Pondering My First Street Accident After 40 years of Riding

I?m the rider that was able to avoid hitting ScubaDave and hit his bike instead. He ricocheted back into the road so quickly there was nowhere to go. I?m pleased that he?s basically OK and I see by separate post where he has found a low mileage ST1300 to replace the one totaled in the accident. That?s great news and I hope he enjoys it for a long time to come.

It?s taken a little while for the dust to settle for me. I was able to take my first real shower today in 2+ weeks so I thought I?d mark the occasion with a post.

I go to the doctor?s office this Wednesday to have the 7-inch line of staples removed on my left arm. I had a fairly bad break and I needed a plate and screws to put it back together. I also broke 2 right side ribs. The whole left side of my body looks like a purple grape gone bad. I?ve been a quick healer in the past, feel a little better each day and expect to be good as new in a couple months. I?m typing this with 2 hands today, which bodes well for picking up my work pace.

My 1992 well-loved ST1100 was totaled by the insurance company due to age and mileage (127K). JonB has been kind enough to offer me a good deal on some spare parts he has lying around. The insurance money left over after my buyback should be enough to fix the ST back to where it was if not better.

I don?t generally talk about myself much and I haven?t told too many folks about my accident. Other than my family, and a few need-to-know clients the only other riders who know are some good friends I?ve made through my Alps tour business. All my tour mates find it ironic that I would crash within an hour of home.

I?ve been riding for 40+ years. I?ve been RT from the east coast to the west coast 5 times, been from one side of Canada to the other, and spent a month riding in Mexico. I?ve taken a bunch of track days, been to the Alps 2 ? 3 times a year for 30+ years in ALL kinds of conditions and at speed and ridden with more than 350+ friends and tour members and never came close to an accident (except for 1 rainy track day ? but that?s another story). Then I go an hour from home with some ST riders and I?m toast in 10 minutes. Who knew?

My only other accident was on a new BMW 750 during a rainy track day. I?d been riding for about 10 years at the time. I broke my left collarbone, 3 ribs and punctured a lung. The bike was totaled. Two months later I purchased a new FJR 1200 and went to a track day. I was determined not to let it phase me and it didn?t. I?d also like to think I?m a much better rider now. My tour members tell me that I?m smooth, fast and really good ? so who knows maybe I am a decent rider.

My track day accident was more than 25 years ago, pre-kids, pre-big house, pre-people counting on me. I think my wife would be happy if I dialed it back, maybe my kids too. And I would if I thought it was my fault or a failure of my abilities but I don?t. In this case it was simply the fickle finger of fate that plopped Dave?s bike in front of me. It could have been the landing gear from a 747 falling right out of the sky in front of my car and I would have had the same lack of options (I remind my wife I?ve been rear-ended 3 times over the same 40+ years while driving my car by people behind not paying attention).

I don?t think I?m stupid and I?d stop if I thought I didn?t have the skills any more. I?ve been to more places by bike, seen more things, met some fantastic people and had some great adventures, more than many people will have in a lifetime. So, if I had to stop it wouldn?t be fatal, even though I enjoy motorcycling immensely. However, I don?t have to stop and comes next June I?ll be ripping up the Alpine passes on a K1300R glad to be alive and excited to be biking.

Charlie, sure glad to hear from you. I have been wondering how you made out. Glad to hear you are on the mend, just sorry for the whole mess.

Glad to hear you'll be able to get the bike back together.
Pictures before and after maybe?

Good luck,
Mark

Good to hear you are recovering and not giving up riding. Thanks for posting, it has re-enforced my belief that many of the best folks on this forum are the silent ones who rarely post, but care to visit. Best of luck with the repairs... and it would be nice to meet you along the way... some day.

Charlie, stuff happeneds and there just isn't too much we can do about it, other than our attitude and you seem to have your's well planted!

There are a few of us around here that have been riding that long and even though we have accidents, we climb back on the horse and go again, why, because we love the freedom when riding a motorcycle.

In my 43 years of riding, I've had two accidents. The first, back in '87, my wife finally quit bugging me about my riding. In her mind, as soon as Bob has his first accident, he'll want to quit riding. Nope, that didn't happen. My second accident was from a utility van wanting my lane and didn't look hard enough before coming over. Although we were only doing 25 to 30 mph, I got banged up , but thank goodness for ATGATT, I was ready to ride in a week.

So I'm glad to see you wanting to continue and hope you get your bike back up and running soon!

You're right that we can not mitigate all accidents. Sometimes it's just fate. But, when it happens and you are in a car, you have a cage and 6 airbags to protect you. When it happens and you're on a bike - you just die (or get really messed up).

