The Crash of January 28th, 2011

I learned a valuable lesson on riding a motorcycle that morning:
1) When its 45 degrees outside, cold tires do not grip as well as when its 60 or 70.
2) Worn tires also do not grip as well as new tires.
3) Just like they teach you in the MSF class, taking a turn over the "crown of a road" (the peak in the middle) is dicey at best.
4) In the winter time, even if its dry, gravel, twigs, and leaves just love to hang out right in the middle of a street, consequently, right on the crown of the road.

Add these together, and you crash.  Taking a left turn from my street on to Tully, I went over that slipery, gravel-ridden crown of Tully, and the back wheel went right from under me.  Its called a low-side, and its pretty embarassing.  I sort of rolled off and stopped in the slow lane.  Luckily this was Sunday around noon, so the streets were deserted, but I quickly scrambled over to the curb, next to my poor little bandit.  With the help of a nameless Mustang driver, I got the bike up and was 2 minutes from walking it back home.  But my girlish constitution got the better of me and I passed out.  When I came to, I heard sirens, and parameds talking to me.

Here's the after math from the left side.  Scrapes on the front & rear fairings (rear already had a less severe scrape in the same spot...), both turn signal stalks broken (but they still worked!), the bottom of the case was scraped (again, it had a less severe scrape int he same spot there too), and the little foot guard where the peg mounts broke clean in two.

My back was a bit screwed up from twisty fall (which got worse in the months since), my pants were ruined, my shoes scraped, but my confidence was the worst to suffer.  But I knew I wanted to get back in the saddle. I love riding and I don't love being a statistic.

Consequently, I like taking Andrew, my 6 year old to the local motorcycle dealerships to look at stuff.  For a while, I could not get him to stop telling sales people about the crash.  Imagine trying to ask for a test drive when your kid is there spilling the beans about how you just crashed in the last month.  Raises a few eyebrows...