pavement surfing.

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so there i am... nailing a posted 15mph 90 degree off camber left hand bend at 45mph (at last glance). everything under control... lots of body steering... hanging off pretty hard. knee raising dust... butt off the seat... feet tucked in, toes on the pegs and i'm still grinding the side stand. oh-oh... running out road... mid corner line correction... oh-oh... thick gravel patch ahead... 'nother line correction... smooth stable corrections (on throttle), bikes holding the line but gravel is unavoidable. front washes out pretty bad... slides for a bit and spins the bike 180 degrees. i eject on the right side... low speed pavement surfing ensues... roll through the gravel shoulder eventually being flung into premium south western wisconsin cabbage. what a fu*king rush!

now folks, please don't get me wrong... i'm no crash junkie. but if you push it hard on the street you will find trouble sooner or later. ride responsibly. i've been unusually frisky all season and in a sense i got what i deserved. sh!t like this needs to stay on the track... i've been edgy all season without my track fix... got two back to back days coming up in early june and one in late june.

oh btw, i'm a-ok. a testament to good gear: my 'stich pants was in for custom alterations (need knee sliders!). but the fully armoured combination of a roadcrafter jacket (also 'stich), textile riding pants (bmw), sidi boots and held gloves show no visible signs of detrimental abrasion! helmet didn't even touch down.

as for the bike... lost the clutch and left side grip assembly, bars bent, tank dinged pretty bad and left side cylinder header ground down pretty good. cylinder head still's serviceable... it will remain as a badge of honour, besides it hides the other scrapes (don't ask!). no frame damage that i can discern. in nutshell, fixable. throw in a premium roaside assistance package and you too could be all set for pavement surfing excursions!

doesn't hurt to be leading a couple of ama club racers who have had mutliple get off's (street and track) -- they have remarkable expertise in accident scene management.

anybody else? get off's worth writing about?

PS. LEYYA, IF YOU READ THIS AND TELL MY MOTHER I WILL KILL YOU!

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stay tuned for future stories... more sh!t than i can handle going on here! besides, i 'm still trying to cleanse it of embellishments... but i DID clout a deer in its snout with my elbow at speed, making my way down the mountain pass through Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming.

hey shahzad, don't hibernate your yamaha, i've had two yamaha's and i rode them thru many winters, they are great all year. actually the ducati is better in winter only because the italians designed a poor coolant system that keeps the bike running really hot. so its like a little heater. this is why i can go out in 15 degree weather. but in the summer it sucks, cooks my legs. probably another reason why i like fall/winter riding better than summer.

bring on the story lad..... oh imagine going thru a right hand turn all leaned off the bike and the bike as a whole just slides horizontally 2 feet to the left, front and back, in the middle of it. thats what happened. just a big shift in the line i was on thru that turn. if the shift kept happening i would have most likelt slid out.

i will be in minneapolis on june 9th, i can put you on the guest list, just remind me later, closer to the show. i wish i wish i could ride my bike on tour, but i know that some days it would be impossible, like when i had to drive for 14 hours from st paul i think it was to detroit. i wouldn't have been able to pull that off and make the show on time. plus 20,000 miles in 7 weeks might be tough to pull off on a bike even for me. hehehe. in the car i can have someone else drive for a bit, but i end up driving the most. on my european tours i always try to drive almost the whole time. its soooo much better there, topped off in the van at 90-110 in the van the whole time.

saadat... i take it that was a rear end slide? i have had my rear end step out on me all too often... but maintaining throttle and no abrupt inputs almost always brings it back in line. your sense of control doen't sound false... more like your instincts served you well. front end... thats a different story... you're as good as down. got another story for you guys... still got ears here?

saadat-- triple rock, june9? i live a block and a half away! i'll be making my way back from the track (road america, wisconsin) -- if our schedules line up i shouldn't be too hard to pick out of the local crowd there... or you for that matter! don't be surprised if a stranger pats your back during a break and offers to buy you a beverage of your choice. you tour with your ride or what?

i've been walking around with a huge f@cking grin all day! there's something liberating about wiping out.

had the local shop look it over for an insurance estimate... they came up with $2600 to repair everything. had a long chat with the head mech and we both came to the conclusion that a new set of handlebars and a clutch master cylinder will restore the bike to serviceable condition. i'll deal with the cosmetics later.

had another long chat with my insurance guy and save for half a dozen or so 'performance awards' courtesy of local law enforcement i've got a clean accident record (well, as far as they know anyway!). i'm gonna absorb the cost to repair and keep a clean accident record. besides i've got a set of renthal bars i've been meaning to install for sometime now. replacement master cyclinder for clutch is on order. labor is all mine... so the cost is still well under my deductible!

looks like i'll be back on two wheels before the upcoming long weekend is out. throwing on a set of metzeler m1-sportecs for the upcoming track days... yes, thats right; i'm looking to show up the racer boys on an old man's ride! (dang, there's that ego again!) have some options on a race tuned sv650s or a cbr600rr but if the current plan holds, i'll be doing the track day on my baby. at 31K miles she's about broke in and running like fine swiss watch. hell, i barely wrapped up my 30K service before i wiped out... swapped out engine/tranny/final drive fluids, valve adjustment, throttle body synch all complete just a bunch of off odds and ends greasing and some electrical connections (mostly my past screw ups) that needed attention.

rubber side down, people!

wow, thats awesome, i had a close call recently as well. but recovering from a slide on gravel by 2 feet or so, thru a 15 mph right hander on a back road with no markings on it, was sooo exhilerating. the scary thing was i felt like i was in control the whole time, but i know that i could have easily had more troubles and gone down. i've never taken a spill, but i am also a bit "friskier" this season. need to get on the track, my boss is going for three mondays this month and has invited me, but i'll be on tour soon.

uploaded more pics to a public gallery on insanehussain.smugmug.com if anybody's interested.

Village Journals Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.

pavement surfing.

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Village Journals

Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.