Whoops, how did that happen

[YB in IN]

So I was on my way home from school today, and I notice that it started to rain a little bit. "No big deal", I thought to myself. "I'll just have to slow down some and let it do it's thing." All this changed however when I went to stop at a stop sign. I was braking in a straight line and my back tire hit some oil or gas or something I don't know. Next thing I know, I'm airborne and I see my bike sliding it's way onto a rather busy street. I'm sure that those of you who have wrecked know that weird serenity that comes when you are in the middle of a crash. As I was going through the air the first thing that I thought was, "Hmmm now that's interesting isn't it?" After lying in the road for a short bit to make sure that I could feel everything, I noticed that there were like 10 people rushing in from all locations, most with cell phones in hand. One of them called the cops because a city officer showed up on the scene. Everyone was asking if I was alright to which I replied that I was. I then asked if someone could please turn my bike off that was still in the middle of the road running like the champ that it is. A rider who happened to be in a truck went over and hit the kill switch and then was also nice enough to pick my bike up and roll it out of the road. The cop asked for ID, and I told him rather curtly to "just hold in a second". So I got my helmet off and all that jazz, handed him my license and he again asked me if I was okay and if I needed a wrecker. I pointed at my helmet and said "I'm fine because I've got this thing on." The cop said that it was probably the best investment that anyone can make who rides a bike, to which I agreed. Long story short I hopped back on the bike and rode home. I landed right on my hip, which if I was an old dude would mean that I would have broken it, but I didn't. I've got a real nice bruise thats starting to form though. Other than that I'm in good shape. I bent my shifter lever and scraped off some fiberglass, but that'll be easy to fix. So know I'm at home and am applying cold alternately with hot and just taking it easy waiting for the painkillers to kick in. My grandpa suggested that maybe I should think about getting some training wheels.

http://gartheppley.smugmug.com/photos/19070160-M.jpg

http://gartheppley.smugmug.com/photos/19070162-M.jpg

http://gartheppley.smugmug.com/photos/19070165-M.jpg
Hey you have to use what you have you know? :doh

[Voni]

Glad to hear you're OK! Thanks for sharing your cautionary tale.
Voni
sMiling

[chasman]

YB, glad to hear you're okay. It's very easy to use too much rear brake on a K75S. Dropped mine in 1992...straight line stop and too much rear brake pressure = right side slide. Rarely ever use the rear brake now a days. And when I do, only very lightly. Have survived many panick stops since the '92 fall down without incident. Safe riding...

Riding Like the Wind (just back from the Dogwood Trail Rally)...

CHASMAN

[BMWBeauty]

I'm Glad To Hear That You Are Okay....Thanks For Sharing....

[dancogan]

Glad you're not too hurt, and your bike is running. Sorry about the mostly cosmetic stuff on the bike, though. Any chance you were on one of those really slick white crossing markings they put on the street? They turn slick as ice when they're wet.

Have a :drink

[YB in IN]

Glad you're not too hurt, and your bike is running. Sorry about the mostly cosmetic stuff on the bike, though. Any chance you were on one of those really slick white crossing markings they put on the street? They turn slick as ice when they're wet.

Have a :drink

Nope no markings or anything like. Just a freak thing that happened. I just got off the phone with a dealer, and they want 70 bucks for a new shift lever, and I can't just buy a lens, I have to buy the housing and everything for 30 bucks. Time to look at ebay.

[Chacifer]

Dude, thank god you are smart and keep ice-cold Jagermeister on hand at all times! Sorry to hear about the bike and the bruised hip, but you got right back on the horse like a true champ. :thumb

[Cliffy777]

dang......dang.....dang.
baaad that you dumped.
real good that you are good.
good that bike is relatively okay.
see- the real good and the good outweigh the bad.
sorry to learn of your whoops operamano.

[Visian]

.... but thank God you're alright.

Thanks for the tale. I hope your scooter's ok.

FWIW, keep some Stoly in the freezer just in case the Jager warms up after being pasted to your butt. :)

Ian

[einnar]

Happy to jump on the "Good to hear you are ok" bandwagon. Just goes to show it can happen at any time, eh?

Smart thinking, the Jager. I think a round bottle wouldn't give you the surface area you need to keep the bruise down.

[dzimbric]

Glad you are okay.

[kbasa]

Dang, Garth! Glad you're OK and emerged with bike, body and sense of humor intact.

:thumb

Try some Woodford's Reserve over ice as needed for pain relief.

