Can you say . . . Dumb A$$!

[SacramentoMike]

One more voice offering condolences and good wishes, and glad it wasn't worse. Quoting teerex: "You'll passionately hate gravel for a few years to come..." I'm thinking FOREVER! And may none of us ever have to make a similar post (he said hopelessly).

 

[Kevin Daly]

Them thars a straight road. I thought you said you ran off a curve?
I can sympathize

I didnt want to make that joke first

 

[DE OPPRESSO LIBER]

Glad that you're OK, ocdmachine. Thanks for taking the time and having the courage to post your after-action report. Well done! Kudos to you as well for accepting the sole responsiblity for your crash. It's always easier to find fault with anything else besides ourselves. As I was viewing the pics, I was thinking to myself that you are a local rider and obviously familiar with the road since you had been on it recently, and that had I been riding the same road in the same conditions, would I have picked up on the fact that there was gravel on the road surface creating that hazard? Hard to say. The difference in color would've been perhaps my first and only clue before riding up onto it.

Just got finished reading the second book authored by David Hough, More Proficient Motorcycling, Mastering the Ride, and trying to apply your accident and kind sharing of information to what I had read. I guess I'm trying to also share with fellow riders here. Things I could apply here are: 1). Only ride according to sight distance, although I do admit here that it looked like pretty wide open landscape from the pictures you posted. 2) Slow down on unfamiliar roads. On roads that you are familiar with, make sure to pay as much attention as unfamiliar roads. As cited from his book, many accidents occur close to home in seemingly perfect conditions. It is stated that it is easy to become complacent on roads that we are familiar with and we don't give the road surface and other hazards as much attention as we should.

Glad that you are OK and that your bike will survive the ordeal. Hope you heal fast and are riding again soon!

 

[UberKul]

This is a great motorcycle road with curves and easy sweepers

If there wasn't pictures I'd call B.S. :blink: Stationed at Ft. Hood for five years and for some strange reason can't remember nary a curve in the road. Maybe to many bonks of my own?

All kidding aside, hope you heal fast and I've heard sharing is therapeutic.

 

[spklbuk]

It can happen to any of us. Heal quickly.

 

[Bokerfork]

+1 to all the well wishes. The severity of your "minor" injuries scares the hell out of me when I look at the relatively soft and flat landing area you laid it down in. Like most of us I have gone your reported speed and then some on all types of roads with every variety of landing area imaginable. This definitely makes me think a second and third time about the possible consequences of going down in not so friendly environs.

Many many thanks for sharing.

 

[dcarver]

Thank you for sharing. Lessons learned and avoided are very valuable, indeed.

This last weekend I led a group ride over approximately 8 miles of the same stuff. Very glad all were on their P's n Q's and no one went down. Thanks again for sharing.

 

[madmike2]

Yeoowch! BTDT. Heal up fast and try not to sneeze or laugh - trust me on this.

Yep! :blink:

First...get well soon, and thanks for your openness. I'm sorry to hear of your "adventure" but I'm celebrating with your friends and family that your injuries aren't more severe.

Second, some friendly advice from someone who has BTDT:

A.) Plan to sleep in a recliner. Laying down on a bed is BBBAAAAADDDDD!

It stretches all of the muscles that attach to your rib cage (and that's most of the upper body) and your organs and lungs pull at the broken ribs. MUCH PAIN...don't do it!

Buy a recliner...rent a recliner...borrow a recliner.

B.) Coughing, sneezing and laughing are also BAAAADDD.

Keep a pillow close at hand and if you feel a cough or sneeze coming, hug the pillow to your chest to help support the ribs. Trust me...it works.

C.) They will give you pain meds. Take them! You might try to wean yourself (I spread the "time" out), but the pain relief is part of the healing regimen. It will help you relax (yes, pain cause tension) and it will help you sleep. Resting is more important than you might realize.

D.) They probably gave you a breathing device. A "spirometer"?!?! Use it faithfully. Keep your lungs inflated because the sore ribs may cause you to take shorter breaths and that will allow fluid build-up in your lung sacs. Trust me, thoro-sentisis (cutting a slit in your back and pushing a small tube between your lung and the lung cavity in order to drain the fluid from the bottom of your lung sac) isn't what I remember as "fun".

And...lastly...Welcome to the Dumb A$$ club!

See, I can say it!

 

[Bogie]

Glad your Ok.

 

[NoCage]

Gravel sucks. It's not aways easy to see, it's just a different shade of gray. The bike doesn't look good, glad you're not in ICU. TWN and MadMike speak the truth about coughing and sneezing with broken ribs... don't do it. Keep a gun handy in case someone tries to tell you a joke. Heal fast.

 

[ocdmachine]

Thanks for all the encouragement and well wishes, and of course the smart-a$$ remarks, those are always the best ways to keep all this in perspective. Good point from previous post about riding on familiar roads, what is the saying? "Familiarity tends to lead to complacency", something to that effect. Probably should have made that mistake #3, thinking I knew the road well enough . . . Oh well, lesson learned!

Anyway, not ready for this just yet

 

[big ears]

Thanks for the reminder. It helps to keep us a little sane on the road. Hope you get back soon.

