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Those who have and those who will. Crash stories.

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Back on the plane today. All day :( with 2 hour layover.

So, for reading....

Tell us your stories of times you crashed on a motorcycle.
 
College days ...

Serviced the Kawasaki dirt bike at a friend's place.
Noticed some girlz walking down the street.
Quickly put the bike back together, pulled out on the street, stood up on the seat and began riding a wheelie in an attempt to "impress" da ladies.

Then the seat came unlatched ... well, I guess, in my haste, it was never actually latched ...

I don't wheelie much any more ...
 
Ha, short story but I was riding between Dell City Texas and Cloudcroft New Mexico. I crashed a few times on that trip. Once I was doing about 50 down the dirt road and came over a hill and the road made a sharp right. I did not. Boon docked it across the desert till I hit a small mesquite tree. The other part I got stuck in a deep rut and was trying to ride through it. Finally I fell over and got pinned under the bike. The problem was it was open grazing and I was in the middle of a heard of cows. As soon as I went down, they moved in to inspect. I could not get unpinned untill I got them to give me some room. No harm no foul šŸ˜‚
 
First crash: Was headed to Strokers on 7/11 day (just had a free Slurpee!) and was in the right lane doing 35 in a 45 approaching a stale red light with a clear right lane in front of me; 7 cars in the middle lane; maybe 6 in the left lane. Light changes as I'm approaching, I have a clear lane through the light, and then car #3 in the middle lane decides to cut over into my open lane, so I start to slow. Car #3's actions inspired the Toyota 4Runner that was #7 to do the same thing, and he swerved into the right lane just as I was passing him, sending me flying over his hood like Superman. He claimed to the police "another car cut him off" but it was pretty obvious what happened.

Second crash: Was headed to ride Mines Road on 12/30 and was stuck behind 3 cars on the 2 lane first section of it; went to pass them on an open straight and the first car (Chevy 2500 series) made a left in front of me. Evaded as much as I could but still bounced off her driver's door at about 30mph. There's a video if you want to watch, caution, vulgarity.

Third crash: Sideswiped while lane splitting on 680. Not much more to it than that.
 
Riding a Suzuki 2-stroke that was having carburetor problems I had been adjusting and testing. There was a dry ditch that I had been having trouble getting out of with the bike running bad, so after an adjustment I rode down in the ditch and twisted the throttle to get up and out. The bike came up on the power band and came out from under me, I laid there on my back and watched the bike go up the side of the ditch get some air and disappear. I got my self up and struggled up out of the ditch to a round of applause from the pit area there by the ditch. I was told the bike came out of the ditch got some good air landed and went another 30 yards before it came to a stop laying over on its side.
Crash? Embarrassed yep, but the carburetor was right.
 
Have to tell a friend's story.
He had a TT500, XR500 and a CT70
We were riding through the desert down by the rio grand river. My buddy on the TT500 was leading and all the sudden disappeared. I did not see the drop off and went straight into the dry river bed of the Rio. He flew over about 20 ft of rocks and crashed on the Sandy river Bottom.
 
Was riding with some friends on Pelican Island. There is a huge flat area where they dump the stuff dredged up by the Houston ship channel. Itā€™s like a dried up lake bed that forms a hard crust on top. Problem is, some areas donā€™t solidify that deep. Not knowing this, a friend on a WR450 blew by me and I couldnā€™t have that when I was on a CR500. I was topped out in 5th gear catching him when I saw his rear end start swapping. It dawned on me what was happening; he was breaking through the top crust. I let off the gas and was trying to slow down, but it was too late. The added weight on the front end caused my front wheel to break through and catapulted me over the bars. I landed on the top of my helmet and slid on my head about 10 feet, finally slamming down on my back. Knocked all of the air out of me and took a few minutes to start breathing right. Worst part was trying to pull the bikes out. Once you break through the crust, the stuff under is almost like quicksand. Took over an hour to get my bike out. Not sure how fast we were going when this happened. He said his speedo was over 90 mph. I think it was more like 75 - 80. He had gone over the bars as well and when we got back to the trucks, he said ā€œI was wondering why no one was coming to help me.ā€ He didnā€™t realize at the time I had gone down behind him. I was extremely lucky as I had only pulled a bunch of muscles in my neck and back, as well as more bruises than I could count.
 
