While Sue calls it a splat, but it was more of a thud scrape. Damage to me was just a bruised shin where I hit the right cylinder and/or exhaust pipe. My riding pants were a little melted on the right shin. And a bit of a sore shoulder. The bike got a little more damage: left turn signal lens only, not even the bulb. I was surprised that the stalk wasn't broken but I think the windshield saved it. It was pressed back on the mounts and scratched. The mirror stalk and mount were broken. Some scrapes on the clutch lever and bar end and the hard case was scraped pretty deep. I took it to the Guzzi dealer Friday, got nearly everything fixed and the front end checked, no damage there. The scrapes on the clutch lever, bar end and windshield are still there but everything else is nearly as good as new. They had gotten a good deal on the hard case cover from a distributer that was clearing out stock and they even had a pair of gray ones that matched. It's a simple replacement. I haven't gotten to that yet, probably latter today or Monday. All in all it cost less than $90 to repair the damage. It could have been worse. I wasn't hit after I went down.
What happened was I was slowing down getting ready to make a left turn. I was probably going about 5mph when a car came real quickly in front of me. I guess he thought I wasn't going fast enough. I grabbed the brakes and of course when your front tire skids you go down. Dumb Driver left as soon as he saw me get up. He didn't actually hit me so I guess it wasn't his fault.
It wasn't the first time I've dumped a bike, I hope it's the last one though.
2 comments:
First, I'm glad that the damage to you and the bike was minimal.
Second, you make it sound like the cager was behind you, passed you on the right, pulled in front of you, cut you off and turned left in front of you. Is this correct? If it is the cager is most definitely at fault.
Third, were you going too slowly for the surrounding traffic? What were the road conditions?
Fourth, what is it with you two and Laugh-In style crashes? Remember my mantra, "It hurts to go slow."
Sorry to have taken so long to respond. It has been exceedingly hot here to the point I have not done much after getting home from work. Even worked a few extra hours; its air conditioned at work.
To clarify the incident. Root cause: my lack of skill and/or awareness. The car was coming from the other direction, he appeared to be stopped. He was in deep shade I was in bright sun. We do have bright sun here very often in the summer in spite of the myths and legends that abound. Lately it has been very bright. So I started to turn into his lane and there he was. I never actually got into his lane. The bike and I went down in the center left turn lane. At the time he appeared to be going very fast but when you are a few feet from a car heading at you they probably all appear to be going fast.
It would have hurt more if I had been going faster.
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