speeds the fresh warm Arizona sun feels great.



The event:



Normally, I would take the regular grid of streets to do this errand, but since I wanted to be able to devote as much of the remaining afternoon as possible to our upcoming ride, I opted to jump on the “60” (US Rt. 60 runs east-west through Mesa right by our home) to go the two exits over to Val Vista. I got my water, and turned onto the ramp from Val Vista onto the 60 heading east. As I casually rolled on some throttle down the ramp, I could see that the afternoon rush hour had just started to form as traffic on the 60 east was now moderate as opposed to light going westbound. There were several cars ahead of me on the ramp, but we were all moving at speed and the ramp’s acceleration lane was wide open ahead of them. This is where it gets a little less clear as to exactly what happened next. I know that I took my eyes or attention off the ramp ahead for a moment, and I can only assume I must have been checking my left mirror to assess the traffic flow in the right lane of the 60 in preparation for the upcoming merge. What I remember very clearly though is when I looked ahead again the cars that had been ahead of me on the ramp and moving at speed were now stopped side by side on the two lane ramp and I knew at that moment I was in deep kimshee!

What had occurred here was that the AZ DOT had recently added traffic control metering lights at the ends of these ramps to meter the flow of traffic onto the 60 during rush hours. As this accident occurred right at or very shortly after 3:00PM, I’m guessing that these lights had just gone into operation for the afternoon rush hour, maybe even while I was looking away. There was a warning sign further up the ramp, I just hadn’t noticed it.

So, now what you have here is your basic panic stop situation. My full focus is on trying to brake hard enough to burn off all my speed, but not hard enough to lock the wheels, especially the front. The problem with panic stops is the panic. This is not a test. If you don’t stop before the “line”, it’s gonna hurt. Tires are screeching, the front wheel locks the first time, I release momentarily and regain stability, and brake hard again. This time I get most of my speed burned off before locking the front wheel again. This time it’s less forgiving, the handle bar snaps full left, and the bike and I are thrown to the asphalt on the left side. OK, I’m stopped, and didn’t hit the stopped cars in front of me, but wow this hurts. Somebody get this bike off my foot! Where’s my phone? It was on my left hip a moment ago? My head hurts. My shoulder really hurts. People are telling me to just stay where I am and don’t even try to stand up. I think I just put Josh’s birthday celebration dinner in jeopardy. The rest is boilerplate. The ambulance ride, the ER room, the hospital stay, and plenty of x-rays and CT scans.



Revelations:



Now I consider myself to be a relatively proficient rider with close to 40 years of experience. I have traversed the continent many times. I have ridden at Summit Point. I have years and years of off road riding experience. I have practiced and encouraged others to practice emergency braking techniques so as to have a better “feel” for how much force can be applied to each wheel safely. It’s different, very different with every bike. I have also been an outspoken proponent of mandating ABS braking as standard equipment on all street legal motorcycles. It is my belief that a large portion of motorcycle accidents would simply be avoided if all bikes were so equipped. The fact of the matter is that regardless of your experience and amount of practice, the “panic” of finding yourself in the panic stop situation severely limits your ability to think clearly and not over use the front brake. As evidenced by the fact that the bike and I did come to a stop without hitting the cars in front of me, there clearly was enough distance to have come to a safe stop had an ABS system maintained maximum braking force while preventing wheel lock. It also would have allowed me to redirect my concentration to pointing the bike between the two stopped cars (if necessary) instead of concentrating on avoiding wheel lock. Interestingly enough, this 1999 Yamaha Roadstar is the only bike I own without it. It will be my last one without it.



No more riding without a helmet. This was a rare event for me to do this. I own two very expensive Schuberth helmets here in Virginia because I see this as a very poor place to save money. One is a full faced model, the other is a front flip that is essentially a full faced model with the ability to open the front. I encourage friends that wear open faced models to change to full faced ones. I snicker at those who wear (half) helmets that are only designed to avoid being ticketed for non-use, while providing virtually no impact protection. (Obviously, they don’t have enough brains to protect) Now I can’t even put a helmet on until this “hemotomado” goes down.



Accidents really do occur close to home. Nuff said.



Healing and repairs:



All my injuries should heal just fine on there own. I have to tell you though, skin injuries are very debilitating. It takes me close to 3 hours each morning to shower, clean and dress the wounds, and get dressed. Having very limited use of my left arm due to the broken shoulder blade is a big factor here too.

The bike suffered only cosmetic damages and rides fine. All it will take is some $$$ and time to bolt of some new parts.

My Rolex “took a licking and kept on ticking” but will need a new crystal, and three of the little luminescent “dots” that are attached to each hour symbols are now loose inside the crystal so It’ll probably need a new face too.

My cell phone (actually a pocket PC) and fancy custom made Bluetooth earpiece are toast. I regularly back up all the contents of my pocket PC to a micro SD card inside, but I broke that too. Basically all of Friday was spend replicating all my data to a new phone.



So that’s it. True confessions of a humbled rider.



To those of you who ride, ride safe.



Ken

2007 R1200GS Adv Alpine white
1994 R1100RS Pearl silver
1999 Yamaha Roadstar Silverado Green/silver

[XinTX]

Last November I was riding in toward work. Went early (6 a.m.) when traffic was very light around here (it's never THAT heavy regardless) when a Dodge pickup drove into my lane (headed East in the Westbound lane) in which I was travelling. It happens quick. I was on my RT at the time and I'm convinced that without ABS I'd likely be dead now. I was totally geared up so I only had a bit of soreness that lasted longer than I'd like. Fortunately, nothing broken. But I'll echo you on the ABS and wearing the gear. The armored jacket, over pants, and full helmet kept me out of the ambulance ride.

[Pastor Passum]

Glad you're here to tell us about your accident. As I'm sure you realize, it could have been worse. I totally agree with you on the issues and need for ABS. I too have over 40 years experience but sometimes...all the experience in the world can't compete with a little computor doing what it's designed to do. I won't have another bike without ABS. Heal quick and thanks for the reminder, ALL THE GEAR, ALL THE TIME.

Jim

[offroadoz]

Glad to hear that you are all OK. A wise old motorcyclist told me some 30 odd years ago "If it's too hot for all the right gear, then it's too hot to ride a bike". Never let the weather dictate how little you wear, and no helmet!!!!!!! Sorry, but I just shudder at the thought of it.
I may look like somebody has tossed a bucket of water over me when I take my helmet off and peel all the gear off, but I have the self satisfaction that if something does go wrong, I have done everything I can to survive in one piece.
I have also learnt that you have to resort back to your best rider skills and not depend upon the ABS to compensate. There again there are some idiot tintops we have to contend with no matter what country we live in.
Hope recovery is swift and stay safe

Keith

[HogiabBab]

I did the samething and I wondered how I could of avoided this. I thought I was lost and i went on gravel to check, i was on the front brakes somewhat lightly and then I just low sided. The rear brakes would of saved me possiblely? i was goin like 15mph at most.

[Ken]

Hi Ken, well I'm glad you told us, especially the idiots in the US that don't wear helmets. They might take heed. Its law here in every state to wear a helmet.

I must say though that you don't get any sympathy from me.

I live in a much hotter climate and I wear my jacket, boots and helmet on every ride. Yes every ride, even to get a bottle of milk. In summer like now, I wear my summer jacket for air flow. Its still padded with special protection pads. I do admit to wearing jeans. I've always said, a $10 head, a $10 helmet.

Ken in Aust.