i crashed... now what?

[SNAFU]

I'm glad you're okay Al.

How does your insurance work there? If you take it in will they cover the work for the damages?

[Clint]

Annie knows what parallax error is.

Nerd.

[tallannie]

Nerdette !

Originally Posted by RowdyRed94

Annie knows what parallax error is.

Nerd.

[texrider]

The thing about leaning the M50 too far is, you run the very real risk of getting your foot pulled off the peg

There was an old post about that happening to someone here, and they said something to the effect that they instantly kicked themself in the back of the head...

I dragged heel once on my old M, and one time was enough for me! I'll stick with the floorboards on cruisers.

[JmalB]

I've gotten far enough over in a turn on my M to fold the peg up. Freaked me out I tell ya. Didn't fold it up all the way (I don't think), but I jerked my foot off the peg when it happened.

[eb77k]

Glad you are okay. If you just low sided the thing I doubt if the frame took a hit. The fact that the bars took the hit instead of your leg is good. I believe most crash bars are designed for parking lot speeds not 50kph so you got your moneys worth out of it.

Go over the scoot front to back. Do it yourself. You're the one who's going to have to ride it. Not the pimply faced kid in the dealership.

[Nick Mystic]

I have a set of the Lindby bars on my '07 Limited Edition M50 and after reading the threads on this post I took a good look at my bike to see if the bars might make contact before the foot pegs in a radical lean. I didn't try to lean the bike over since I was by myself and I'm not sure I could hold the bike up standing next to it while I tried to lean it over that far. However, by getting down in front of the bike and looking back at things it appears that the nub on the bottom of the pegs would start rubbing before the bars would.

I looked over a bunch of photos I've got of the bike with the bars installed, but since I wasn't specifically taking photos to document this feature none of the shots capture things too well. I'll attach the best two photos I could find. I think my margin for contact is similar to what is shown in that photo earlier on of the C50 and the floor board.

Beyond that, I have to think that the manufacturer, Lindby, would take some care to make sure that their highway bar wasn't the first hard piece of the bike to make contact in a hard leaning turn since to do otherwise would likely open them up to a large liability claim after someone crashed in such a way.

[Fishpart]

Glad your came of it ok, bike doesn't sound too damaged. I've taken some turns pretty tight on my EG with highway bars, boards always hit first.

[Kooter]

You know, reading all of this had me starting to wonder if I really made a good purchase when I bought the Cobra bars for my C50 yesterday. Then I realized that I don't think I have EVER scraped my pegs (except when I dumped it, and that doesn't count!!!), so I'm not sure this is really an area of too much concern for me. I enjoy a good lean, but to me, peg scraping is a little extreme. I'd rather just sit back, relax, and enjoy the scenery around the curves.

I guess my biggest thought is if I'm scraping my pegs, what happens if I come around and there's a..umm...tree branch or something. Easier to avoid if my knee's not touching the road. Heck, maybe I'm just an old fart at the ripe old age of 25.

I think the only time this may be an area of concern for me would be in evasive manuvers, but (correct me if I'm wrong), if I have to take that extreme of evasive action, I'm probably screwed anyway.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by Kooter

Heck, maybe I'm just an old fart at the ripe old age of 25.

Not too flashy and not too exciting but a good way to ensure that you will continue to be an old fart for LOTS of years to come!!

The meek shall inherit the earth.

[tricker]

was about to post something of substance.. it escaped me..

*wanders to the nothing area*

[diamond_jim]

I ride a little aggressive sometimes on the clean, clear country back roads. When the bike was stock, I never scraped a peg. After lowering it 3", I've scraped 2-3 times but it wasn't from leaning in a curve, but rather something like pulling out of a parking lot and the edge of the road was higher than the parking lot and I was turning at the same time and the suspension rebounding and so on. You get the picture. Then I put my forward controls on and I've scraped the kickstand a few times in the same scenario, but again never while leaning in a turn. My rear monoshock preload is set all the way to the max setting, which I believe is 7 or 8.

Just some information that you might be able to use.

[Brad_M50]

Originally Posted by womper

-quebec roads suck.

Enough said!!! Glad you're ok.

[Kooter]

Originally Posted by diamond_jim

I ride a little aggressive sometimes on the clean, clear country back roads. When the bike was stock, I never scraped a peg. After lowering it 3", I've scraped 2-3 times but it wasn't from leaning in a curve, but rather something like pulling out of a parking lot and the edge of the road was higher than the parking lot and I was turning at the same time and the suspension rebounding and so on. You get the picture. Then I put my forward controls on and I've scraped the kickstand a few times in the same scenario, but again never while leaning in a turn. My rear monoshock preload is set all the way to the max setting, which I believe is 7 or 8.

