I'm in the spill club!!!

[Polar Rider]

Took my first fall yesterday. OUCH. Driving on an backwoods two-lane highway and came up on a curve that had gravel all across my lane from a gravel side road intersection. I don't know what happened but the the bike ended up sliding seat first so I went flying off the bike, bounching along the road. Crash guards did their job but got bent back and pushed my floorboard up into the shifter. Windshield and headlight are toast. The bike was still running when I tried to pick it up but the rear tire was not spinnig and it was not in neutral so we will see what the extent of the damage is. Had it towed to the dealer. Kind of wondering what price they will come up because they have some good deals on bikes now, 09 900lt for 7999 and a classic for 6999. If my insurance is going up anyway I hope I get a new bike out of it instead of a refurbished one.

BTW I went to the hospital because I must have slammed my left arm pretty hard becasue I couldn't move it and my chest hurt like hell. Turns out both are just really bruised, nothing broken. So much for any riding on this long weekend! On the other hand I have a Dr's prescription ordering me not to do any work this weekend so the honey do list will have to wait! Wife walked into the ER and saw me with my hands in front of me moving my fingers and she asked if the Dr. was checking for nerve damgage. I said I was checking to see if I was still able to operate the controller for the Playstation, she was not amused! (I can!!! So no riding but Dr ordered killing of Nazis for the whole weekend.) That's the way I read it anyway!

I don't feel too bad about going down. Sure I could have reacted quicker and you experienced riders would have. I do know what I did wrong, when I came around the curve I looked right at the side with all th egravel and didn't take my eyes off it. I wanted to get into the center of the raod to miss most of the gravel but Just couldn't get the bike to move and now I see it was becaue I was staring at the gravel right in front of me.

I was wondering how I would feel about riding after my first spill buty it hasn't changed my desire to get back out there at all so thats a good thing.

Just wanted to share.

[Munch]

Glad your ok. Not sure to send condolences for the bike or not. Sounded like you were thinking of a change up anyways. That and you seem overly excited about the gaming time..... so.... congratudolences.

[Alley Rat]

Well there are either riders who have fallen or ones who have not yet. Welcome to the club. Good to hear you are ok though.

[pat0021]

glad you're ok and can joke about it! Its a club a lot of us join but non of us want to.

[Polar Rider]

Like AR says, It was going to happen sometime and I'm just glad I got through it and game thing is looking at the positive side of things.
The 900 was my first bike and I loved it but practically speaking I would rather not have this dealer rebuilding my bike, I don't trust them. So if comes down to having them rebuild it or taking the money a getting another one, well I take the new one.

[OrlandoArbie]

As already stated, welcome to the club! Experience is a rough teacher sometimes. You hit the problem & a solution on the head -- you go where you look. If you haven't done so, buy the Ride Like a Pro video; it's worth the money & time and will help you become a complete rider.

[Ruger]

Sorry to hear about the crash. As we always say, " there are 2 types of riders - those who have gone down, and those that are going down". I hope it works out good for you.

[DanDolfn]

I do know what I did wrong, when I came around the curve I looked right at the side with all the gravel and didn't take my eyes off it.

Glad you're sort of OK.

I know what you mean about looking at it. I had the worst time trying to miss the little reflectors when I changed lanes. No matter how I tried, I kept hitting them.

Finally, I realized it was because I was looking right at them. When I learned to focus BETWEEN the reflectors, I could change lanes and not hit them at all.

[c_law23]

Glad you can take the experience from it and walk away.