So I'm sure you've all seen me one time or another mention the Big Crash of the '92. I haven't had the pictures on this computer, so I haven't been able to make a post about it until now. Enjoy.

The date was April 5, 2005. It had been gloomy and slightly rainy the morning of, so I took the cage to school. I had just picked up my '92 3 weeks prior from a friend of my father's from work. For $1000, I got the best deal of my life. The bike was in gorgeous condition and decked out as could be. SS brake lines, a full V&H exhaust, V&H ignition advancer, case guards, DynoJet jet kit, as well as a bunch of extra parts. For my first bike, I was very happy. I had been riding back and forth to school on a regular basis, using my lunch break to take rides around some of the curvier roads near my school rather than eating. That's what my Journalism class was for, right? I had been having a great time and LOVED the GS. On that fateful day, the weather cleared up from the muck and gloom and dreary morning to an absolutely gorgeous day, sun shining, blue sky.

After I got out of classes I had an hour or so before I had to be back at school for jazz band rehersal. I didn't have to haul my sax around, so I figured I'd go home and get the bike, just to be able to ride it. I geared up and started riding back towards my school. My house is situated at the bottom of three hills, so no matter which way I went it would be up. I decided to go on the hill to my left (I could get to the same place going up any one of them, despite the whole directional differences) and rounded the 90 degree turn leading to the main hill. Around halfway up this hill there is a turn that banks around 80 degrees, possibly 75ish or 70. It's a fairly tight sweeper and the pavement in it is washboarded from sun exposure. If you stay on the outside of this turn you're usually fairly safe, but cross into it and you are being risky.

The washboard:


Most of the turn:


Final placements:


I've driven that curve for years now. I can't remember exactly what happened either, as I was smacked in the head fairly hard by the curb. I don't have memory of the incident nor anything before it for about 30-45 seconds before the crash. From looking at the scars in the road (yes, my bike left physical marks in the road where it went down) and the curb where the bike scraped, as well as a good knowledge of physics, I believe I was trying to enter this curve at somewhere in the vicinity of 45 to 50 mph. I didn't have the skills back then to be able to that safely, most likely, or I was just doing something stupid. I'm fairly certain that I was going through and hit the washboard, scared myself with it wallowing (I've  felt it start to bobble about when I hit the washboard on the '04 a while back) and layed it down. Had I not panicked or had I not been riding above my skills at the time I might have been able to pull out of it.

After I layed it down, the bike and I slid up the hill, I most likely on my shoulder and right hand and the bike on it's right side, footpegs scaring the asphalt for life. I eventully got faced around where my feet were sliding up hill while I was on my side, the right side of my helmet showing the scrapes. After the road ran out I was on my right side and I hit the curb. My head smacked against the curb along with my back right behind my right lung. I then toppled into the grass and came to rest next to one of the big boulders. My bike, on the other hand, hit the curb and scraped along it, eventually jumped the curve and ran through the grass and came  to rest after hitting the big green utility box, displacing it 9 inches, according to my father.

I layed in the grass for an unknown amount of time. From what I was told a woman and her daughter were driving down the hill, and the woman saw my bike sitting up against the utility box, and making some comment about it being a wadded up bike in bad condition. After they had passed the daughter said that there was a guy in the grass too. The woman turned around and called an ambulence for me. She sat there until they came holding my hand while I gave out information repeatedly. I was told I continued repeating my name, phone number, and address (I don't remember it at ALL). I never got to find out who that woman was, but if I could I would thank her from the bottom of my heart. To whoever she was, thank you!

I woke up while I was in the ambulence. When I first came to I was very confused. I was like, "What in the bloody hell is goin... oh crap." As soon as I realized I was in the ambulence and there was a paramedic over me, I said, "Dammit. I crashed my motorcycle, didn't I?" to which he replied. "Yes you did. I'm glad you're finally awake. Feeling alright?" I told him I felt alright, a little pain here and there. I then proceeded to ask, "Did you see my motorcycle? How is it? Is my bike alright?" Here I am lying prone in an ambulence on its way to the hospital with an IV stuck in my arm, and one of the only things on my mind is, "How's my bike?" Man. I must have really loved that bike! :lol: He told me it was fairly wadded up, but that I'd have to wait to see it myself. He gave me the run through on my damages, informing me that my finger was fairly nasty and how lucky I was I had my gear on.

After getting wheeled into the hospital I was in a fairly good mood, aside from being sore and in pain, but not too bad. I had some doctors talk to me and some nurses look me over. Each and every one of them told me how great it was I was wearing my gear and how much worse it would have been. I heard many people tell me that they see people in there all the time that didn't wear gear and were MUCH worse off than I was. My injuries were trivial in comparison. After the CAT scans and tests they finally took my helmet off and let me lie down in a more private area than the waiting room.



