Jeez, I wish Hutch would get around to postin his pics to take the focus off those stupid pants.
Here's the crash part of the story:
Toolin along pretty good behind Hutch on a sweet, curvy, 2-lane off the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was chip-sealed, but I was getting really good traction. I did notice occasional spots of too much chip and not enough seal, but not too bad. (not like when I got pelted by Texian's RC-51 rock wake in Arkansas, anyways.) He'd just gone through a good left-hander, and he'd been doin a good job of pointing out the occasional loose spots. The set-up for the next corner though meant he couldn't point this one, and I wouldn't of seen him pointing anyways. I had it leaned over pretty good (felt like, anyways) and was almost through the corner when I found myself sliding on my stomach almost as soon as I realized the back end had slid out. I didn't have any of the "time-compression" or slow-motion feeling I've had when I've crashed before (dirt bikes), or the "out-of-body" feeling like I'm watching it happen. Just riding, smiling, looking up, then sliding on my stomach and hands.
I do remember dejectedly thinking, and maybe saying, "aww crap" while I was sliding, and having a thought that if I jumped up fast enough I might be able to catch the bike and either minimize the damage or keep it from going over the edge. Neither of those happened though, but I did get to watch the bike slide and spin a 180 away from me on its side (I think it actually sped up on its side!) maybe 20ish feet down the road and come to rest in the grass and dirt off the side before the edge, pointed back down the hill.
I'm not sure I even came to a full stop before I jumped up to try to get the bike, and avoid the obligatory pics, and Gavin came up and pulled over just as soon as I got to the bike, yelling "hold-on" so he could help me pick it up. Alas, I wasn't fast enough, I looked up the hill to see Hutch walking down, camera in hand. I gave him the ADVrider salute, he took a couple pics of the bike on its side, and a couple of the scene, Crash Scene Investigators style.
We righted the bike, and I released a long stream of NSFTWT language. I spent a couple minutes to collect myself, we started it up and let the oil pressure build up, then went on down the road to get to a safer pull-out where I could collect myself a little more and further investigate the damage.
I rode like a big chicken the rest of the day, and well into the trip in fact, never really feeling good (or even ok, for that matter) about corners till late the next day. The deluge on the way to Iron horse put a pretty good damper on spirited riding anyways, though. I found myself doing things wrong
more, like looking right into apexes rather than through the corner, focusing on gravel, rocks, etc..., braking & throttling poorly into & through corners. It did all finally start to come back together though, and I was feeling pretty good right up until Ticket Day.
Now, here's CRASH TESTED:
Icon TIMax shorty gloves: Awesome. Both palms slid for whatever distance, the little metal nubs on the palms got ground down to between all the way flat to 1/2 way, and the parts of the non-nubbed portions of the palms got scuffed pretty good, but no tears to the leather or stitching.
BMW Summer Jean Cargo Pants (or something like that): Good performance, but total loss. Abraded through two layers of cordura and into the knee pad. If it had hit off the pad somewhere, I woulda been at least rasberried, probably cut up pretty good. Definitely a one-crash pant. Actually, these are the same as Redd's - (but a lot bigger) - hers may have a had a life post-wreck, but she was smart enough to crash in mud.
GPStar Leather Jacket (The Offender
like this - not my sale): Didn't really take a hard hit, but scuffed the front in the slide. No tears or other damage.
Icon Alliance Helmet: Didn't get hit, but somewhere along the line cracked the back of one of the top vents.
Oxtar Matrix boots: Probably got scuffed, but not where you could tell with all the rest of the scuffs, scratches, and wear.
So most of the gear was still serviceable, but it all went on the insurance claim anyways.
Lessons Learned:
Gear is Good!!
Wrecks attract cameras.