[Colt03]

Garth,

Sorry to hear of your incident, glad you are mostly well. Keep ice on the bruise, (thanks for not posting pictures of that ! ) and some alcohol taken orally.

The bikes look like it will clean up fine. Try IBMWR for parts.

Best

[username]

garth - glad you're ok! must have been surreal!

alternating hot and cold might be a mistake - hot bourbon is nasty. on ice is good, neat is ok, and up is ok too.

oh wait, you mean compresses on the hip. smart move. i fell off my mountain bike once (ok, a bunch of times) and i've got a nice permanent lump in my hip as a reminder. i'm confident that as i age, that part of my body will be able to predict the weather, and ache accordingly.

be well and good luck with the repairs.

[YB in IN]

Thanks everybody for your well wishes. I'm already scouring the internet for parts. Everything is still rideable. I'll definitely be taking y'alls advice for treatment later tonight after I get back from my opera run through. Oh, and I don't have a sword in this one, but I do get to carry around a spear.

[bullit7801]

Thanks everybody ...snip...after I get back from my opera run through. Oh, and I don't have a sword in this one, but I do get to carry around a spear.
Opera run through. Carry a spear. Now I am scared. Who are you running thru with that spear. :D :D

Sorry about your crash. Keep riding it and fix it when you can. IBMWR Marketplace is a good site. :thumb

tb

[RebeccaV]

Ah, the healing and restorative qualities of Jägermeister... I thought that I knew them well until I saw your very creative -er- application! :D

I'm glad to hear that you and the bike are on the mend.

[IndyRT]

Glad you are OK and hope the hip heals soon.

[BEinIN]

After seeing the pictures of the damage and talking to you on the phone. No big deal. I can make new running light mounts and incorporate the training wheels suggestion your Grandpa made. :p Your uncle suggests sparkly tassles and a bulb horn also. :thumb Let me know when you want to get together again.

Garths dad

[jgr451]

Friggin bummer,that crash out of nowhere.
Glad you're OK.

[lorazepam]

It sucks to scratch up the bike and get the hip bruise thing over a little rain. Guess we never know where that skid demon lurks.

Fair warning!! you will have to navigate gravel to get to the Solstace ride, so be careful ok?

[Joecubana]

Hey Garth,
Glad that all the parts are woking as they should! (But you WILL be sore tomorrow! :uhoh )

But, on behalf of me and the other old guys out here...I just can't agree with your statement:

[QUOTE=YB in IN] I landed right on my hip, which if I was an old dude would mean that I would have broken it, but I didn't.

Just because I broke my thumb taking mt rear drive off doesn't make it so all the time!

Hang in there and take plenty of painkillers :drink

[Chacifer]

I'll definitely be taking y'alls advice for treatment later tonight after I get back from my opera run through. Oh, and I don't have a sword in this one, but I do get to carry around a spear.

Spears are really in this season, I hear. What are you singing?

[YB in IN]

After seeing the pictures of the damage and talking to you on the phone. No big deal. I can make new running light mounts and incorporate the training wheels suggestion your Grandpa made. :p Your uncle suggests sparkly tassles and a bulb horn also. :thumb Let me know when you want to get together again.

Garths dad

Why is it that Uncle Curt is always around when I crash? Oh well. Oh by the way dad, the weekend of GMR just opened up for me if you are wanting to go. Robbie's bachelor party got moved to the next weekend, so I'm definitely headed down.

[YB in IN]

Spears are really in this season, I hear. What are you singing?

I'm in Mozart's Magic Flute. For the third time. I'm singing the role of the First Man in Armor, which is a part that is usually filled by a younger singer with Heldentenor aspirations. It's some good times. We open on Friday night.

[YB in IN]

It sucks to scratch up the bike and get the hip bruise thing over a little rain. Guess we never know where that skid demon lurks.

Fair warning!! you will have to navigate gravel to get to the Solstace ride, so be careful ok?

Gravel smavel. The mighty K75s is actually not too bad in the gravel. If you make it over sometime this summer I'll take you on a gravel road that goes around Brown County and Lake Monroe that is fun to ride on. It's only the rain that gives me problems. My mom told me that I'm not allowed to ride in the rain anymore, because every time that I've bit the dust it's been when it's rainy. I mean what the hell, I rode when it was snowing mutiple times this winter, and then when it's 60 and barely sprinkling I bite the dust. :doh

[username]

My mom told me that I'm not allowed to ride in the rain anymore, because every time that I've bit the dust it's been when it's rainy.

if your mom doesn't want you to ride in rain, then she is going need to belly up to the bar and buy you a nice shiny harley.