I was on the phone with my girlfriend-at-the-time at the time of the picture. We only got off one picture before we had the security come up to us and tell us we couldn't take photos. While I was lying there a nurse came up to me and told me they just had a bicyclist come in who had just had an incident with the road and was going to be in full body bandages for many weeks, and might not recover fully as he wasn't wearing a helmet. He told me how great it was I was wearing my gear.  

After some more tests they noticed I had collapsed my right lung by 5% and that I needed to stay overnight so that they could moniter me and make sure the lung reinflated. It didn't. By the next day my lung had collapsed over 35%. There are two type of lung collapsations. One involves air getting trapped inbetween the lung layers and the other involves fluid being trapped. With either one, the lung can't expand into that area because there is stuff there, be it air or fluids. I had the air type; I think they called it pneumothoria.

The first night I was there though, I was given a sponge bath by an extremely attractive petite asian nurse. Had I not been so doped up on morphine I might have tried to hit on her. That was the only thing that made my stay in the hospital bearable: hot nurses.

To correct the collapse of my lung they doped me up with some other stuff and knocked me out. They cut a one inch long hole into my chest and stuck a tube in there and hooked it up to this vacuum thing that I had to carry around. I had that in for about 4 days before they took it out and made sure it stayed inflated. All the while I had this in they had me doing lung capacity tests. They had this little thing with a foam floater in it that you sucked, thus drawing the floater up and measuring how much intake you've got. When I did this the first time the doctor was shocked at how much I pulled. I think I had somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 liters, even with a collapsed lung. I guess playing the saxophone did me some good. The doctor said that he saw healthy people that couldn't do that with BOTH lungs. By the end of my time there I was regularly able to pull 5L and over (it topped at 5L, but I held it there while drawing more air in). After my clean bill of health I finally got discharged. I was weak and slightly nauseaus for the rest of the day, so I slept for a few days after that.

Aside from the road rash on my finger and leg, all I had to contend with for the next month was a devastating pain in my shoulder. I couldn't move my arm more than 15 degrees without excruciating pain. Eventually it started to go away, but I still couldn't drive my car (a standard) for over a month because of the pain it would have caused just from shifting gears.

Then it was back to school to finish up high school and graduate!

My jacket had many busted seams all over, but it did its job overall. No abrassive damage to my torso except for the minor superficial stuff from the jacket rubbing on my neck. You can see the elbow padding got shredded fairly badly, but it didn't go through to the armor.



The right hand glove. You can see how the mesh failed miserably under these circumstances. There are gaping holes in the last three fingers of the glove, which translated to some serious road rash on my fingers. You can get a slim idea of the damage on the picture above of me in the hospital.


The helmet. See the impact damage in the back? Imagine what would have happened had I not been wearing a helmet...


The sad part was seeing my bike for the first time after the crash. It was depressing. The bars got pulled back, the guage cluster smashed, the tank was half its size, as well as other stuff you can see in the pictures. I must say, however, that I'm very impressed with the case guards. My engine got out of this without a scratch on it.




Notice the rear right footrest? The exhaust got pulled up and broke the frame. The centerstand was also broken. Thankfully there are still useable  parts from her.

My external damage was minimal, thankfully. The thing that took the longest to heal was my finger (which can be seen in this thread). There were some scrapes on my leg and around my neck and shoulder from my jacket and some slight road rash on my foot (no pictures of that one) because I wasn't wearing good shoes. My jeans did a pretty good job of protecting me.

Taken 6 days after the crash, my leg had already healed considerably.



So now you all know my story now. I've got my '04 now, and I am still loving it!

Sorry to see such a beauty wrecked up so much (hehe, I'm talking about the bike  :nana:  ) Glad you went through it with so little damage...

Maybe we should all learn something from that and always wear our gear. That milimeter of clothes and helmet, can be the difference between life and death. By the look and sound of the force of impact, you might not survived that headbang without your helmet.

Ride fun but keep safe.

Awesom

Those scratches should buff right out.

Cool, thanks for the pics. If it were me, I would have just inhaled, held it, and fixed my lung by myself.  :mrgreen:   Or get a nurse to punch you. That should do it. :lol:

Your glove pic is missing a t, in the http:// part.

I know someone with thoes gloves, glad I got some beefer ones. I already have had finger injuries, they suck.

if you really wanted a high mount exaust, you could have just asked.

Wow, nice writeup, that must have taken forever! Glad your ok! What kind of gloves are those? After seeing what your finger went though I want to make sure those aren't the ones I'm looking at.

Quote from: porsche4786Wow, nice writeup, that must have taken forever! Glad your ok! What kind of gloves are those? After seeing what your finger went though I want to make sure those aren't the ones I'm looking at.

Yeah, it took a while to write, but I had nothing better to do at 4 in the freakin' morning. I just felt it was time to share my story.

The gloves are from Olympia, and they're called Digital Protector (ironic, I know). You can see the more extensive damage to my finger here. I talk about wearing all leather gloves, something I won't ride without now.

Quote from: davipuif you really wanted a high mount exaust, you could have just asked.

