| Author | Message | ||
     Midnightrider |
ATGATT! People always ask me why I wear full leathers, boots, and gloves all the time. Even in the heat of Washington DC summers. I always tell then it’s because I know I’m going down – I just don’t know when. Well, now I know when. Got on Rte 370 in Rockville MD, just north of DC today. It’s a 6 lane divided highway. As I got on from the right and made my way to the left lane to connect with Rte 270, It was sunny and clear, Roads were dry and traffic volume was moderate. Just about perfect. But I smelled something unusual. I said to myself “ I smell paint”. A few hundred yards later, I still smelled paint. A few hundred yards after that, I signaled left for the exit ramp that would take me down a slope then around a fairly sharp left hander, followed by a right handed curve and then a merge. Traffic seemed to be slowing right at the entrance to the first turn about 150 yards ahead of me. In an instant I was down. Lowsided onto my left side. I was on my left side, bike pretty much on top of me still oriented toward about 10 o’clock. As a lot of people will say, time seemed to slow down as I saw the bike continue to slide. The bike seemed to be sliding faster than me now and I realized we has separated. As I watched it continue to rotate, the back end overtook the front. I watched as it slowly swung from 10 o’clock down to 9, 8, 7, then about 6 o’clock. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I was still sliding forward with most my weight on my left cheek. I was obviously under the same physical forces as the bike as I slowly (at least it seemed slowly) I started spinning counterclockwise as well. About the time my feet passed the 9 o’clock position I also realized I was now nearly horizontal with my right shoulder starting to drag. Then I started to tumble. The gentleman who was behind me says he wasn’t sure but he thinks I rolled 3 or 4 times before I stopped in the grass off the shoulder. I passed the bike which has stopped sliding about 6 feet earlier but still on the shoulder. Without thinking I popped up to my feet. The gentleman in front of me had already pulled his car off the road and was making his way up towards me. I gave him the thumbs up sign. The bike didn’t look too bad. I felt pain in my left knee and my right elbow. The palm of my left glove was shredded but there was no roads rash there. Folks were already calling for an ambulance. They helped me get the bike up and off the road. As we stood there and assessed it all, we noticed that down at the curve traffic had come to a stop. There was a car off the road and partly up a steep embankment. The driver was already out and looked OK. The paint I was smelling was diesel fuel. There was about a 4 foot wide continuous strip of diesel fuel for hundreds of yards in my lane. I had been riding through it and it continued for who knows how far. The inventory: The bike. Shredded the left hardbag. Ate up the left frame puck but didn’t seem to hit the frame. Ground down and bent the clutch lever. Trashed the left PIAA driving light. The flyscreen, and the plastic piece below the screen. It did restart. There may be more but I won’t know till I see where it was towed. Toasted the toe on my left boot, the left glove, and some scrapes and scuffs to the leathers. I have a swollen right knee (no fracture) and a fractured right radial head (top of the larger bone of the forearm where it meets the upper arm at the elbow). No cast, just a sling. But it’s really sore and very hard to move. Well, the pain meds are starting to kick in so I’m going to take a little nap. Tomorrow I’ll trailer it to the dealer for a thorough check and try to find out who may be responsible for the oil slick so I can say “Thank you” ATGATT. I was getting ready to buy one of those “armor shirts” for underneath my leathers. I will have it as well as sliders, possibly knee pads, and bar end weights before it goes back on the road. The triage nurse told me I should go buy a lottery ticket because I was surely the luckiest guy she has met in a long time. I think she is right | ||
| G234146 |
Good 2 know your OK Bro! | ||
| Cyclonemduece |
you can buy a bike not a neck good to hear your not in bad shape, er....dead | ||
| Beachbuell |
Diesel fuel is a bitch. I went down a couple of years ago on it myself. Went into a left hand sweeper and there it was, a big puddle of it in my lane. The ass end slid around to the right and wola, lowsided on the left. Glad you are here telling us the story. Could have been bad. ATGATT works! | ||
| Reepicheep |
Glad you are OK! Good job with the gear... | ||
| Wile_ecoyote |
Good to hear it wasnt more serious. Good on you for wearing your gear. | ||
| Rotzaruck |
Man!! Isn't it nice to have something that bad happen and still be able to count your blessings? Good story too, I suppose you'll be seeing that slow-mo movie in your head over and over.Glad to know you and the bike will probably pull through. We sure have messed up a bunch of good Buells this year. Rotzaruck!!! | ||
| Ratbuell |
Definitely glad to hear you're OK. I see we're your dealer, please be sure to stop up front and see me when you come in, I'll be there from 9-8 (all day) tomorrow 9/21. I'll be the goofy guy in the blue Buell shirt, LOL. And if there's anything I can do - either thru the dealer, or personally - please let me know and feel free to send me a PM or message anytime. Having "been there" in the past, I'm glad the guy behind you stopped much like the guy in the Caravan stopped when I lowsided my FLHP in Thurmont a couple years ago. Very glad to hear you're OK. | ||
| Diablobrian |
Yikes! I am SO glad that you are an ATGATT believer! That could have been so much worse! I'm also glad the bike isn't hurt too bad either. | ||
| Nevrenuf |
glad to know your alright and i've got some extra gear the other week just incase anything happens like that. i'm getting to old and don't want to take the chance anymore without better gear. | ||
| Iamike |
