First motorcycle?

[Bolas 5]

This happened July 24th, but haven't had a chance until now to get the pictures up and write it up or even start repairs on the bike.

Pics on MySpace:
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=78545634&albumId=2252015

Preface: I am totally fine, a tiny bit of roadrash and a small bump on my elbow. The protective gear did its job beautifully.

Bike Crash

They say every biker lays at least one down eventually. I guess I got mine out of the way pretty quick.

Thursday night I had just gotten back from doing some lake kayaking with a friend in Greensboro. I knew I was going to be very busy getting ready to leave for Montana the next day so I decided to go for a ride.

I was riding around some of the back roads when I came to an intersection where the main looking road with a double yellow line had a Dead End sign and the side road had a to a local state route sign. I took the side road to the state route and decided to meander on home.

I took a different road but ended up back at that same Dead End intersection. I knew where I needed to turn back but my interest was piqued. How far did this road go? I decided to find out.

I started down the road and it was well paved, well maintained. Probably 2-3 miles down the road the double line disappeared so I slowed down a bit. I was probably going at most 30 when I saw a driveway to the right and the road went left.

The next thing I know I’m off the bike and on the ground. I don’t even recall sliding in the gravel or that it was there. I get up as I’m unhurt and walk over to the bike which was on its side and still running. I shut it off and then look down at the road and was amazed at how thick the gravel was. It was paved underneath so that made it all the more treacherous. There were cows in a field right next to the road that started mooing. My guess is they were laughing, once they saw I was okay.

I walk over to the bike and pick it up. At this point I noticed some of the damage. The front light glass was busted but the bulb was fine, the left turn signal was busted, the shifter and foot peg were completely bent up, and the left carb was leaking gas.

I shut off the fuel and while I was clearing my head I cleaned up some of the broken pieces scattered on the road and take off my jacket, helmet and gloves. At that point I decided to see if the shifter would still operate. I was able to get it into first back to Neutral and managed to upshift too.

My thought was since the light still worked and was able to shift, if I could stop the fuel leak I could limp it home.

The first thing I check was if the fuel only leaked from the carb when the engine was off. I started the motor and the fuel still leaked. I gave it some throttle to see if that stopped it from leaking but that didn’t work either.

There seemed to be a hose or endcap missing where it was leaking so I looked to see if I could find if one had fallen off. I was unable to find anything. About this time an older gentleman comes out from the driveway on a Gator with a dog.

I say hello and tell him what happened and why I was there. He told me I almost made it to the dead end, it was just around the curve. He says he heard the noise of the crash earlier but was doing something and decided to check it out when he heard my bike again. I told him what was going on and he thanked me for cleaning up the pieces on his road. He said he didn’t know anything about motorcycles but called a friend who maybe knew something.

The friend, his wife, and his dog came out on a Kubota and said I was missing a hose between the two carbs. We both looked but saw nothing. He got some tubing and with some wire hooked the two carbs together. The gas still leaked from another place, but less. I decided to try to make it home. I put back on all my protective gear and start the bike up. It sputtered and stalled once but started up again. I had just turned around to limp back when the bike stalled again. This time it would not start at all. I rolled it down a hill to try it on flat ground but no luck.

In retrospect, I believe it was some sort of air intake on the bottom of the carb. By hooking the two together I starved it of air and flooded it. Had I disconnected and clamped off the fuel line from the leaking carb, I would have been better off.

At this point the older gentleman said I could either push it up the hill to his house of there was field down the hill I could put it in. I elected for the field and then he told me he’d give me a lift back to my house.

He was a mailman and we rode in his mail jeep back to my place. It was a good thing he did, because even if the bike had made it, I would have gone a much longer way. I offered to buy him some beer, but he was a non drinker.

Once back at my place I thank him again for all his help and for the lift and contemplate how I’m going to get the bike the next day.

Recovery

The next day I contact one of my work friends who has a truck. The minute I mention ramps he asks what happened to my bike. He didn’t have any ramps and suggested another friend of ours but he lives over an hour away.

