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Published: August 27th 2007
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Tired Wheel
Looks bad, but wheels aren't very strong when hit sideways 25Aug07 - Liscomb - Let me start by stating that I'm alright and I was not injured at all despite what you might think by looking at the pictures.
Today I started out from Sydney where I stayed the extra night to avoid a large rain storm. I'm on my way to Wade's place (a friend of Lisa's) in Dartmouth to hangout for a couple of days before traveling to meet up with my sisters in PEI.
The first sign of trouble was when the video camera mount broke while I was riding. I managed to catch the camera before it hit the ground and capture the moment on video. The footage is actually pretty funny. I had purchased a waterproof case for the video camera in Boston and was bummed out that I was not able to easily fix the problem and ended up carrying the camera/case in my backpack.
After riding through the centre of town in Liscomb I came across this hairpin turn. I thought it was odd that the turn wasn't labeled 30km/h and left at the default 50km/h. I did my usual hard braking and leaned into the turn and looked deep into
the corner when... I was expecting to hear the centerstand scrape on the ground from leaning so sharply instead, I couldn't figure out why gravel was passing over my head?
After I realized that I was no longer on my bike anymore (and feeling totally indignant I was dumped) I watch the upside down world pass me by and wondered why don't I see my feet - I always see my feet when I'm rolling. For those of you who don't mountan bike or downhill ski - trust me, it's normal to see your feet when you crash and roll.
After what seemed like forever - oh there's my feet and the ground again too. Good, well I wondered how the bike made out. By this time people were running up to me and saying to me "Are you alright?" or "My god your lucky to be alive!" which I respond to "No - I just wrecked my bike - If I was lucky, I wouldn't have crashed." More people were stopping and getting out of vehicles and showing up in boats (yes, people fishing out in the water came by to take a look) and I was
Can You Handle It
Funny the handguard and brake lever are broken but both mirrors are untouched worried that someone else might get run over by traffic.
After I collected myself and my stuff, I hung out at Vivian and Jimmy's place up the road. While I was waiting for the tow truck, they fed me (bless maritime generosity) and gave me their account of what happened. "Geez, we're sitting out on the deck when we heard this bang and saw you and the bike flip off the guardrail and thought Mother of {some maritime gibberish} he's going into the creek. Then we saw you and your bike tumble and land back onto the side of the road. Should we call the ambulance or the wagon and then saw you get up and pickup your bike! I can't believe he's alive and walking."
I walked back the stretch of road to see if I would have done anything different when I noticed the 30km/h left turn sign. It really should be marked as a hairpin turn with a big "SLOW" underneath it but what can I say? DOH! I missed it! There's also a gravel driveway near the top of the turn and gravel pulled onto the road. This is probably why I went down
Is that Reverse?
Never seen the shifter bent around the footpegs before without any tire screech or grinding. Had I've been going slower I might have brake more or cut the apex on the opposite lane to avoid the gravel... It's hard to second guess because there's a break in the guardrail and it would really suck to sail in between or buttend into the fence.
What did I do right? I wear protective gear including shatterproof sunglasses, which kept gravel out of my eyes when the visor popped out of my helmet. I approached the turn and correctly identified I should scrub off more speed. I setup the turn and leaned through looking deep into the corner. (For those of you who don't ride, this is REALLY important. It caused me to "lowside" when I fell instead of catapulting me over the rail or creating the DJR (Ducati, Jeff, rail) sandwich. Instead, I ended up behind the motorcycle doing a headstand (feet in the air) sliding along 12 feet of railing with my backpack before falling back onto the road) I didn't panic when I realized I had fallen, and stayed loose to avoid hurting myself (More likely to breaking bones, tearing muscles or soft tissue when you tense up).
Lost My Head
This flip-lid helmet is not rated "Full Face Protection" but I still managed not to break my jaw. Probably why the visor popped off. I know, your probably shaking your head right now thinking "you are sooo lucky". As with most accidents it's a combination of things: 1) I missed the sign. 2) There was gravel on the road.
But I did a lot of things right which ultimately saved me from some serious injuries. Well I like to think so...
For the record (much to Mom's dismay) this hasn't deterred me from motorcycling and I'm still going to ride and complete this trip sooner or later. I would (happily?) bounce of a guardrail than to live in a plastic bubble and pass on the experiences in the 40+ journal entries in this blog. As to whether the bike is fixable for completing this trip, I'm still working that part out. :-)
Oh, as for the video camera, Treo and notebook computer (I used as a back protector) it all survived without and damage. :-D
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ebunzzle
non-member comment
Not a DJR sandwich!
So glad you're ok! Way to keep your head even while all this was going down in mere seconds. Hope you get back on the road soon.