Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Today on our SA ride, I had my first off

Approaching a T-junction at reasonable speed, with the road surface continuing on the left track and the right-hand side was just a dirt road. Came in fast-ish, saw a couple of people take the left, saw the rider in front of me (Decoy) going to the right, so I followed (mistake lol) and then realised why he'd gone to the right - TO SLOW DOWN!! Decoy veered a little to the right and I had the following decision to make in about .25 of a second:

a) Go straight ahead into a barbed-wire fence and become pureed
b) Hang left and possibly highside
c) Head right and rear end Decoy and THEN go through barbed wire fence
d) Pull the bike onto its side and hope like fuck I stop before the fence

Needless to say, option D prevailed, and I saw Decoy impact, then it was my turn. I brought the bike down on its right side and landed on my right foot, came down on my right hand and rolled onto my back, sliding head first towards the fence but stopping short It was all over a lot faster than that, of course Leathers really are a good investment, when you think about it, hehe!

Bike's all scratched up down the RHS but of all the things I assumed would be broken, the RHS indicator bulb and filament survived.. but the orange cover broke off..! Front and RHS fairing damage and I'm a lot wiser as to what to do in future.

The group had a bit of a debrief and Marek on his CBR gave me some useful pointers on emergency braking techniques and focus pointss so I can become older and wiser, instead of a few leaky pieces of meat

I'll post some pics of the aftermath in a few mins!

I'M INTO TEAM CRASHED '06!!

*yay* I was in team crash 2005, I'm hoping to skip 2006 but it's still early.

I saw the whole thing from behind, and I hafta say - i hate watching people drop bikes and fall off! Reminds me of how much my hip-pocket got hurt when i dropped my bike - so big sympathy to you and decoy in that regard.

Thankfully no one was seriously hurt and it was only cosmetic damage!

Pity that you missed the reverse police chase later on too

Did Jase rock up, eh? Was he on the big beemer or the off-duty special?

Here's some pics of the damage:

My bike looks like Neka's now!

Pulled out the big beemer - got some wierd-ass looks from passing motorists on Tippets (sp?) Rd too

Then the bastard tried to radar us later on down Gorge Rd i think (i had no idea where i was, and was too shagged to care)

Damage doesn't look *too* bad, just a few scratches ... you going to fix up the fairings or just leave it ?

Hey Decoy, Logan......GO LEFT!!!!!!!!

too late.....

Good skills from both of you to get away so light, from the length of those skids you're both lucky you weren't sliced and diced on the fence.

Marek and Plas both suggested I leave it for the time being whilst I'm still learning the ropes - not a bad idea. If I come off again, I won't need to worry about repainting any fairings hehe

Marek said to leave it as is until I'm going to sell it, THEN fix the damage, as it will be at its best right before it goes.

Yeah when i think about it - i haven't done a rear-brake lock up that *long* even on my trail bike

stevew_zzr wrote:*yay* I was in team crash 2005, I'm hoping to skip 2006 but it's still early.

I too was in team crashed 2005, now I guess team dropped 2006, one of these days I gotta get out of the habit of crashing/dreopping my bike I'm getting a rep almost as bad as Neka's.

Shaman wrote:Marek said to leave it as is until I'm going to sell it, THEN fix the damage, as it will be at its best right before it goes.

Yeah that's probably what i'd do if i dropped my bike now. First time though things were so tatty that i just had to get them fixed (i hate rattling fairings)

Glad to hear that your weren't hurt too badly, the bike is *easy* to fix, but broken bones can take ages......

A lesson like this is always good to learn, I am sure you won't approach T-junctions "....at a reasonable speed..." again, without giving it some *serious* consideration......

Did you guys chase Jason on his work-bike ????? now THAT I gotta see......

It wasn't exactly your normal T-junction though

It's more like the road goes left, and there's a dirt side-road off to the right, it's like a very wide-angle Y junction really

Plus there is NO sign before the corner, and it's just after a bit of a crest.

Every accident is avoidable of course But we still have 'em.

Gosling1 wrote:Did you guys chase Jason on his work-bike ????? now THAT I gotta see......

It's all fun and games until someone pulls out their radar

The crash damage sucks and i am glad to hear that you guys are okay, pays to leave a little room between the bikes on the road that way if something bad happens you have plenty of room to stop.

And it looked like a very nice 250 too may be better to leave a few scratches on it these things come in threes.