Lost my diesel cherry last night

[Foxy]

Stacked the bike last night, not proper stylee, but bits still touched down that aren't designed to.



Was on my way to work, turned down a narrow side road with a couple of hundred yards to go. There were parked cars down both sides with enough room for one car at a time each way, so I made my way down fairly slowly. A car pulled out and started coming the other way, so I tried to brake and pull into a gap between parked cars on the nearside. I say tried, because both wheels immediately locked and the bike started drifting to the right. Stood up out of the seat, caught it and it just started sliding the other way, then the same again, and then the back wheel finally gripped again and I slammed the bike down on the offside and slid down the road.



Thankfully the Tigger is suitably modified to cope with the rough stuff, so pannier rails, crash bars and hand guards absorbed most of the damage. So did the offside rider's foot peg which duly gave way under the strain. The crash bars are bent out of shape, to the point where they are touching the tank but the tank cover should have saved any cosmetic damage.



Unfortunately my right foot stayed under the bike and I ended up sliding right up to the front bumper of the oncoming car - it was a little unpleasant to be able to look up at the underside of a Merc A class. At this point I hit the kill switch and pondered the possible irony of the soundtrack playing at that moment - "Lucky", Biff Naked. Despite the impact and slide my right foot is perfectly okay, so I can finally recommend Altberg boots in every respect. My riding kit held up without a problem either - so a big up to Triumph's all weather gear with lashings of Knox armour and my Joe Rocket gloves. Head never touched, so that's some money saved! Pushed the bike into work and this morning swapped one of the pillion pegs over to replace the broken peg.



A big up to: Altberg boots, Touratech pannier rack, passing cage drivers who stopped to check on me.



A big down to: Hepco and Becker crash bars - they did their job but only just in a low speed accident, and diesel spills.

[TigerTim]

Glad your're Ok



Rgds



Tim

[Kill Switch]

Glad you are OK.  Good post. Thanks.

[NortonCharlie]

Glad to hear you came out OK.  I gave my Hepco Becker bars a good test in Arkansas during the Ride-in.  No diesel, no gravel, no dog, just me being a bit stupid.  I was a little to hot on a curve and decided to try the ditch rather than low side it on pavment with questionable edge.  The ditch was OK, the end was pretty steep and got both wheels about a meter off the ground.  I got pretty crossed up on the launch and low sided pretty hard on the right, of course the wheels grabbed and the Tiger high sided.  I got off as the bike high sided so didn't land real hard.  The guy I was riding with guessed I was going about 75 mph when I hit the ditch.



All said and done I was sore but unbroken, The engine guards pushed into the tank on the low side (right) and left a little scuff in the clearcoat.  The only other damage on that side was the rear brake pivot bolt broke and the Givi rack was pretty bent up.  The high side (left) I broke a little chunk out the side of the fairing, the mirror broke and took the top off the clutch perch,  the handlebars were wrapped down onto the tank and took off part of one of my stripes, riders footpeg still had enough to get a foot on,  the engine guard was bent and scraped but intact, and the Givi rack was pretty well bent on that side.



We were on our way into town for dinner, we ended up about an hour late but I was able to ride there.  Thanks to help from Kevin who was following me (not into the ditch) and a guy up the hill who loaned us a piece of pipe to staighten out the handlebars.  I made a few more tempory repairs and rode the Tiger home to Iowa.



All said and done I think the Hepco Becker bars worked very well, I was unbroken and the bike was repairable.  I think I was unhurt because I was able to ride out the initial impact and let the Tiger absorb the big hit and was still able to get off clean when the bike high sided.  I'm ordering a replacement set.



The rest of it, My Triuph Raptor jacket held up good, I just about went through the mesh on one shoulder and the zipper on the right arm end is junk now but didn't open in the crash.  The raptor gloves did pretty well but it tore through on the little finger on my right hand and I lost some skin ( the leather nuckle guard was gouged but intact) the left glove wore through tha palm and left a couple little marks.  My helmet had one good hit on the forehead and the foam liner deformed about 1/4 inch.

[TigerTrax]

Charlie...

So  have you tested all the laws of physics yet, or still working on them?



Tough month, eh!



... an object in motion remains in motion at that speed until acted upon by a greater force ... ( sometimes the FORCE happens to be an immovable object that one happens to FIND ) ...