i crashed... now what?

[womper]

I went for a morning ride yesterday and decided to go up into the twisties around here...

due to a series of events, i dumped it going around a curve at about 80kph

yay for gear...

i'll fully admit a lot of it was rider error (me), but the road had a bump in the worse place (that i couldn't see) and also my highway bars caught the road (on the aformentioned bump)

at any rate, the highway bar is bent back about 6 inches now. busted tail light too. if i didn't have the bar the bike would have crushed my leg... then again i probably wouldn't have lost it in the corner...

i was able to ride it home (about 150km from home)

what do people do after a dump like that? do they rip the bike apart just in case they don't see the problem right away?

i'm not concerned about the little things that i see, like the highway bar, the tail light... stuff like that... i'm more concerned about the stuff i don't see.

bike sounds fine and looks to run fine. any real way to make sure nothing more is damaged?

thanks in advance

[tallannie]

Yeesh...sent a shivver up my spine. You sound lucky.... I did the same darn thing but didnt have gear on my knees...and tore up my left knee pretty badly. My highway bar saved my foot I am sure also. Now I always wear knee protection also.

I would recommend taking it to a shop and telling them you dumped it and asking them to check it over....especially the front end and the frame alignment... and hoses and cables, etc for abrasion, weakening, etc. .... if you bend up the highway bar you put a lot of torque on the frame.

I also drove mine on home, and a year later still havent found any hidden engine issues...

Glad you came thru it ok !

Originally Posted by womper

I went for a morning ride yesterday and decided to go up into the twisties around here...

due to a series of events, i dumped it going around a curve at about 80kph

yay for gear...

i'll fully admit a lot of it was rider error (me), but the road had a bump in the worse place (that i couldn't see) and also my highway bars caught the road (on the aformentioned bump)

at any rate, the highway bar is bent back about 6 inches now. busted tail light too. if i didn't have the bar the bike would have crushed my leg... then again i probably wouldn't have lost it in the corner...

i was able to ride it home (about 150km from home)

what do people do after a dump like that? do they rip the bike apart just in case they don't see the problem right away?

i'm not concerned about the little things that i see, like the highway bar, the tail light... stuff like that... i'm more concerned about the stuff i don't see.

bike sounds fine and looks to run fine. any real way to make sure nothing more is damaged?

thanks in advance

[busa-boy33]

Yup, Annie's advice is golden. Take the bike down the shop and let them give her a good going over.

Some people like to keep dings and scratches on their bikes as a reminder of what could happen. I on the other hand will work had to fix and or cover them up.

Anywho.. glad your ok..

[Uncle B]

Originally Posted by tallannie

Yeesh...sent a shivver up my spine. You sound lucky.... I did the same darn thing but didnt have gear on my knees...and tore up my left knee pretty badly. My highway bar saved my foot I am sure also. Now I always wear knee protection also.

I would recommend taking it to a shop and telling them you dumped it and asking them to check it over....especially the front end and the frame alignment... and hoses and cables, etc for abrasion, weakening, etc. .... if you bend up the highway bar you put a lot of torque on the frame.

I also drove mine on home, and a year later still havent found any hidden engine issues...

Glad you came thru it ok !

[Clint]

Wow. Glad you came out ok. Be sure to share your lessons learned when you're up for it.

I would agree with the others if I'd ever met a shop that I'd trust to do such work. I suspect that I could (and would) do a more thorough job, mostly because I ride it. It's not like most shops have laser alignment jigs or magnaflux crack detection devices. They're mostly going to look at the bike, then charge you for their time.

I'd have a conversation about what they can do for you before you blindly drop it off to generate a large bill. If they can't offer good suggestions, find another shop or do a thorough inspection yourself (with the aid of a service manual).

[Davecm203]

Glad you are ok. If you keep strafing corners you may have to trade cruiser in for crotch rocket.

[womper]

I thought about bringing it to a shop... i think i'll just pretty much rip it apart with a buddy and check it over again...

i see clearly where the bike made contact with the ground...
as for the frame twisting... i really doubt it twisted the frame... the linbar did it's job and it's twisted all to hell (it took all the impact) and doubt i can get it back into shape

i was lucky and unlucky where i dumped the bike... lucky it was a soft shoulder of sand, and unlucky for the same reason... (i would have made the corner had my front wheel not dig into the sand so deep)

as for lessons learned? that's a tough one... i don't think i learned anything new that i didn't already know...
things i did wrong? well.. that's a different story...

