Next 2015 Pants WITH REDFISH Adventure - Go West (not so) Young Man!

[puppychow]

I am sorry to hear of the get-off Pants! Yes, Hwy 149 is beautiful and fast, I am really sorry that combination resulted in a negative outcome, but I am relieved that you are in one piece, and in a sound state of mind. I know the feeling of not trying to think about the future right now, but the good thing is that there is a future. The bike is just a 'thing' and things can be replaced, you on the other hand are not replaceable, and I am sure your family is thankful that you are going to be coming back to them. The pain will go away in time, and soon it will only be a faded memory, but the good memories and the stories that you will be telling in the future - they are what you and I both are looking forward to.

Heal well and heal soon! Take care my friend!

Sam

 

[hppants]

Well I made it home and my wife is glad to see with her eyes that I'm ok

My neighbor helped me get the bike upright and I coasted it down the truck ramp and into my shop where it will stay until the insurance company gets involved

Lastly, I was very surprised to see my friend redfish hunter drive up to check on me within minutes after I arrived. He drove approx 85 miles on a school night to check on me. And get this - he brought me a bottle of my favorite whiskey! (Very hard to find down here). My friend, many thanks for all of your help.

And thanks to u and ur dad for sharing a truly incredible trip with me.

 

[Redfish Hunter]

Most of these good people will understand why I had to make that drive. It was necessary for me to see you in person, to see that you were able to move and function. It was necessary (but depressing) to see that wonderful red motorcycle in pieces and broken.

Yes, Templeton Rye is not easy to find outside of Iowa. I understand that the majority of it is sold inside Iowa. That made it a little more special as a gift. I hope you enjoy sipping it as much as I enjoyed delivering it.

Now, stop dicking around and get the damned Ride Report started.

 

[HotRodZilla]

Glad you're home Pants! Also glad you have good friends around to help out and check on you. No matter how much grief in give him, RFH is a genuinely great guy. However, you may **** around a little before going to work on the RR...just a little though.

 

[Bugnatr]

Man, just saw this. So sorry for your get off, mountain scenery bites more than a few riders around these parts too.

Isn't it amazing how many good people want to help after a crash? I still get Christmas cards from the wonderful Canadian couple who rescued me after a bambi encounter 3 years ago.

Do yourself a favor and go see a good chiropractor in another week or when you feel up to it. You'd be surprised how many bones you may have moved about with out realizing it.

Heal fast and well!

 

[RJAMT]

Big sigh of relief that you're home safe now.

 

[Top_Speed1]

Just caught on to this, so sorry 'pants. Dang that sucks, but the good news is that you are basically okay. Glad you're home, that will help the heeling go faster... although, that bucket of BBQ washed down w margaritas sounded like sum pretty good medicine!

Keep us posted

 

[Tyler]

Glad you're home, that will help the heeling go faster...

Freudian slip? :lol:

 

[RJAMT]

My wife would certainly be trying to "heel" me!

 

[gixxerjasen]

Awesome, glad ya made it all safe and sound. Now remember, don't accept the insurance company's first offer. Ask for the CCC report and make sure the comparables compare.

 

[Fred W]

'pants,

I'm so sorry to have read about your mishap, but also so glad that you came out relatively unscathed.

It just isn't fair to have a bucket list trip cut short that way. I suppose that means that you will need to have a "do over" another time.

Heal fast and heal well.

 

[hppants]

Once again, I appreciate everyone's well wishes. Compared to others discussed recently (Steve, IonBeam's loved one Jen, etc), I do feel dam lucky.

I can tell you that the old bikers are 100% correct.

he broken bones, sprains, deep cuts that require stitches.... in that realm, I only received a sprained knee from this accident, but of course I've had all of these in my life time. These things are a relative picnic. The ROAD RASH is what hurts the most by far. Perhaps a close second is broken ribs but I digress. I looked more closely at my jacket. I'm convinced that the lack of a zipper and/or snap at the sleeve cuff cost me some skin. The Velcro there is simply not strong enough. Ironically, the Velcro Olympia uses to secure the textile flaps when the zippers are open to open up the area for some ventilation - that Velcro is AMAZINGLY strong. I mean I can't separate the Velcro with one hand. Wish they would have chosen that material for the cuff closer. The Velcro used at the elbo is also very good. I originally thought this Velcro came undone and caused my sleeve to ride up past my elbow. But upon further examination, I had plenty of rash on my upper sleeve of the jacket, and road rash on my arm only up to the elbow.