:lol:

But seriously, that looks CRAZY. I am glad you made it through to ride again, and now have another GS   Good write up and pics.

Now don't do it again  

Quote from: PhaedrusBut seriously, that looks CRAZY. I am glad you made it through to ride again, and now have another GS   Good write up and pics.

Now don't do it again  

Heh, yeah. When I first saw the exhaust I thought to myself, "Damn. That isn't supposed to be like that. My thigh would burn off."
I'm quite fond of my new GS, too. I like the color more, too! :lol: I don't intend on crashing again, but I'll be wearing my gear if something happens. Had I not been knocked unconcious by that curb I would have been up and walking right after it happened.

I still find it kinda funny that the most serious damage to me was my finger. If that isn't a prime example for people to wear all their gear, then I don't know what is.

Thanks for sharing your story.  That Fieldsheer jacket looks like it held up well for a mesh jacket.  How much were your hospital bills, if I may ask?

I had a friend that wrecked at 30mph when a car pulled out in front of him, and he incurred over $98,000 in medical expenses.  I'm just trying to get an idea of if I have enough insurance coverage in case someone hits me.

Yeah, that Fieldsheer jacket worked extremely well. It even served as my jacket on the '04 until I got my Mach 3. The armor from the old Fieldsheer is now being used in my Teknic leather jacket.

Hospital bills were covered by insurance, but they were somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 for 5 days. For some reason I got a flat rate pay-by-day billing rather than the itemized payments some people get. I was getting at least 6 x-rays a day, so maybe that's why? I dunno. That was just the hospital bill, though. Then there was the EMS and the lab fees and stuff and beauracratic bullshit. Thankfully we've got good insurance through my father's work. I would have been in the hospital for 6 months or more recovering from road rash, probably, had I not been wearing jeans, shoes, and the jacket.

I was kinda lookin at these http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1,1&item=8008833049

But now that I see the fingers are not leather I'm not too sure. The ones I have now are like a fake leather I think.

Fake leather might be alright. Real leather is better no doubt, but what do I know? The Olympias I crashed with had leather palms and around the top of the hand, but in between the fingers were mesh. That is my main concern with any glove. I've got a pair of gloves now that are really good. They are called Terminator gloves, by Olympia.

http://www.newenough.com/olympia_model_744_terminator_gloves_page.htm

They've got the street fighter look with good all-leather protection. Plus, that aluminum knuckle protector looks killer.

Firts off glad  to see your ok.

After seeing thos kind of gloves fail i'm definatley looking into some leather ones. Im glad to see the jacket held up cause i have the exact same one.

Quote from: neonflyFirts off glad  to see your ok.

After seeing thos kind of gloves fail i'm definatley looking into some leather ones. Im glad to see the jacket held up cause i have the exact same one.

Thanks. In short, yeah, I got messed the f%$k up. I came through alright and I'm really glad about that.

The jacket is wonderful, you should feel very safe in it. There were a few straps that got fused together and a few spots on the arm where the mesh began to melt, but it held up surprisngly well, especially for mesh.


One thing that pissed me off was that the EMS guys CUT my shirt off. It was a button down shirt, don't you think they could have just been nice and unbuttoned it? No. They had to cut apart my nice designer dress shirt. Bastids.

Quote from: AlphaFire X5I still find it kinda funny that the most serious damage to me was my finger.

 

On mine, tho, it was my only damage - so wear yer motorcycle pants!

Yup, it's hard to see a moto beauty so messed up, but I'd MUCH rather see the bike messed up than the rider messed up!

Glad you came through as well as you did.....  GOOD ON YOU for wearing your gear!


 :mrgreen:

Quote from: Roadstergal

Quote from: AlphaFire X5I still find it kinda funny that the most serious damage to me was my finger.

 

On mine, tho, it was my only damage - so wear yer motorcycle pants!

Eh, the leg abrasions were superficial at best. It basically just looked badass for a week and a half before it disapeared. I didn't even feel it when it was there.

Plus, do you know how unbearably hot leather pants are in 100+ heat? I mean hell, my jeans would have been perfectly fine, minus one or two holes in the thigh (From the knife in my pocket rubbing against the asphalt through the denim, most likely). Had the EMS not cut the jeans up to my hip, I could still wear them. I can't even turn them into shorts! I can't even turn them into hot pants! They protected me adequately though.

I bought a lot of really nice, quality, expensive gear but I don't wear it when I ride because I don't want anything bad to happen to it. I just wear the flip flops that I got at the dollar store, some cut off jean shorts, and a free promotional t-shirt I got from a radio station.  :dunno:

I don't want the gear that cost me so much money to get all scuffed up like that!!!  

Quote from: AlphaFire X5Plus, do you know how unbearably hot leather pants are in 100+ heat?

Ja, I sure do...

But I preferentialy wear:
http://www.newenough.com/firstgear_mesh_pants_page.htm
when it's hot.