The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

I just couldn't stand not knowing what kind of shape the bike was in so I went up to the storage yard to take a look. I think several factors played into my advantage that kept damage to a minimum. Wreck happened at low speeds and we actually ended up in the entrance to a parking lot which has some upward slope to it which took some vertical out of the drop.

Front rim seems to have taken the worst of it as it must have "dug in" on the incline. Bottom of fork leg is scuffed.



2 of the 3 places the front fairing is scuffed. Bottom of radiator shroud is scuffed. Custom blinker is scuffed.



3 of 3 places the front fairing is scuffed.



Can is scuffed.



Bar end and lever on right side.



Left rearset looks bent and heelplate was sheared off.



Rear brake lever mangles and possibly the rearset bent.



The savior!



All in all I feel I got pretty lucky considering I was physically struck by the truck. Hopefully I can get the rear sets sorted before the rally and I'll deal with the other items afterwords.

Man Down, Man Down!

Got sideswiped by a pickup turning left off of a light. I was behind him as the light turned green and pulled into the right lane as soon as we cleared the intersection I pulled into the right lane. He decided he needed Taco Bueno and cut on me hard. Honestly, it happened so fast I didn't have a chance. I didn't even get a chance to check the bke but obviously it's not going on the trip. Doctor coming in, will update later.

Edited Account:

Got taken out today by a pickup truck at 11th and Delaware on the way home from work on my motorcycle. The truck in front of me, and myself, had just turned left onto 11th Street off of a redlight on Delaware coming south out of the TU campus. As soon as we cleared the intersection I moved into the right lane as I typically don't like to be behind pickups for sight-line issues. As I pulled next to him, my guess is that he decided to cut into one of the fast-food restaurants on the south side of the road as he cut hard from the left lane and tried to dart in the parking lot on the right, taking me out in the process. I had absolutely no time to react and was down before I could even begin to think about taking evasive maneuvers. By the time I got up and sorted myself out, someone had already called the ambulance and although I really didn't want to go to the hospital, Cindy insisted so I took a ride to the ER. By the time I was strapped into the ambulance, and the initial shock of the accident was wearing off, my shoulder was really starting to hurt and I my thoughts were that I might have broken/fractured my collar bone. X-Rays in the ER turned up negative so after 3.5 hrs in the ER I was released.

I never really got a chance to survey the bike at the scene as it was down on its right side and too close to the truck to pick up. I have no idea how bad the damage is but my guess is rashed right fairing, bent/broken right peg and bars and trashed exhaust can. Hopefully it is still rideable and I am going to try and retrieve it from the wrecker yard today. All in all I feel I came out of the incident in pretty good shape and hope to take a lesson from all of this. I want to be more upset with myself for not being able to avoid the situation but in running through the scenario over and over in my head, it was completely out of my control. The guy couldn't have done a better job of timing the sideswipe even if he was doing it intentionally. In any case, I'll keep you guys posted and thanks to everyone for the calls and well-wishes.

New Bars

Finally got around to installing my "new" bars on the Fizzy and am looking forward to seeing how they ride tomorrow. On Friday, I messed around with quite a few different mounting positions as I had some lower bar mounts and 3 different sets of bars laying around. It quickly became obvious that I didn't really want to go lower so after thinking on it for a couple of days, I mounted the flat drag bars after cutting 1/2" off of each end. Sitting on the bike it seems much more comfortable now with the bars at a more natural position. See comparison below.

For you dog lovers...

This is what I envision going through Milo and Bodie's heads when Dick or Brett comes over...

Bulldogged Akra

Well, I have to say this was a mod that went exceptionally well considering how little info I had on what was involved. I knew I wanted approximately 4 inches taken out of the can but that was about it. The process was fairly straight-forward with disassembly requiring no more than drilling the rivets out. Cutting the carbon fiber was so much easier than I thought it was going to be and was accomplished with a hacksaw with a new blade. While I had the can off, I hit the pipe with my buffing wheel and voila, I solved my pipe color issue as well! I took the rear pegs off and used a ZRX MikiMoto pipe hanger and it worked out just right. The aftermarket pipe hangers for the Fizzy come perpendicular off of the frame and don't really look good where the MikiMoto has a nice rear sweep that works well with the lines of the bike. The only minor drawbacks to the entire mod are the strap marks on the carbon fiber wrap from the stock mounting location. Hopefully the sun will take care of that over time. Thanks to Deek for pitching in and helping!

Going Green

They say some guys have a motorcycle as an accessory in their life.

You know you've got it bad when you furnish your home using the bike as a "central theme."

A Perfect Tuesday

What a beautiful day to grill a steak!