The Carnage to Mistress

Here are some photos of the damage to Mistress, my 2003 V-Star 1100 Classic, after we went down. I've already started putting her back together. I've got the handlebars back on. This weekend I plan on removing the windscreen to straighten out the left side bracket. Then install the left rear turn signal housing. I have not ordered the lenses yet. Thanks to some of the folks over on my favorite forum the V-Star 1100 Riders forum for helping acquire some used parts inexpensively. If you ride a V-Star 1100, you need to hang out there.

You can read about the accident here:http://midlifemotorcyclemadness.blogspot.com/2010/10/ride-gone-bad-part-1.html

Gonna need a new light bar.

Windscreen has some character marks.

Left saddle bag was bad already & now is a total loss. Oh well, I wanted hard bags anyway.

There is where the handlebar controls dinged the tank.

The left handlebar mount was bent back and was extremely hard to get out.

My sons helped me pry it off using a large pry bar!

Ride on,

Torch

A Ride Gone Bad Part 3

A Ride Gone Bad Part 3

Continued from A Ride Gone Bad Part 2

The wait for my wife to pick us up seemed like it would last forever. My left ankle was throbbing and swelling up like a balloon. On top of that my right elbow looked like it had half a golf ball under the skin. It hurt to take a deep breath, cough or laugh. Finally my wife arrived with Jakes wife Kristen and a couple of my kids. They helped me into the cage and we started the long drive home.

After dropping Jake and Kristen off at their house we arrived home and prepared to take me to my local medical center to get checked out. We arrived five minutes before closing and they stayed to let a doctor check me out. He looked me over and I was still getting light headed when lying down and setting up, or even just moving my head fast.

The doc said I had an almost concussion or as he put it “scrambled brains”. He gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory and I declined one for pain. The doc also said keep ice on my ankle and heat on my upper back. The visit did not last very long and we headed for home. I stayed in bed the rest of the weekend with ice packs on my foot

I was able to gingerly limp into work on Monday with quite a bit of pain, but could not perform my duties at my normal rate of speed. I kept my ankle iced down at night and continued to take my anti-inflammatory medication until it was gone. By the end of the day Monday the bruising really started to appear. From the bruising on the front of my foot and the bend in the bikes shifter pedal I think my foot went under the shifter and got hyper extended at the ankle when I flew off.

I think Mistress, my bike, fared worse than me. The left front light bar is broken. The left rear turn signal stalk is damaged. The left saddle bag is damaged worse than it was. The left side of the wind screen was scraped as well as the shift lever, mirror, floorboard etc. The left handle bar mount was bent back. My sons handle bars were twisted and despite being in much pain managed to ride both the bikes one at a time back the next day.

My Scorpion helmet was scraped on the back and my Frogg Toggs don’t appear to have a scratch on them, even on the elbow that was scraped. There was also a small nick on the front of one of my boots. All in all as far as motorcycle accidents go it was not too bad. We both were able to basically walk away and the bikes were somewhat ride able. Now I just need to start saving up to fix the bike…

A Ride Gone Bad Part 2

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A Ride Gone Bad Part 2 Continued from A Ride Gone Bad Part 1

There we were, my son Jake and I, heading home from Cresson through Burleson on Highway 377 in what was now just a light rain. We started picking up Saturday morning traffic now among all the stop and go of the traffic lights. We were both in the right hand lane and Jake was in front of me in the left track and I was riding in the right track. Everything was going fine until the white older Tahoe in front of Jake hit the brakes for no apparent reason.

I saw Jakes brake light come on and his rear tire start to slide to the right. Everything appeared to be happening in slow motion now. I lightly applied my brakes and it was like we were on ice. I saw Jakes bike going down as he went flying towards the stopped SUV in my line of track. At the same time I felt my rear tire starting to slide out to the right. This is where things become fuzzy.

I’m guessing my tires got grip and locked up sending my high side. I remember feeling in my head like I was doing a flip midair. I remember the back of my helmet slamming down hitting the street hard followed closely by my shoulders and upper back almost simultaneously knocking the wind out of me. I remember looking up into the sky seeing stars in my head and rain sprinkling down onto my face shield.

Interesting things go through your head when something like this goes down. I was more concerned about my son than myself knowing he has a lot more life to live than I do. I definitely did not want to run into him. The other thought was the fact that if the crash did not kill me my wife would.

I heard Jake off to my right yelling “Dad, dad!” I lifted up my right hand still too stunned to get up. I realized my left ankle was hurting and that my left knee was bent and my foot was underneath me. I managed to get my left leg straightened out as my ankle started to throb. A Good Samaritan was standing over me dialing 911 on his cell phone asking me if I was all right. I tried to set up on my own and could not. The Good Samaritans wife came over and held an umbrella over me as Jake came over to see how I was. I was relieved to hear he was banged up pretty bad but ok.