So lesson learned - riding jacket cuff should have a zipper and a snap. My mesh jacket has this and I put on the right sleeve, zipped it, and tried with all my might to pull it up my arm - won't go. Then I put my right sleeve in my Olympia jacket, attached the Velcro securely and then proceeded to roll my sleeve up basically effortlessly.

The First Gear Mesh Pants I was wearing proved to be extremely effective. I landed on both knees. I do have a dime-sized abrasion on each knee, but it only penetrated the first layer of skin and this was caused by the inside of the pants rubbing against my skin. If I was wearing them as overpants, I doubt I would have had anything there. On the outside, the entire seat section and left hip section was shredded, but not a pebble touched my skin.

My cortech HT-Air gloves also faired well. One spot on my palm wore through and again, I've got a quarter sized abrasion only through the first layer of skin. But the hard plastic knuckle protectors rode the belt sander for a while and I didn't even have soreness on my hands.

My Alpine Stars Waterproof high boots also faired very well. No soreness on my feet, toes, ankles, or lower legs.

I still maintain that my helmet was not touched. I cleaned it up well and can't find a scratch.

Met with Geico adjuster today to examine the bike. He has no idea what he is looking at and his laptop has nothing "FJR". The plan is for him to tow it to Friendly Yamaha in Baton Rouge and have them provide the estimate. This suits me well because at least I know that it will be looked at correctly. Before this process can get started, they need to see the Police Report to verify the date of the loss - that's gonna take about another week, so for now, I'm in a holding pattern.

I've got about 260 pictures cropped and edited for the ride report. To be honest, I'm having trouble getting motivated to write. One day at a time, I guess.....

 

[Redfish Hunter]

My dear friend, I have helped as much as I know how with everything I could up to this point so I suppose I should help you with this also...

You said, "I've got about 260 pictures cropped and edited for the ride report. To be honest, I'm having trouble getting motivated to write."

I say, Get Off Your *** and Start Typing! Otherwise I will be forced to begin the report with my title and my text and my pics and my side of the story my part of the story which as you already know makes ME the main character, the hero, the smart guy and makes everyone else The Problem.

Honestly, I think typing it out will help you focus on The Good Stuff and divert your mind from the negative. I think it will be therapeutic, I know it helped me to write it when my cousin crashed.

And remember, it is okay to cry on your keyboard. I have more than once. (My keyboard, not yours)

 

[Bugnatr]

My dear friend, I have helped as much as I know how with everything I could up to this point so I suppose I should help you with this also...
You said, "I've got about 260 pictures cropped and edited for the ride report. To be honest, I'm having trouble getting motivated to write."

I say, Get Off Your *** and Start Typing! Otherwise I will be forced to begin the report with my title and my text and my pics and my side of the story my part of the story which as you already know makes ME the main character, the hero, the smart guy and makes everyone else The Problem.

Honestly, I think typing it out will help you focus on The Good Stuff and divert your mind from the negative. I think it will be therapeutic, I know it helped me to write it when my cousin crashed.

And remember, it is okay to cry on your keyboard. I have more than once. (My keyboard, not yours)

Double like!

 

[puppychow]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Redfish Hunter" data-cid="1262474" data-time="1443820102"><p>

I say, Get Off Your *** and Start Typing!

Honestly, I think typing it out will help you focus on The Good Stuff and divert your mind from the negative. I think it will be therapeutic </p></blockquote>

What he said, and as one writer to a better one, I say write or type away. It is not only a creative process, but I have found it to also be a great cathartic process. Let those emotions flow through your fingertips, chronicle those memories, channel those experiences. Share openly and freely, free your thoughts and your mind, write and let it heal you from the inside out.

We are all ears (or eyes), and waiting.

