Buffalo Pass, then ouch!

[AncientMariner]

I took the Vstrom with my son on the Weestrom and my son-in-law on his Tiger over Labor Day weekend over Buffalo Pass between Walden and Steamboat Springs.  Pretty nice ride.  Much tamer than the DDSR rally trails.  Strafing Poudre Canyon road was a real blast on those bikes.  We got as far as Cheyenne on the way home and decided that sleeping was smarter than dozing while driving so slept over in Cheyenne and headed for Alliance on Sunday.  When we got to Scottsbluff, we decided to take the dirt road (the back way) to Alliance.  All was well for a time until we got into some very soft, deep stuff at about 40 mph.  I was in the middle.  My son got through on the 650 but I tensed up, I suspect.  One moment I'm considering easing right to look for shallower sand, the next, I'm hearing the whup whup whup of helicopter blades.  No memory of the actual tumble.  Totalled the bike.  Partialled the bod.  I imagine the back end swung around to the left, caught, and highsided, driving me into the road.  Two days in ICU to make sure my respiration didn't stop (collapsed lung & rib cage pain) and then in a regular room until 9/17, two days after surgery to put a plate in my collar bone.  Busted the left fibula, four metatarsals in the left foot, left ribs 3-8 (some front and back), left shoulder blade and left collar bone.  Not quite what I'd had in mind when we set out on this adventure.  By the time I'm back in riding shape, it won't be riding season any more.  I was supposed to be back on the ship, working, the following Sunday.  I think I'd have been in a lot worse shape if I hadn't been wearing the Roadcrafter suit, decent boots, and helmet.  I'm thinking 40mph was a touch too fast on that nebulous surface.  Ironically, I dumped the Weestrom very close to the same place a little over a year ago.  No injury that time (tank slapper & low side) but I was urged to get a steering stabilizer.  The Scotts damper on the Vstrom didn't seem to help in this particular instance.  I took it off the wrecked bike so I can put it on the 650.  A hidden cost, the cam boot on my clutch foot prevented me from driving my Forester so I had to get a car with an automatic transmission to maintain a degree of independence.  'Course, I've been lusting after a turbocharged Forester anyway for a couple of years so this was a pretty good excuse.


obvious tweakage.  That isn't me.  It's the Progressive Insurance adjuster.


Note the arching stress crack in the paint above the letter "t".  Note the lack of a gravel scar to explain it.  I think riding suits don't scar tupperware.  Note the Scotts Stabilizer.


More beans than the old Forester.


No left foot required

At this point, I'm thinking the red 650 will simply replace the yellow 1000 on long treks and a Motoguzzi V7 Classic will occupy its parking space in the garage.  Lesson learned?  Be luckier.  Oh wait, there actually were a few lessons learned on Buffalo Pass.  The security screw on the Zumo gps base isn't just for thieves.  It shook open on the rock garden at the summit.  Fortunately, my son retrieved the gps, still functional.  Also, the usually sufficient bungees holding the sleeping bag & tent on the passenger seat weren't strong enough to resist the jarring of a mountain dirt road.  Tighter binding was needed.  I had to stop a couple of times to hoist the dangling load back onto the seat.

The only bad thing about coming home is that I miss the sponge baths.

[Hank]

Holy smokes, really sorry to hear about this. You're pretty busted up!!!!

Do you think the bike landed on you?   Seems like a lot of serious injury for 40mph on a sandy surface, but I supposed it depends on how you tumbled.

Sucks about the bike too,  but that's no big deal in the big picture.

How long till you go back to the ship / work?

Heal up, and keep us posted.

[plumber mike]

I guess we don't have a "Face plant" section Good thing. No more of that, OK. Glad all is well.

[Dr Psyko]

Have you read the latest couple of Cycle World magazines? Egan wrote a fun column about the "DR appreciation society", talking about how he and his riding pals are becoming more enamoured of "Basic" motorcycles, and in the latest issue he writes how he had a similar crash out in the Black Hills. He also broke several bones in his foot and ribs. Good reading for all of us.

Besides all that, hope you're feeling better soon, and the crash doesn't put a damper on further explorations into the "endorphin zone"!

I got hit on the street on my R100RS about 15 years ago, and it definitely made me more cautious for awhile.

[AncientMariner]

Do you think the bike landed on you?   Seems like a lot of serious injury for 40mph on a sandy surface, but I supposed it depends on how you tumbled.

You're right.  I can't imagine this much breakage from just bouncing along the road.  The lack of much road rash on the left side of the bike or on my helmet makes me think I acted as an anvil for the bike and maybe my left upper arm acted as an anvil for the helmet.  My head hit something hard enough to give me a concussion and there was some bruising on my scalp.  I can't praise the Roadcrafter suit highly enough.  Aerostich saw my photos of the suit and said it's one of the few victims of a cut free by EMTs where economical repair is possible.  Those guys were a little scissor happy.  They even cut my belt.

