Bike induced injuries

[John]

This may sound a little morbid, but given the rash of accidents these past couple of weeks, and the fact that the guy who was with me when I crashed, laid his KZ1000 down this past Friday, I was wondering how many of you have been down, and what was the extent of your injuries? Most of you know of my injuries, but what about yours?
Like they say, there are two kinds of bike riders. Those who have been down, and those who will be going down.
At the urging of TC, here is a description of my accident:

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7295&highlight=accident

The end result was a burst fracture of the L1 vertabrea, and a fusion of T11, T12, L1, L2 and L3 vertabrea with titainium rods and screws.

[yamahansolo]

mine was very mild! i had just bought the bike a week before and i had never ridden more than a couple miles from home and i decided to ride to my parents house, i had to make a left turn that goes up a hill. well little did i know that gravel pooled at the bottom of this hill so i was partially leaned over while turning and my front tire caght the gravel and that's all she wrote! luckily it was on the 79 xs750 special and the crash bars helped. i only tore my glove a little and that was it.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey John,

At least you could have reiterrated your experience for the NEWBIES here that hadn't read that old thread!?

I've been down several times. My first was just a few weeks after getting my new Yamaha TX500A Twin 4 stroke street machine for HS graduation! Thru a bizarre turn of events, my best friend ran on his Honda 175 ran into me 10 miles out of town on a dark 2 lane road in Texas, essentially destroyed his bike, did $1,100 worth of damage to my $1,400 bike, but this was '76, and it didn't get totalled, but got rebuilt by the insurance co!

Both he and I walked away from it with bruises and minimal road rash!

My second event ('86) was when I found the front end of a cage 2 blocks from home going to work, it cut in front of me, I couldn't swerve, hit the brakes hard, then the car STOPPED, plowed into the fender with my 81SH, flew thru my windscreen, landed and crushed the cages front windshield, and then fell off the side of the car. Got up, brushed the broken glass off, had a nice goose egg on my left thigh, but otherwise no damage to me!

3rd time was just a few weeks later after the dealer fixed my bike, middle of summer, 95+ temp days, rode the bike to work on Friday....had gotten tired of the heat/sweat so I had left my leather jacket at home! Was riding home on 2 lane same way highway in the left lane, had the throttle lock set, came upon a hill with slowing traffic, just tapped the brakes but didnt' release the t-lock, crested hill, they were all stopped, grabbed brakes, but was in panic(inexperience mode) engine still pushing with T-lock on, crossed up the front wheel and got thrown down at estimated ~45mph, slapped the pavement with palms(no gloves) and then went into a side roll, like 20 times, just holding on to my helmet with my hands till I came to a stop! Road rashed arms, knee, ankle, shoes blew off, but I was just sitting there pissed for loosing it! Got the bike picked up, fixed the broken spark plug with a piece of belt chord, got a ticket for following too closely , and limped it the 20+miles on to home. Was back at work the following Monday with just bandages!

I learned how to fall at an early age with my bicycles, and apparently kept practicing! Have been relatively incident free since.....we won't talk about the time it slipped out from under me going to XSEast 2002!
T.C.

[AlanB]

Hi Guys,

Took a big hit when I was eighteen(1979!); rode my RD 350 into a cast-iron lamp post.

Smashed my left knee-cap (thirteen pieces!)
Damaged hip joint
Broke top three ribs
Broken collar bone (I'm still an inch narrower on the left!)
Broken shoulder joint
Broken jaw
Broke side out of skull (the bit with the ear on it; not right into the brain-case!)
Broke one of the two nerves feeding by left arm (No bicep, etc!)
Testicles described by the senior nurse as "looking like two angry aubergines"(eggplant!)

And all with hardly a touch of skin damage!
Three days on a respirator, Ten days in intensive care, five weeks in plaster, ...... And back on the same bike Five months later. I was riding the bike to my appointments with the physiotherapist to get my left arm working properly!

Fell off the d@mn thing again one year and two days later; rear tyre blow-out while laid over in a bend at about 85...

Spectacular damage to the bike, and scraped almost all of the skin off of my ass!

Back on it in around a month; bike was fixed quicker, I just couldn't sit down!

All OK now, but knees ache a bit in the cold!

AlanB

[Wildkat]

It's only a flesh wound...

and a bit of wounded ego when I went down at a redlight intersection after a light rain had slicked it up a bit...
Slid like a pro racer across the intersection, right behind my bike... and right in front of my ex-husband and his new bride at his place of employment... on what would have been our 4 year anniversary...

Picked up the bike (John did that for me, IIRC)... what was left of my pride... and rode home...
Had a NICE road rash on my thigh... and was pretty achey for awhile afterward...

[prometheus578]

"Do I have to post these again?"

Braked and skidded on a wet curve... trying to avoid the wreck in front of me.
Full helmet saved me face, leather saved me arse.
Windshield, generator cover, headlight bucket and turn signal.
[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]

[TopCatGr58]

Re: "Do I have to post these again?"

What do you mean again, I never saw them!

Come on Prom, you're an Aquarian, you're supposed to be great in/on water!
T.C.