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I've got 1.5, both on my Victory:

1. The 'pull' throttle cable had snapped, so I ordered the part and replaced it. The new cable was supposed to require less force, so I figured I'd take the bike for a spin. I get my gear on, back the bike out of the garage and onto the driveway, and let it warm up. After it is warmed, I turn the choke off, and proceed to head out. My chief mechanic (i.e. me) didn't realize the throttle play needed to be reset. So, the slight play I had in the old cable was instant on with the new cable. The sudden power surge meant my left hand let go of the clutch, and the back end came around and down we went, probably doing 5-10 mph. Thankfully my entire drive way is grass, so no damage to the bike, other than having to get the dirt and grass off. My left ankle got caught between the engine case and the ground, and had a pretty bruise on it for a few days.

.5 I had gone to the grocery store to pick some stuff up for the wife unit and I for the week, and had just gotten home. I pulled in front of the garage door and started to get off the bike to open the garage door. The bike started to lean to the left, but I didn't think anything of it, until it just kept going taking me down with it. I laid there under the bike for a little bit trying to figure out how in the heck that had happened. I squirmed out from underneath it, got the bike upright, and realized I hadn't put the kick stand down. :oops:
 
Went to the Hill Country with my wife on our Goldwing. My buddy is on his VStar 650. On one of the Sisters, he is riding lead and he pulls over on the shoulder of the road for us to stop so he can get a pic of us. It is uphill, then the shoulder slants away from the road into a rock wall. Oh, and there is marble sized gravel on the shoulder too. I really don't think he could have picked a worse place to stop. I'm sitting there pinching my front brake, trying to hold up 900 lbs. of motorcycle, myself and my wife and not let my feet slide out from under me on the gravel. He gets his pic and then takes off and I am watching for traffic in the left mirror and very nervous, thinking I need throttle but not too much. I open the throttle, let the clutch out, roll backwards and flop the bike over on it's right side. My buddy comes back and we struggle to get the bike up while my wife is taking pictures of us doing so and laughing up a storm. In the hub-bub, I never put the bike in gear. Now how many of y'all have crashed going backwards with your bike in neutral? :clap:
 
Here is a long one, enjoy.

10/23/08 8:30pm(roughly), I was 16, and a little wild.

I rode a 94 gsxr 750. I was riding home, we lived in the country off of Fm237 in meyersville(parents still do). I used to ride really fast and dumb. I was wearing a helmet, hoodie, gloves, jeans and vans sneakers.

I turned on Fm237 off Fm236, blew by a 3 cars and dropped the hammer. If you know Fm237 there is a bridge that crosses "twelve mile creek" and then another small bridge. The road we lived on was another mile or two. I was doing about 80mph when I was approaching the first bridge and grabbed a handful of throttle, by the time I crossed over the bridge I figure I was doing around 100mph.

About half way between the big and small bridge I saw a line of feral hogs from one side of the asphalt to the other. As soon as I saw them, I hit them. The best way I can describe it, is it felt like the bike hit a brick wall and I kept going. I learned what it felt like to fly. I ended up 100-200' from the point of impact in the right bar ditch, the bike in the left bar ditch.

When I realized what happened(I did not loose consciousness). I tried to stand up, my left leg buckled underneath me. Fished my phone out of my pocket, no service.

The three cars I had blown by when we got on Fm237 were on the scene within a minute. They all stopped, called 911 and I gave them my parents number who showed up 1-2 minutes later. Volunteer emt shortly after that. Victoria fire department took probably 15 minutes. Backboard, ambulance ride to citizens hospital in Victoria, where they took xrays, and deliberated where to send me, because due to my age there was not a qualified pediatric orthopedic surgeon in Victoria. At around 1-2 am I was life lighted to university medical in San Antonio.

I did not receive any pain medication or loose consciousness until I was loaded into the helicopter. I remember being told "if your nose itches, scratch it and we will give you more meds", because apparently if I could feel that I could feel too much. Once at university medical I remember being left alone on a gurney in what I think was a hallway, being periodically checked on by doctors, each time asking where my parents were. They eventually showed, and I was taken into surgery around 4am. Then followed a few week hospital stay, released in a wheelchair, physical therapy, etc.