:D









:hide

[YB in IN]

if your mom doesn't want you to ride in rain, then she is going need to belly up to the bar and buy you a nice shiny harley.

:D

:hide

I don't know. Between riding in the rain and riding a Harley, she'd probably want me to keep riding in the rain.
:)

[Sheepshagger]

Garth dude, I bet V V has what ya need kicking around the Sled dog garage. yep, Ya just never know when gravity vs the slick crap comes your way. been there! ping me if ewe don't have a contact for him. SS

[knary]

Garth,
I'm glad you're ok! BTDT.

FWIW,
IF you do decide to get your insurance company involved, don't be surprised to see a very large repair bill - especially if you dented the tank. I had a similar 11 mph spill a couple years ago that resulted in over $3k in damage to my K75s. Rather than repair the old bike, I took the cash, sold the bike as is (it wasn't totalled), walked away with more than I'd paid for the bike 80k miles previous, and invested in my current bike.

If you keep the insurance company out of it and handle the repairs yourself, but let someone else do the painting, you're probably looking at a couple hundred plus the cost of painting. BTDT.

good luck. :thumb

[YB in IN]

Garth,
I'm glad you're ok! BTDT.

FWIW,
IF you do decide to get your insurance company involved, don't be surprised to see a very large repair bill - especially if you dented the tank. I had a similar 11 mph spill a couple years ago that resulted in over $3k in damage to my K75s. Rather than repair the old bike, I took the cash, sold the bike as is (it wasn't totalled), walked away with more than I'd paid for the bike 80k miles previous, and invested in my current bike.

If you keep the insurance company out of it and handle the repairs yourself, but let someone else do the painting, you're probably looking at a couple hundred plus the cost of painting. BTDT.

good luck. :thumb

Surprisingly enough I didn't dent the tank. I was pretty happy about that. I'm proabably just going to fix it on my own as it basically cosmetic. I'm sort of flirting with the idea though of getting insurance involved so that I can get my helmet replaced. I have to call my agent and check if I have equipment covered or not, and what they would pay towards a new helmet.

[knary]

Surprisingly enough I didn't dent the tank. I was pretty happy about that. I'm proabably just going to fix it on my own as it basically cosmetic. I'm sort of flirting with the idea though of getting insurance involved so that I can get my helmet replaced. I have to call my agent and check if I have equipment covered or not, and what they would pay towards a new helmet.

I repaired the fairing on my K75s and found the work to be tedious, but not that difficult. One thing to remember is that plain old bondo isn't necessarily flexible enough to be used on some parts of the fairing - specifically those areas near mounting points.

[BradfordBenn]

Glad you are okay dude. I see a tech day in Garth's Garage coming during the convalesence phase.

Remember all the gear all the time.

[BubbaZanetti]

well, you got that out of the way, and right at the begining of the "riding season" (whatever that means :dunno ) good thing it wasn't june or you might have really been hurt riding around in shorts and sandals :D


great to hear you're alright and your bike got out relatively unscathed as well!

[Bob_M]

I am sorry you dropped the bike but glad that you are OK. that about says it.

[DLilah]

As everyone else has said, the important thing is that you are okay.

Remember all the gear all the time.

I agree with BradfordBenn. Last summer, right after we purchased hip pads, the parts guy at our dealer told us that was a very wise investment because he believes hip pads are the most important protection in our suits. He said that is one of the most common injuries. If you don't use them, might want to consider them. They give you that attractive wide-a## look, but it's better than a bruised/broken hip.

[YB in IN]

Well this had turned out to be quite the fortuitous little spill. I accidentally (don't ask) had a claim started on my bike and the insurance guy came out today. He actually noticed a couple of things that I hadn't, like where a little bit of the paint had rubbed off on the tank. Long story short, he figured it would cost $2300 to fix my bike based off of the Max BMW online parts catalog. Seems sort of high to me but whatever. My bike is of now officially totaled believe it or not. I'm going to be getting a nice little check to put towards a new helmet, and maybe get all the stuff I need to hook up my XM on my bike. I now only have a salvage title for my bike, but I don't really care all that much about that. So I guess that this all turned out okay in the end after all. Sure my rates may go up, but I'm going to back my coverage way down to just liability, so hopefully that will even things out. :thumb

[username]

it's sweet to extract the equity from a vehicle, and still have the vehicle.

i've done this with cars, had them repaired economically, and then had them retitled. it's pretty sweet, and for once, you feel like youre a little ahead in the insurance game.