I've tasted asphalt and it was bitter.

[Sawblade]

3 of us were casually riding in formation while we were looking for a certain street. I was in the middle left position with the leader and trailer on the right. The leader moved into the left turn lane and we all moved over and kept our position as before. We were all doing about 60 mph when the leader suddenly started braking HARD and turned left in front of me to stop and line up for an easy u-turn. Because I was in the left position, I was trapped into either swerving left into oncoming traffic or trying to stop. I tried the latter and my back end started lifting up. I was again facing a decision to either try to control the stoppie or release the front brake and plow into him hard. I loosened the front brake a little to try and control it, but I had too much momentum already and kept going right onto the windshield. Luckily, I actually did bleed off all my speed and the front fairing absorbed ALL the impact.


After the initial hit, it fell over on the left side and snapped off my foot peg and scratched the crankcase cover. (after I just polished out and previous scratches from the hit & run in the parking lot) I already tore down the fairing, and the windshield, left mirror, framework, left inner panel, and headlights are boned. As for the rest of the bike, there was no damage whatsoever because the frame fell down perfectly on the sole of my heavy work boots which completely cushioned it. On the roadside, we switched out the passenger peg with the broken one with my handy pliers, and put some zip ties on the smashed fairing to keep it from falling off further. I tested the tracking around some residential streets and started gradually going faster on the main road to make sure it didn't pull or wobble.

As for injury, my right knee banged the ground pretty good and rubbed a couple of spots raw. 6 hours later, and the swelling is already going down, so I'm ecstatic. Coincidentally, I had just ordered a set of icon knee armor for wearing under my pants yesterday, but they haven't shipped yet. I've got a couple of bruises here and there, but nothing significant.

My left boot was scuffed a little around the sole, but nothing bigger than the flat spot from dragging the ground in hard left turns. My pants are thin in the knee area, but no hole since I didn't have any speed. The jacket saved my ribs and left shoulder because I've got bruises under the padding there. My helmet didn't touch the ground somehow, the paint is still 100% perfect on it. The carbon fiber knuckles on my gloves saved my own hands as there's a continuous deep scuff running from the handlebar end, across the knuckles, and onto the headlight switch if I put my hand there.

Someone was watching out for me as myself and the bike came out very well considering the forces involved. My friend knew it was his fault and was grateful I did every thing I could to save his new Ducati monster, so he's paying for all the replacement parts. I was considering going naked before this happened, so I'm searching out the parts necessary to convert it. 4" dual headlights and bar end mirrors coming soon. I'm having trouble finding the OEM speedo cover for the FZ6N right now though. Any leads?

[Ozfazer6]

Sheese,you were lucky !
Glad to hear you wern't hurt.Wasn't your friend aware of where you were ?

[wrightme43]

Glad your ok man.

Your bike will look like mine.

That will be cool.
Napolean bar end mirrors dont work well unless you replace the handle bar on our bike. Just a heads up. learned the hard way.

[Sawblade]

Do you have any other suggestions?

[a_sick1]

You could probably get an acerbis headlight pretty cheap.

This one looks sweet.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-A...spagenameZWDVW

[VEGASRIDER]

Sounds like it was almost like the Deals Gap incident. I guess a lesson learned here is that you have to be careful who you go riding with. How much riding experience does this person have? After all, if he doesn''t have that much exprerience, he or she could be leading you to travel on a bad line. I always say, lane and line choice is critical in preventing accidents. Leave plenty of spacing, and for the riders up front, keep in mind that you will have riders behind ya.

One again, wearing safety gear has paid off for another member. Remember to gear up, because you might be next.

Thanks for the post, and glad you are okay.

[cv_rider]

Too many incidents of people crashing in group rides. Makes me want to stay away from that.

[sideshow_downs]

Glad you came out relativly ok. At least you could ride it home

Originally Posted by cv_rider

Too many incidents of people crashing in group rides. Makes me want to stay away from that.

well the more people you get together the more likely it is for something to go wrong

[bluenova]

Originally Posted by cv_rider

Too many incidents of people crashing in group rides. Makes me want to stay away from that.

No need to stay away, just keep the correct braking distance for your current speed and road conditions no matter what vehicle you are driving, bikes need braking distance too . Seems a lot of people forget that.

[MisterX]

Glad to hear that you were actually able to ride home after that. Overall, it seems that all that damage that occurred was only cosmetic. That's good to know. Based on the whole scenario, you handled the situation about as good as anyone could have.

After reading your post, I've decided to try to squeeze a pair of pliers and some pull-ties beneath my seat. As you just described, you never know when you'll need them.



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