Boertjie
Race Dog
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2007
- Messages
- 1,233
- Reaction score
- 10
- Location
- Western Cape - Somerset West
- Bike
- BMW R1200GS
OK, so by now everyone knows that I had a bit of a fall in Blanco/George on Friday morning on the way from Cape Town to the WD Bash in Hogsback. This the detail of this frightening event.
Getting to George, we took the back road running from the N2 past the Airport, trough Blanco towards the Outeniqua pass. I was leading the group, since I worked out the route. Just starting to rise towards the T-junction, we caught up with a VERY slow brick delivery truck. There was a solid line, with a broken line starting soon... being visible probably 25 m in fronmt of the truck. As we slowed down behind the truck, it went left, with two wheels off the tarred surface and switched on its right indicator. I accepted that it indicated that we should pass. I waited for the broken line and once we reached this, I accelerated hard... probably getting to about 80ks. At that moment, the truck turned right, crossing the road. I swerved right and braked... first doing well, then locking the rear wheel and then... locked the front. The front obviously slipped out and I went down hard... doing probably 40 at that time still.
I did not take too many piccies, but believe that YellowFever and Mountainboy could add to the detail.
The truck stopped, blocking the road totally. I fell and skidded a few meters to stop less than 1m from the truck. I hit the tar quite hard, shoulder and right thigh going first getting a lammie, but also hitting my head quite hard.
A bit of damage to the helmet. The visor came off, but I was surprised to see that it could just clip back in and off I could go. No further damage to the mechanism.
Gloves and boots also took a hiding, but fortunately both these were steel re-inforced for safety... which save LOTS of skin. The gloves...
My foot was stuck under the bike. I killed the engine and laid back... could not get up with my foot stuck. In the end the boot got damaged quite badly, but also saved my foot. No damage at all to my feet.
The fellow WDs riding with me was there in no time. To first help me get my foot out and then picked up the bike. My first train iof thought was... is this the end of my BASH... and WHAT WILL LOVY NOW SAY??? IS it the end of her concent to my riding??
Once up, we moved the bike out of the way and let the truck go.
The damage to the bike was a handlebar bent through 90degrees, crash bars having done their job really well, but coming off second best and some serious scratching to the plastices... screen plastics around the lights, the fairing and the plastics between the fairing and the screen. This is not all that visible, but here is a piccie.
We made our way through the morning rush hour traffic and got to Honda George just before 8:00. Eisbein organised with Andre of George Honda to get the bike fixed as a matter of urgency. Elisia van Tonder came out to assist where possible and support... Thanx Elisia.
After having a breakfast, the fellow dogs left very reluctantly... but only after it was confirmed that I would be riding with Pad and Dusty once the VARA was up to it again.
The George Honda guys did a great job stripping off their demo bike all the parts required to get me going again... which covered a handlebar and footpeg... as well as some fittings to get everything back into working order. The crash bar was removed and bent to get into some sort of position where it would not interfere with the fan or touch the plastics. The rest of the bike was inspected for any further problems. The fan housing had moved and was repositioned. After about 2.5 hours, I was on my way again... with the newly acquired George based WDs Pad and Dusty. Thanx guys for waiting for me and eventually riding with me to Hogsback, as well as really being great pals all the time there.
Only damage to me was severely bruised thigh... biker porn!!!
The ribs are also very sensitive, but not cracked or broken, since the bones are not all that sensitive... just the muscles between the ribs.
Back home, I used the first evening to fix the damage as well as I can with my very limited tools. Eventually I repaired the fairing breaks with Pratley Epoxy. Then filled in the missing areas with Pratley Putty... smoothing the surface as far as possible. Once this had set, I tried to get the colour as dark red as possible using permanent markers. This the result.
I further repaired the boots with kiwi polish to hide the steel protector... will get new boots soon though.
I told Lovy about the crash, but obviously played down the severity a lot... she never saw the damage to the VARA. Although I told her about the bruise, she has not seen it... even after UHHH... you know what. >
Getting to George, we took the back road running from the N2 past the Airport, trough Blanco towards the Outeniqua pass. I was leading the group, since I worked out the route. Just starting to rise towards the T-junction, we caught up with a VERY slow brick delivery truck. There was a solid line, with a broken line starting soon... being visible probably 25 m in fronmt of the truck. As we slowed down behind the truck, it went left, with two wheels off the tarred surface and switched on its right indicator. I accepted that it indicated that we should pass. I waited for the broken line and once we reached this, I accelerated hard... probably getting to about 80ks. At that moment, the truck turned right, crossing the road. I swerved right and braked... first doing well, then locking the rear wheel and then... locked the front. The front obviously slipped out and I went down hard... doing probably 40 at that time still.
I did not take too many piccies, but believe that YellowFever and Mountainboy could add to the detail.
The truck stopped, blocking the road totally. I fell and skidded a few meters to stop less than 1m from the truck. I hit the tar quite hard, shoulder and right thigh going first getting a lammie, but also hitting my head quite hard.
A bit of damage to the helmet. The visor came off, but I was surprised to see that it could just clip back in and off I could go. No further damage to the mechanism.
Gloves and boots also took a hiding, but fortunately both these were steel re-inforced for safety... which save LOTS of skin. The gloves...
My foot was stuck under the bike. I killed the engine and laid back... could not get up with my foot stuck. In the end the boot got damaged quite badly, but also saved my foot. No damage at all to my feet.
The fellow WDs riding with me was there in no time. To first help me get my foot out and then picked up the bike. My first train iof thought was... is this the end of my BASH... and WHAT WILL LOVY NOW SAY??? IS it the end of her concent to my riding??
Once up, we moved the bike out of the way and let the truck go.
The damage to the bike was a handlebar bent through 90degrees, crash bars having done their job really well, but coming off second best and some serious scratching to the plastices... screen plastics around the lights, the fairing and the plastics between the fairing and the screen. This is not all that visible, but here is a piccie.
We made our way through the morning rush hour traffic and got to Honda George just before 8:00. Eisbein organised with Andre of George Honda to get the bike fixed as a matter of urgency. Elisia van Tonder came out to assist where possible and support... Thanx Elisia.
After having a breakfast, the fellow dogs left very reluctantly... but only after it was confirmed that I would be riding with Pad and Dusty once the VARA was up to it again.
The George Honda guys did a great job stripping off their demo bike all the parts required to get me going again... which covered a handlebar and footpeg... as well as some fittings to get everything back into working order. The crash bar was removed and bent to get into some sort of position where it would not interfere with the fan or touch the plastics. The rest of the bike was inspected for any further problems. The fan housing had moved and was repositioned. After about 2.5 hours, I was on my way again... with the newly acquired George based WDs Pad and Dusty. Thanx guys for waiting for me and eventually riding with me to Hogsback, as well as really being great pals all the time there.
Only damage to me was severely bruised thigh... biker porn!!!
The ribs are also very sensitive, but not cracked or broken, since the bones are not all that sensitive... just the muscles between the ribs.
Back home, I used the first evening to fix the damage as well as I can with my very limited tools. Eventually I repaired the fairing breaks with Pratley Epoxy. Then filled in the missing areas with Pratley Putty... smoothing the surface as far as possible. Once this had set, I tried to get the colour as dark red as possible using permanent markers. This the result.
I further repaired the boots with kiwi polish to hide the steel protector... will get new boots soon though.
I told Lovy about the crash, but obviously played down the severity a lot... she never saw the damage to the VARA. Although I told her about the bruise, she has not seen it... even after UHHH... you know what. >