[Crazcnuk]

Lets see... Wiped out my street bike racing a guy on the motocross track, I was in the lead. No damage to me, forks never held oil again, and the exhaust was open port after that

Kickstand spring broke in 1979, came down in a left corner. I went up the sidewalk into a low rock wall. Put my shoe back on, limped to the bike, straightened a few things and went home for lunch.

1981, Beer Strike. Flipped the TS250 over backwards on the way for more beer. Took a big chunk out of my ankle, freinds took me to hospital a few hours later, when the noticed the blood under the table. Found out a buddy had spiked my drink with acid.

Emergency nurse tells me "If it wasnt' for motorcycles, we'd have nothing to do at night!"


1990 towing new trailer frame home, idiot cut me off in traffic, panic stop, jacknike, fell over at about 2mph. Bent the trailer hitch a little.

1992 On the back of my freinds 650 Maxim. He had just given some kids a lecture about motorcycles and drinking. Went through an intersection, turning left, he hit gravel and laid it over. I simply hit the ground running...

1993 Was going to turn left onto a major street. Stopped, waited for traffic. A car was coming from my left, signals to turn into my street, I start to go. Last millesecond I realize he's not turning, I stop dead and fall over. No damage to me or bike, but really, really mad.

[Pat Kelly]

I've never been down on the street (over 30 years now). Have had hundreds of close calls. Been hit 3 times by cars (still never been down).
Only been in one car accident and I was a passenger.

[planedick]

Let me count....

1st was a get off on the freeway after hitting some concrete posts laid down in a gore point. I was racing a cage down a ramp from one freeway to another. I was doing about 80 mph and I landed in between lanes, luckily, did lots of flopping and riding on my buck knife sheath. Mild rash on right arm and left hip destroyed sheath, bent front rim, broke off right side of the handle bar and much other things like brake handles and mirrors etc.

The big one was putting the bike into the back seat of a '62 Pontiac 4 door. Guy turned left in front of me and I was doing about 70 mph and didn't even have time to touch the brakes. I did have time to jump high enough that the body got over the cage and my feet hit the handle bars that started me spinning which was a good thing so when I hit the road I was all tucked in. Totaled the bike which was the same one repaired after the 1st one. Both of these were before helmets. (Mid '60's) All I ended up with was a small bump on my forehead. I must say in my defense is that at that time people were not used to seeing MC's in the traffic picture and would look you right in the eye and did not see you, and I was a newly arrived country boy from the finger lakes area of upstate NY and wasn't used to the city traffic and freeways etc.

Hopefully, I have learned more about these CA cages in LA and gained lots more experience. I should be more careful these days as I probably don't heal nearly as fast as then.

[Meatloaf]

One close call.

1982 on my special. 18 years old.

Girlfriend and I are in the process of splitting up. She gets off bike in a huff. I fasten helmet to clip and angrily scream out into traffic full throttle...

...merging right into the side of a tractor trailer. Bike doesn't go down but force of impact shoots spare helmet across road. Not even entirely sure what part I hit. Truck and I both pull over and driver runs back saying "holy crap! I can't believe your not under the wheels". I'm embarrassed this happened in front of girlfriend, ruining my big exit, so I just wave at driver and take off.

Drove straight to hospital. Nothing broken but leg turned black and was on crutches for a week.

Weird, but the spare helmet actually saved my leg.

[prometheus578]

"Geez, T.C., I thought you read everything."

Last Sept.

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11438&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

[skipt]

two major ones

First one was back about 1975 riding my 1973 Z1. I was racing an
Austin-Heally through a right/left/right ess curve and got into
some loose sand and hit the center divider. Split my right shin
open to the bone. Me and the bike were repaired then the bike
was stolen from my residence.

Fast forward to Nov. 2005. Me on my 2004 VTX1800, She in her
Toyota Camry trying to occupy the same space at the same time.
Toyota kinda won that one. Amputated my left leg below the
knee.

Still ride and look forward to getting my XS restored.

[fredintoon]

I musta owned over 100 bikes since the mid 1950s. I used to fall off them regularly,
mostly silly inattention stuff at low speed. Only two with sidecar rigs. One was my very first sidecar ride, young Mr Stupid forgot they didn't lean over and rattled down a dock railing, t'other was not my fault. Trying to ride home in a snowstorm and didn't see my turn-off until too late. Thought, I will drive on down the disused portion of this highway and make a U-turn.
Due to the poor visibility the other thing I didn't see was the earth berm the city workers had just built across the street that very day. Wham-O! But I've gotten better. I only fell off my XS650 once (again, low speed & inattention) and I bought it new. Haven't fallen off my XS11 at all because the sidecar holds it upright and nobody in this country throws up earth berms across the highway without they put up flashing lights to let you know.

[wingnut]

16 years old and tooling across a parking lot on the 100CC twin Yamaha 2 stroke I had bought for 60 bucks. A Que Tip (little old stick of a lady with white hair) in a Buick T-bones me at an intersection. No helmet, no gloves, just a tee shirt and jeans. I flipped over the hood and landed on the roof of her car. Big cut on my leg and the hip hurts like H#@%%. Bike is pretty bent. I walked (limped) away pushing the Yamaha and went back to work. Put the bike away after that and didn’t even think about motorcycles for about 6 months. Ended up fixing it and riding again. I still have a fear of Que Tips in Buicks.