My first crash!

They say there are two types of riders, those who have gone down and those who are yet to go down. I am now officially a member of the first group. The weather was gorgeous today so I decided to head out and get in some riding and check out some of the usual roads out twords Dewatto and Tahuya. I was on my way home taking the back roads out of Gorst up to Bremerton when it happened. There was a lot of dirt/gravel still on the road from all of the ice we've had lately so I was taking it easy, only going about 25mph going through a slight right hand bend, even thinking to myself "Ok, I'm gonna take it nice and easy cause of all the gravel" when my rear tire slid out from under me and I low-sided. I didn't slide very far and was able to get right back up and shake it off. Fortunately there was a guy who saw what happened and came over to help me pick up my bike and make sure I was ok. I was wearing full gear and it really saved my ass.

The bike was ridable so I rode home, but by then my right hand was really starting to hurt. I changed my clothes and called my friend Kevin and he gave me a ride down to the hospital cause there was no way I would be able to shift to drive properly. They checked me out and thankfully nothing was broken. My right hand is banged up pretty good and I'll prolly have some gnarly bruises tomorrow, but I'll be ok. They gave me some pain killers and sent me on my way.

After all that I was able to inspect the damage to the bike. Fortunately there is nothing that absolutely has to be replaced immediately. The frame sliders did their job and took the brunt of the damage. The bad news is that the rear brake lever for my bitchin CycleCat rearsets is bent, it's usable, but I'll probably want to get a new one. I'll need to replace the right side frame slider as well. The tank has a small scratch in it as does the front faring. I guess there goes the resale value. The front brake lever is scraped up at the end, but isn't bent and is still usable. Same goes with the right side mirror. The back of the mirror is scratched up pretty nicely, but it's usable. Most of my gear survived with only minor scuffs. The gloves, pants and jacket don't have any major damage at all. My helmet however has some nice scratches in it. I've heard that helmets are only good for one impact, so I may have to replace it. Buying a new $600 helmet is not something I'm looking forward to.

All in all I have to say I was god damn lucky. My only physical damage is relatively minor as is the damage to my bike. Full gear saved my ass.

Here are some pics:

Old Man Winter and Plans for 2008

Geez, it's been five-ever since I've updated my blog. Why is that? Well cause it's fucking cold and rainy out thats why! I don't exactly get a chance to ride much this time of year. My bike has been lonely sitting in the garage for the past few months. I try to get out and tool around town a little bit when the weather clears up a bit. I don't really get to ride except to the store or the bar or some place close. Anything more than 10-15 minutes and I'm freezing ass cold. Although it is VERY nice to be able to come home and jump into the hot tub right after riding and my body is still very cold.

I have however installed some new heated grips on my bike, and boy are they awesome. They make a huge difference this time of year. I can always put on an extra layer (or two) when I go out for a ride, but the one problem I've always had was with my hands. The new heated grips should help that.

It's a new year, and that means a whole new set of goals for the bike:
- Get a god damn radar detector. I accumulated something like 8 tickets (seriously) during 2007 so my goal is to reduce that drastically this year. I'm trying to decide between the Valentine One and the new Escort Passport 9500. Both are in the $400 range and are both considered the top of the line. I should be able to hook it up so I can move it between my car and the motorcycle, which is my ultimate plan. I know that the radar detector isn't a 100% guarantee that I won't get any tickets (especially with the way I ride/drive), but I know for sure it would have helped me in the past, so it can only help in the future.
- Get a new Alpinestars jacket that will zip to my leather pants. I have some really nice leather Alpinestars leather track pants, but I need a jacket that will properly zip to it if I am going to do any track days this year...
- Take my bike out to the track! I've been riding for a year and a half now and have logged damn near 19,000 miles and damnit, I'm good enough to go out on the track. I want to sign up for a beginner track school where I can get some good instruction and learn more about riding. I've heard that just one of these days at a track school will increase my riding ability drastically.
- Fabricate some form of passenger footpegs. Ok, this is mostly a vanity thing. Ever since I put on the new CycleCat rearsets I haven't had any passenger footpegs, and I've had a few girls ask me for rides when I simply can't. Girls like my motorcycle, and I like girls, so yeah. I'm a sucker.
- Plan a big ride for this spring/summer. I did a fantastic ride down to California last year, and I want to do something similar (but not quite as long) this year. There are some good rides out around the Washington/Oregon/Idaho/Montana border mountains so I'm thinking that if I can stay at my friends place in Pullman, Washington that would be a good base of operations to head out on a couple nice day rides.