Return-Path: Posted-Date: 28 Jul 92 18:12:08 GMT Path: taco!rock!concert!duke!jep From: jep@cs.duke.edu (Jonathan E. Polito) Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles Subject: First Annual RCR and Crash Date: 28 Jul 92 18:12:08 GMT Sender: news@duke.cs.duke.edu Distribution: rec Organization: Duke University CS Dept., Durham, NC Lines: 119 Nntp-Posting-Host: thneed.cs.duke.edu Apparently-To: sasmjw@unx.sas.com Well there are several ways to look at this RCR crash. Let me give you my version from my view. Oh, and if I forget to mention it, this is the up close and personal view :_( Short of it: I wrecked. ******* Official DoD story of what happend ******* T O P S E C R E T DoD S E C R E T S R E V E A L E D After quick jaunt of about 165 miles of super-and-not-so-super slab we finally arrived at the campground. There already were a lot of Denizens there and so we started talking and living it up a bit. I had a few beers and was getting hungry. Others were hungry also and so we decided to go get some lunch. Someone suggested we could ask the woman at the BP station were we could eat. It was really hot at this point and I didn't feel like wearing my Aerostich suit. So I changed into some shorts and sneakers donned my helmet which was really lucky. We started out and I felt much better and cooler. After the campgrounds gravel road we hit the very winding back mountain road. I was doing pretty well, and as Carl Lovejoy remarked he really thought I knew what I was doing since I was getting some really good lean. All of a sudden after I down shifted, my shoe lace came untied and I looked down to make sure it wasn't about to tangle in anything. By the time I looked back at the road I realized I was entering a really sharp left hand uphill turn. Just as I was leaning way over I realized that a little girl was pushing a toy baby carriage across the street. I figured I couldn't really worry about her since I had to concentrate on the turn. Still she was in the back of my mind and knowing from the Net what a llama will do to a bike, I figured a little girl would be pretty bad too. At this point, I had some serious lean, and then I got the sensation of the rear wheel breaking loose, the bike touching down, and me sliding off. The bike was stopped a little aburptly by a post and beam type fence and I came to a stop and sat up just as others arrived at the scene. One of the guys told me later that a few more feet and I would have be straddling the post and singing alto. Luckily, I remebered all those posts about "What to do if your bike falls over" and before checking myself I rushed over to the bike and switch it off. After some heavy emergency braking by others in the group (luckily there was a driveway there for Chris and her CB-1), and seeing that I was standing, most of the group felt it inconvenient to stop and help since they were hungry and wanted to get some riding in. Luckily a few kind souls in the group helped me out and got the bike up and we surveyed the damage. Left bar bent. Left front turn signal ripped off after putting a dent in the tank. Body work damage on the left side around headlight and turn signal, trip reset knob ripped off, radiator grill body work, left passenger peg, left saddlebag, right rear turn signal and fuel tank (from fence). After picking up the pieces and starting the bike, I amazed everyone with my intrepidness and continued on...still leaning into the corners (though not as much). We stopped at the BP station to get a recommendation for lunch and the owner let me try to call some local shops but none were open. She asked if I crashed at so and so spot and she was right on. Apparently, people crash there regularly. So off we went again with my funky bars to get some grub. I didn't really know where I was supposed to be going so I stopped right after this one turnoff. That was the road we were supposed to take so I started a U-turn on this seriously off camber road and dropped the bike again at near Steve Anderson speed (~ 1cm/sec ). At that point I realized I was really shaken up and so I went back to get some food at the BP station and then back to camp. The woman at the BP asked what was wrong with my bike and I told her of my bent bars. She said, "My son-in-law is a welder, and he could probably heat up that bar and bend it back." I asked her where he was and she said he lives right next store. She called and he said to come over so off I went up the driveway. He said if I removed the bars he could straighten it in about 10 minutes. By this point, about 4 of the group also decided to come back, and they helped me take off my bars. They were an incredible pit crew (Carl Lovejoy, Chris Hogan, Cliff Weston, ???). The son-in-law welder heated and rebent the bars 3 times until we were satisfied and then painted them. The charge? $5. I thanked him for doing it so quickly and he said he needed a break from working on the horse trailer that was giving him problems. So now I have a near perfect bar. Back to the campground. Time to drink beer, talk about the crash, thank people. Camp ground guy says guy at crash site complaining about broken fence. Have to go back to the crash site. Ed takes me in the DoD Truck from Hell. A pretty nice truck at that. No one was home at the time of the crash, though some locals drove by about 3 times with insipid smiles on their faces. I told Bubba and his cousin Joe-Bob, who is also his brother and step father, this and apoligized very politely and reverently as any God fearing North Carolinian would. Bubba said all he could ask me to do is fix the fence. Ok how much. Hmmmm. I'm having trouble understanding what he is saying. It seems he is intent on *me* fixing the fence. I explain that I am on a motorcycles, have no idea where to get a 6' beam for the fence, and am just here for the night. He smiles and hands be an axe and points me to some trees. 4 hrs later, sweating profusely, I had whittled a tree down to a beam. Unfortunately, it was an inch too short. Well, Bubba said $15 dollars would cover it even though Joe-Bob seemed certain $10 would be enough. Bubba prevailed and I cut a check for $15 (luckily I live in NC and they accepted the check since they wouldn't give me change for a $20). Back to the camp ground. Drink more beer, hear Roid talk loudly, drink MORE beer, hear Roid more faintly, see Ed in his hat, drink MORE beer, see Ed more faintly. Meet Werner from Venezula originally from Germany, touring the States on an R100GS. Eat some good chicken and corn-on-the-cob, some poser hot sauce. Drink more beer, make fun of the hot sauce. All in all, a very fun time despite my personal setback. Ed you and Sandy did a fabulous job! The first annual RCR was a huge success, imho -- at least I got my turn to crash out of the way. -- Jonathan Polito DoD #x (K 100) jep@cs.duke.edu jpolito@encore.com "You Don't Say...." --- Sylvia Plath