Crash Report - Post up your crash damage!

[murkus]

4 minutes ago, Redneckj said:

If you haven't seen this,  it is a must!!!!  Hahahahahahahahahah because it is sooooooo true!!!

Somebody must have posted it somewhere a couple days ago because my views shot way up lol

[murkus]

56 minutes ago, AZJW said:

That's going to sell a lot of crashbars!

Considering I don't believe in uppers, probably will do the opposite haha

 

Sorry outback

[Redneckj]

1 hour ago, murkus said:

Somebody must have posted it somewhere a couple days ago because my views shot way up lol

Damn, the guy on the coolest T7, the red/white one, took a hit.  That stock suspension didn't stand a chance!!

[murkus]

14 minutes ago, Redneckj said:

Damn, the guy on the coolest T7, the red/white one, took a hit.  That stock suspension didn't stand a chance!!

 

Oh, all these clips are me on the same bike.  Almost on 25k miles

[Larson627]

On 1/5/2023 at 4:45 PM, murkus said:

Just gonna put this here

 

 

 

 

This is the most accurate and relatable YouTube video I think I have ever seen. Bravo sir! 

[Oxxa]

I crashed 4 times (because of fatigue) within 20 meters of this spot, pic is first crash.
 

Handlebar alignment twisted on 3rd crash, broke rear luggage rack, and some minor scratches here and there. High speed crash

 

byebye lonerider, hello mosko moto reckless 80

Edited April 11, 2023 by Oxxa

[Goody Boy]

Bent the aux light bracket, bent shifter rod (you can actually see it in the pic), and broken passenger grab rail.

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Goody Boy

[DaveT7]

1 hour ago, Goody Boy said:

Bent the aux light bracket, bent shifter rod (you can actually see it in the pic), and broken passenger grab rail.

 

Glad you are ok. The track looks steep - were you going up or down? 

[Goody Boy]

24 minutes ago, DaveT7 said:

Glad you are ok. The track looks steep - were you going up or down? 

 

Was going down in this instance. Decided to just go for it and the front tire just slipped into the rut. Easier path was the one on my left.

[Hollybrook]

For much of my life, I have participated in higher risk activities like motocross, racing sports cars and exploring caves.  One thing that has helped me navigate these activities in a mostly safe manner is learning all I can about others’ misfortunes and then trying to avoid making the same mistakes.  I am posting this in hopes that it does the same for someone else, along with reporting how my bike and gear held up to this particular crash. 

 

Scenario:

 

I was following two friends approaching a “T” intersection on a gravel road.  They were a bit ahead of me and I was closing up to them as we approached the intersection.  Both of them negotiated the corner safely, but I did not. 

 

Having done mostly street riding in the past few weeks, I had been enjoying a sporting approach to cornering and entered this corner too fast for the conditions.  Just as I approached the apex, I encountered an area of deep and loose gravel.  My weight was too far back on the seat and the front end washed out.  Muscle memory from many years of off-road riding kicked in and I dropped my inside foot to the ground and was barely able to lever the bike up far enough to avoid the low side that I was heading for.  At this point, the back end kicked out and I was in a 2-wheel drift as the bike rotated to a more upright position and I exited the loose gravel onto hard packed dirt with embedded gravel.

 

Both wheels caught about the same time, and I high sided quite violently for the 15-20 mph that I was travelling at.  My friends heard my crash on their comms and returned to help me pick up the bike and repair it sufficiently to be able to ride home.  While I could have done this myself if I had been alone, I was very grateful for their help and support!

I suffered a mild concussion with headaches for the past week and a half, along with sore ribs and hip.  I was lucky to be wearing high quality safety gear and not sustaining any more serious injuries. 

 

I am posting the text first and will come back and edit in some photos later.

[Hollybrook]

Personal Gear:

 

Helmet:  The first part of me that impacted the ground was the left side of my helmet.  I was wearing a Bell MX-9 Adventure MIPS helmet.  The visor was broken into a number of pieces and one of my friends pieced together enough of them to hold the face shield in place for my ride home.  The face shield and helmet were deeply scratched, and the EPS liner was permanently compressed by about 25%.  Because the hit was direct to the side of my face from a perpendicular direction, I do not believe the MIPS capability really came into play.  I cut off the straps and it is going into the trashcan.

