I'm OK.
Beautiful fall day, had a great mountain road full of twisties all to myself. Was in the groove.
While leaned over hard in a left hand sweeper, I hit a patch of gravel and the bike was on its side before I could say "Oh crap".
I held onto the bike (in retrospect, I should have let go, but as they say it all happened so fast) and stayed with it as it headed for the shoulder of the road. I noticed that beyond the shoulder the terrain descended (at about a 45° slope) to the river that the road followed. Based on my speed, the bike was definitely going to overshoot the shoulder. No guardrail. Please God, don't let me highside.
Then I came to a sudden stop.
You know those signs on curves that point in the direction of the turn, right? Well, the bottom of Fat BaSTard ran straight into one of those, folding it over and coming to rest on top of it. Two guys who were fishing in the river ran up to see if I was ok (I was, just a little shaken) and gave me a hand righting Fat Bastard.
After my heart rate subsided, I went back to look at the gravel patch. It was right next to a pull-off (gravel of course) that fisherman use to access the river. It is not uncommon to find gravel on the road next to these pull-offs. I know this, and normally slow down, but I guess I didn't see this pull-off (or if I did, it didn't register).
I was lucky. If it wasn't for that sign I may have wound up in the river.
Damage report (so far):
-One broken lower fairing
-One crushed muffler pipe.
I was able to ride the bike home.
Beautiful fall day, had a great mountain road full of twisties all to myself. Was in the groove.
While leaned over hard in a left hand sweeper, I hit a patch of gravel and the bike was on its side before I could say "Oh crap".
I held onto the bike (in retrospect, I should have let go, but as they say it all happened so fast) and stayed with it as it headed for the shoulder of the road. I noticed that beyond the shoulder the terrain descended (at about a 45° slope) to the river that the road followed. Based on my speed, the bike was definitely going to overshoot the shoulder. No guardrail. Please God, don't let me highside.
Then I came to a sudden stop.
You know those signs on curves that point in the direction of the turn, right? Well, the bottom of Fat BaSTard ran straight into one of those, folding it over and coming to rest on top of it. Two guys who were fishing in the river ran up to see if I was ok (I was, just a little shaken) and gave me a hand righting Fat Bastard.
After my heart rate subsided, I went back to look at the gravel patch. It was right next to a pull-off (gravel of course) that fisherman use to access the river. It is not uncommon to find gravel on the road next to these pull-offs. I know this, and normally slow down, but I guess I didn't see this pull-off (or if I did, it didn't register).
I was lucky. If it wasn't for that sign I may have wound up in the river.
Damage report (so far):
-One broken lower fairing
-One crushed muffler pipe.
I was able to ride the bike home.
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