Why we buy gear

[TeabagInsurance]

Don't know if this is an appropriate place for this post. If not, mods, feel free to delete.

 

So this last weekend I was out riding on a nice day and perhaps it was too nice of a day, as I let the excitement get the best of me. I went for a speedy slide.

 

I was out for a fairly spirited ride with a friend of mine (Duke 790) on the T7 and long story short, was an idiot. I was trying to keep up with my friend on his Duke and entered the corner way too fast. It was a fairly sharp turn, but I was going probably 125-130kph. I'm still on the stock tires, but they have about 8,000kms on them, so they aren't the freshest, and you can't expect an ADV bikes with 70/30 street tires (or whatever ratio they might be) to handle like a sport bike anyway. Would I have made that corner at that speed on my sport bike? Likely, I would think. Either way, I can't blame the bike or the tires or anything because it was my choice to do that given the circumstances.

 

It was a left turn, so I'm lucky there was no risk of sliding onto incoming traffic. There was actually a bit of a dirt shoulder on the right side too. I've been riding long enough to know my only chance of making it was to commit and lean, and so I do. Leaned and leaned and kept looking into the corner until I lost traction and lowsided. It felt like I was sliding forever. Thankfully neither me or the bike cartwheeled or flipped or anything. It was a very graceful slide. Slid through the dirt shoulder and into the ditch and between some trees. I was very lucky admittedly. Did not hit any trees, there was no dropoff, no risk of oncoming traffic, etc.

 

I laid there for 10-20 seconds or so to assess the situation and gauge if I was hurt. I seemed OK physically and was actually very calm. If I was a bystander or my friend I'm sure I would have been absolutely anxiety ridden. I've had a few good dirt bike slides and it kind of just felt like another dirt nap honestly, just way, way faster. Surprisingly there was few little adrenaline, so I double checked myself again and stood up. The bike was still on its side, so I couldn't quite assess the damage, but the front forks/wheel were misaligned. Picked the bike up and put it on the kickstand and realized the bike save me being impaled quite a few branches and sticks that were still caught in the crash bars, wheel spokes, and pannier rack of the bike.

 

Some guy who was behind me in a van pulled over and got out to check on me which was nice. Ironically enough, he was a rider and was actually wearing his Harley vest. I'm very glad he could see that I was OK and wasn't freaking out and calling 911 or anything. A minute or two later and my friend had doubled back and pulled over as well. It was kind of funny where I landed in the slide, because through the trees I could see a little campsite out in the woods. The ditch was too steep and too much loose dirt to ride out, so we pulled out the tools, straightened out the front wheel in the triple clamps, and then I rode through the woods to the campsite and found a trail back to the road.

 

I was fully geared up with my leather jacket and gloves, kevlar lined jeans, and full height boots. The gear took some damage, but held up great. The bike suffered quite a few scratches on the plastics, with a couple smaller cracks, and heavy scrapes on the crash bars and pannier rack (both courtesy of DirtRacks, so thank you to them!). The plastics had some scratches from dirt naps already, so it doesn't bother me too much. Barkbusters really took a beating too. The road completely ground through the plastic and into the aluminum backbar a bit! Overall the bike was in great shape. It started up first try with no problem. I love Yamahas.

 

imgur.com

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Imgur: The magic of the Internet

 

Friend and I finished the ride and a less stupid pace. The side I slid on is a tiny bit sore still, but not even a single visible bruise!

 

I was lucky, but you might not be, so don't be an idiot! This bike is great on and off road, but at the end of the day it's not sport bike and shouldn't be treated like one.

Edited September 27, 2021 by TeabagInsurance

[Boondocker]

I'm glad you and the bike survived well. Appreciate your candid assessment of the incident. Those who find blame elsewhere don't learn from such incidents and can't correct their behavior/mistakes. I've had a few crashes, nothing major, every one my fault, and every one a lesson learned. I won't ride without all the gear as I'm much too fragile to do battle with the ground.

[Landshark]

I'm happy to read your post since you got out of the skid in one piece.  Was this on a gravel road?  I'd like to see an "after" picture.  And a pic of the ragged gear too.  Good thing you hopped back on and rode her out of there.  Good for you, man.