Just some information that you might be able to use.

I think I may get a 2.5 lowering kit. What do I with the suspension settings?

[wildwolf]

Originally Posted by Thundurburd

That's an interesting question. I wonder how the lean angle of the S50, C50 and M50 compare when pegs or floor boards hit. I've never scrapped a peg on my S50.

Me on the dragon with a friend in 2006. You can see some of my leans on the VS800 (same as your S50). I scraped a lot on that road....and almost as much on the Cherahola Skyway (which was more fun, to me).

The lean angle of the S50 is quite high for a cruiser. The scraping of the pegs depends on many factors though. The twisties you're on play a big part. Some twisties I'm on I don't come close because of the way the road is designed. Others, I hit a peg on every curve.

I've scraped pegs at 70+ mph in huge sweeping curves on tops of mountains...those to me, are much more fun than the twisty scrapings.

[Thundurburd]

Originally Posted by wildwolf

Me on the dragon with a friend in 2006. You can see some of my leans on the VS800 (same as your S50). I scraped a lot on that road....and almost as much on the Cherahola Skyway (which was more fun, to me).

The lean angle of the S50 is quite high for a cruiser. The scraping of the pegs depends on many factors though. The twisties you're on play a big part. Some twisties I'm on I don't come close because of the way the road is designed. Others, I hit a peg on every curve.

I've scraped pegs at 70+ mph in huge sweeping curves on tops of mountains...those to me, are much more fun than the twisty scrapings.

Those are some cool pictures.

One of these days I'll get over to the Dragon.

[wildwolf]

There are better roads. Say...the last 5 miles of highway 151 just before it connects to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

[old new biker]

Originally Posted by tallannie

I take from this that you guys lean M50s a LOT more than I do in corners. And I take it the M50 is factory built to be leaned over more. On my C50, the footboards are by far the first thing to touch...and they have a telltale 'peg' knob that alerts you. You would have to completely bury the footboard into the pavement on my bike before the engine guard would even touch. Maybe having footboards is a differentiator of cruiser vs sport ....?

The M does like to lean, and with the pegs rather than the floorboards, it can lean a fair amount further before they drag. However, it does not take as sever of a lean as you would thing to drag the stock pegs. I did it several times before I installed the JK forwards. The forwards raise the pegs just enough that they do not drag as quickly, and my leg is extended so that my foot is at more of an angle, allowing my heal to hang down below the peg, and drag the pavement before the pegs do. It scared the crap out of me the first time my heal drug. I just wasn't expecting it, but after that I knew what to expect, and it is not a problem, especially in long sweeping slightly uphill turns, or the twisties at times as well.

I learned to scrape the pegs in my MSF course. Now keep in mind that I had been riding a bit in parking lots and in my neighborhood for a month or so before taking the class. Doing the oval, I would lay back in one turn and let the slower riders get way ahead of me, than accelerate thru the straight away, and hit the second turn rolling on the throttle while looking strait across at the cone at the end of the turn. The bike would just lay over as sweet and smooth as homemade whipped cream on banana cream pie. That was how I learned to look through the turns, and and get the lean to work for me instead of against me. I figured that if I was going to learn how to handle severe lean angles, I had better do it at the class, rather than out on the roads.

One of the things our instructor had us do was to tip the bike over until the pegs touched, so that we could see how much tread was still available on the side of the tire before we would be riding on the sidewall.

BTW, Downhill skiing is the only thing that keeps me sane through the long upstate winters, when I can not ride. There are some descent slopes withing 30 miles of where I live and I get out 6 to 10 times throughout an average winter.

Old Fart at 54, I think not, and hopefully not for many years to come.

[Jay313]

As far as not having crashbars, I'm thinking more of those times when you're in a turn and either have to evade something in the road or suddenly make a tighter turn than you'd anticipated. Annie only measured an inch or so between scraping board and scraping bar. That's a fairly miniscule amount of lean angle, so the slightest miscalculation could put you down just thanks to the bar.

Like she said, though, the bar saved her foot when she did go down. It's probably one of those six one way and half dozen the other. Which concerns you most: the bar dragging and causing a crash, or your foot getting squashed in a crash? In my case, seeing those huge bars sticking out just gives me the willies in a turn, so I'll take my chances without them.

[womper]

i've been riding without bars for 2 weeks and it's different... on long rides i like to put my feet up for a bit and relax, and i haven't been able to do so...

i'm fairly certain that i'll get bars again, most probably the same ones, for the simple reason is that 500lbs of bike didn't smack down on my leg, even though the bars were partly to blame for the crash...

i still blame myself 100% for just going too damn fast, double the limit on bad quebec roads = bad news. i just need to remember that with bars, i just have to hang myself off the side of the bike