Monday I took off for some moto camping for a couple of days. Destination, Big Sur and twisty roads. I took a bunch of photos and planned to write up a little story about my journey to share with the Barf community. Unfortunately my trip ended about 25 miles short when I totaled my bike on south Skyline.
Coming to the apex of a blind, right hand corner I saw the grill of a full size truck coming at me. I estimate that we were both at 20 mph or less, but this particular section of Skyline has no center line, and very little room to work with. I made an aggressive move to my right as I was already set up to move that way, and fortunately the driver moved aggressively to his right preventing what would have been a much worse situation. I contacted the drivers door, basically punching the truck with my left hand and slid down the side before coming off the truck towards the rock wall to my right. The same rock wall that makes this a blind corner.
The reaction from me and the other driver, along with it clearly not being my time have me feeling very fortunate. I split my gloves on the truck and got 3 stitches in my hand but the Alpinestars GP Pro gloves help up extremely well. Nothing else has a scratch, crazy. As I was coming off the truck the bike was turning and sliding under me as its momentum carried it to the rock wall. I came to rest sitting on the side of the bike, like I was floating above it while it was going down. I just left the dealer after the tow truck dropped off the bike and it was a consensus that it is totaled. Major fork, instrument cluster, triple tree and most importantly, frame damage.
The driver was super cool about it and stayed until the tow truck arrived and even gave me a ride home. Physically I am fine, financially it is a hassle but it will be ok, and mentally I am ok. Almost too ok. It seems like "one of those things" and I just want to get back to riding. Looking back, I think this short section of Skyline deserves even more caution. But, if I had stayed more to the right I would not have seen the truck as soon, and I would have been poorly setup to make a move to the right. Surreal.
Coming to the apex of a blind, right hand corner I saw the grill of a full size truck coming at me. I estimate that we were both at 20 mph or less, but this particular section of Skyline has no center line, and very little room to work with. I made an aggressive move to my right as I was already set up to move that way, and fortunately the driver moved aggressively to his right preventing what would have been a much worse situation. I contacted the drivers door, basically punching the truck with my left hand and slid down the side before coming off the truck towards the rock wall to my right. The same rock wall that makes this a blind corner.
The reaction from me and the other driver, along with it clearly not being my time have me feeling very fortunate. I split my gloves on the truck and got 3 stitches in my hand but the Alpinestars GP Pro gloves help up extremely well. Nothing else has a scratch, crazy. As I was coming off the truck the bike was turning and sliding under me as its momentum carried it to the rock wall. I came to rest sitting on the side of the bike, like I was floating above it while it was going down. I just left the dealer after the tow truck dropped off the bike and it was a consensus that it is totaled. Major fork, instrument cluster, triple tree and most importantly, frame damage.
The driver was super cool about it and stayed until the tow truck arrived and even gave me a ride home. Physically I am fine, financially it is a hassle but it will be ok, and mentally I am ok. Almost too ok. It seems like "one of those things" and I just want to get back to riding. Looking back, I think this short section of Skyline deserves even more caution. But, if I had stayed more to the right I would not have seen the truck as soon, and I would have been poorly setup to make a move to the right. Surreal.
:ride
