Dammit!

Well, I got my first one in. And I learned something about crashing. It hurts and it's expensive. So far, if I cobble the bike back together its gonna be a couple hundred bucks. The good news is, I wanted a new rearset for the bike and now I kinda have to buy it.

Here's how it happened. I was having a great solo ride. I was charging and having a great time. I took an S turn on Boulder Creek Road (off of Engineers Road near Julian) and didnt really like how it went. I stopped, turned around and went back down, checking the turn out as I went. As I got to the bottom I turned around and thought "wouldnt it be funny if there was a car coming down right now?" I headed back up, got into the first turn of the S and guess what I saw? A big black suburban on its way down. Shit! Now, a rider with more experience might have been fine and just kept in the turn and been fine. I wanted some more room as the road there is pretty narrow and has no center line. I braked, stood up a bit and realized I was going to need to ride the dirt shoulder. Except it wasnt a shoulder. It was a two foot deep trench in the dirt. Ouch! I got up pretty quick and picked the bike up.

The driver of the Suburban was a mom with two kids in the car. She had stopped and looked scared to death. I thought I was going to have to call 911 for her. She asked me if I was OK. When I said I was, she said "You were going really fast." I know...Thanks!

So after promising her I was OK and didnt need help she rolled off and I began to go over the bike. The bracket that the shift lever and left peg attach to were broken. Hmmmm. Gonna be kind of hard to get home like this. I began to make calls to get a ride home, then I decided to get the bike home on my own. I was able to pull all the broken stuff off and get the bike into 5th gear and limp it home. Not good on the clutch, but I didnt really have a lot of options as I didnt feel like making anyone drive the 2 hours out there to get me.

I was a little beat up the next day but overall not too bad. Thank you leathers and boots. And helmet too. So the bike sits, waiting for the new parts to arrive.

What did I learn? Be careful on narrow roads with blind corners. Go slower. Dont fall. It hurts and is expensive. Ride more and work on my technique more than speed. Speed will come.

Mom, if you are reading this, I really am fine. Don't worry about me.

Happy Holidays! (Click the picture)