Wed 11.18am Sept.16th 09 - I wasn't meant to die

[went155mph]

I posted this article on the STOC (Honda ST owners club) forum yesterday after finally recovering enough to write up what happened.

It was very disappointing that I was not able to make it down with my two friends Jim & Iris Willis to the EOM. I was really looking forward to meeting up with some previous FJR acquaintences aswell. And I still haven't done the God damn Dragon......

"If you've seen, I just wrote up my 40amp alternator upgrade earlier this morning. Taken a while, because I was getting ready for my summer vacation to the FJR EOM in Johnson City,TN on Sept 17th.

I left 07:00am from Green Island,NY on Wed Sept. 16th. and crashed on State Route 1002 in the township of TunkHannock, PA at 11:18am. I was travelling with a couple who were both riding 05' FJR's. I was the last guy taking the curve. It was blind and real tight and as I went into it I lost perspective because it dropped down and away to my left.

Crucial mistake, applied the back brake, to reduce my speed into the curve - (new brake lines! opps) went into a straight skid and the ST came up in a straightline, (holy crap!) Highsided me off!

Went down an embankment of the curve, at a rapid velocity. The ST was rolling behind me, I knew if it had rolled on me I would have been a dead duck! I couldn't stop myself rolling, very, very scary. I ended up going between two trees, bouncing before over rocks between those trees and landing in bushes.

I travelled 150ft from ejection point and travelled down an embankment, hence the continued rolling speed. I made contact on my right flank area. I'm of the opinion I was travelling between 40 & 50mph at the time.

The emergency services arrived within minutes and quickly worked on me and placed me in an ambulance. They were agog at the lack of visual injuries I received and kept talking about my motorcycle gear had saved me from a lot of physical damage.

As I was on back roads between Scranton & Wilkes Barre, they called the Medivac team as they could not determine an internal injuries I may have sustained.

10 minutes later I'm being transported by a Helicopter to the Geisinger Wyoming Valley, Trauma Center in Wilkes Barre. When I arrived, a new team of people went to work on me. I was conscious through the whole episode.

After numerous CAT scans of my body, they reported, that I only sustained bruising on my right flank area. Oh, and I upset a previous injury on the ring finger of my left hand. In other words, swelling and a little bruising.

I am one very lucky individual. It was not my time.....!

I have not had the impulse to dig into the ST yet, as I spent all summer rebuilding it. However, my buddy rode it, when we picked it up from the towing company. It has a wobbly wheel he said. Oh well!

I was blown away by the fact, it started right up. What a Bike!

Take care out there, I'll be back on it one day :tease

Dave "The Brit" Richardson

Green Island, NY

STOC 5442"

 

[bellman]

Dave, I was the tall guy this summer on Cats and Daks. Jim and Iris told me about your "get off" as soon as I saw them at EOM. Glad you are okay. I crashed out this summer as well in about the same conditions. It sucks!

 

[Gizmo]

Sounds like an absolutely terrible get-off. Glad to hear that no serious injuries. Someone is looking out for you...Heal up well and hope to see you an next year's EOM.

 

[Yort]

Glad to hear you are mostly okay. Looks like a good time to purchase the FJR. See you at the next EOM.

 

[Mr Bill]

[SIZE=12pt]Dave,[/SIZE]

Sorry to hear about your get off. Thanks for posting here and letting us know your ok.

I was looking forward to giving you a hard time about your Honda's again!

Forget the repairs and get an FJR :lol:

Bill

The Masshole from Worcester

 

[Braenen]

I am glad to hear you are ok. That sounds like it could have been very very bad.

I dont understand what went wrong and how it happened:

Crucial mistake, applied the back brake, to reduce my speed into the curve - (new brake lines! opps) went into a straight skid and the ST came up in a straightline, (holy crap!) Highsided me off!

I understand you rebuilt your bike and that something may have gone wrong in the brake system. I dont understand where it went wrong here. Did you lock the wheel and keep the break pedal down? Did you high side when the bike left the pavement and started down the embankment? If this situation happens again and you recognize that the wheel is locked in a turn like this, what would you do differently?

I am a novice rider and I want to avoid this happening to me in the future. Thanks for your report!

 

[Geezer]

Dave,

Glad to hear that you are not badly injured. I can't count the number of times I almost stepped on the brake in a curve that surprises me like that.

I think the real problem here is that you were on the wrong bike. Can't trust those Hondas.

BTW, we met at the Cats and Daks. I sat across from you at lunch and we talked shop for a few minutes.

 

[luvtoride]

Wow, so sorry to hear of your accident, Dave. Dump that Honda! Now'd be a good time, eh? BTW... I was on the Cats & Daks ride last summer. Do not think that we spoke much if at all. I was that OTHER woman on an FJR, Heidi

 

[Patriot]

I am glad to hear you are ok. That sounds like it could have been very very bad.
I dont understand what went wrong and how it happened:

Crucial mistake, applied the back brake, to reduce my speed into the curve - (new brake lines! opps) went into a straight skid and the ST came up in a straightline, (holy crap!) Highsided me off!

I understand you rebuilt your bike and that something may have gone wrong in the brake system. I dont understand where it went wrong here. Did you lock the wheel and keep the break pedal down? Did you high side when the bike left the pavement and started down the embankment? If this situation happens again and you recognize that the wheel is locked in a turn like this, what would you do differently?

