Today was the day that I have always had in the back of my head about crashing my bike. Everyone said you fall sooner or later rather it be minor or major and luckily today was minor for me anyways. I was way out in the country with one of my friends and we were hitting corners really good all day and on the way home one of the sharper ones got me. I wish I could blame it on gravel or slick spot but I believe I just got it leaned over to much

It was an up hill 25mph rated turn that i usually take around 35 - 40mph which the speed the bike slipped at today on its Left side. Luckily all there was off the side of the road was a field full of tall grass and small stick brush. To be honest I have anticipated crashing so much ( probably not good and pessimistic ) and thinking about how I would react that it wasn't scary at all. A small bit past the Apex is when I realized I was too far over and I knew I was about to slip out. I landed on my left side and went sledding through the turn on my *** watching my bike in front of me slide into the tall grass and the whole time I felt pretty calm and fine with the situation. I always have heard to never try to stand up until you KNOW you are done sliding and I will now stress that as well because I was so worried about my bike and I didn't feel like my fall was a threat to me so I stood up and sure enough I was still going to fast to comprehend at the time and did a small front flip into the grass. I got away without a single scratch or impact injury on me thanks to my jacket that took the rash up the sleeve and my icon boots, pants and shin guards that saved my legs from a small amount of damage that could have been done. ( I was strict about gear before but after learning first hand the difference it makes I would never ride without it )

Everyone usually likes a story so thats that but for the bike i need to do some inspecting. from the looks of the pavement where i started was about 40ft of marks before it went off to the grass. it stopped on its left side and a little bit tilted towards being upside down because the grass pushed up under it. After we rolled it out of the grass I looked it over and the only thing I could SEE was my left mirror that never was found, passenger peg and clutch lever were scratched up pretty good but the thing that had me nervous was there was a SMALL amount of oil that looked like it was coming from up in the motor where I could not see but leaked down and was dripping off the bottom of the motor. I looked it over really good and could not find a crack or leak and the oil level was still good. I went ahead and started it up crossing my fingers and it fired up as if i just got it out of the garage. I hoped on and started my way home slowly feeling it out and it ran like nothing happened. I rode it out of the country to my house about 40mile ride and i did not feel or see any problems on the way home even at 55mph. after I parked it in my garage i went out about 3 hours later and there was not a single oil drop on the flour or the motor at all and the level was still good so I'm not sure what the deal was there but I definitely would like some other advice on things to check before doing a quick look over and getting it back out again.

This is a 2001 F4i with 20k miles

thanks,

 

Check your airbox for signs of oil. Possible that's where the oil came from when she was layin on her side. Worse come to worse, pull the lowers clean the engine really good then let her idle for a while. A oil leak will become blatantly obvious on a clean engine

Good you're okay. What kind of pants were ya wearing?

 

alright I'll check through that tomorrow. good thing I already had my side fairings off before this crash

The jeans actually were not by Icon I just mistaken that because for the longest time I was looking at those haha.

They're the Torque jeans by Shift and they have 2 different layers of mesh and some other abrasion resistant fabric. Underneath of those I had the Icon field armor shin/knee guards which I didn't realize came into play until I took them off and noticed a few small scuffs on them. I also where the Icon field armor boots that have heels built like a tank so those didn't get anything but a smudge of black asphalt on them. Even tho they are street riding jeans and not full leather I believe they did a lot more good then a regular pair of casual jeans would and the shin/knee guards is what seemed to save my legs the most. Most my riding is out in the country with turns only capable at 65mph tops so I didn't go all out on racing gear even tho it obviously wouldn't hurt. I didn't go down as hard as a lot of serious road racers do but when you look at the gear it definitely did its job.

quick question to anyone that has a sure answere. when I took MSF the instructors said that helmets have impact points and if they are dropped from above waist high or hit hard on the ground the protective shell inside spider cracks to absorb the impact and that if hit in a crash near the same spot the helmet will blow apart and do no good?

At the end roling through the grass my head bumped into my gas tank so I'm skeptical if I should get a new one or ignore what I think sounds overboard and just keep riding with it.

 

Glad to see you made it out ok! Always heard that there are 2 types of riders, those that have been down, and those that are going down. I know I'm eventually going to go down, but I don't plan on pushing the bike to its limits for a while. I just got my F4 running (that I got free from a friend) and its a blast. Glad I got a 600 instead of a 250 like my friend was trying to get me on. 230lbs, 5'11"...wouldn't have enough umph to get me going. Lol, Again...glad your alright!