I decide to see if I can rent a trailer as my RV van has a hitch I usually have a hitch basket on.

I contact the local UHaul place and see if they have a trailer with a ramp. The only thing they had was a 2 wheel auto carrier and a 4 wheel auto carrier but it was reserved. I call a few other UHaul places and they didn’t have the trailer with the ramp either. I thought about renting a small UHaul truck with the ramp, but the local place didn’t have any and it was $1 a mile.

I click on some trailer links on the site and see they rent a motorcycle trailer!!! I excitedly call the 800 number and reserve one. They couldn’t tell me where it was but they said I’d get a call in under an hour.

About 30 minutes later I get a call from the UHaul place but they are almost an hour a way. I cancel the reservation. I look at the two wheel auto carrier on the site and decide I can probably make that work.

I talk to the friend an hour away and he wasn’t coming this way today and I didn’t want to ask him to. He did have a trailer but it required a brake system which my van didn’t have.

About this time my next door neighbor comes down the street back to his house in his panel truck. I walk over and tell him what happened. He say his truck doesn’t have ramps but he has some for loading his 4 wheeler on his pickup. He gets them for me and I decide to see if with the ramps I can load the bike onto the hitch basket on the back of my van.

I load the ramps up, grab some bungee cords and drive over to where the bike is and the same curve with gravel that made me drop the bike nearly put my van in the ditch. I didn’t stand a chance.

I get to the field and the older guy’s son, his dog, and his boy are there on another Gator. I tell him who I am, my exact words, “Hi, I’m the idiot who wrecked this bike last night.”

About this time the other man who helped last night comes up on his Kubota.

We setup the ramp and push the bike up onto the hitch basket. The problem is the bike is too long to fit and the brake pedal on the “good” side is catching on the van’s spare tire. After trying a few things we roll the bike back down, turn it around, and back it up the ramp. Using the other ramp as a lever we are able to balance the bike on the basket.

They tell me if I tie it down good it might stay but I’d want to go slow. I tell them I only have bungee cords. One of the guys produces some knotted up bailing twine and I start to untangle it.

While doing this I say, “I really can’t thank you enough for all your help. I hope for all the trouble I’ve caused, I’ve at least been entertaining.”

We get the twine untangled and double it up and secure the bike all over to the basket, the rear tire mount, and a combination of the two.

Once it seems as secured as it can be they say, “We should know pretty quick if this will hold, but I wouldn’t go much more than 20 and don’t make any sudden stops.”

I thank them again and put on the hazard lights and start slowly driving. The original plan was to take it right to the bike shop but it was quite a bit further away so I nixed that idea. The bike stayed fairly stable. I stopped to check it once, but everything was fine. I did miss the turn on my way back so I had to be on the main road a little longer. There was an idiot that decided to get right on my bumper. I was thinking that if it the bike falls off now, his hood and car is toast.

I thought to myself, “If I saw a motorcycle attached to a van with twine hanging half off a basket with it’s hazards on, I think I’d hang back a bit.”

Thankfully the bike made it back to my house. To unload it I decided to use a “redneck ramp” and just back the van into my ditch as far as I could. I cut all the twine off and the same ramp that kept the bike stable made it a little difficult to get off. Finally by angling the bike I was able to get if off.

Amazingly the van didn’t get stuck in the ditch, but the hitch basket did leave a huge divot.

So now the bike is sitting back in it’s garage. I’ll need to order some replacement parts and get it to the shop.

However this time I’ll use either a trailer, a hitch motorcycle carrier, or a truck and some ramps.

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[Beerlight 0]

Glad things worked out. I have AAA. I had a blowout on my bike (didn't wreck, got it stopped), and AAA sent a truck out with a flatbed to pick it up and deliver to the shop 8 miles away. Cost AAA about $230, cost me zero. Well, I pay about $70 per year for the service.

[Squeak 17]

a little bit of heat and a pein hammer will sort out your shift lever.
The older ones were mailable and great to bend and fix. the new alloyones just snap

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[normiss 800]

bitch~....