In '95 I was traveling at a blistering 5-10 mph on my V-Max, being cautious(!), water, tar-snakes and white paint conspired to put me down on a 90º corner while turning into the driveway of my company. I was fortunate enough to fall in front of at least 100 people looking out the café window.
Face planted my Shoei, fractured the chin bar, tore the vents off and smeared the face shield. Moderate concussion and some damage to the inside of my lips. The first thing I remember post face plant was saying to someone, "Who the phuck cares who the president is or what day it is." No idea what happened previous to that or who the people were that I was talking to. I didn't notice that my bike was already gone from the scene until a couple of hours later when the cob webs started clearing. I replaced my Shoei with a better Shoei helmet. I kept the smashed Shoei to show my no helmet and open face helmet friends.
I was wearing a quality leather coat with soft armor on most of the contact points. The left arm was scuffed from the cuff up to my shoulder and down over my back to the shoulder blade. No other damage to the coat, the seams held, the zippers held. I was to find out later that my left elbow was broken in spite of the soft armor, and some connective items in my left wrist tore. The coat soldiered on for several more years until it suddenly shrank and I couldn't get it to zip anymore
Hands were in deer skin riding gloves, no armor. The left glove leather was ripped on the knuckles and scuffed as well as ripped on the palm, some of the seams were split but I only had a very minor raspberry on the back of my hand. The right glove had the heel of the hand ripped out and my right wrist was broken right where the glove ripped. I've ridden with heavy leather gloves with padding on all the common contact points until recently, now I'm shopping for armored replacements.
I was wearing a full riding suit under my leather coat (it was pretty cold and wet). The area where the right front pocket is had a silver dollar size hole but no damage to me.
My boots were extreme duty Dunham work boots that went up the calves of my legs with very thick leather, steel toes and shanks. Because they were artic duty boots they also had very thick walls due to insulation. I tore out the side of one boot from the toe to mid foot, all the way through but there was no damage to me.
The throttle on Mad Max must have stuck open because it slid off the edge of the road whereupon the tire got traction just as the right side peg caught in a hole which catapulted the bike down the driveway. When this happened the frame mounted crash bar not only broke the frame but tore out the engine mounts on that side too. It's so good to have so many witnesses to recount what happened when you can't remember a thing.
I can't imagine how much more mayhem and destruction could have been done at such a slow speed. Let me tell you it is possible to have a significant crash at low speeds. I had a rotational accident, one where the bike rotated over (low side) which imparted a
lot of acceleration to me, and body slammed me in a major way. Had I been going faster I probably would have slid instead of getting slammed.
Tally:
Shoei totaled
Leather coat buffed but unharmed
Gloves – deer skin riding gloves, lined but no padding or armor - totaled
Riding suit from days before current quality materials, holed
Boots – one destroyed, one unharmed
Mad Max totaled
Me – concussion, broken left elbow, torn ligaments in the left wrist, broken right wrist and cuts to the inside of my mouth
Today:
Arai Quantum bucket
Gaerne boots
Hein Gericke mesh pants and coat for warm weather
MSR gloves and ??? brand leather gauntlet touring gloves
Custom made Kevlar touring coat for cold weather
C.E. spec protectors everywhere
Draggin jeans & shirt that are often worn under my mesh
ATGATT -- words to live by
