Fracking cable has been buggered all day and couldn't post until now so here goes......
While I have only ever met IndianaTom once (at EOM no less) he only lives a couple hours from me and I was very happy to be able to head down there to help out. Or, at least get a free hot dog.
Up with the crack of wife at o'dark 30 as I had to meet these clowns down in Louisville (from just south of Cincinnati) at 8am and I had to stop in Lexington first to drop something off. Nice to meet people at 8am knowning you've already had a couple hours of riding in.
Couldn't help stopping to snag this horrible pic of a beautiful sunrise...
We met just over the bridge from Louisville on the Indi side and after a couple quick hello's and bike gawking we promptly headed out. I've never been down to this part of Indi but the roads were fantastic. The only two I remember are 66 and 37 but just about everything we went on was excellent. Keith led most of the way at a decently spirited pace and we were blessed with minimal traffic, clear skies, no LEO's and virtually no wildlife (one spotting) or gravel to be seen. Other than the insane humidity it was a near perfect riding day.
We made our first stop at a nice pinic area near the river and grabbed a couple pics...
Chris, capturing the moment...
Me, capturing Keith in the moment as he's about to use his camera to capture the moment. Was a nice moment.
So, quick route discussion and we decided to head to one more spot before heading up to Tom's as we were making great time according to our Cruise Director Keith. Backtracking a bit through a very nice twisty section on 66 and one of those straights that allow you to entertain the upper regions of the FJR's speedo we were clipping along with minimal traffic and having a blast. Once on route 37 which was more sweeper oriented (mMmmmmm...fun) we head down a decent straight into what looks like a fairly open right hand sweeper.
This is looking essentially from the middle of the crash corner back at the approach
I was about midway down the straight above in #3 when Chris in #2 entered the corner so as I got there as Keith had just stood up from his slide, roll, tuck, pivot, flop, 7.4 from the Russian judge get off. Chris had parked up past the site so I quickly pulled a uturn and parked my bike mid corner so any approaching traffic would see it and slow down.
After a quick assessment of Keith and making sure there were no pieces of the bike in the road or his ass I just snapped off about 60 pics of the site.
Standing in the road you can see my bike about mid corner. Looking at the road you can clearly see his hardparts dragging. You'll see 4 distinct lines (rider peg, highway peg, tire and slider I believe)
Further in showing all scrapes plus final resting place...
This is about where he went into the grass looking back at the corner..
The happy couple (notice the lack of exhaust). He kept talking about this how this bitch would just lay down with an open pipe and how she had 4 different YSR50's from 3 different riders. I knew he must have banged his head.
Just before we picked her up..
On the tree....
Other than pieces of his bike along the way you'd never have guess his bike traveled this far from the corner...
Supervising..
:-(
After we picked it up and rolled it to the nearest tree
Thought this was strange...Look at the grass in the tire bead and you'll also notice how the brake line exploded.
Broken muffler mount
Broken sub frame....
Only minor rashing on his Mesh pants. The jacket took most of the damage and no marks on his helmet at all.
The highway peg. Notice how ground down it is. The right side slider did it's job as the right (aside from the upper) fairing was untouched believe it or not. However the highway peg is ground down considerably.
We decided to stash all the pieces in the bushes and roll the bike down the hill out of sight from the road and just stand it against another tree. Keith would come back for it later with a truck. Even though in the pic it looks like it's in plain sight from the road you can't see it sitting there.
Gearing back up, Keith got to ride bitch with Chris as we continued up to Tom's for a free hot...er...to help out around the house. Worthy of the side show $1 admission right alongside the Leopard Man, The guy with 3 nuts, the Bearded Lady and FJRFencer, I present you the two headed biker...
We arrived at Tom's to see a ton of people milling about doing various jobs to the house and literally as we are getting gear off this facking nutter on the left shows up from down south....what a fricken willy. ;-P
Pretty maidens all in a row..
Chris did an excellent 3 hour wash job on Tom's Bike..
We got recruited to go down to, "the creek" and find a water pump which feeds the pond in the front of the house as it was supposedly not working any longer. Of course the spot where the creek and the pump were located was at least a couple hundred yards away so off we went. I elected Keith to dig around in the creek as he had crashed so naturally he should feel obligated.
Of course, big J went in with him....
In there somewhere...
Nope, still don't have it...
Aside from the "incident" it was a great day and it was awesome to meet some new FJR friends along the way. Of course we were seriously glad Keith was fine and very much appreciated the fact that he crashed in the shade (thanks again dood!). We fixed a few things here and there, cleaned a few things, ate a few things and it was good. I'm sure when Tom gets on the boards next we'll have a post asking who put all the swirl marks in his bike, broke his toilet, cracked the unused water heater pipe, got his tractor hung up on the tree stump, stole his pond water pump and put all the garage door openers in backwards. But we'll still feel good knowing we set aside a few hours to help out a fellow biker who will never have to say thank you. Because there was a free hot dog in it of course.