Joe Zulaski got this report from Eric Jewell and posted it on his site:
Hi all,
I'm fine. Bruised left shoulder and sprained right ankle. Nothing broken. A little sore all over. Here's the long story...
~Noontime Monday. Southbound on 19th Ave through Golden Gate Park, going with
flow of traffic, ~35 mph. In far left lane, in left hand sweeper, rear
tire slid out to the right. I'm thinking "you've got to be f***ing
kidding me?!" Went down on my left side. As I'm still thinking "you've got to be f***ing kidding me?!", now I can see the traffic behind me as the bike and I are spinning counterclockwise. I was thrown forward at
some point. So, the rear tire must have regained traction. The whole
left side of the bike has scratch marks (classic low-side) but the right handlebar is bent, the right saddle bag is crushed somewhat, my
right-side-mounted water cooler came off, and the right rear passenger
peg which it is attached, broke off. Talking to the investigating officer this morning, it seems the bike must have flipped to cause that damage. Once I stopped moving, I immediately was
listening for skidding car tires, hoping I wouldn't get run over. Fortunately, all traffic
stopped. I didn't move for a second. I felt all my limbs. Seemed to be
okay. Rolled over on my back. Of course, all the above happened in a
nanosecond.
I got up. The car driver behind me was immediately at my side, assisting
me, and calling 911. Then, I passed out for a second. He suggested I
remain on the ground (good idea). Paramedics arrived. They immobilized
me as a precaution and took me to SF General. During the initial part of the examination, it took me several seconds to answer the doctor's questions: who is the
president and what month is it? That was a bit disturbing. So, he
noted that I had a minor concussion. As we talked more, my memory
rapidly came back. Enough so, that the doctor ruled out any bleeding in
the brain. A catscan wasn't warranted. My Shoei Neotec did well.
I was under observation for a couple of hours and my wife Kelley picked me up around 4:00pm. We figured out where the bike was and went to check it out and retrieve some things. Not surprisingly, my 2730 and 2820 were still in their custom-made Crane Performance brackets
. The Garmin III
that's velcroed/ziptied to my brake reservoir was gone. Both mirrors
were broken. Both 910s and brackets were tweaked. The whole left side
(windshield, fairing, saddlebag and topbox) is scraped. Both engine
guard covers were damaged but the "wings" did their thing (protected the engine and my ass). There's scrapes on the right side as well and the
right saddlebag is damaged. The SPOT was in its RAM-mounted cradle,
still operating. The right-side mounted CB antenna bracket was bent
inward.
The accident conditions were
, a little windy. A typical SF day after the fog has burned off. Dry
pavement. After we looked at the bike, Kelley and I rode the section of
road where I went down. There's nothing wrong with it. There's a little bad pavement but nothing I haven't ridden over before. And I've
probably ridden this road 50 times. I live in the east bay and used to
live in the city. I'm still shaking my head in disbelief. I don't know
how anybody can go down in that curve going 35 mph, given the
conditions. I didn't touch my brakes. I asked the investigating officer what the witness said. The witness basically said the rider was up,
then the rider was down. Great. If I could get confirmation that I
touched the brakes, fine. That would at least help explain it. Now, as a rider with 400k+ miles, and never having gone down (I hit the deer
straight on during the BL2 and stayed up), I have to explain how this
happened. And, I'm left with: coyote scat. (Sorry, couldn't help myself.) The investigating officer thinks that I must
have hit the brakes or there's something wrong with my ABS. Whatever.
In any event, to him, it's a single-vehicle accident caused by the
rider. Great. Insurance rates up. Yippee.
When I think about ibr riders going down,
my first thought is, oh, the rider microslept and augered in. I had
six hours of sleep Sunday night and three hours on Friday night and
three hours on Saturday night, all in hotels. I was feeling fine, eager
to swing by South County Airport and then Escalon, before heading
north. My plan had room for decent sleep Monday night and then Tuesday
at sunrise I would start in Astoria,OR and try to pick up all the NW
bonuses (excluding Vancouver Island - never did see how to make that
actually work but I would have been investigating scenarios as I rode
northbound on I-5). That reminds me: I wasn't dicking with the GPS when
I crashed. There are times in a rally where you can do route planning
on the fly, like during long, lonely interstate stretches. For example, on US36
westbound, when you discover that it's 630 miles from the bottom of
Pikes Peak to the last of the WY PE
bonuses. As long as you're down from the summit by noon, that leaves a
70mph average (sunset was closer to 8:30 in Denver but would be closer
to 9:00 farther north and west) for the rest of the day. Totally
doable, given the roads. But, I was ready to bail on Pike's Peak almost
up until I paid the toll. Anyway, I digress. The most important thing
when riding is to keep your head and eyes up, looking ahead. I was
certainly doing that up until my crash.
Yeah, missing the final
leg is a big disappointment. For what it's worth, and I don't think
I'll be giving away anything here, after the NW bonuses, I planned on
getting the east OR bonus Wednesday at sunrise and the CO bonus by
Wednesday sunset. Then, I would head for the barn, picking up what I
could, possibly swinging thru WI and Chicago. The other main "route" for leg 3 didn't make sense for me.
Oh, another note: my tires were topped off with 42psi at Rancho Cordova before I took off.
Mark
Crane and Dave Biasotti have graciously offered their bikes to me to
ride to the finish. Wow. At this point, I can't put weight on my right
foot. So, it doesn't seem like that would be a wise move. I guess I have
until about midnight tonight to decide, heh?
Unlikely. Thanks
anyway, gentlemen.
Safe travels to all who are still riding. Wish I was with
you,
Eric
