XS Southeast 2013
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Greg
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
― Albert Einstein
80 SG Ol' Okie;79 engine & carbs w/pods, 45 pilots, 140 mains, Custom Mac 4 into 2 exhaust, ACCT,XS850 final drive,110/90/19 front tire,TKat fork brace, XS750 140 MPH speedometer, Vetter IV fairing, aftermarket hard bags and trunk, LG high back seat, XJ rear shocks.
The list changes. -
You know... looking back on the fixing now, it's a fond memory. Something to remember the trip by. At the time, it pretty much sucked. lol.
Hmmm... Sitting on cold concrete in the drizzling rain for many hours, or sitting at a cushioned barstool chatting with people over pints of Youngs Double Chocolate Stout? Gee... Lemme think about that one. lol.Try your hardest to be the kind of person your dog thinks you are.
You can live to be 100, as long as you give up everything that would make you want to live to be 100!
Current bikes:
'06 Suzuki DR650
*'82 XJ1100 with the 1179 kit. "Mad Maxim"
'82 XJ1100 Completely stock fixer-upper
'82 XJ1100 Bagger fixer-upper
'82 XJ1100 Motor/frame and lots of boxes of parts
'82 XJ1100 Parts bike
'81 XS1100 Special
'81 YZ250
'80 XS850 Special
'80 XR100
*Crashed/Totalled, still ownComment
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Anyway, we walked in to the information counter at the front and asked where we could find Greg and that he'd been flown in a couple hours earlier. She looked in a couple places and said he wasn't in her system anywhere. Harry and I looked at each other... not good news. She said she'd make a couple phone calls, and then I heard her very solumnly say, "ohhh... ohhh... " Then gets off the phone and tells us that apparently he was in really bad shape when he arrived. She told us to go to the other end of the hospital and go talk to a security guard there, tell them who you are looking for, and tell them they came in "Code Trauma". Harry and I glanced at each other again... Everyone knows what "Code" stands for.
So we go to the other end of the hospital and talk to the security guard, lie to them about the brother-in-law thing, tell them Greg's name and that he came in Code Trauma. He looks on his computer and says, "Ummm.. If I could just get you guys to have a seat over there, I'll get someone to come talk to you. Now.. you said you're family, right?" More looks at each other. After a few minutes, the security guard brings a woman and says, "This is our Chaplain and she'll take you to see him" At this point, we both knew we were going to see Greg with a sheet draped over him. She never really said anything, and she took us to a room covered by a curtain. She slides it over to reveal Greg.. we see his feet first, and going up all covered with a sheet... then his ugly mug looking at us like, "Well WTF are you guys lookin' at!?" I can't tell you the relief we felt.. then it turned a bit to anger and told them how they'd scared the hell out of us.
So after the crash, Greg had tried to ride into town to go get checked out because he thought he'd broken a rib. I told him he'd sure ridden a long way just to crash, and he told me he loved me in his own special way. (F U!!) After @ 15 miles, he pulled over and knew something wasn't right and told us to call an ambulance. When he sat up, he felt like he was going to pass out. (Blood loss from a ruptured spleen) When we had him lay on his back, he couldn't breathe. (Collapsing lung from a pneumothorax.. probably rib puncturing lung)
Sounds like he's going to be around to irritate the heck out of us for a while longer though. Everyone helping with taking care of him, his bike, his belongings, and trying to figure out a way to get him and his bike home, I wanted to say thank you.Try your hardest to be the kind of person your dog thinks you are.
You can live to be 100, as long as you give up everything that would make you want to live to be 100!
Current bikes:
'06 Suzuki DR650
*'82 XJ1100 with the 1179 kit. "Mad Maxim"
'82 XJ1100 Completely stock fixer-upper
'82 XJ1100 Bagger fixer-upper
'82 XJ1100 Motor/frame and lots of boxes of parts
'82 XJ1100 Parts bike
'81 XS1100 Special
'81 YZ250
'80 XS850 Special
'80 XR100
*Crashed/Totalled, still ownComment
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I am also glad to hear Greg is doing well. Scott relayed that story to me, of course, since he knew the outcome it came out a bit more humorously.
I to recall when Trainzz had his accident. It was not to awful long before I had mine. I recall them telling me all that doctor speak for the stuff I messed up like compound fractures, pneumo-something, (which in my case was doc speak for a punctured lining of the lung, or blood in the lining of the lung, but no puncture), flail chest...and recalling it sounding a lot like the stuff they said was wrong with Trainzz. All I know is that I feel quite lucky in many ways. Hearing the issues for Greg with the spleen (after almost 50 years I still have no clue what a spleen doesother than get injured pretty regularly on them doctor shows) and punctured lung, which I somehow escaped although I broke almost every rib on the right side twice, its good to hear he is healing well.
So good to know it was no worse than it was, and that all seem to be doing well.Life is what happens while your planning everything else!
When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.