I ended up with a broken left tib/fib, shattered right foot and broken wrist. I didnt follow physical therapy as good as o should have, and bared weight too early. So I didnt heal as good as I possibly could have, I still have some pain and a slight limp.

God was looking out for me. I was close to home, people were on the scene immediately and there was a good emt close by.

I ride alittle slower now, wear proper gear applicable to the riding I am doing, and I try to listen to what doctors tell me to do. Going through some related knee issues currently.

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Are LAX tacos the same as south Texas?

So just a quick one. Iā€™m going through the motor course for the department I worked for. Iā€™m on a police package Harley Electroglide. I go into one of those (lollipop) slow brake clutch throttle u turns and hit bottom with the foot plates. As I accept defeat and abandon the bike I pull the throttle really hard by accident. Now Iā€™m on the ground and suddenly the 700lb bike has all the momentum on its side with new amazingly good traction to spin in a circle. I canā€™t get up fast enough so just start rolling, which seems to be in the same circle as the bike so now I have this demon bike chasing me! It finally ran out of power before I did and after a few good kicks to the oil pan we made up and continued the class.
 
Riding between Deckers and Bailey in the Pike Peak National Forest west of Colorado Springs back in Sept of 2015, I washed out the back end of my bike in a corner then high-sided the bike up and over on top of me. Landed in a little creek that crossed the road right in that corner. Funny thing was the first thing that went through my head, was that I was going to drown in the creek because my helmet filled up with water when I landed face down. I quickly realized I was only in about 4 inches of water. It wasn't until I tried to stand up that I knew I had injured myself in the crash. Had no cell service, so I had to activate my SPOT to get emergency service out to where I was. Turned out that I had a tib/fib break on my right leg.

Side note, the first thing that SPOT does when they get an activation on one of their devices is try to contact you to see if it was accidental. When they could not get me, they called my wife back in Texas to ask her. Needless to say, that did not help the situation because now she was in a panic and could not contact me.

They good side of the story was there was some people that had a summer camp out in the national forest that stored my bike through the winter, and I was able to fly back up to Colorado the following April, pick up my bike within a couple of miles of where I had wrecked, and finished the ride back to Houston.

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Hmm, LAX and tacos: been there, done that. Could be worse, could be Tripoli, Libya airport with (nothing).

First crash was on my Honda MT 50. Was riding with my brother up north of our cabin, San Juan County, CO. About 1968. Road is classic rough jeep road, and we crossed the creek up very far up high onto very steep slope. Hit some loose dirt and pine needles and slid down the very steep slope, hit a tree and stopped. Brother behind me saw it all. Took both of us quite a while to get the little bike up the slope. Fortunately I was unhurt, but the beautiful little yellow-white tank on my Mini trail was scratched to ****. I was wearing boots and jeans and gloves, but no helmet. Close call.

Then there was dumping my Honda Scrambler 175 on a gravel filled pit crossing the Durango narrow gauge RR tracks in town. Around 1971. Literally the train was coming, and I was down on tracks, and trucks behind me and etc. Adrenelin kicked in, I was a tough 17 year old, and got the bike up, out of gravel (very difficult) and train missed me by about 150 feet. Almost left the bike to run, but did not. I am sure the engineer was not happy, and the tourists got a good show. Bike scrubbed a bit, and my helmet nicely scored, and boots, and I picked gravel out of my hands. Ugly.

One more on Moto Guzzi V7R, dropped in garage, wet boots, slime, and side stand locked, could not get down, extreme heat and humidity, wife out of town, tried to dismount, bike fell on me, pinned me, I called EMTs in Sugar Land using my cell phone, they showed about ten minutes later, unpinned me, and yeah I was **** lucky. Boot heel saved me. Pipes sizzled my wet jeans. Guzzi has since redesigned the side stand, and on my V7R I added a side stand clip ensuring good boot trip to get it down.

No high speed crashes, or intersections. Knock on wood. Plenty of close calls.
 
