crashed hard-almost died

[mercdude63]

Ok, i will admit to being maybe a little punishing on the gs, but i ride a little spirited almost everywhere i go.

So here's the story that i promised people when i put the bike parts for sale (which they still are... just give me another couple weeks to heal up):

I have been dogging this damn jetting demon for a while now. I FINALLY installed smaller jets and got the damn stumble taken care of. Sadly enough, i hadn't ridden it yet to really figure that out. So i took the bike out for joy ride after work... a friday night... however, i live right next to the charger's stadium and there happened to be a game that night... so traffic was so bad i couldn't even get out onto the main road. So i just hiked it back through the residential area, being cautious not to piss anyone off... learned that lesson, until i got to the last right hand turn into my residential area. I've done this tons of times... i swerve out a little to make the 90% turn at about 25mph and i lean the bike over pretty hard... half way through the turn i feel the ass end come around and then i hear exhaust scrapping. i think shaZam!, the next thing after that i get thrown off... no, catapulted off the bike at speed into a nearby telephone pole... which i nailed with my midsection.

The wind being severely knocked out of me... i was damn scared: i thought i was dying... i knew i just did probably one of the worst things a motorcylist can do... hit a telephone pole. I was just trying to breath as i am gasping for air when a EMT shows up (my neighbor) to talk with me. at this point i'm laying down next to the pole after hitting it about 4-5' in the air and then hitting the curb. My legs are shaking and i feel intense pain in my side, chest, thumb, shoulder, and back. My bike was laying almost completely un-skathed next to me teetering on a curb. After i got my breath back, i asked the guy what happened. He says "you hit a little manhole cover in the road mid-turn." shaZam!, this sucks. So i then i get taken to the ER room via ambulance and the rest is history: internal bleeding, almost lost kidney/spleen, partially broken vertabraes, broken thumb, hurt shoulder. Luckily, i'm going to be absolutely fine... my bike on the other hand, took it right in the frame and the frame is bent bad, naturally. The handlebars, which aren't bent-thanks srinanth-don't turn evenly so the frame has probably been seriously eggshaped.

So my diagnosis for what happened: Tires weren't warmed up--i was going to upgrade to radials the next weekend... irony-that f%$k! and i hit the little manhole cover which made the rear end come around and change the inertia to move me into the curb which made the bike act like a catapult and eject me off james bond style.

So that's that. i will be selling what i can off the bike with the uttmost honestly on parts. I really really really don't think the forks are bent and it almost looks like it would just get up and run some more if it wasn't for the frame. Anyways, thought i'd share my near-death incident.

jon

[Roadstergal]

 So sorry.  But glad you're still here with us.

[Tourmeister]

Glad to hear you will heal up fine! That had to be pretty scary   What's that saying? Most accidents occur within two miles of the home...  

Anyway, are you selling the bike whole or parting it out? Our GS just melted down the engine at 10K miles    How many miles on your engine? Any idea what you might want for it? We are in Huntsville, Tx.

Will you be getting another bike?

Adios,

[Jenerator]

Wow...one heck of a description, and yep, I think you're lucky to be able to tell it, too.

So basically the bike slid on the manhole cover (I hate those things), caught the pavement and high-sided you into the pole?

Yow.  Heal well and heal quickly...

[cernunos]

But you got back on the horse right? Love the bike, the forum and all of you.

C.......

[Zarathustra]

i've almsot lost my bike on a manhole cover in my neighbor hood.  those things are dangerous, especially when wet.  good luck with the healing man.  luckily for me, when i slide through an intersection i just hit an oil slick and low sided.  hope everying works itself out, and glad someone saw you right away.

[ollie357]

shaZam!.  I didn't know manhole covers could be so bad. I try to avoid them, but there's this nice curve I like to take fairly quick, about 55-60mph. On the exit there are two manhole covers that I just have to squeeze between. I'm gonna have to take it easy.

[Lars]

Luckily you did survive. Manhole covers are extremely slippery. In Holland you can fail your exam if the examinator sees you driving over one.

Really too bad for you that you had experience it the hardest way possible, almost dying when driving over one.  I wish you good luck on recovering from this.

[xtalman]

Good to see you posting again.  I was actually wondering what happened to you, since those injuries sounded really severe.  Did you happen to have any protective gear on?  Of course, against a telephone pole it might not help a lot.

