Kari and I had an on the road riding lesson earlier in the day. I was on the K, she was on the Silverwing, the ride went with out a hitch. When we came home I parked the K and got on with the day.
At around 5:30 or 6, I decided I was going to go for a little jaunt on the K. One of the roads we rode on earlier was Brashears which leads down towards the water and turns into Washington at a hard right turn, which is where I went down.
I was doing a simple circle around the neighborhood. I went down Brashears and went into the turn, the next thing I knew the rear wheel went out to the left and I was picking myself up off the ground. There was an older couple out for a walk, the lady said, "Are you OK? What happened, you weren't going that fast." I wasn't going fast, it is for the most part a right angle, right turn.
The only thing I can think of is that, I down shifted which caused the wheel to slow, and I think there may have been some oil on the road causing the rear end skid.
I don't want to down play the incident, I got beat up. I know my head hit the ground, as always I was wearing a helmet, a half helmet. When I stood up, I think I was in shock. I wasn't sure where I was or what I was. A driver coming the other direction stopped and let me use his cell phone to call Kari. I hesitated dialing my home number, although, I don't call my number that much and often stutter on the number.
To give an idea of how slow I was going is to look at my clothes and injuries. I had a light short sleeve shirt on and light zip off khakis; both the shirt and pants had road dirt on them but neither had holes in them. I have a scrape on my elbow and ankle that a band aid covers easily. The real damage was to jar my back and the inside of my right hip.
I have pain along my right shoulder blade. The pain in my hip was caused by my keys and keychain. I think that when I went down I landed on my keys, but I think some of the keys or the remote for my car was cought in the crease of my hip and leg. It hurts like the devil.
When Kari brought the truck we picked up the bike with the help of the good samaritan. The bike wouldn't start, we pushed the bike over to Patrinni's and parked it in their lot.
We went down on Sunday to pick it up. I used the hot shot to start it and it started right up. I checked it over to see if there was any damage to the forks, wheels or brakes. Rather than trying to get the bike in the truck, I decided to ride it home with Kari following closely in the truck.
Damage to the bike, sure. The right mirror and rear turn signal came off. The right valve cover is nicely scratched and it looks like the right foot peg is bent. I'm not sure I understand the bike peg. Like most pegs it pivots. I haven't checked it too closely because I still have trouble bending and lifting.
The other consequence of laying down the bike is that it's delayed my motorcycle trip to Florida. I was do to leave on Sunday. There was no way with the pain I could sit on a bike for 8 hours a day for 5 days. Now I'm running into weather issues. Hurricane Karen is due to be across the south right as I would get there. I also feel a little gun shy. I've never dropped a bike before, I never want it to happen again.
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