Wisconsin Lesson - the hard way

[Dan Vitous]

Dateline:  Today... 9/25 Heading up to Devils Lake from the Chicago area.    Beautiful day for riding!  We were just north of Mt Horeb, WI along County JG.  A beautiful stretch of road for bikes if there ever was one.    Nice wide sweepers, no traffic, good pavement conditions.    Til I hit the right-hander at about Bergum Rd.    Gravel in the MIDDLE of the road.  Right in the curve at posted speed limit - maybe less  40mph or so.  I went down like it was black ice.  No warning.. no nothing.  Entered the turn, then BAM!! Lowside.    The results...    Gear:    Pilot - rashed knees, hip, elbow, thumb.  Feels like a bad bruise to the right shoulder/back.  It only hurts when I breathe :-)    Nolan N102 - anything that could fly off DID fly off.  BUT... NOTHING was broken!!  It all snapped back together.  Big scrapes in the visor that woulda been my face.  Chin bar held    Joe Rocket Phoenix Jacket - also did it's job.  I think the sleeve twisted on my arm resulting in a small hole in the outer layers and some road rash to one elbow.    Joe Rocket gloves (don't remember the model)... held up well, but I think I imbeded a piece of gravel in my thumb, but don't recall a hole.    Levis - no tears!  But road rash to the knees and one hip.    I had a knife in a belt holder that probably saved some of my a$$, literally.  A few scrapes to the iphone but nothing major      The bike (a 99).... *sigh*.      The upside:  It was drivable, but the trip was over...we headed back home.    The Rifle windshield was pretty amazing... all screws broke loose... except for that LAST one  :mad:  That one stayed, and the windshield cracked off at that one.  Base is fine.  Had to ride home with no windshield :-P    Just about all right-side forward plastic is damaged.  Piece missing at the turn signal.    Right side bag is now "vented" - but didn't break off, and the antler seemed to hold up.  Maybe a tad bent, but it worked fine.    Right mirror boot damaged and a big scrape at the end of the right side fork.    Pix forthcoming.    As I said... at least it was drivable.  Nothing bent, no controls or pegs broken, nothing floppin off (too bad)... for that, I consider myself lucky.    Mechanically sound!  (drove it the 200 miles home), so the its all just cosmetics.    At least til I wake up tomorrow unable to move :-(    So a warning - be careful of gravel on ANY road with gravel shoulders!!  None of the 50 curves before that showed any signs of gravel.    A guy who lives right there came to help me and my buddy right the bike and to see if I was OK... said I'm the 3-4th bike to wipe out in that corner this year.    Now I'm thinkin I should have filed that police report... AND called the ambulance chasers  ;p  Can't afford me a C14 just yet...  

[Greg Habel]

Dan,   Glad you are still around after that one.  Good luck at repairs (both you and the bike).  There may be some folks here willing to part with stuff you need for repairs.  Based on the speed I have to rule this as a crash (see the FAQ) instead of a CDA (drop).  Hope you get back to riding soon.  Greg H from Mass, Connie Droppers Anonymous Awards Dude  COG# 7010,a Tracey  CDA 120  99 Connie "Herrin Christabelle", 05 Ninja 250  

[smithr1]

Dan, dude sorry for the downing.  I worry about this a lot since we have many roads with gravel edges.  I try to stay in the cage tracks since their tires throw most of the gravel off that part of the road but you never know.  The worst part of the hole deal now is your not getting a CDA for it.  ----------------------------------  I will answer any question.  It is up to you to figure out if I should have.    <p align="left">My Photos<br

[Dan Vitous]

My bad... I assumed it was "dropped" in any regard.  Feel free to re-class it if you can.    I'm usually a freak about gravel too - always on the lookout.  But I didn't see/feel any up to this point, and didn't even see it when I hit it.  I'm still amazed.    But I've got 3 other CDA events... 2 on LAST YEAR'S trip. :blush:    I wonder what's in store for NEXT year's trip  :quest:  

[Greg Habel]

I totally missed the fact that you already have a CDA number (now I see it in your sig).  Just 1 CDA number for all current and future CDAs.      Greg H from Mass, Connie Droppers Anonymous Awards Dude  COG# 7010,a Tracey  CDA 120  99 Connie "Herrin Christabelle", 05 Ninja 250  

[Brett0769]

Yes, CDA is anonymous because the shame comes from making an error in judgment. Your only error seems to be having not worked on your x-ray vision harder to see that gravel in the curve before you got there. I'm glad to hear you're not seriously hurt, those kinds of stories always make me feel better about riding. I also appreciate your reports on how your gear served. Sounds like you invested some wise money in your safety. I do wonder about one thing though, if the guy living there saw several motorcycles go down in that curve, why didn't he take a shovel down to the curve and clear the gravel off?     Something else that I do that I want to pass along. Whenever I'm following a car and I see it drift toward the gravel shoulder, I zip to the left close to the center line because I know there's about to be a gravel spray coming my way. Everybody ride safe!