[Hank]

I re-read your original post and saw you were supposed to be back to work.  I guess I didn't catch that part the first time, probably due to the cringing reading about all the broken "stuff".

I'm glad its not worse, but it sure doesn't sound good.    Those ribs gotta be really sore, with 5 broken and some in multiple places.

So you're not going to buy the strom back from the insurance co?    Are the forks/frame still straight?

[plumber mike]

You really missed the boat on this one No pun intended

[AncientMariner]

Yeah, the trouble with missing the boat is that it's at least 2 months until the next opportunity to be employed.  More, in my case, because I have to wait until my regular counterpart (not emergency substitute) has completed his turn.  Good thing I'm a cheap date.

I'm not sure whether the Strom suffered any sinister tweakage.  The superficial tweakage was enough to total it and I wasn't feeling like investing the time and money to find out.  I did notice that the rear fender was misaligned with the rear tire but that might have been nothing more than distortion telegraphed from the luggage frame.  Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the lumpity-lump engine on the replacement bike.  I took the Moto Guzzi V7 Classic down to Ft. Collins on Thursday for its initial service at Beemers and More.  When they got done, I was introduced to Horsetooth Rd by a relative who lives there.  He led the way on his R1150GS.  I had no idea we had 10 mph switchbacks so close to home.  Quite a road but cops could write citations at will because nobody observes the ridiculously conservative speed limits.

I trailered the bike to Ft. Collins because it had slightly more than the initial service mileage and because it would have been a long, cold ride.  Still in physical therapy, I found getting the bike on and off the trailer to be a tenuous affair.  Got help where it was available.  Pavement riding was no problem.  I've been able to get my left foot into the Combat Lite boot for a couple of weeks, now.  That's about how long I've had the repaired Roadcrafter suit back from Aerostich.  Still dealing with medical insurance.  What a nuisance.  Damned glad to have it, though.  The chopper ride was 15 Gs, hospital bill was 65 Gs.  Did I mention that I had to replace my beloved Subaru Forester because I couldn't operate the clutch?  'Spensive accident.


My son submitting his opinion of the 750.  Purdy, ain't it?

[Hank]

John are you around, or out on the ship?   How is the healing process coming?
Give us an update when you have time!

[Jud]

Ouch. Glad you weren't hurt worse, although it was certainly bad enough. I have been hauled out of the woods to the waiting ambulance, spent the night in a hospital concussed and pissing blood, but fortunately never broken a bone (knocking on wood).

The V7 looks awfully nice. It has essentially the same running gear as my V50 Monza, and is a wonderful chassis, light and precise, but I sure wouldn't mind another 250cc. And some wire wheels.

[AncientMariner]

Fortunately, the accident didn't affect my insanity.  Last Friday at 10 PM, I decided that I needed to fill in some missing states on my epgsoft "states visited" maps.  Lashed the duffle to the bike that night.  I was heading out of Alliance by 7 AM on Saturday.  Spent Saturday night at the Super-8 in Estevan, Saskatchewan.  Next morning, gassed up in Melita, Manitoba and told Jill (Garmin voice) to take me home.  I was back in my garage at 10:15 PM on Sunday.  I'd have been home a touch sooner but got a fix-it ticket for a dead taillight by a chatty Nebraska State Trooper.  Saskatchewan highway 18 for the last 10 or so miles before Manitoba is a crazy quilt of pavement patches.  The Goose felt like a cocktail shaker.  I suspect that is when the lamp filament broke.

I was considering finding a deserted farmstead to set up my tent but chickened out.  I'm glad I did because there was a pretty good rain Saturday night in Estevan.  It felt pretty good to take an old-timey trip with gear tied on with parachute cord, riding a boppity-boppity museum piece of a bike 1450 miles in two days.

Thought about NDave and Jerry as I drove through Bismarck.


at the Super-8



Added ND, SK, & MB

John

[Hank]

OK, that's awesome.  I'll take that as an "I'm pretty well healed up".
I'm heading to the Ozarks next week to add a few states to my count.   I did a little mapping and could add 9 states in less that 2500 miles.  For 4000 I could add 20.   Obviously I've never been East much on a bike.

[AncientMariner]

Here's a shot from the Ozarks from when I visted my daughter a couple of weeks ago in Little Rock.

Highway 7 between Harrison and Russellville is great.  It goes clear down to Hot Springs but I screwed up and picked up an interstate in Russellville.

[Hank]

Thanks for the pointer.

Here is one day's planned route.  The rest is open

http://g.co/maps/g8ea

[loingrader]

just north of J on your route is tablerock lake in missouri.  i can tell you the roads around the lake are awesome on a bike.  we spend a week on that lake every summer and have for probably 20 years.  i bring a bike down when i can.  i'm sure you are going to have awesome roads down in AR too.