It was November 2017 and I had been riding for the grand total of two months when I decided to go on my second group ride. First group ride was a complete success and had a blast, including riding over Mt Hamilton (not something I should've done as a newbie, looking back). I believe it was part being too confident for my skill level (after all, the first group rides with these guys was a success) and part negative thoughts (I kept picturing losing control on a turn and crashing onto incoming traffic) that when I felt I was going a little too quick on a turn and saw a truck coming the other way, I panicked and locked the rear. Fish tailed and high sided right on my shoulder, broke my collarbone and wrist. Bear in mind I had watched the videos and read 3 books about safe riding. No one I knew close rode motorcycles at the time, so it completely sucked when everyone was "right" about how dangerous motorcycles are.

I tried selling my stuff and cutting it lose, but it wasn't even a month before I was at a dealership looking at my next bike. I couldn't even use the clutch lever without pain while I was trying bikes out. I figured I learned from my mistakes and one (fortunately) small accident wasn't going stop me. It took me 6 months to confess to my parents I had another bike (they came to visit).
 
1978. My first bike, a Kawasaki KZ650. The far east side of Tucson contains the Saguaro National Monument (now a NP) and has a one way loop road for approximately 8 miles that curves, rises, dips and sometimes almost all three at the same time. I was out playing Ricky Racer and as I crested one hill the road took a sharp turn to the left and I grabbed too much front brake. The tire locked on the loose desert sand scattered on top of the asphalt and I went one way and the bike went the other. I was about 2 miles into the 8 mile one way ride.

I picked myself up and surveyed the damage. The fairing on the bike was scratched and slightly twisted on the frame but came back with some pushing and pulling. Other than some cosmetic damage the bike was good. I wasn't quite as good. My ATGATT at the time consisted of a cheap Bell full face helmet, jeans, hiking boots, t-shirt, and a light Air Force quilted liner that went under a winter parka. No gloves.

I hit with my hands outstretched (as we usually do), but I was fortunate that the sand wasn't hard packed so I only had scratches on the palms of my hands, several long scratches (rash) on my right inner forearm, my pants on my right thigh were tore open above the knee for about 6-8 inches and I had some good rash on my leg. But the worst thing was that my right foot and ankle REALLY hurt. As the adrenaline wore off the pain got worse.

Since I was done the side of the embankment I was out of sight for most vehicles traveling past so I had no option other than to get the bike upright and get it going again. Fortunately it started right up. I was able to get on it and begin my ride home; 8 more miles of low speed roller coaster road back out to the highway, and then another 25 miles to get home. I rode the entire way with my right leg hanging down as it was too painful to have it sit on the peg or use the rear brake.

When I got home... oh great... mom's home. I pulled into the carport, got off the bike, pulled off my helmet and then covered my right thigh with my helmet as I tried not to limp past my mom to my bedroom. I took a long, hot shower, but it was still pretty painful so I called my girlfriend and she came over to drive me out to the Base Dispensary (we were both AF Brats). It was not broken, but the ankle was sprained. Some pain killers, some wrap, and they kicked me loose.

Knock on wood, but that was the only one I've had so far. I know I'm overdue, but hopefully the next one is a long time coming.
 
Airplane stories, now motorcycle crashes ... you aren't writing some sort of book, are you???

I have had many, but probably the most memorable was in El Boson, Argentina in 2012. My apologies to those who have already heard this one. My buddy Chuck and I were on a mission to reach Ushuaia by December 21st, 2012. We wanted to be at the end of the world (Ushuaia) by the end of the (Mayan) world. Without spending a lot of time on background, Chuck and I have a general traveling order; me first, Chuck second. I stopped to take some pictures and since it was raining it required removing at least my gloves and perhaps my over jacket. I told Chuck to go on, I would catch him in El Boson, about 8 or 10 miles away.

Once I had taken the pictures, stored my camera and redid my clothing, Chuck was long gone. But I figured I would catch him somewhere before El Boson. So, I took off. Somewhere along the way, on a long sweeping right hand turn, I decided to check my GPS to see how much further it was to El Boson. I looked down, pressed the zoom out button and then looked up. I was headed straight for the grill of a huge South American tour bus. I was traveling at least 70 mph. My guess is that he was doing about the same in the opposite direction. I pushed hard and managed to get out of the direct way, but still hit the bus on the side behind the drivers front wheel. All I really remember is the sound. It was a large explosive type whump!

