IndieSol
"This one goes to eleven." -Nigel Tufnel
We've been putting together group rides and meetups on nice days out here for a couple of months. The attendance has surprisingly steadily grown. We put together a ride for yesterday in Portland. We had gotten steady rain for a few days, but it stopped Friday night, and it was sunny and 42 degrees when we headed out of Peet's Coffee 15 bikes deep.
We headed out skyline, which is a great curvy road that heads out of Portland into a semi-rural area in the west hills. The roads were mostly dry, but in a few shady places fairly wet. Coming into a blind thirty mile an hour right curve, at maybe 35 or so, I come around the bend and see ice over most of the two lane road. There are splotches of simply wet pavement mixed in, but it's mostly ice, and it was very tough to tell the difference. And on top of that, the road slants to the left, where there is a small grassy ditch. Increasing my lean angle at that point would have resulted in my laying it down immediately, and I could see enough of the left lane to see that there was no oncoming traffic, so I thought my best bet may be to go upright, apply the rear brake and head for the ditch, which looked gentle enough to possibly ride it out on the grass, or at least lay it down gently enough to not do too much damage.
As I headed toward the ditch, I slid twice. Once in a pretty major way but was able to keep it upright. Then, on the third, the front wheel slid as wheel and the bike dropped like a stone. I was able to get up right away and turn around just in time to see my friend marcus go down and slide into my bike with his girlfriend on the back. His chest hit my rear tire. From there it was like fucking bike bowling. 7 out of 15 riders went down (no trips to the hospital) in total. 5 bikes were not roadworthy, mine included. I was wearing leather, carhartt pants and my full face helmet so I don't have a scratch on me, but I'm hurtin' a bit today.
As we sorted out the carnage and transportation for the bikes, a couple of riders went up the hill to warn incoming bikers about the ice, and I guarantee we stopped at least two more bikes that came in hot from going down. One on a beautiful triumph who still ended up sideways for a small time.
The force of the impact broke my engine case on the right side, scratched up the tank and rear cowl, bent my bars, broke the front brake lever, bent the rear, broke both right signals and probably some other damage I have yet to assess until the bike gets in my garage tomorrow. I like the idea of getting my GS back on the road, but I don't know how feasible it is at the moment. I think I may at least give it a try. Yet another cause for delay on my 360 project. Fuck.
Not really important, just wanted to vent on someone and my wife doesn't really "get it". And I'm sore as hell and pissed off. At the same time, though, 7 riders went down and no one needed to go to the hospital. A bunch of us actually made it to a bar for a beer. So, it could have been much worse.
It's been said a million times before, but be careful this time of year folks.
We headed out skyline, which is a great curvy road that heads out of Portland into a semi-rural area in the west hills. The roads were mostly dry, but in a few shady places fairly wet. Coming into a blind thirty mile an hour right curve, at maybe 35 or so, I come around the bend and see ice over most of the two lane road. There are splotches of simply wet pavement mixed in, but it's mostly ice, and it was very tough to tell the difference. And on top of that, the road slants to the left, where there is a small grassy ditch. Increasing my lean angle at that point would have resulted in my laying it down immediately, and I could see enough of the left lane to see that there was no oncoming traffic, so I thought my best bet may be to go upright, apply the rear brake and head for the ditch, which looked gentle enough to possibly ride it out on the grass, or at least lay it down gently enough to not do too much damage.
As I headed toward the ditch, I slid twice. Once in a pretty major way but was able to keep it upright. Then, on the third, the front wheel slid as wheel and the bike dropped like a stone. I was able to get up right away and turn around just in time to see my friend marcus go down and slide into my bike with his girlfriend on the back. His chest hit my rear tire. From there it was like fucking bike bowling. 7 out of 15 riders went down (no trips to the hospital) in total. 5 bikes were not roadworthy, mine included. I was wearing leather, carhartt pants and my full face helmet so I don't have a scratch on me, but I'm hurtin' a bit today.
As we sorted out the carnage and transportation for the bikes, a couple of riders went up the hill to warn incoming bikers about the ice, and I guarantee we stopped at least two more bikes that came in hot from going down. One on a beautiful triumph who still ended up sideways for a small time.
The force of the impact broke my engine case on the right side, scratched up the tank and rear cowl, bent my bars, broke the front brake lever, bent the rear, broke both right signals and probably some other damage I have yet to assess until the bike gets in my garage tomorrow. I like the idea of getting my GS back on the road, but I don't know how feasible it is at the moment. I think I may at least give it a try. Yet another cause for delay on my 360 project. Fuck.
Not really important, just wanted to vent on someone and my wife doesn't really "get it". And I'm sore as hell and pissed off. At the same time, though, 7 riders went down and no one needed to go to the hospital. A bunch of us actually made it to a bar for a beer. So, it could have been much worse.
It's been said a million times before, but be careful this time of year folks.