I was able to slowly get to my feet just as the Paramedics arrived. I must have slid quite a ways because I wound up in the grass along the side of the road head pointed away from the road. I could barely put any weight on my left foot and my right elbow was hurting. I hobbled over to the ambulance to get examined while Jake went to push our damaged bikes out of the street.

Jake joined me in the ambulance as they checked me out. They asked for all our pertinent information and a police officer also quizzed us while they checked Jake out. The only blood was from my right elbow which was scraped and starting to swell up like a goose egg. We turned down a ride to the emergency room and Jake exited while I limped off the ambulance. It was still sprinkling.

Jake had called his mom, my wife, earlier and told me to call as I limped over to the nearest strip center building, a Texas Car Tittle and Payday Loan Services building next to a Domino’s Pizza, to hopefully get out of the rain. I called and she was already on the way to get us so I gave her directions. Just as I was about to set down and the cement in front of the building a young lady named Melisa asked if we would like to come inside and sit down. After explaining we were soaking wet she still offered us some chairs at one of the tables inside so we thankfully obliged her. She also explained that she would enjoy the company because the business had been held up, robbed, just the day before.

We set down a second and Jake suggested I take off my left boot before it swelled up any more. So while I struggled with my boot Jake went to roll the bikes up to one of the parking spaces in front of the store. While he was doing that the Domino’s Pizza manager offered to lock the bikes in his storage area which we politely declined.

I was feeling light headed again and when Jake came in I asked him to get me a bottle of water from my saddle bag which he promptly brought me. He went back out as I drank and then I got dizzier and had to lie down on the floor for a few minutes. Jake came back in and then I was feeling level headed again and I crawled back into the chair again. My head felt like I had an inner ear infection and made me dizzy every time I moved my head fast....

To Be Continued.....

Ride on,
Torch

Lost the Old Bag at Highway Speed!

No, not the wife, but I got your attention didn’t I?

This embarrassing story actually started about five months ago. I had stopped for breakfast with a coworker on my commute to work one Saturday morning at the local Waffle House. I had just backed the bike into a parking space, removed my helmet, and started walking towards the Waffle House entrance when I glanced back at my Mistress, that’s what I call my bike, and saw the left Custom Classic Hard Leather Saddle Bag was off its rear bracket stud and was leaning down.

I had removed the bags only one time before to give the bike a good cleaning and commuted without them just that once. I rode it only partly “topless” because I had left the Memphis Shades windshield on. I have as yet never removed both bags and shield to ride her convertible style, top down.

I put it back on after eating breakfast and then rode to work and home afterwards. I looked at it again at home and the locking cam did feel like it was binding or just not closing all the way. So I emptied the bag and removed it and lubricated the mechanism with some WD40 and reinstalled the bag. I thought is felt secure, but was too lazy to take the locking bracket off the bag itself to get a better view.

Now, fast forward to a week ago, commuting back and forth to work every day as usual. I was on my homeward bound commute on a Friday in the usual D/FW rush hour traffic, wearing full leathers, impatiently weaving in and out of bog downs but mostly staying in the “fast lane”. I exited 183 Airport Freeway onto 121 north picking up velocity to normal highway cruising speed. I took my normal exit, Cheek-Sparger Rd. as usual and down shifted one time to start engine braking.

That’s when it happened. I rode over a small seam crack in the road and I heard a clunk from the left rear of my bike. I glanced back just in time to catch out of the corner of my eye the saddlebag hitting the ground and take off tumbling down the side of the road. Checking my mirror I see it go cart wheeling off the left shoulder of the exit lane and into the median grass on the side of the freeway. I merged with the access road and exited in the first parking lot.

As I park the bike I see a white pickup pulling over onto the shoulder with its hazard flashers turned on. I get off the bike and remove my helmet and start walking back up the access road. I see the driver get out of the truck and go get the saddlebag. He put it in his truck and started back down the access road in my direction. He sees me walking back up the access road and signals me he will pull into the parking lot where my bike is parked.

The Good Samaritan pulled in behind my bike and gave me back the prodigal saddlebag. I thanked him and asked if I could pay him for his extra effort. He declined and offered some bungee chords but I had a bungee net in the saddlebag. I strapped the bag to my pillion seat and thanked him again as he left.

That Saturday I took it completely apart removing the bracket from the bag. The bag itself was not damaged too badly. The hard plastic backing plate was cracked on one corner, it was scrapped and scuffed up and some of the stitching had come loose on the lid. Considering what it had been through it came out well. I managed to get the bracket lock to unbind so that it would fully lock the bracket in place. I remounted the bag on the bike and made sure it was secured properly. Then I reinstalled the contents I usually carry back inside.

This was a good luck bad luck story. It was bad luck that the Saddlebag came completely off the bike while riding, and it is not easy to get off the bike when you are purposely trying to remove it. Good luck that it did not happen while I was in the middle of traffic or the fast lane of the freeway. I believe my Guardian Angel was looking out for me again and I shudder to think of what could have happened…..

Ride on,
Torch