Yep, my first crash was the same. Went to lean into a turn when I saw the 4" wide streak through the corner, then I was down. This was long before anything but leather and helmets but at least I had a helmet on. | ||
| Midnightrider |
Thanks to everybody. Hey Ratbuell - I might have seen you at the store today. I was in there about 1-2 hours before I dumped it buying an oil filter. I had on the gray leathers. Anyway - hope to see you tomorrow if I can get somebody to help me strap the bike down on my trailer. Right now my right arm isn't cooperating too well thanks again | ||
| Midnightrider |
i'm thinking this might have saved me a broken arm may pick up the leg guards too  http://www.bohnarmor.com/catalog/proddetail.php?prod=BGCRM | ||
| Jumpinjewels |
Glad you're OK for the most part. Being a nurse, just to let you know, you'll probably feel a bit more as the next few days pass by. Thank you for wearing your gear. It just solidifies how important it is, cause there are times I'd love not to have to wear all the leathers etc. People always look at me funny when I'm walking down the street with full leathers, esp in the Estes Park area. Get well soon! ATGATT AMEN (Message edited by jumpinjewels on September 20, 2007) | ||
| Ferrisbuellersdayoff |
Does it mean: ATGATT= All The Gear, All The Time or am I wrong? | ||
| Midnightrider |
Thanks jewels. Good advice. I'm already starting to get a little feedback from some other parts - like my left hip. the other knee, my wrist. It sucks to get old. Not really complaining though - all in all I feel very lucky and even took the triage nurses advice and went out and bought some lottery tickets. If I get lucky...er.... luckier.... it may be a round of Buells for the house I'm a nurse too. And an EMT. My first job in nursing was actually ortho. The EMTs on scene were great and the triage nurse was telling me how much she enjoyed riding her 49cc Honda. But the rest of the ER nurses - boy was there a stigma attached to being "the motorcycle accident" in the Emergency Room today. Now I'm getting a little PO'd I couldn't put 2 and 2 together and figure out the smell was coming from fuel on the road. But it's not like there was a puddle-just a slightly darker tint. Maybe the tinted visor contributed but hey - at least 20 cars missed the significance too. Except when they started to slide they didn't fall over  | ||
| Diablobrian |
Ferris you got it in one! | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
I'm glad it was not worse. A few years ago I was driving behind an 18 wheeler that had punctured his fuel tank. By the time I got around him the entire car was coated in diesel. Cost a small fortune at the detail shop. It took 4 attempts to remove it. Ever sense I have been weary of fuel spills. | ||
| Elf |
Glad to hear that you're OK!! I had a similar deal in 1990 with anti-freeze, only at a much lower speed. Spilled ANYTHING on the road is bad! Here's a UK site on this exact thing: http://www.killspills.org.uk/ Eerily appropriate name  | ||
| Hootowl |
Glad you're OK. I had a similar experience, but it was my own damn fault. Cold tires, full lean, 80 MPH. I touched down so gently I didn't even realize I had crashed. My first clue was realizing that the noise I was hearing was the hard parts grinding. ATGATT, though, got away with a hyper-extended thumb. Didn't even scratch my helmet. | ||
| Ebear |
Diesel fuel is my BIGGEST FEAR on a truck traveled road....Great to hear your sorta OK..!!! | ||
| Ratbuell |
Hey Don, I wasn't in yesterday but definitely here today. Just FYI, you are showing 2 open recalls on the bike as well. See me and we can go over them, maybe get 'em taken care of while the bike's here if you want. joe | ||
| Swampy |
Thank goodness for your outcome! Now get a police report, find out who was spilling diesel fuel on the road and get a nasty scum sucking lawyer and sue the silly bastard that leaked the fuel, that way it may keep him from doing it to someone else anytime in the near future. | ||
| Midnightrider |
thanks swampy. already working on it! i did get the name of the driver and his company. anybody ever use "Law Tigers" ? they are always handing out cards at the bike shows. now that i have some time on my hands i've updated my website with some damage photos http://www.grillagroff.com/id43.html | ||
| Rick_a |
Good you're alright. Lowsiding sucks, especially when it's due to road conditions. At least in a highside you see it coming! | ||
| Nevrenuf |
that's definitely one reason why it would be nice to have hard bags opposed to soft bags but on the flip side, your not replacing the bags, especially if the bike is toast anyhow. | ||
| Lost_in_ohio |
Looking at the link you posted....I am really impressed with how little damage the bike actually sustained. Hope your feeling better. | ||
| Buellboyblue |
Sorry about the bad luck in my old neighborhood. I've swept all those 370 ramps many times and probably woulda busted also. Glad you're ok and reminding us all of the constant risk factor and the reward of Good Gear. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Glad to hear you're ok, Guardian Angels can only do so much, you gotta help em where you can, I've still got people coming up to me saying they saw the van I hit, or a pic of the bike, & they can't believe I got away with nothing more than sprains. You got to wear it for it to work. As a truck driver I'm terribly aware of the diesel problem, the trouble is in these days of constant communication & control, a lot of trucks don't have the same driver every day & many are double or even triple shifted to get best economic use out of them. The result is that nobody takes care of the vehicle, problems develop & it's always left for someone else to deal with until either it breaks or some conscientious soul does something about it. Where I work usually it's me! | ||
| Ulywife |
Don - Glad you are OK. Those HB bags are truly good frame sliders. It's saved our frame twice. We just replaced a lot of the same pieces on our 06 Uly. I still have all the part numbers and prices. Drop me an e-mail if you want and I'll e-mail you the info I have. |
