If it rides and handles good it should be OK.
My get off.
I was on Cali. 178 going east just past Onyx.
I see the BIG sign that said 20. But I thought it read 30 MPH.
(tell me you could read that sign at 100 MPH.)
And the “U” in that sign, well shit, that’s all the warning they give on a 65MPH road.
A sign should be 200 ft before the turn like: “you are about to take a real U turn and you better SLOW your ass down to 20 MPH”
ONE SIGN in the start of the turn? None before it? Bad News.
I grab some brake and slow to 60 MPH, down shifting to fourth gear. Thinking this will be fun with a 80 or 90 degree turn.
I thought that big sign read 30 MPH. On a bike 60 is ok, but not for a 20MPH turn sign!
Then I enter the turn and start to sense, Hmm this seems way tooo fast.
I got the bike dragging the peg and the luggage bag is scrapping on the pavement. That can’t be good!
I start to drift over the double yellow line and know that this turn is not going well.
(I have learned that you always want to look at where you want the bike to go. If you look at that tree, that will be the crash site, you will hit it. So I always look at the place I want to go. The exit of the turn!)
I can not see the exit of this turn cause it’s a FUCK’N U TURN.
With NO warning sign till I get on top of the turn at 100 MPH and slow to 60.
I am now in the world of “BAD SHIT IS GOING TO HAPPEN!”
At this point in the turn I feel it’s a good time to leave the out-of-control 600 lbs. gorilla.
I depart my fine motorcycle to try out my BMW ridding gear on the pavement, hoping that it’s worth all the big money I paid for it.
I am wearing the finest that BMW makes. 3- PHASEN, (that’s what it reads on the label) woven fiber pants and jacket including knee and elbow protection. Joe Rocket racing boots. I can’t say much for the gloves. They are just gauntlets to keep my hands warm. Not racing gloves with carbon fiber buttons. Of course I have on my SHOEI helmet.
As I push off from my beloved ride I flip the kill switch. I wish it well, thinking all the time, shit-man this is going to scratch the paint.
As I am sliding my ass on the pavement the only thing I was watching was, where the hell I was headed in this very out of control thrill ride. Sliding along I notice this very big tractor trailer headed my way. Well, it turned out it was only a day cab tractor with a 30ft trailer, but when your ass is sliding on the pavement, looking up, it look’s real big.
The tractor trailer was traveling in the other direction coming at me, but he was able to stop, just to watch my wreck. A profession truck driver.
But let me tell you, when your sliding on your ass in the wrong lane of traffic and see anything coming at you, never mind a BIG RIG, you really want to get-out-of-the-way.
As soon as I slowed down, my ass meter said “get up and run you fool”.
I got up and ran, then realized the Big Rig was stopped. Thank you, Thank you.
I saw my bike lying in the lane I had been traveling in. If anyone was coming around that that blind turn things could get ugly. I picked up the bike and pushed it off the road. The trucker kept asking “are you OK?” I said ‘yes”. I know my adrenalin was high but I was OK. I had no pain anywhere.
I inspected the bike and found it had:
half a clutch lever, a hole in the valve cover that is leaking oil. Plus paint scraped off the fairing and some luggage bags that don’t look too good.
A very nice guy (former biker) stopped to help me out and give me some good advice on how to use JB weld to fix the valve cover oil leak. Only problem was, I was 1,000 miles from no where.
I had to go back about 50 miles to Lake Isabella for material to fix the bike. Oil was leaking out of the cracked valve cover, on to the bike and my boot. Got the JB stuff put it on, no more oil leak. Rode back to the curve and took those pictures. ( don't know how to post them) the Bike felt OK and I rode it home to Las Vegas.
The end of the story, The Flash is OK, the pants have a blemish, boots have a scrape, the valve cover has a hole (JB welded), the fairing is in need of sanding and painting “a lot”,
Need a new clutch lever, one luggage bag is no good and one has a big scrape.
I was in a right hand turn; the bike was laid over to the right in the turn, scraping the right side when I got off.
When the horror movie stopped, the bike was on its left side when I PICKED IT UP. Most of the damage was on the left.
Lesson learned; ride fast, but not too fast. Always, always wear safety ridding apparel. You never know when a turn will sneak up on you.
Bazra
aka; The Flash