Some of you that have been around for a while may remember t71ford's XS360 project "Isadora". When his wife out grew the bike, I bought it last spring for my little brother, Ben, to learn to ride on. He's been doing really well over the past year, but that ended yesterday, May 20. It was my birthday, so we decided on a little celebratory ride. I let him lead for most of the ride, taking it at his comfort level. A few miles into the ride (narrow, somewhat curvy road) we passed a guy in a truck, and wanting to put a little more distance between us and the truck, I jumped into the lead and took up the pace a bit. We hit a sweeping left, and after the turn I looked in my mirror and he wasn't there. Boy what a shitty feeling. I flipped a U-turn and went back to the turn to find him in the ditch and the bike in pieces. The guy in the truck stopped to help, and later when I asked him what he saw, said my brother went wide, off the road, hitting the narrow ditch going end over end.
Ben said as he entered the turn, he got a nasty head shake and lost control. I'm inclined to believe him, but I think target fixation played a role as well, with him being so new to riding. He said as soon as the shake started, he totally lost concentration, stopped looking through the turn, and panicked, basically going straight.
He's a bit bruised and sore, but thanks to proper gear, escaped with only a fractured rib and damaged pride...in a 40mph crash. He's definitely lucky in the fact that he came to rest about three feet before several large boulder-sized chunks of concrete. (no idea what they were doing out in the middle of nowhere...!) I feel partly responsible for taking him out of his comfort zone with the increased speed, as well.
Isadora's too far gone to be worth fixing. The engine and maybe the frame (I haven't looked it over closely yet) are the only parts of the bike that didn't get damaged. Here she is on the left a year ago:
If anyone has any ideas on how to cheer him up a little, I'm all ears. He's beating himself up a lot, as the bike was a gift to him. We'll be looking into another bike for him this fall.
Anyways, ride safe guys. And for crying out loud, wear your gear. It's the only reason he escaped with as little injury as he did.
Ben said as he entered the turn, he got a nasty head shake and lost control. I'm inclined to believe him, but I think target fixation played a role as well, with him being so new to riding. He said as soon as the shake started, he totally lost concentration, stopped looking through the turn, and panicked, basically going straight.
He's a bit bruised and sore, but thanks to proper gear, escaped with only a fractured rib and damaged pride...in a 40mph crash. He's definitely lucky in the fact that he came to rest about three feet before several large boulder-sized chunks of concrete. (no idea what they were doing out in the middle of nowhere...!) I feel partly responsible for taking him out of his comfort zone with the increased speed, as well.
Isadora's too far gone to be worth fixing. The engine and maybe the frame (I haven't looked it over closely yet) are the only parts of the bike that didn't get damaged. Here she is on the left a year ago:
If anyone has any ideas on how to cheer him up a little, I'm all ears. He's beating himself up a lot, as the bike was a gift to him. We'll be looking into another bike for him this fall.
Anyways, ride safe guys. And for crying out loud, wear your gear. It's the only reason he escaped with as little injury as he did.