 

Gloves:  I was wearing Revit Sand 4 H2O gloves that held up quite well.  The hard TPU knuckles show some wear, but I am comfortable continuing to use them.  While I don’t remember doing so, from my other memories and location of injuries it appears that I tucked in my arms and left shoulder, and did not try to break my fall with my hands.

 

Jacket:  This was only the 3^rd ride with my new Klim Carlsbad jacket.  Considering what my bike and helmet looked like after the crash, it is amazing that the jacket sustained almost no damage at all.  There is a very small (1/8”) tear on the top of my wrist in a piece of lighter weight material that I can easily repair.  The areas that sustained an impact only looked dusty and after cleaning, you can barely tell they are any different from the other side of the jacket that still looks new.  I have absolutely no bruising on my shoulder where the D30 armor is, though I do have a 3” diameter bruise on my side where my elbow would have been on impact.

 

Pants:  I was wearing the matching Klim Carlsbad pants that also sustained no visible damage.  My hip has a nasty purple bruise that is about 12” long and 8” wide.  Very interestingly, in the middle of the bruise is an area with no bruising that is in the shape of the somewhat small D30 hip pad!

 

Boots:  My boots for this ride were Forma Adventure boots that I do not trust for any hard riding.  The left sides of both soles have some minor rash, but not really noticeable unless you are looking for it.  If I had not been able to get off the bike and my legs were pinned, I suspect I would have broken bones to contend with based on damage to the bike.

 

Backpack:  I was wearing a Kriega R22 backpack that impacted the ground with the top left corner.  After cleaning off the dust, you cannot see any wear in the areas that obviously hit the ground.

[Hollybrook]

The Bike:

 

Windscreen:  There are some minor scratches on the edge of my windscreen and wind deflector, and the Amazon add-on one broke, along with one of its mounts.

 

Mirror:  I have no idea how it happened, but the front and back of my left mirror were heavily ground down, and there was also a scratch on the glass, but the glass did not break.  That seems quite unlikely, but no complaints about the quality of Yamaha’s mirrors!

 

Barkbuster Blizzard Handguards:  Utterly destroyed with wear through of both the fabric and the plastic inner shell.  I put the VPS plastic guards back on for the summer and will buy another pair of the Blizzards for next winter as I really liked them.

 

Handlebars and Riser:  The riser was bent so far that I was uncomfortable riding in heavy traffic with the bars pointed so far from the correct orientation.  I have ridden many times on dirt bikes with bent bars and fork tubes but did not want to risk making a mistake in traffic, so we tweaked the forks in the triple clamps just enough to make it tolerable.  If I had known at the time that you can bend the riser by hand, we could have easily straightened it as we already had the bolts loose trying to see if there was any play that we could use to straighten the bars.  Interestingly, given the amount of damage, the bars were straight and true to the nearest 1mm when I later measured them.

 

Turn Signal:  Obviously twisted around and dusty, but no physical or electrical damage.  I am quite impressed with these $18 LED signals.

 

Side Panel:  Heavy scratching and cracks along the back edge near the point of the tank.  I am going to repair this as best I can but have also ordered a new one with decals and logo.

 

Gas Tank:  There is a 1” deep walnut sized dent right at the point of the tank next to the side panel, with some deep scratching in it.  This will get some body putty repair and covered with some vinyl that is not a great match for the metal flake paint but is a similar color.  I may switch to an Acerbis plastic tank, but not doing that right now.

 

Hepco-Becker Lower Crash Bars:  These did an outstanding job of protecting the engine and only sustained mild damage.  The mounting tabs were pushed in about ¼” and were easily straightened out.  At three points on the outside on corners, they were ground down a bit and showing bare metal.  I thought the one on the top forward tube was deep, but it turned out that much of what was ground off was very thick paint and primer.  Some quick cleanup with a 36 grit sanding disk and a Scotch-Brite pad using a die grinder got it ready for touchup.  I didn’t have any black paint with the right semi-gloss finish, but some gloss engine paint and a light rubbing with Scotch-Brite followed by fine steel wool worked great.