I am a novice rider and I want to avoid this happening to me in the future. Thanks for your report!

If in a turn, you jam on back brake and it breaks loose and skids, even a little, it drifts toward the outside slidding

Now the bike is angled out to the line of travel. The rider senses the skid and "bent" bike with rear hinging to the outside and

lets off the brake. Now the rolling back tire grabs traction while hinged to the outside and jerks the back wheel in line with the front wheel VERY abruptly. The hard kick to the inside throws the rider violently to the outside and launches him off the bike upwardly and outwardly. Much more violent then if the front tire loses traction and just washes out to the outside and the bike merely lays down and slides away. A low side is a fall and a high side is a violent launch.

https://www.msgroup.org/forums/mtt/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2192

https://www.break.com/usercontent/2007/2/Mo...ide-229314.html

let's ride safe and be careful out there,

Mike in Nawlins'

 

[zorkler]

Dave glad you are ok .And able to post up the story ....

 

[saltywheels]

I am glad to hear you are ok. That sounds like it could have been very very bad.
I dont understand what went wrong and how it happened:

Crucial mistake, applied the back brake, to reduce my speed into the curve - (new brake lines! opps) went into a straight skid and the ST came up in a straightline, (holy crap!) Highsided me off!

I understand you rebuilt your bike and that something may have gone wrong in the brake system. I dont understand where it went wrong here. Did you lock the wheel and keep the break pedal down? Did you high side when the bike left the pavement and started down the embankment? If this situation happens again and you recognize that the wheel is locked in a turn like this, what would you do differently?

I am a novice rider and I want to avoid this happening to me in the future. Thanks for your report!

BTDT. Hit gravel on a tightening left-hand sweeper. Stepped on the rear brake (no ABS) on the Concours a little more than I needed to as I thought I was headed off the mountain road (Castaic Lake-Los Angeles). Bike initially skid in a low side & snapped my left ankle. That would have been the worst of it, 'cept in my infinite wisdom I decided to release the back brake. Number One Son riding behind me on his Ninja said he didn't know Dad could fly. Fractured 4 ribs, snapped a clavicle, severe fractures of the Tibia & punctured a lung. The EMT & ER surgeon were happy to see no road rash albeit a shopping cart of broken bones. Lesson One: Never stomp & release the rear brake in a turn. Lesson Two: Low Sides are better than High Sides. Lesson Three: Use the brakes BEFORE you lean Lesson Four: Track Days teach you the art of Trail Braking into a corner.

Keep the rubber side down

I love the ABS on the FJR! Could have saved the day?

 

[saltywheels]

Dave I can completely empathize with yr pridicament. BTDT & know how much it hurts. Trust you are well on the road to recovery. Be safe.

 

[Bigbeavk]

I'm so sorry to hear you went down. But I'm glad you survived to write about it. I dodged the bullet twice in the past few days coming into a turn to hot and finding gravel. Front end almost washed out both times. The only thing that saved me was hitting the brakes lightly just before it happened. The first time I was on RT43 heading east over to RT29 in southern Va and had a huge dump truck barreling down on me. Next time he can wait as I take my time. It obvious the truck traffic on that road kicks all the gravel out on to the roadway. Plus I'm not a racer and I need to ride like I got some sense with the wife on the back.

Ride safe and make it home.

 

[Braenen]

Good info Patriot and Saltywheels. In my MSF course they did not go into that much detail. They did drill into my head that you do not ever let up on the rear break once the tire starts sliding.

What would the ABS system do in this event? I assume that the wheel would stay in the back, the breaks would prevent the loss of traction and that the rider would get a bit of vibration when the system engaged. Yes? No?

 

[05fjrBluedevil]

Sorry, you didn't mk eom.

However glad you could write about it.

I think light trail breaking along with abs would have not had you lose traction in this case.

I think you would not of faced the severe pucker factor that more than likekly caused this.

Hope you get well soon and get anything you want to ride w abs.

Abs was the big reason for my fjr selection after being off mc's for so long.

Mike

 

[FJR-RemingtonRider]

Sorry to hear about that accident.

Great that you are okay.....

Thanks Mike Nawlins' for that link...I learned a lot reading that and watching the video of what not to do.

Things like that, can and will save lives...some slides you have to let them happen and ride it to the ground.

You cannot fight the laws of physics and motion.

 

[El Toro Joe]

Wow, sorry to hear about the get-off. Glad your OK, I met you on the Cat's & Dak's ride this year, take care of yourself.

 

[ZOOOMM]

Well, Iris and I just got back from EOM and stopped by to see our good friend Dave (the Brit). It was sure nice seeing him standing there on his own two feet. The last time we saw him, he was horizonal on a stretcher. Plus, one of the last images I had of Dave was looking in my rear view mirror, (on my FJR) and seeing Dave as he was just becoming airborne off his ST. That vision was difficult to get rid of the rest of the day. Anyway, we sure missed our friend Dave not being with us at this years EOM. Glad you're OK Dave.

Jim

 

[Iris]

Dave,

we were sooooo relieved that you weren't hurt badly. That was really scary!

It was a bummer that you had spent all summer fixing up your ST and put so much love and care into it, and then this happened.

Well, again....more importantly, you're ok. You can always get another bike.

We missed you alot on this trip. Let's try again next year.

-Iris