About a month or so ago, I ordered the MCE Canyon Cages that a previous Connie owener in Canada had for sale. They were a bit pricy but they were new in box, never installed, and available which is about the best you can hope for with Canyon Cages now a days. I installed them two weeks ago. Yesterday while on the way home, a woman pulled out of an Exxon parking lot in front of me. The intersection has a right turn only lane, two straight lanes, and a left turn lane. I was in the right turn only lane preparing to turn into the 7-11 on the other side of the street. The straight lanes were backed up and apparently someone had left a space for this lady to pull into. I could have sworn she looked right at me but apparently I was wrong or had momentarily achieved invisibility at that moment. She proceeded into the intersection and stopped! I hit my brakes...hard. ABS definatly activated. My front fairing cleared her bumber but the crash bars/highway peg did not. At that point I was going so slow the bike just tipped over but didn't really slide at all. The crash bars on both sides are scratched/scuffed and there is a scratch on my left side mirror cover as well as some scratches on the lower cowling. Bike is otherwise undamaged. The crash bars did their job. I don't think the plastics would have made it out unscathed otherwise. While the front of the bike would have cleared her bumper if not for the added thickness of the bars and pegs, my bag definately would not have cleared. I had to tell her to back up because I couldn't.
There's maybe a few hundred dollars in damage and no injuries besides a sore wrist this morning that I can't attribute to anything else. It was super fun when she looked at me with a straight face and accused me of causing the accident so I decided not to argue with her and we'll let our insurance companies work it out even though it will likely be not much more than her deductible. I'll probably need to have the powdercoat redone on the crash bars and a couple of parts painted but I can take them off the bike and to a body shop to have the paint done. This is only my second interraction with another vehicle in about 30 years or riding and both times have been here in Virginia. Can't leave this place soon enough.
There's maybe a few hundred dollars in damage and no injuries besides a sore wrist this morning that I can't attribute to anything else. It was super fun when she looked at me with a straight face and accused me of causing the accident so I decided not to argue with her and we'll let our insurance companies work it out even though it will likely be not much more than her deductible. I'll probably need to have the powdercoat redone on the crash bars and a couple of parts painted but I can take them off the bike and to a body shop to have the paint done. This is only my second interraction with another vehicle in about 30 years or riding and both times have been here in Virginia. Can't leave this place soon enough.