STrangr
Mike O.
Ok, so I have my official first tip over.
Unfortunately, it happened at the beginning of our ride from Florida to Ontario.
We were doing the usual stops at the border signs taking pictures, and when we reached the Virginia border (our fourth state) I wasn't ready for it. I was in the far left lane cruising at about 85 mph. I thought about just passing on it when I realized how fast it was coming up, but I looked around an thought (I got this).
I managed to safely get over and rolled to the sign not realising there was a steep embankment to the right. As I came to a stop and put my feet down it occurred to me that while my left foot was on the ground and stable, my right foot was still in the air and the bike was leaning more and more to the right.
Sure enough, it was too much of an angle and me and my wife just jumped off the bike onto the grass while the bike tipped over.
I was FURIOUS with myself. My wife was fine, I banged up my shin against something hard (not sure what) it swelled up like a golf ball. (2 weeks later I still have a bump there).
I stood there in disbelief and was pondering" how the hell am I going to get this bike up" picking it up on a flat surface is hard enough but on an incline its nearly impossible. Luckily, 2 bikers saw us and stopped immediately to lend a hand (Big thanks to them). We got it up and I surveyed the damage. Broken mirror, broken mirror housing ( the clip that holds it to the bike broke off ).
It appears that when the bike hit the ground the bar end smashed it to the mirror and shattered it good. I tried to rig it on with some tape and double face tape and ride on with hopes that our big trip did not just end prematurely. I got back on the highway and while I couldn't see much out of the mirror it seemed to be holding. For around 15 minutes my hopes were high and the anger was diminishing. UNTIL the housing suddenly flew off completely. At this point I have no mirror, no housing, no turn signal. My blood was boiling.
I thought to my self "thats it, we're done!" I start to make my way to the right lane to slow down and on the left in my peripheral vision I noticed the familiar Honda Logo. It was god sent. A Honda Motorcycle dealer. I pulled off at the exit and headed towards the dealership.
Being a Sunday 6pm, it was closed. I thought ok, we will spend the night here and first thing in the morning we'll go in and pray that by some miracle they will have it in stock. At this point I didn't care what color it was as long as it fit.
So we spend the night and in the morning we walk in and ask for the part, they did not have but could order it and it would take 3 days to arrive and cost $200. I was not about to sit there for another 3 days wasting a total of 4 out of the 7 days we had left. We would not have made it to Canada and back. My initial thought was ABORT!
I asked if they could order it and have it sent to a location along my route. They said they would have to receive it there and then ship it out. No go! Then I thought, what about next day shipping. I asked if it was possible and was told they would have to contact Honda but thought it would be possible. (they should have offered that on their own) They called and said they could have it there tomorrow by lunch time. Ok, back in business.
We took advantage of the free day to ride around the local roads. Earlier, at the hotel we met a family from Ontario the dad and 2 sons were on bikes and the mom was driving a pick up truck they used to load the bikes on to.
Funny enough, they were riding from Ontario to Florida, the opposite of our ride. They told me they had just rode the "Claw of the Dragon" locally and it was a great ride. So I looked it up and we were off. It ended up being a great day riding which I would have never found if I had not tipped the bike over.
The next day we received the parts, I opened the box, it had the mirror, the housing but no signal. I asked the sales guy and he told me he didn't know it was not included and he could order it and have it by tomorrow for another $100. No thanks!!! I installed what I had (surprisingly easy) and continued our trip. We made it to ontario and back with 2 days less to explore Canada but it was still a great ride.
Sorry for running this a bit long but that's my story for my first tip over tale.
P.S. We still got our Virginia sign picture
Unfortunately, it happened at the beginning of our ride from Florida to Ontario.
We were doing the usual stops at the border signs taking pictures, and when we reached the Virginia border (our fourth state) I wasn't ready for it. I was in the far left lane cruising at about 85 mph. I thought about just passing on it when I realized how fast it was coming up, but I looked around an thought (I got this).
I managed to safely get over and rolled to the sign not realising there was a steep embankment to the right. As I came to a stop and put my feet down it occurred to me that while my left foot was on the ground and stable, my right foot was still in the air and the bike was leaning more and more to the right.
Sure enough, it was too much of an angle and me and my wife just jumped off the bike onto the grass while the bike tipped over.
I was FURIOUS with myself. My wife was fine, I banged up my shin against something hard (not sure what) it swelled up like a golf ball. (2 weeks later I still have a bump there).
I stood there in disbelief and was pondering" how the hell am I going to get this bike up" picking it up on a flat surface is hard enough but on an incline its nearly impossible. Luckily, 2 bikers saw us and stopped immediately to lend a hand (Big thanks to them). We got it up and I surveyed the damage. Broken mirror, broken mirror housing ( the clip that holds it to the bike broke off ).
It appears that when the bike hit the ground the bar end smashed it to the mirror and shattered it good. I tried to rig it on with some tape and double face tape and ride on with hopes that our big trip did not just end prematurely. I got back on the highway and while I couldn't see much out of the mirror it seemed to be holding. For around 15 minutes my hopes were high and the anger was diminishing. UNTIL the housing suddenly flew off completely. At this point I have no mirror, no housing, no turn signal. My blood was boiling.
I thought to my self "thats it, we're done!" I start to make my way to the right lane to slow down and on the left in my peripheral vision I noticed the familiar Honda Logo. It was god sent. A Honda Motorcycle dealer. I pulled off at the exit and headed towards the dealership.
Being a Sunday 6pm, it was closed. I thought ok, we will spend the night here and first thing in the morning we'll go in and pray that by some miracle they will have it in stock. At this point I didn't care what color it was as long as it fit.
So we spend the night and in the morning we walk in and ask for the part, they did not have but could order it and it would take 3 days to arrive and cost $200. I was not about to sit there for another 3 days wasting a total of 4 out of the 7 days we had left. We would not have made it to Canada and back. My initial thought was ABORT!
I asked if they could order it and have it sent to a location along my route. They said they would have to receive it there and then ship it out. No go! Then I thought, what about next day shipping. I asked if it was possible and was told they would have to contact Honda but thought it would be possible. (they should have offered that on their own) They called and said they could have it there tomorrow by lunch time. Ok, back in business.
We took advantage of the free day to ride around the local roads. Earlier, at the hotel we met a family from Ontario the dad and 2 sons were on bikes and the mom was driving a pick up truck they used to load the bikes on to.
Funny enough, they were riding from Ontario to Florida, the opposite of our ride. They told me they had just rode the "Claw of the Dragon" locally and it was a great ride. So I looked it up and we were off. It ended up being a great day riding which I would have never found if I had not tipped the bike over.
The next day we received the parts, I opened the box, it had the mirror, the housing but no signal. I asked the sales guy and he told me he didn't know it was not included and he could order it and have it by tomorrow for another $100. No thanks!!! I installed what I had (surprisingly easy) and continued our trip. We made it to ontario and back with 2 days less to explore Canada but it was still a great ride.
Sorry for running this a bit long but that's my story for my first tip over tale.
P.S. We still got our Virginia sign picture
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