 

[leedavis]

Best wishes for your recovery. I did the gravel get-off last Nov and spent several months having to sleep in the aforementioned recliner. The worst part was trying not to sneeze with fractured ribs, knowing the pain that was on the way. I'm back riding and haven't slowed down except for when I see so much as a patch of gravel. That stuff's got me well and truly spooked.

Ribs take their sweet ass time healing up. Hang in there.

 

[vagabond]

First, let me just say, that as a Texan, it always shocks me to see how fast DPS arrives. I was told that the department has less than 200 officers on patrol. That leaves a lot of territory to work. But, more importantly, thank you for paying a high price just to prove my point. When people make fun of me because I look like an astrocyclist in atgatt; I tell them I only wear the gear because I have not figured out when I'm really going to need it. Thanks again for being prepared.

 

[ELP_JC]

First of all, I'm really glad you're okay, but as many already said, there was nothing minor about your injuries.

Now, I hope you can expand a little bit on what happened after you left the road. It seems to me the outcome of your accident, with all that open space, should have been just a slide, with some scrapes and bruises. And my question is how to accomplish that, once you're already off-road, with no chance of re-entering it.

Since each accident is unique, would you have done anything different so you could just slide to a stop? Seems like you either high-sided or impacted the lone tree, correct?

And please don't take this as a personal critique. I just want to learn how to fall in a circumstance like yours. What's the best course of action? Jump off the bike when it's obvious you're going down the ditch? Slam on the brakes so you lay down the bike and just slide? But would ABS prevents you to do that? Nobody talks about these things, but most of us could take a lesson on how to make an unfortunate situation better. I rather learn how to fall without actually doing it... since I might not live to learn from my mistakes. Hope this is not out of line folks. Hope you heal soon buddy. Take care.

JC

 

[ocdmachine]

First of all, I'm really glad you're okay, but as many already said, there was nothing minor about your injuries.
And please don't take this as a personal critique. I just want to learn how to fall in a circumstance like yours.

I am not the least bit offended by fellow riders wanting to critique my accident, that is EXACTLY why I posted. As I mentioned before, I made 2 mistakes for sure, one was simply the gravel on the roadway. I rode the same road in the same conditions on the same bike 2 weeks ago without incident. Reflecting now, and no more meds in my system I would have to say I got a little too aggressive on speed coming out of the curve mentioned in original post. As I was leaning into the fairly wide left sweeper, I was too close to the outside of the roadway when the rear wheel slid. Nothing violent mind you but as I corrected for the sliding rear wheel I ran out of roadway and I'm now in the grass going probably 60 mph.

I had just enough time to keep the bike upright. I do remember thinking, "Don't hit the brakes in this grass", I chopped the throttle, pulled in the clutch and hoped to ride it out. Photos do not show depth perception well and it looks like a fairly flat area. It did have enough sloping in the ditch that I was actually riding a street bike on an embankment.

YES, the bike slid on the left side. The Troopers & I have a disagreement on exactly where I left the roadway. They pointed out (to friends, I was already headed to ER) where they found a soft sandy area a few feet off the roadway where there is a yaw mark and then the trail of my bike sliding in the grass. They seem to think I shot right off the road in that spot but I am absolutely convinced it was much farther back and I no doubt went down at that point but had left the roadway much further back.

They visited me in the ER and were really cool about handling the accident. They respected the fact that I had on proper gear and told me some of their horror stories investigating MC wrecks. I told them straight up that I had cranked the throttle after clearing the gravel in the curve thinking the roadway was clear from that point. Since I never touched the brakes, there was no "shadowing" that would have been more positive proof of exactly where I departed.

Now, what would I have done differently? Well, again I should have simply took the entire trip at a more leasurely pace like I did a couple of weeks ago. If I had adjusted the apex a little sooner I probably would have had enough roadway to correct the slide. Other than that, $hit happens!

Here is where it appears I went down. The ground is kind of a sandy clay soil. Again the photo makes it appear flat but there was enough of an embankment to cause misery

And again I consider this to have been 100% avoidable on my part. The Good Lord taught me a valuable lesson I won't soon forget. Once we are both repaired, I'll visit Hwy 580 again at a much slower pace

 

[Scythian]

K'.... Where's the picture of the curve? :lol:

Y'know, I can't bust on you--the FJR is a very powerful motorcycle.

I remarked to my wife that I always have a painful awareness that even on dry, perfect pavement in a gentle turn (nevermind the gravel) you can twist the throttle hard and just throw the bike out from under you.

Honestly, if I want to add some power in a turn I feather the clutch a little as I twist the throttle and feed the power gently to the rear wheel--probably not a Joe Dickbag Perfect Performance Technique™ guys around here lurve; Who gives a shit, y'know?

Thanks for sharing your story. Heal fast and heal well.

 

[Silver Penguin]

Glad to hear that you're more or less OK. It must have taken some courage to admit to 100% rider error. So many people are quick to share the blame in any direction except their own.

Hope you heal fast, and get back out there.

Jill

PS TTR125's aren't just for kids. I can ALMOST get both feet down, on mine.