The back end of the bike flew out to my right and went down, I flew off the bike on the left side towards the bus. As if the bike had low sided. My cases on both sides came off and my junk flew everywhere. My bike spun down the highway and came to rest about 150 feet on the opposite shoulder. I had good gear on. I had a slight abrasion on my left elbow that came from the road wearing through my Motoport jacket. My toe was aching a little. My Alpinestar left hand glove's knuckle protector had ripped off. By the time the bus got stopped he was a good 100 yards in the other direction. I had already stood up by the time the bus drivers emerged and came around the end of the bus.

I had to be a sight. I was wearing a Harley rain suit that was completely shredded standing in the middle of the road. Chuck would later say, I looked like a scarecrow. Before they saw me, I am certain the bus drivers thought I was dead. I hadn't thought about this until just now, but maybe they were just plain scared of me? They came around the end of the bus saying; "bien? bien?" I think the bus was brand new. There were three bus drivers but not a single passenger. My bike had left a crease beginning at the back of the front wheel and traveling all the way to the front of the back wheel, across at least three undercarriage cargo doors. Thousands of dollars damage. I walked towards the bus, and said "Bien!" turned and started walking toward my bike, picking up my junk, which was everywhere.

Good people stopped and helped, one guy picked up my right box that ended up in the ditch but still had much of it's stuff still in it. The bus drivers helped. I finally got to my bike, picked it up with the help of another guy and stood it on the side stand. The left case had broken the hinges, the front left crash bar had broken in two places and the dang thing wouldn't start. I finally realized it was in gear and the side stand was down. I finally kicked it into neutral and it cranked right up.

Now the legal stuff. I was in Argentina, I was a Gringo, I had just caused thousands of dollars damage to a brand new bus. I figured, jail time! So I just owned up and said, "it was my fault!". One of the cars passing by had gone on to El Boson and managed to tell Chuck that I was in a "Grande!!!" accident. Chuck pulled up just as the bus and I pulled out heading for El Boson. I motioned for him to follow. When we got to the Police checkpoint, the bus drivers were the first to talk to the Police Officer. I speak very little spanish, but I noticed, there was no finger pointing or over excitement (may be they were still scared of me? LOL). Finally the officer turned to me and asked if I was ok. I said yes. Eventually he gave me a form to sign (in spanish), and said, "this is only that we talked to you and you said you were ok." So I signed it. Then he asked something that shocked me, "what do you want to do?" I just said "nothing!" And the bus drivers were off.

The officer helped me find a guy to weld my crash bar. The guy worked out of his parents garage and after two or three hours the crash bar actually fit better than when it came from the KTM factory. I asked "how much" and he said "nada!" I left $40 on his tool box. We traveled into and out of Argentina at least a dozen times after that and I have to admit I was always waiting for that "Mr. Fink, we need to talk to you." moment. I never heard again from the bus drivers or the bus company. I suspect they went to their company and just said, "no... no, we don't know how that happened!" :)

I realize how fortunate I am, not many folks can walk away from an accident and tell the story of when they hit a bus at the combined speed of 140 mph.
 
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I felt I was going a little too quick on a turn and saw a truck coming the other way, I panicked and locked the rear. Fish tailed and high sided right on my shoulder, broke my collarbone and wrist.

I almost high sided my AT once last year. I was again trying to keep up with MacDaddy (seeing a pattern here) and we were riding through dirt roads. I had turned off my rear ABS so I could skid steer a bit and try to maintain some speed in the dirt. After several miles of doing that, the dirt turned into pavement and I went into the next corner hot and got into the rear brake again and heard/felt the rear of the bike start skidding out to the right on the pavement. Luckily it wasn't past the point of no return and I gassed it and ended up just backing it in around a corner. Scary but fun. It was a good reminder to switch braking techniques from dirt to pavement. I really need to go a track day. The one I was supposed to go to this week was rained out and rescheduled.
 