That's what I struggle with now that I have a daughter.

Get Well Moto Charlie,
Sounds like your on the mend.

Karen said:

If I may ask... I'd liek to know what gear you had on, and how it fared.


Its always nice to hear what gear saves a riders hide and what doesn't.


"Stuff happens" Riders go down, tis a fact. The only way to avoid crashing is to not ride. Glad to hear you are on the mend and planning future rides. Keep that chin up. I am sorry we missed the chance to meet you in VT.

There were a LOT of people asking "Charlie who?" I hope you are able to come next spring.

Click to expand...

Karen, Charlie had on motoport and I had on my stitch..

First of all – Thank you very much for your well wishes. They are appreciated. This group is filled with friendly, helpful selfless people. It’s great to be a part of it.

I’ll try to respond to some of the questions/comments.

Dave – No worries. Congrats on your new bike. I wish you another 150K+ of happy, trouble free riding.

Mark – I didn’t take pictures (yet?). The main damage was to the right side saddlebag, engine guard and right sight mirror assembly (plus some minor other parts). My insurance company prices out the cost of repair using the cost of new parts. The bag alone is $1,125. The complete mirror assembly is approx $300 (and not manufactured anymore). All told approx $2,300 (parts and labor) of damage. Thanks to JonB and the salvage market it should all be back together better than before for approx $1,800.

Valkman – An interesting question and one I reflect on as I get older. All my cross-country trips, Mexico trip (where I absolutely had to bring the bike into the room with me every night and where I got robbed at knifepoint) and the first 15 years of riding Europe were all solo. Much of it was pre cell phone, pre GPS (I’m mainly a map guy any way), etc. I love to explore and many, many times I have wandered down some long, deserted dead end road to explore a valley or mountain lake. I’ve ridden many times in the snow (One 14-day solo trip in the Alps rained all day every day and snowed across the top of every pass I rode). My point is it all seemed natural back then but now I wonder what the hell I would have done if I’d crashed the bike or gone over a cliff. If a tree falls and no one hears it does it make a sound I tell my tour members that one of the benefits of going with a group, even a small one like mine, is that there is help if need be. People run out of gas, get flat tires, sometimes break their bike and on rare occasions break themselves. At least with a group there’s someone to help. The trick is to get a good group.

Naustin – That’s a tough one and only you can answer that. In my case 80% - 85% of my riding is the Alps, which I think improves my odds. The Europeans are simply much better drivers than people here in the USA. Their training is much better and they take driving seriously. They also treat motorcyclists with respect, let them pass without trouble and share the road. It’s much safer than here.

Karen – As Dave mentioned my gear was Motoport, HJC Symax helmet and Held boots and gloves. Dave can chime in but I believe that the EMTS/police commented on the fact that Dave and I were some best-protected motorcyclists they’d treated, which makes you wonder what all the other biker accident folks are wearing.

I think that you are doing one of the most important things that you can do after a accident, and that is take a little time to reflect on what and how it happened. For a rider to just write it off as a accident and not do as you are doing just sets themselves up for another one. Many times we feel we couldn't have done anything different at the time of the accident, but once the nerves calm down and we can reflect openly on what happened, we may find a way to lessen the chances of having something like that happen again.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say you screwed up. I think every acciendent as a lesson to be learned if we will only be honest with ourselves. It sounds like you are.

My ridding buddy and I do the same thing with acciendents we read about in the local paper. We try to fiqure out how the ridders could have lowered the risk by doing something different and apply that lesson to our ridding.

Hope you heal fast and come to peace with what happened. I hope to not have to ask myself the question that you are asking yourself anytime soon. With that being said though, I'd rather be on the bike enjoying a ride than setting in a nursing home when that day comes.

Mlheck – Thank you for the post. I too hope to ride as long as I can.

For me there is no question about getting back on the bike as soon as health and weather allow. That doesn’t mean I haven’t pondered the accident itself and what I might have been able to do differently. I’m not sure there is a lot I could have done once Dave’s bike plopped in front of me. But, I intend to sort out what I may have been able to do pre-plop that might have improved my odds.

I think your point is that one should learn from their accidents and I certainly hope to do so.

Interesting posts, hope you are better soon.

Maybe one good thing to reflect on. If it had to happen at all, better to be at the end of the season before a long NH winter vs. in May or June. You'll have lots of time to heal and rebuild the ST over the winter.

ReSTored - Thank you for the sentiments. I get maybe 40% of my Alps tour members from Canada, a large number of them from the Toronto area. There are some good riders and great people up your neck of the woods.