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- Mar 3, 2003
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Sorry...a little long winded ....
You have to get a little background first. I had a trip planned for this weekend to big bend. I had the reservations, trip all planned, sites picked, and I even got the third piece to my cortech luggage so that I could carry everything. My problem employee finally laid the proverbial straw that broke the camels back about 10 days ago and all **** broke loose. I ended up working all last week-end and crazy hours all week to recode one of his applications, but there was no way I could go live on Thursday and then leave Friday on my trip....Big Bend put on hold
Today, with the application live, and knowing that "he" only has a few more days in my hair, I decided to ride. I had nothing planned, but I planned to put in at least 8 good hours. After meandering around canyon lake, stopping in Luckenbach, and heading north through Fredricksburg, I decide to take 16 north and just see what's up there. I came to Willow City and had always heard what a great ride the "Willow City Loop" was. If you've never been there, I think that it's one of the most beautiful area's I've seen since coming to Texas. Anyway, I come to a low water crossing and I think, OK...I've done these at least a dozen times in the last year and it's no big deal. I slow way down, enter the water, and the next thing I know, I'm sliding across the road. I immediately go over, kill the bike and pick it up (adrenalin is a wonderful thing).
At that point the first thing that comes to my mind is "Oh Crap....this is going to be expensive".
Damage (as far as I can tell right now) -- the zero gravity double bubble is toast, left fairing is scraped up pretty badly, but not cracked, clutch is bent (it almost loops around my finger now), gear shift is bent, the little "bob" that is on the kick stand that you push down with your heal was ground away, and the cortech left saddle bag is scrapped pretty bad. Except for the plastic, I should be able to do everything myself, so not too bad. (I was going less than 10 mph so it could have been much worse)
Lessons learned --
1. Water on the road is dangerous...yes that is obvious, but some of us are more thick headed than others. I went and looked, and this was about one inch of water and about 2 inches of slime....VERY slippery even to walk on. I feel stupid enough, but two out of the three bikes that stopped fishtailed pretty badly going through the water and they even knew about it. Of course they are probably drinking some beers talking about it and I'm here trying to figure out a positive spin for this when my wife find out.
2. If I'm going to go through the trouble to put on soft luggage, I should carry a bottle of water (I normally do, but this time I left in a hurry). You'd be surprised hot much you sweat standing in the sun waiting for someone to come by
3. Riding gear is great -- I came down straight on my left elbow and the bike came down on my left leg. My Triumph boots and the padding/soft armor in my Phoenix jacket saved my hide (I was VERY surprised that there is not even a scratch on the jacket...just a dirt mark where I landed)
4. Don't procrastinate -- for two months I was going to drop my cell phone service (Sprint PCS....it's terrible!!!) and I didn't. Three Harleys were the first ones by (VERY nice people....motorcyclists are great). There were three guys and two women. All of their cell phones had signal and mine didn't. I couldn't get my bike started again so I asked them to call a tow truck (where is that number to AMA Motow again...another thing I have put off).
I did eventually get the bike to start. It blew a little smoke but that cleared right up. I even rode the bike back home (90 miles).
Anyway, with the wife still out of town, and no one at work that rides, I had to share with someone whose first words out of their mouth wouldn't be..."See I told you they were dangerous"
Keep the rubber side down
Bill
You have to get a little background first. I had a trip planned for this weekend to big bend. I had the reservations, trip all planned, sites picked, and I even got the third piece to my cortech luggage so that I could carry everything. My problem employee finally laid the proverbial straw that broke the camels back about 10 days ago and all **** broke loose. I ended up working all last week-end and crazy hours all week to recode one of his applications, but there was no way I could go live on Thursday and then leave Friday on my trip....Big Bend put on hold
Today, with the application live, and knowing that "he" only has a few more days in my hair, I decided to ride. I had nothing planned, but I planned to put in at least 8 good hours. After meandering around canyon lake, stopping in Luckenbach, and heading north through Fredricksburg, I decide to take 16 north and just see what's up there. I came to Willow City and had always heard what a great ride the "Willow City Loop" was. If you've never been there, I think that it's one of the most beautiful area's I've seen since coming to Texas. Anyway, I come to a low water crossing and I think, OK...I've done these at least a dozen times in the last year and it's no big deal. I slow way down, enter the water, and the next thing I know, I'm sliding across the road. I immediately go over, kill the bike and pick it up (adrenalin is a wonderful thing).
At that point the first thing that comes to my mind is "Oh Crap....this is going to be expensive".
Damage (as far as I can tell right now) -- the zero gravity double bubble is toast, left fairing is scraped up pretty badly, but not cracked, clutch is bent (it almost loops around my finger now), gear shift is bent, the little "bob" that is on the kick stand that you push down with your heal was ground away, and the cortech left saddle bag is scrapped pretty bad. Except for the plastic, I should be able to do everything myself, so not too bad. (I was going less than 10 mph so it could have been much worse)
Lessons learned --
1. Water on the road is dangerous...yes that is obvious, but some of us are more thick headed than others. I went and looked, and this was about one inch of water and about 2 inches of slime....VERY slippery even to walk on. I feel stupid enough, but two out of the three bikes that stopped fishtailed pretty badly going through the water and they even knew about it. Of course they are probably drinking some beers talking about it and I'm here trying to figure out a positive spin for this when my wife find out.
2. If I'm going to go through the trouble to put on soft luggage, I should carry a bottle of water (I normally do, but this time I left in a hurry). You'd be surprised hot much you sweat standing in the sun waiting for someone to come by
3. Riding gear is great -- I came down straight on my left elbow and the bike came down on my left leg. My Triumph boots and the padding/soft armor in my Phoenix jacket saved my hide (I was VERY surprised that there is not even a scratch on the jacket...just a dirt mark where I landed)
4. Don't procrastinate -- for two months I was going to drop my cell phone service (Sprint PCS....it's terrible!!!) and I didn't. Three Harleys were the first ones by (VERY nice people....motorcyclists are great). There were three guys and two women. All of their cell phones had signal and mine didn't. I couldn't get my bike started again so I asked them to call a tow truck (where is that number to AMA Motow again...another thing I have put off).
I did eventually get the bike to start. It blew a little smoke but that cleared right up. I even rode the bike back home (90 miles).
Anyway, with the wife still out of town, and no one at work that rides, I had to share with someone whose first words out of their mouth wouldn't be..."See I told you they were dangerous"
Keep the rubber side down
Bill