 

Bosley Footpegs:  Even though I ordered the pegs with additional reinforcement, they bent down and back about 20 degrees, making it quite uncomfortable to ride home.  After much head scratching, I could not find any way to fixture these up in my 20-ton press and ended up using a vise and a 4-pound sledge to coerce them back into shape.  It only took three hours and many different attempts to get them within one degree of the other side.

 

Tires:  I believe my choice of tires contributed to the crash, affecting both the chance of avoiding it and also the severity.  I say choice, because I chose to run my stock Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR tires, rather than my off-road tires on spare rims.  My thought was that this was a 50/50 type of ride and I was not expecting to see any sloppy conditions.  Their lack of traction in the gravel increased how much I was sliding and once I got onto the hard dirt with embedded gravel, the tires gripped strongly.  If I had been running DOT knobbies, I don’t think I would have been sliding as much, and when I got onto the hard packed dirt, they would not have gripped so suddenly.  I may have still crashed, but I believe it would not have been so brutal.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Hollybrook

[Hollybrook]

Final Thoughts:

 

This crash was clearly my fault for riding faster than conditions allowed.  I think it was a similar situation to a new rider being more likely to crash a year after beginning to ride, when confidence improves faster than skill.  I have spent thousands of hours riding dirt bikes, but they have all been lighter than 250 pounds.  The T700 weighs more than twice that and is really a new experience for me.  I have learned to ride it much faster than when I started, and this was a wakeup call for me to tone it down a bit.

 

I also want to point out that the Klim and Kriega gear was exceptional in being able to keep me safe and not be destroyed while doing so.  The HWK jacket and pants that I have been using up to this point, with upgraded CE level2 protection, is not likely to have survived, based on the wear I have encountered.

 

And finally, I feel like the Hepco-Becker lower crash bars did an outstanding job of protecting my engine and radiator, while keeping weigh low.  I am not sure if any of the available upper bars would have fully protected my tank and side panel, and many of them would have done more damage than they avoided.

[DaveT7]

1 hour ago, Hollybrook said:

Final Thoughts:

 

This crash was clearly my fault for riding faster than conditions allowed.  I think it was a similar situation to a new rider being more likely to crash a year after beginning to ride, when confidence improves faster than skill.  I have spent thousands of hours riding dirt bikes, but they have all been lighter than 250 pounds.  The T700 weighs more than twice that and is really a new experience for me.  I have learned to ride it much faster than when I started, and this was a wakeup call for me to tone it down a bit.

 

I also want to point out that the Klim and Kriega gear was exceptional in being able to keep me safe and not be destroyed while doing so.  The HWK jacket and pants that I have been using up to this point, with upgraded CE level2 protection, is not likely to have survived, based on the wear I have encountered.

 

And finally, I feel like the Hepco-Becker lower crash bars did an outstanding job of protecting my engine and radiator, while keeping weigh low.  I am not sure if any of the available upper bars would have fully protected my tank and side panel, and many of them would have done more damage than they avoided.

Wow, quite a spill. Thanks for sharing and hopefully keeping someone out of harms way with these sobering recollections. Glad you are ok and that the bike is reparable... 

[Larson627]

On 4/13/2023 at 6:23 PM, Hollybrook said:

Final Thoughts:

 

This crash was clearly my fault for riding faster than conditions allowed.  I think it was a similar situation to a new rider being more likely to crash a year after beginning to ride, when confidence improves faster than skill.  I have spent thousands of hours riding dirt bikes, but they have all been lighter than 250 pounds.  The T700 weighs more than twice that and is really a new experience for me.  I have learned to ride it much faster than when I started, and this was a wakeup call for me to tone it down a bit.

