It was bound to happen. 28 years of riding on the street and never once had I been down. I have always considered myself a good motorcycle rider, safe and reasonable in my decisions on the road. And today none of that mattered.
This afternoon I left my house on my 2008 FJR1300 to test out my new G4 headset. I figured I'd take a quick 10 to 20 minute ride to make sure the level s were set and that the unit would work well. After 5 minutes heading east from my house towards the city, I hung a u-turn and headed back towards home, happy with the new gizmo.
At the light for my home I stayed in the traffic lane and checked my fuel gauge, figuring I'd top off the fuel at the WAWA at the next intersection. Heading towards the left turn lane, I got a bit of sunlight in my face, but it wasn't enough to not be able to see, but enough to not be able to see the 2 foot wide swath of oil/diesel/coolant/ slick as snot stuff that was all over… Someone had dropped fluid, and a lot of it, all the way thru the turn lane, and thru the intersection, and then on up the highway as far as the eye could see… I hit the "stuff" just as I leaned over and then I went down, hard. The bike slid thru the intersection and came to rest in the oncoming traffic's left turn lane. I slid to a stop about 100 feet before it. And then it got quiet.
I'm laying on the pavement in this "stuff" thinking what the hell is this and WOW my ankle hurts… As I try to get up, the pain from my left ankle is on 11 and I fall back clutching my boot. I'm down for the count… Oh yea, my right knee is ON FIRE… WOW, hmmm I'll just lay here and
wait for someone to finish me off…
Some nice folks help me out while I was laying on the pavement. Nice gentleman in his miata and a nice guy in the oncoming traffic. They actually got the rescue folks in action, and also directed traffic around me. They also got my motorcycle upright and moved to the parking lot of the gas station I was heading to. They even retrieved my iPhone so I could call my wife. She was there within minutes… The scene was 1 mile from my house, and you can imagine how devastating it would be for a wife to see her husband laying on the pavement in the highway, being "back-boarded" for the trip to the hospital.
To give you a sense of the mess that was in the road, the department of transportation was called out to clean up the mess…The rescue crew were slipping and sliding loading me into the rescue squad. So although my relatively new to me motorcycle was dropped by me, but not by my fault. I honestly don't know what I'd have done differently…
So the nice folks with the rescue squad load me up and stick my arm and pump me full of "stuff". I was admitted to the hospital and my wife was there with me, worried out of her mind. We're greeted by a psychotic patient screaming to the top of her lungs. For the next two hours that's what we could hear, before they finally transported her to the "facility" across the street. And then of course there was the corpse in room #9… Yea I was feeling kind of like a bad twilite zone episode… So they take me in and xray my left leg, and my lower back. After an assessment, it was clear I had a bad sprain on the left ankle, a bruised back, and a nice raspberry on the right knee… My blue jeans gave me what is essentially a rug burn there… Bottom line is I got off real lucky.
As to the damage to the bike, well I can't tell you. The bike was towed. We know the left side hard luggage took a beating, and although I have frame sliders installed up front, I'm guessing the left side bodywork probably took a beating. I'm just hoping the framework didn't take a beating. I'm also hoping Cletus and his towing service didn't do more damage. I'll find out tomorrow.
Damned sore tonight… Ugh…
Mike
But take care and get well soon.