I nearly crashed in the same fashion over the weekend.  I'm usually aware of things like manhole covers, gravel, fluid, and painted traffic lines.  I've even skidded on the retroreflective beads they use to make the traffic lines brighter.  But for some reason I didn't even register some sand in the corner, and all of a sudden I go from thinking, "Boy, I'm really leaning this thing over!" to "Oh s%$# I'm going down!" in a split-second.  Luckily I stuck my leg out and somehow pushed myself back to vertical.  Now I always keep an eye out for sand, but I'm sure there are other hazards I haven't thought of.

[TheGoodGuy]

sorry to hear about the crash, but you know what you live to see another day.

I had some hair raising ones on manhole covers, & those small covers that cover water on/off (small - like 6-9 inches across).

I also hate white lines in wet weather.. bah!

[mercdude63]

thanks guys, I will be ok after a few more weeks i think. The only lasting injury is my back fractures that are preventing me from really exercising like i used to... plus the cast on the left hand.

No, i don't think i'm going to get back on this horse... at least for street riding. I might get another GS and race it at the track though... i love riding too much to completely give it up. The sadest thing, i get tears in my eyes when i see a bike because i want to ride so bad. but i know i could have NOT walked away from this accident just as easily as i DID walk/get carried alive away. having that kind of brush with death really woke me up to riding.

My engine has 32k miles on it and i'd probaby sell that too. I did check the valves on the engine and the cam lobes barely have any wear on them and the valves were still in spec. Before me, a 60 year old man rode it... so i'm sure he took it easy (i did the last 2k miles on the bike). If you are interested.... let me know. oh, it never smoked and ran great. A little leaking around the gaskets which i was going to fix, but now what's the point.

jon

[Kerry]

The only lasting injury is my back fractures that are preventing me from really exercising like i used to... plus the cast on the left hand.

Care to share the specific vertebrae and the nature of the partial breaks?  When I hit the cow ("Groan!" from the audience) I reshaped Thoracic 6 & 7 by way of compression fractures.  But I bounced off the top of my helmet, so I'll bet your breaks are probably of a different nature.

I "sat it out" (recuperated) for about 8 weeks, until the dealership that I had towed the bike to called.  They said that it needed to either get fixed or moved off their lot.  (I hadn't been in a big hurry to initiate the fixing process, as you can imagine.)  A week or two later it was ready to be ridden home.  It wasn't long before I got cabin fever ... and took a cold 280+ mile ride on a Saturday in November to places I'd never been before.  (This ride resulted in my buying windproof mittens and developing the Throttle Retainer! :mrgreen:)



I still feel a little "tingle" in my chest once in a while, and a constant (but small) dull pain if I pay attention.  But all in all, I'm glad things worked out as well as they have.

So what am I saying with all this?  Don't do anything dumb because of peer pressure or a sense that you "should" get back on and ride.  But at the same time ... don't be TOO hasty to decide either way.  Let those weeks of recuperation go by first, and THEN decide.

Best of Everything to ya....

[pantablo]

Jon,
glad to hear you're still around. Sounded awful. glad you're recuperating.
p-

[zlei]

Glad to hear that you made it. Heal up fast.  

[scratch]

Jon,
glad to hear you're still around. Sounded awful. glad you're recuperating.
p-

Ditto. Hope you feel better.

[scratch]

...took it right in the frame and the frame is bent bad, naturally. The handlebars, which aren't bent-thanks srinanth-don't turn evenly so the frame has probably been seriously eggshaped.

...and it almost looks like it would just get up and run some more if it wasn't for the frame.

When I crashed, the steering stop was moved out of alignment by the force of the crash through the handlebars and forks. Look for the welded tab on the lower front of the steering head behind the headlamp.

Again, hope you feel better.

[bigdood]

wow.  good thing you made it out better than it could have been.  HIT a telephone pole....ugh!

i'll take the tank when you get around to taking the GS apart.

[AR5ENAL]

sucks to hear about your accident, but it could have been far far worse.  hitting a telephone pole is definitely one of the bigger fears i have concerning going down.

heal up, and just do whatever you feel like...after a few weeks you'll be in a better position to be objective about getting back on the horse.

[bcbickers]

Glad you are ok, bro!    Heal up fast and get back riding.  

If you are parting out (forgive the intrusion if not), PM me with a price on the entire instrument cluster (gauges, mouting cups and bracket, warning lights).

[Laura]

Very glad you are going to be okay. And thanks for letting us know about the manhole covers. Another thing for me to be sure I avoid. Take care.

Laura