Motorcycle Accident
Posted on October 10th, 2006 | by admin |This post brought to you in part by: Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Transportation approved Helmets and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.
First off, aside from bruises I’m 100% A-OK. My bike Jozette, a 2005 Honda CMX250, on the other hand is not.
On my way home from Richmond, VA Sunday night at 10:00 I found myself in a situation I had prepared for yet hoped would never happen. While on an ramp to the I-64/I-95 junction the car in front of me slammed on his brakes instead of merging with traffic. This is where the multiple choice comes in. I could either A) swerve left into speeding traffic. B) swerve right into grass, a guard rail, and a hill or C) apply even pressure to front and rear brakes.
I choose C, but all didn’t go so well. My rear brake locked up, in which case I had no choice but to leave it locked. Had I let off the brake it would have either thrown me off or spun me around. At that point she started veering left into traffic so without hesitation I did the one thing I was trained to do and set he down on her right side, simultaniously lifting myself from beneath the bike and coming to a safe stop.
It hurt like hell. And while she’s not a heavy bike coming in at 350 LBS I was able to quickly lift her and walk it over to the pathetic excuse for a shoulder. Adrenaline is crazy stuff.
The gas tank is dinged up and right foot peg is bent out of shape. Aside from that I really didnt see any other damage. Chain, fork, wheels, tires, and engine look fine but she’s not starting. Engine could be flooded, or battery could be loose, or it could be a plug. Whatever, that’s for the mechanics to figure out.
I walked away with a new appreciation of life and am very happy that I took the optional Motorcycle Safety Foundation class when I got my Class-M license. I can also be thankful to have been wearing proper riding gear including boots, jeans, leathers, armor jacket, gloves, and a full face DOT approved helmet. My leathers are torn to all hell but between them and the jeans I’m thankful to only have a very large bruise and not some nasty road rash.
It’s experiences like this that have taught me not to sweat the small stuff. In comparison a day late episode release or piling up work all seem trivial. When I was little and fell off my bike I was taught to get back on. So cheers to being able to blog about this at all, and hopefully soon I’ll get back on with an even clearer insight on life.