[thepointchris]

thanks for sharing - reminds me to get my setup dialed, and to be alert!

happy that it was a soft landing for you and the T7

[TeabagInsurance]

2 hours ago, Boondocker said:

I'm glad you and the bike survived well. Appreciate your candid assessment of the incident. Those who find blame elsewhere don't learn from such incidents and can't correct their behavior/mistakes. I've had a few crashes, nothing major, every one my fault, and every one a lesson learned. I won't ride without all the gear as I'm much too fragile to do battle with the ground.

I hear you there. I am now up to 2 crashes in 7 years, with probably about 60,000km under my belt. The first crash was a month after I got my license and was fairly minor. Not a record I am particularly proud but all I can do is own it and learn from the mistakes.

[TeabagInsurance]

2 hours ago, Landshark said:

I'm happy to read your post since you got out of the skid in one piece.  Was this on a gravel road?  I'd like to see an "after" picture.  And a pic of the ragged gear too.  Good thing you hopped back on and rode her out of there.  Good for you, man.

Thanks. The picture of the barkbusters in the OP should actually be a link to an imgur album that has more pictures of the bike and the gear as well. The road was nicely paved, no gravel at all. It was in such nice shape it got me a little complacent

[Landshark]

10 hours ago, TeabagInsurance said:

Thanks. The picture of the barkbusters in the OP should actually be a link to an imgur album that has more pictures of the bike and the gear as well. The road was nicely paved, no gravel at all. It was in such nice shape it got me a little complacent

Yep, that looks a little rough in the after pics.  Great gear (well not so much now).  I would use a bit of sandpaper to smooth the scratches on the bars and then use some paint to touch it up.  The plastic may need replacing.  Let us know what you do to fix it up.  

[TeabagInsurance]

8 hours ago, Landshark said:

Yep, that looks a little rough in the after pics.  Great gear (well not so much now).  I would use a bit of sandpaper to smooth the scratches on the bars and then use some paint to touch it up.  The plastic may need replacing.  Let us know what you do to fix it up.  

I was considering it, but I take it off road and scratch it up so much anyway I'm going to just leave it as is for the time being haha.

 

edit: for the plastics that is. I probably will sand and put on touch up paint for the crash bars + pannier rack for that rust!

Edited September 28, 2021 by TeabagInsurance

[PAlex]

Indeed this is why we buy gear. 

This didn't happen with a Tenere (which I hope to receive by the start of the riding season here in Quebec), it happened with a small, 400cc, 30hp bike, while being over-confident in the woods and sand.

Thankfully, sand and bushes softened the impact, but I fell completely on my left shoulder, which received all my body's force at impact.

I had a full jacket with D30 armor, leather gloves with hard nuckles armor, and fell around 40-50 kmh/h, kevlar jeans and riding boots (that stop just above the heels).

I think the gear saved my shoulder from breaking. After rising up, I couldn't move my shoulder past horizontal, like my brain wanted but my body couldn't.

It's been 4 months, and if I recovered my shoulder/arm's motion, there are now some extrem positions that give me pain, and it can sometimes at night feel a bit "tense".

So, yeah. Wear gear, even if it's hot, uncomfortable, or sometimes ugly. It'll probably save you a couple of times.

[Landshark]

I've been in the tulip patch a few times myself.  Always something gets bruised, torn or broken.  That's just to remind you that it was worth it, sort of.  I hope you get to 100 % again.  

The next time you'll do that with a Tenere you'll be further into the patch with all that extra power.  

[PAlex]

Thanks.

Further into the patch, yeah, that's actually the thing that scares me the most about getting a bigger bike. 

An uncle of mine who's also a rider always tells me : "on a motorcycle, be humble".

I'll try to remember that!

[Dark Helmet]

PALex, your shoulder injury sounds very familiar.  About 2 months ago I got way out of shape on my T7 on a very rocky and rutted road.  Long story short, I almost went over the bars, came down and whisky throttled it and shot into the woods under power.  I slowed my momentum by shoulder blocking a tree.  I managed to get the bike back up with the sore shoulder, rode for a while longer but my left arm would give out when I was standing going down hill.  After several weeks of the arm not getting better, and not being able to pick things up, went to an orthopedic doc and it seems I have a rotator cuff tear.  Got an MRI two days ago, but no results yet.  

 

I had my Alpinestar body suit on and the hit was directly on the shoulder CE armor.  Hope your shoulder gets better soon.

[Danedo]

Revit is higher level gear like Klim but it fits anyone who doesn't like extremely baggy gear.