-I was speeding... had i not been speeding, it wouldn't have happened... plain and simple
-If i hadn't put on the crash bars, i would have made the corner... but said crash bars saved my leg and most of the bike
-quebec roads suck.


i will say that the gear i had on worked like a charm...
first gear overpants... nice hip protectors... left hip is fine
full face helmet... not a scratch, it didn't make contact with anything...
textile jacket with armor... felt my elbow on the ground and felt my back on the ground...

pretty much the 4 points i hit the ground with (elbow, back, left foot (ankle) and hip all had armor... i only felt pressure and no pain

so the lessons to sum up:
- always atgatt
- slow down
- know you limits
- know your bike's limits
- always have onboard tools and duct tape

[Clint]

So the highway bars inhibit your lean angle? I have to admit, that's the number one reason I'd never use them. They take away options when you need them most. Do you feel differently about them now? Do you think they actually caused the crash? If so, did they really save you from anything?

Even making a conscious effort to slow down, I'd still rather have the limit of traction be my safety margin rather than hard parts. Am I making sense?

[Thundurburd]

I looked at the Lindby bars briefly but found they didn't make them for the S50. What I did notice though (at least on the pics I saw) was they might hit ground before the pegs would. Again, this is based on the pics I found.

Womper, did you hear the pegs? Would you get those highway bars again or something different?

BTW, glad you made thru this Ok.

[womper]

that's a big problem i have with the lindbar... it's a bit lower than the feelers on the pegs themselves, so when i make a mistake in my lean, i can't correct the lean angle quick enough and there's not much room to play, i basically have to throw my body into the lean...

I'm not sure if they were 100% responsible for the crash... meaning if i had changed my riding habits/aggressiveness then i wouldn't have.

if i hadn't had the bars on, then no... i would have made the corner...
as for saving me, i think the jury is out on that one... in a sense it worked as a crash guard and i don't have a scratch on me... a few sore muscles and no bruising...

here's a bit more info on the road... it's a reverse 'S' curve...
it starts going uphill a bit, cuts right going downhill and when it cuts back left it goes back up hill.

I've got the bars off the bike now, so i'm thinking of going up there and testing out the theory of man vs machine...

people say the dragon tail is nasty... looking at pictures and videos online, it seems easy compared to this pot holed, tar snaked, construction riddled, bumpy road (route 323 in quebec)

now the question remains... put highway bars back on or not... something to think about

[Thundurburd]

My S50 had the Suzuki engine guard which basically protects only the engine and pipes. A few weeks ago I ordered the MC Enterprises crash guard which seemed to be the only other guard to fit the S50. Bigger than the Suzuki guard but not too big (pegs would still hit first for a warning.) Later that same afternoon I dropped the bike going around a sharp turn. As I suspected the Suzuki guard did little to protect the bike. A week or so later I think the bike would have faired much better with the new MC Enterprises guard.

[pinky44]

Glad to hear you are in one piece, the bike can be fixed. Cant agree more about wearing the right gear.

[tallannie]

Cant imagine riding without bars on a cruiser... but then, mine are Cobra bars which do not hit before the underside of the running boards do. No way my bars could cause a mishap like this...and I have direct experience of such bars saving my feet bones. My husband lifted the bike off my left foot...pinned between the bar and bike...but not injured at all. Without the bar it would have been bike and road sandwich of my foot.

[Thundurburd]

Originally Posted by tallannie

Cant imagine riding without bars on a cruiser...

I agree completely, but not the little engine case guards from Suzuki.

[Jay313]

I can't see myself using bars, even though I ride a cruiser (M50). If they stick out far enough to protect your foot, then they've pretty much got to scrape the ground before the peg (or at the same time). Correct me if I'm wrong, but as soon as something hard like a bar or exhaust pipe hits the ground, you're pretty much done for. I'm with Rowdy on this one.

[amvince]

Yes I agree. Glad you are o.k.

[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 ....?

Originally Posted by Jay313

I can't see myself using bars, even though I ride a cruiser (M50). If they stick out far enough to protect your foot, then they've pretty much got to scrape the ground before the peg (or at the same time). Correct me if I'm wrong, but as soon as something hard like a bar or exhaust pipe hits the ground, you're pretty much done for. I'm with Rowdy on this one.

[Thundurburd]

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.

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.

[robertc729]

I have yet to scrape the boards on the C50. Haven't gotten into many curves like the ones described.

[tallannie]

I rode 250 miles today... had a blast....and scraped my pegs a few times.... so I decided to take a photo of the clearance... here it is. I realize this photo suffers from parallax...but it represents the real world clearance. I know 'cause I laid a sheet of plywood up against the two wheels and tipped it up until it touched... and it touches the peg a full inch before it would touch the Cobra bar. But that IS only an inch... the floorboard wouldnt have to lift much to put the hiway bar into the asphalt... I learned something !