 

[Tyler]

What he said, and as one writer to a better one, I say write or type away. It is not only a creative process, but I have found it to also be a great cathartic process. Let those emotions flow through your fingertips, chronicle those memories, channel those experiences. Share openly and freely, free your thoughts and your mind, write and let it heal you from the inside out.
We are all ears (or eyes), and waiting.

Ditto.

 

[bigjohnsd]

GWTFP!

 

[HotRodZilla]

Jeeeeeeeebus! Any story where RFH is the "smart guy" is a messed up story. Better get to work Joey!!

 

[gixxerjasen]

Hate to say it, but whatever dealership looks at it will only look at it till the cost of the repairs (parts+labor) exceeds the payoff from the insurance company. It doesn't take much damage for that to happen. If your frame is scratched they'll log that it needs a new frame and that's a whole lot of shop labor hours right there. The cost to repair my FZ1 came to about what two brand new FZ1's would have cost. The frame on that old bike was a tank but the hit caused damage to the steering head, which is part of the frame. Whole frame needed replacing. Oh yea, scratched the OEM mufflers too, so they needed replacing at Yamaha cost. It adds up quick.

As I said before, don't accept the insurance company's first offer. I learned that just because you don't want to play games doesn't mean they won't be playing on their end trying to screw you. Lowball offers come first. Read up on the CCC report and what qualifies as a comparable and see what they have. Mine had cheap bikes on craigslist with no mileage mentioned and weren't in my area. Only one of the comparables they supplied qualified. You can also request an independent company do a check on your bikes value at the insurance company's cost. We went back and forth on mine but I ended up with about $1500 more than their first offer on an old FZ1.

The place I messed up was with my injuries (Much less than yours.) They offered, I counter offered and they immediately accepted my counter offer. Damn, too low. Screwed the pooch on that one.

Thanks for the gear review, sucks for you to be the crash test dummy but at least maybe the rest of us can get some good intel out of it. Always appreciated.

 

[DesignFlaw06]

Hate to say it, but whatever dealership looks at it will only look at it till the cost of the repairs (parts+labor) exceeds the payoff from the insurance company. It doesn't take much damage for that to happen. If your frame is scratched they'll log that it needs a new frame and that's a whole lot of shop labor hours right there. The cost to repair my FZ1 came to about what two brand new FZ1's would have cost. The frame on that old bike was a tank but the hit caused damage to the steering head, which is part of the frame. Whole frame needed replacing. Oh yea, scratched the OEM mufflers too, so they needed replacing at Yamaha cost. It adds up quick.
As I said before, don't accept the insurance company's first offer. I learned that just because you don't want to play games doesn't mean they won't be playing on their end trying to screw you. Lowball offers come first. Read up on the CCC report and what qualifies as a comparable and see what they have. Mine had cheap bikes on craigslist with no mileage mentioned and weren't in my area. Only one of the comparables they supplied qualified. You can also request an independent company do a check on your bikes value at the insurance company's cost. We went back and forth on mine but I ended up with about $1500 more than their first offer on an old FZ1.

The place I messed up was with my injuries (Much less than yours.) They offered, I counter offered and they immediately accepted my counter offer. Damn, too low. Screwed the pooch on that one.

Thanks for the gear review, sucks for you to be the crash test dummy but at least maybe the rest of us can get some good intel out of it. Always appreciated.

All of this is +1.

Nighthawk had a dent in the tank, but that was really it. It was only a dent in the tank, but they came back with an estimate of $2200 before labor. They counted some scratches on the engine case, which I never noticed and don't think were a result of the other bike falling on it. A replacement tank was only $800, since they don't make it anymore.

Insurance company came back with a quote of $2000, which was no good. Got them up another $800 when I told them I had the windscreen and Corbin seat. Medical coverage is not included with motorcycle insurance like it is with auto, at least in Michigan. I only paid $2000 for the bike 3 years prior. Then they let me buy it back for $800, to which I gave the bike to my brother. It was perfectly rideable and he still has it. I even got the dent fixed for him for Christmas a couple years ago.

You're not in the same boat as I was. I was looking for an excuse to buy the FJR. As history proved, the Nighthawk was more than adequate. But there was no way the insurance was going to give me enough to buy the FJR outright. Make sure you get enough to get another FJR.