81 XS1100 Special - Humpty Dumpty
80 XS1100 Special - Project Resurrection
Previously owned
93 GSX600F
80 XS1100 Special - Ruby
81 XS1100 Special
81 CB750 C
80 CB750 C
78 XS750Comment
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We did the best we could. Accidents still happen. I'd like to point out that I thought we had the riders well sorted this year. The front had the smoothest riders and speeds were law abiding. AFAIK, the guys in the back weren't catching the 100 mph whip.
While this is no fun for Greg, I'm glad it wasn't worse. Motorcycling is dangerous and we do our best not to make it more so. I'm confident Greg will be with us again next year.Marty (in Mississippi)
XS1100SG
XS650SK
XS650SH
XS650G
XS6502F
XS650EComment
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While we seem to be focusing on the bad news, it sounds like you had an awesome rally. And for certain Marty, no one, including Greg himself has suggested there is anything anyone else could have done or should have done to prevent what happened. As the LEO told me when my daughter totaled my F150, "We call them accidents and not on purposes for a reason".Life is what happens while your planning everything else!
When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.
81 XS1100 Special - Humpty Dumpty
80 XS1100 Special - Project Resurrection
Previously owned
93 GSX600F
80 XS1100 Special - Ruby
81 XS1100 Special
81 CB750 C
80 CB750 C
78 XS750Comment
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We did the best we could. Accidents still happen. I'd like to point out that I thought we had the riders well sorted this year. The front had the smoothest riders and speeds were law abiding. AFAIK, the guys in the back weren't catching the 100 mph whip.
While this is no fun for Greg, I'm glad it wasn't worse. Motorcycling is dangerous and we do our best not to make it more so. I'm confident Greg will be with us again next year.
It was a great rally. Harry and I didn't get much of the group ride, but we still got a good bit of riding in on Sunday, so the trip wasn't a waste. Thinking of bringing my oldest son next year.Try your hardest to be the kind of person your dog thinks you are.
You can live to be 100, as long as you give up everything that would make you want to live to be 100!
Current bikes:
'06 Suzuki DR650
*'82 XJ1100 with the 1179 kit. "Mad Maxim"
'82 XJ1100 Completely stock fixer-upper
'82 XJ1100 Bagger fixer-upper
'82 XJ1100 Motor/frame and lots of boxes of parts
'82 XJ1100 Parts bike
'81 XS1100 Special
'81 YZ250
'80 XS850 Special
'80 XR100
*Crashed/Totalled, still ownComment
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I plan to try ang get one or both f my boys to join us next year. I don't plan to miss out and MAY even talk SWMBO into going.
JohnJohn is in an anonymous city with an Alamo (N29.519227,W-98.678980)
Go ahead, click on the bikes - you know you want to...the electrons are ready.
'81 XS1100H - "Enterprise"
Bob Jones Custom Navy bike: Tkat brace, EBC floating rotors & SS lines, ROX pivot risers, Geezer rectifier, new 3H3 engine
"Not all treasure is silver and gold"Comment
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I didn't wish to suggest that there was blame coming my way. I simply wanted to point out to anyone not in attendance that our group was well behaved. Often times, we can get a little crazy on these rides, but that was not the case at this rally. To the best of my knowledge everyone was riding their own ride.
Greg was positioned toward the front with the smoothest riders. The report I got from a rider behind him was that he appeared to be riding well within his limits and was having no trouble negotiating the turns and leaving margin for error. We can only surmise that his concentration lapsed at an inappropriate time. The road we were on has some technical turns and few if any of them are marked by signs. On this road, there is little chance of leaving the pavement without getting hurt.Marty (in Mississippi)
XS1100SG
XS650SK
XS650SH
XS650G
XS6502F
XS650EComment
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I think that is the first time I have ever wanted to smack a chaplain. LOL. She said she didn't know that no one had told us anything about his status.
To everyone that helped out with Gregs situation, thank you very much. Couldn't ask for a better group of people. Everyone was more than willing to do whatever they could to help.
As Tod said, we still got some great riding in even though we missed most of the group rides. That stretch of I40 between Asheville and Knoxville was a blast.
As far as the actual incident, I was towards the back of the pack, a couple riders behind Greg. The pace was not an issue at all. After I realized I was grinding my sidestand on the sharp left handers, I decided I had better take it a little easier and dropped to the back. At that point in the ride, we were going fast enough to make it fun but it wasn't extremely challenging. The group was still all together and there was zero whiplash effect going on.Harry
The voices in my head are giving me the silent treatment.
'79 Standard
'82 XJ1100
'84 FJ1100
Acta Non VerbaComment
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Back to the ride. Since I was leading the 2nd bunch, it's tough to tell what is going on in the back. The 2nd group was keeping pace with the first and the riders appeared to be well sorted. We did not appear to have any gaps and the corner carving was big fun. We did lose a couple of riders who fell behind. No one waited at the turns for them. Hopefully, we can improve on that next time. Overall, I was well pleased with how well that many motorcycles moved along together at such a pace. My hat's off to Gary and Bruce for herding the first group so well and thus setting a smooth pace for the second group. Let's do that again!Marty (in Mississippi)
XS1100SG
XS650SK
XS650SH
XS650G
XS6502F
XS650EComment
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