 

I also want to point out that the Klim and Kriega gear was exceptional in being able to keep me safe and not be destroyed while doing so.  The HWK jacket and pants that I have been using up to this point, with upgraded CE level2 protection, is not likely to have survived, based on the wear I have encountered.

 

And finally, I feel like the Hepco-Becker lower crash bars did an outstanding job of protecting my engine and radiator, while keeping weigh low.  I am not sure if any of the available upper bars would have fully protected my tank and side panel, and many of them would have done more damage than they avoided.

 

 

Excellent write up, thanks for the thorough breakdown. Glad you are ok! 

[AZJW]

@Hollybrook Great detail and very thankful the post titled " Final thoughts " wasn't  descriptor of the crash results to you.  Really appreciate the notes on gear damage or lack thereof as I've been waffling on spending the extra coin on matching pants for my Carlsbad jacket and A-1 Air vest.  Your testimonial has reaffirmed that there is no substitute for good gear, even if the company has lousy customer service.

[Samm]

Flew off the trail into a tree today and decapitated my T7. Rally tower snapped off on both sides and the headlight mounting plate cracked in half and also tore the two bottom mounts out of the headlight itself. Luckily no damage to the windshield, instrument cluster, or GPS mounted to the top bar. Got it all apart, hit it with some JB Weld and Ziptie stitches, fabbed up some aluminum braces from an old road sign, and she's ready to go again. Thought about painting the braces black but I kinda dig the Spartan helmet look and it'll be a good conversation starter. Also bent the key when the headlight moved back, no damage to the ignition barrel!

 

  

 

Edited May 27, 2023 by Samm

[Zero600]

Lovely day near Mt. Rainier in WA state.  Then a meeting with a side-by-side doing maybe 50pmh in a cloud of dust.  Fortunately I got off the bike before the collision.  Broken collar bone which can be fixed.  I am less sure about the bike.  I have to imagine frame and fork damage though I have yet to inspect it myself.

 

It happened in an instant.

[AZJW]

Dayhm! I suppose the insurance companies will sort this out, sorry to hear about the collar bone.  BTDT. Glad it wasn't worse on you, but that T7 is looking pretty sad....

[Zero600]

14 minutes ago, AZJW said:

Dayhm! I suppose the insurance companies will sort this out, sorry to hear about the collar bone.  BTDT. Glad it wasn't worse on you, but that T7 is looking pretty sad....

BTDT?

[Windblown]

1 hour ago, Zero600 said:

Lovely day near Mt. Rainier in WA state.  Then a meeting with a side-by-side doing maybe 50pmh in a cloud of dust.  Fortunately I got off the bike before the collision.  Broken collar bone which can be fixed.  I am less sure about the bike.  I have to imagine frame and fork damage though I have yet to inspect it myself.

 

It happened in an instant.

 

Bad news - That bike is done.

Good news - You are in far better shape than the bike.

 

Hope you get to go bike shopping on someone elses dime! 

[AZJW]

1 hour ago, Zero600 said:

BTDT?

Been there, done that. 

Left collar bone,  hit a dog at 55 mph, over the bars, lost a lot of meat, but convinced me to wear all my gear, all the time.

[Zero600]

1 hour ago, AZJW said:

Been there, done that. 

Left collar bone,  hit a dog at 55 mph, over the bars, lost a lot of meat, but convinced me to wear all my gear, all the time.

Yeah, jacket pants boots gloves all did their job.

[Hollybrook]

Glad you were able to get off the bike in time to avoid to worst of the crash!  That one could have been a lot worse for you...

 

Sorry about the bike! 

[roygilbo]

16 hours ago, Zero600 said:

Lovely day near Mt. Rainier in WA state.  Then a meeting with a side-by-side doing maybe 50pmh in a cloud of dust.  Fortunately I got off the bike before the collision.  Broken collar bone which can be fixed.  I am less sure about the bike.  I have to imagine frame and fork damage though I have yet to inspect it myself.

 

It happened in an instant.

Brutal.  How fast were you going that you were able to get off in time?  Glad the collar bone was the only major harm.