fjrrider
aka "sprocket"
It was the seventh day of riding, and the day started out just fine, we were a 6-7 rider group and headed to West Virginia. As we made our way west from Staunton VA. along HWY 250, not too fast but not poking around either. We made the occasional pass on slower traffic, gathered back together and headed on. As we got into some of the more consistently twisty areas and still having to pass slower traffic from time to time, our leader Gary had made a pass and the rest of us were working our way around. I made the pass next without any problems and continued onward through the twistys. My first mistake on this day was looking to often in the rearviews to see when the others had passed and if they were moving up. Obviously, when looking in your rearviews, you’re not looking ahead at the road, big mistake. As I was looking back for the others, then looked forward to what I was actually doing, I realized, I’ve screwed up. This is that moment when you know things are not going to go so well, I knew I should have already started my turn, and I was going to go off road. I stayed in the turn for as long as I could trying to scrub off a little speed with some trail-braking. It was a posted 25 MPH curve, so I’m sure I was no faster than 50 or 55. Never the less, at that pace you have to start the turn on time, if you do, no big deal, its well within my skill level and no problem for the bike either. But I was late, lost focus, concentration whatever you want to call it, its 100% rider error. I saw that there was a foot or so of gravel past the edge of the pavement, then a small dirt berm that followed the curve of the road. I was in hopes that I might be able to ride the berm around, no such luck. When I was got to the berm, I was pretty much parallel with it, but still hit it hard enough to compress the rear shock sharply. The rebound from the hit was violent enough that the bike kicked us both straight up with the front tire staying down in the berm. I can remember realizing that I was going over the bars, then flipped and landed on my right hip/back area, on top of the berm. My bike continued on over the berm and down the mountain side about 60-70 feet. Tom was the next one behind me and all he saw was the bike cart wheeling over the side.
I laid there for a few minutes waiting on the adrenaline rush to subside and the pain to kick in, it never happened. I gave Tom and Mark (Glory Racing) the OK signal as they approached to let them know I’m not dead yet. I slowly picked myself up trying to evaluate any signs of stress my body may have been having. Took my helmet off, saw no signs of impact and more importantly felt no signs of impact to my head. Got up walked around a bit and tried to put the pieces together. How could I have made such a silly mistake?
The county Sherriff Deputy got there first, saw were my bike was, told me it was going to cost me about $400.00 to drop a cable over the side and drag my bike up to the road. I wasn’t too much interested in additional expenses, and the side of the mountain at that point wasn’t all that steep. I figured if she would start up for me I could ride her down to where HWY 250 came back across the little ravine I was in. The Deputy shook his head and thought that was a dumb idea, and not possible. I thought otherwise. I always wanted to ride my FJR off road, maybe start a new fad or something.
She started up just fine, but was beat to a pulp. I got on the bike, as Mark, Gary and Tom plotted my course down the mountain about 500 – 600 yards, over a few rocks and trees, through a couple small creeks and came out on the highway just in time to meet up with the Deputy and a Virginia State Trooper. That was a harder ride than I thought it was going to be. I don’t think the new fad is going to stick, too much work! The Deputy was still shaking his head at me and the Trooper said he was going to give me a ticket for trespassing on somebody’s private property.
As it worked out the Deputy only lived a ½ mile or so from where we were and allowed me to ride the bike to his house and leave it.
Mark carried me back to Staunton on the babe seat, as I plotted my next move, How to get home?
This is the bike just after its little 60-70 ft plunge down the side, and landing in amongst the rocks and trees. It started right up and all functions worked! (Except the windshield and gas gauge)
I laid there for a few minutes waiting on the adrenaline rush to subside and the pain to kick in, it never happened. I gave Tom and Mark (Glory Racing) the OK signal as they approached to let them know I’m not dead yet. I slowly picked myself up trying to evaluate any signs of stress my body may have been having. Took my helmet off, saw no signs of impact and more importantly felt no signs of impact to my head. Got up walked around a bit and tried to put the pieces together. How could I have made such a silly mistake?
The county Sherriff Deputy got there first, saw were my bike was, told me it was going to cost me about $400.00 to drop a cable over the side and drag my bike up to the road. I wasn’t too much interested in additional expenses, and the side of the mountain at that point wasn’t all that steep. I figured if she would start up for me I could ride her down to where HWY 250 came back across the little ravine I was in. The Deputy shook his head and thought that was a dumb idea, and not possible. I thought otherwise. I always wanted to ride my FJR off road, maybe start a new fad or something.
She started up just fine, but was beat to a pulp. I got on the bike, as Mark, Gary and Tom plotted my course down the mountain about 500 – 600 yards, over a few rocks and trees, through a couple small creeks and came out on the highway just in time to meet up with the Deputy and a Virginia State Trooper. That was a harder ride than I thought it was going to be. I don’t think the new fad is going to stick, too much work! The Deputy was still shaking his head at me and the Trooper said he was going to give me a ticket for trespassing on somebody’s private property.
As it worked out the Deputy only lived a ½ mile or so from where we were and allowed me to ride the bike to his house and leave it.
Mark carried me back to Staunton on the babe seat, as I plotted my next move, How to get home?
This is the bike just after its little 60-70 ft plunge down the side, and landing in amongst the rocks and trees. It started right up and all functions worked! (Except the windshield and gas gauge)
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