Yup... yours truly went for a lil slide down the road this afternoon[sm=boosign.gif] No worries about me, I'm fine.... bike is a lil bruised but nothing major. I went up friday night to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the shuttle launch, then ended up staying up there at a buddies house in Lakeland for the weekend, went on a nice sunday morning group ride up there this morning, then had this on my way home this afternoon. Happened coming into some little *** town on Rt. 78 between north Ft. Myers and LaBelle, a route I've taken a million times before. But there's a 15 mph curve with a stop sign right after it, so I'm approaching it and somehow missed seeing a crapload of sand all over the road. I don't know how I missed it either, I'm always looking for stuff in the road. But obviously I did miss it, cuz I went into the curve and BAM slid right out from under me. I was only doing about 20-25 mph, and we both went down on the left side. I got a big *** bruise on my leg from landing on my big *** ring of keys in my pocket, lol. But other than that no damage to me. Bike got a rashed tail section, broken shift lever, rashed side fairing and signal (<-- gotta get rid of those thing anyways!!), and scuffed up the front upper, clutch lever, and bar end. Oh and snapped the mirror too. My backpack didn't budge though!!

Sooo lesson learned... gotta pay more attention to stuff in the road... and get some damn frame sliders already too! [sm=icon_beat.gif] Already called my buddy to see about sanding and repainting the tail and upper

On a brighter note, as I got back into town I was merging from I-75 onto the Sawgrass Expy and noticed farther back there was a big heavy plastic cooler in the middle of the road. I guess hitting some sand at 20 mph was better than hitting a cooler at highway speed!

A few pics...

 

I had the gravel thing happen to me at about 10mph. Good to hear you are OK.

 

That's sucks man. Atleast your ok and the bike is not too bad off. Looks like your arm woulda took a beating but you had your gear on!

 

Hey buddy. Sorry about the spot of bad luck. Glad to hear your ok.

 

Hey Jared, didnt you getinto an accident like two months ago?Time to take a refresher class! Remember, if you're okay, it's okay.

 

Yea I got rear ended by the old guy in the Benz back in April (I think)... wasn't really my fault . I was watching him too and he was going so slow I thought he was gonna stop, but he didn't and by then it was too late [:@] This kinda thing frustrates me though cuz I'm always so careful of stuff like this... I'm constantly looking for things in the road, but somehow or another I missed all this sand. Guess I was focusing more on the apex of a tight curve instead of what was in it. Lesson learned! Hey I can't really complain... in 93k this is the first time I've ever been down due to debris in the road... it happens. This is the exact reason I don't ride hard on the street, especially down here in SoFla, there's sooo much debris in the roads all the time.

Oh well, I wasn't hurt so it's all good. Gear is definitely a good thing!! I'd have a very rashed up arm right now otherwise

 

Glad to hear you're good Bud! I, too, am always looking fro crap in the road...I was kinda following a bit too close to a car on I-5 and all of a sudden there was a towing chain right in my path...HOLY SH*T! Scared the do-do out of me...Luckily I went right over it...Time to drop back a bit...
RB

 

Hey man one crash in 93,00 miles is nothing short of incredible. You're gonna be one of those guys who show up all over the TV once you hit a million miles. I'll remember to look for you then I would consider myself extremely lucky if I got to ride as much as you do. Keep up the good work

 

Ouch, sand is a witch, sorry for the misfortune, Keep the gear on, even with the high temp's never know when you'll miss a sandy patch in the road[&:]

 

Man you're tellin me... it was friggin HOT today!! But I wouldn't even think about riding without gear regardless of temp... that's just stupid. I went by a bank sign earlier this afternoon a little while before this happened, and it said 98 degrees [:-] I was outside most of the weekend in the heat, and I dehydrated myself pretty bad, as the whole way back today I wasn't feeling the greatest and could tell I wasn't at 100%. I hadn't eaten anything all day and had no appetite at all (I passed by 3 Sonic drive in's without stopping to eat... unheard of for me!), and was having trouble staying focused at times. I kept stopping and drank waters and gatorades, but I think the heat was just getting to me.... hell that might have had something to do with not seeing all this sand in the road, who knows.

But on a brighter note... I did just order a bunch of new bike parts! Got a new left side fairing, stator cover and gasket, clutch lever, shifter lever, mirror, and finally... some Vortex frame sliders! But now I'm broke again, hahah. Oh well, it'll be worth it