I almost high sided my AT once last year. I was again trying to keep up with MacDaddy (seeing a pattern here) and we were riding through dirt roads. I had turned off my rear ABS so I could skid steer a bit and try to maintain some speed in the dirt. After several miles of doing that, the dirt turned into pavement and I went into the next corner hot and got into the rear brake again and heard/felt the rear of the bike start skidding out to the right on the pavement. Luckily it wasn't past the point of no return and I gassed it and ended up just backing it in around a corner. Scary but fun. It was a good reminder to switch braking techniques from dirt to pavement. I really need to go a track day. The one I was supposed to go to this week was rained out and rescheduled.

My biggest close call is a much better story than my one actual crash. I had sold my SV1000 and was without a bike for a while when I picked up an old V65 Magna. I rode it to work the first day I had it, which required a stretch in a two lane FM road. I was hot ridding around a curve and was met with a line of about four stopped cars. Somebody was waiting to turn left where NOBODY ever turns left.

I grabbed the brakes, only to find that 1984 brakes were nowhere near what I was accustomed to from my 2003 SV. I wasnā€™t gonna get stopped in time, so I had to make a decision. My decision (which in retrospect was a foolish one) was to head into the oncoming lane. The way the road curved I really couldnā€™t see down that lane very far. As I got over there I saw headlights coming right at me. I veered back to the right, still on the brakes. I locked up the rear about the time I hit the lane divider lines and flat tracked that sucker right between the incoming car in my left and the stopped on on my right. I ended up past all the stopped cars, back in my lane, and motored on to ride another day. Thatā€™s the one and only time Iā€™ve ever lane split, and it was completely unintentional.
 
My first street bike - 1985? Honda Shadow 500. Lubbock Texas around 1999.

Came over a rise in the road to find a "T" intersection where I was expecting a straight road. Probably was going a little too fast, but not crazy. I grabbed both brakes, but the rear brake on a street bike was stronger than what I was used to on dirt bikes, and I locked the rear tire. I slid something like 20 feet or less, and managed to hit the curb with both the front and rear wheel at the same time.

This in turn caused both myself and the motorcycle to perform some interesting acrobatics and land (or at least stop moving) about 10 feet from each other, with me closer to the road than the bike was. I didn't feel too bad so I picked up the bike to check it out:

-The headlight was busted and at least one of the blinkers was hanging down.
-The taillight was out but blinkers worked.
-The front fender was forced against the tire and I had to bend it out before I could move it, but I couldn't get it to stop rubbing.
-The clutch lever was fine, but the perch holding it to the handlebar was broken.
-The forks were both bent, so when the triple clamps were straight, the wheel was not.
-The left and right grips were now only about 7 inches apart. The clutch side had not moved too much, but the throttle side was now pointed almost directly back at my stomach.
-The handlebar would turn to the right as per normal - but it would only turn to the left about an inch.
-I did not yet have a motorcycle license, nor did I have a cell phone on hand, so I wanted to make sure the "authorities" were not involved because I didn't know how big of a deal that would be.
-Luckily I did not touch the pavement, only the dirt/grass, so no road rash.
-My left foot hit the curb around the same time both wheels did- didn't hurt much at the time, but I had trouble getting my boots on for a month or two after, so I may have broken my foot (but it didn't swell much).
-I was running an errand for work.



SO.... Naturally I rode it around 5 miles across Lubbock back to work in the dark. Since neither taillight or headlight worked, I ran with the right blinker on so people could see me. The fender continued to rub and make noise on the front, but never started to smoke or anything. The clutch perch was not attached to the handlebar, so to start moving, I had to hold the clutch perch onto the handlebar with my hand and press my forearm onto it to use the clutch. I discovered very quickly that you can't make a left turn when you can only move the bars to the left about an inch. Well, technically you can, but it involves dropping the bike and picking it up a few times. Luckily, I could make a right turn, but given the bend of the handlebars, this means my right hand was on the left side of my body, which makes throttle control a bit tricky. I was able to make it back with only 3 or 4 additional drops. I also learned that going slowly in the right part of the right lane with your blinker on will entice car drivers to pass you in the same lane you are in, even if there is another lane going the same direction. Good to know.

@misterk - I know you will be glad to know there were no flat tires.
 
Airplane stories, now motorcycle crashes ... you aren't writing some sort of book, are you???

Not at all. I was just has a crazy airplane moment and with this thread wanted something to read on a long flight.

But they do sound like good seeds for a book.
 
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