Subject: I'm an idiot, here is my story :-( (fwd) Date: Sun, 20 Jul 1997 22:29:14 -0400 (EDT) From: Bill Reply-To: east@dnrc.bell-labs.com To: Multiple recipients of list As sent to the NEDoD mailing list... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 20 Jul 1997 21:00:35 -0400 (EDT) From: Bill To: nedod Subject: I'm an idiot, here is my story :-( On my way to suches, GA, thursday night to meet up with Mark Bergman and Jon Kadis. Background, week of work sucked, its hot, and I'm in an impatient mood, and running late...not a good setup. Going across US64 east of Cleveland, TN, traffic comes to a stop, so I wait a while, then start filtering up the right shoulder. Everything going well, until the extra wide Givi nicks RR corner of Ford van. I was moving maybe a few mph, less than walking speed, with feet on the pegs, feathering the clutch. Over to the right she goes, I extend my leg, but since the shoulder is 18in below the pavement surface, my leg finds nothing but air. It starts to go over hard, and I must have instinctively tucked my leg back in, because I can still walk. Most stupid Pou decides to filter next to a >45 degree bank, so the viffer and I roll/tumble 60ft down the embankment. I remember hitting the ground, and then remember the VFR rolling over top of me, then continuing on down the hill. After that it was just sky/ground/sky/ground...accompanied by loud crunching sounds. I come to a stop, and look down the hill, and see the VFR wedged between a tree and the bank. Up top, I hear noises. You all right down there? Yeah, but my bike's wrecked. Are you sure? Yup, really messed up. I tried to climb the hill, but even on all fours, I couldn't go anywhere. As luck would have it, the voice from above is an off-duty EMT who is also a rock climber. He throws down a rope, and I pull myself back to the road. We go over my body well, and not a scratch, nothing. Protective gear (stich) worked like a charm, and looking at the stumps, boulders, and downed trees I tumbled thru, I consider myself lucky. A county sherriff comes along shortly, and orders up a tow truck. It gets here, and one of the drivers and I scale back down the embankment, holding on to the tow cable to keep from killing ourselves. He's actually pretty good. The VFR came to rest wedged in a tree, bike parallel to the road. Guy ties a heavy rope around the top tripple clamp, and we use the wench to pull the bike 90 degrees to the road. We then put tie the rope around the fork tubes, aboive the fender. Heave the bike onto the wheels, one of us on each side. Ever so slowly, we wench the bike up the hill, over boulders, stumps, and trees, and finally back up onto the road. For about 2 hrs of sweat, the old guys want $50. I give them an extra $20 for their hard work. The bike looks bad, all plastic foreward of the seat is toast. Both mirrors totally pulled out of the fairing, front master cylinder clamp broken, plastic trashed, nose/front sub-frame tweaked 2in to the left. All lights work, no leaks, front end, swignarm looked straight, and it started on the first try. the Givi bags are the toughest things on the bike. No rear plastic was even scratched, and the bags will require a little creative bending, but can be used again. My camping gear was still all attached to the pillion due to my use of about 6 bungies to tie ti all down. Its now almost dark, and I'm closer to TWO than home, so I decide to ride it on to Suches. The tow truck guys bailing wire/duct tape the master cylinder to the bar, and I take off, with one of the cops in tow. I test the brakes (good), and do some swerving, etc. bike was till straight, so I head into TWO> I get there, and no Jon and Mark, they blew me off. I'll later learn that they decided to stay elsewhere, and Mark tried to have his wife contact me. So, I really didn't have to be going across 64 at all (groan). Pitch the tent at two, try to sleep, but hardly sleep at all, with the knot in my stomach. Next morning, i rode the damned thing home. Since it was roached aleready, I rode the snot out of the bike, touching pegs down often, and it must be straight, framewise. Ditch the bike in the garage, I threw all the camping stuff in the back of the Jeep, and caged up to the RCR. I feel like a real stupid shit, and still have a knot in my stomach as I type this. I've NEVER, EVER hand any at fault accident in my life, two OR four wheels...I'm a dumb shit. All for a few moments of impatience...dumb dumb dumb. I CAN'T wait to hear what my insurance company has to say about this...two crashed bikes in three months...this is going to be mighty expensive. Your resident NEDoD fuckwad correspondent, Bill Jennings (aka Mr Pou) wrj@chatt.net 98 VTR1000F 96 VFR750F - Clifford