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Totaled the Wee today - Bruised but not broken

33K views 150 replies 86 participants last post by  SGTBob  
#1 ·
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First, Dirt Mom is home and dodged a bullet on serious injuries. Has a nasty ankle sprain, and a sore rib area but she was wearing all her gear and has very little abrasions. X-ray showed no broken bones.

As the pictures show it was an overcast day and while we weren't riding in rain, the roads were wet from earlier rain. The road tightened into a decreasing radius turn which proved too much for the remaining traction and she felt the bike slip out from under her. She thinks her slide started about where you see the car in picture 2 above. The slide ended here where she is sitting up after the crash.

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My guess is she slid down the road over 150'. The bike is in front of the white truck. After walking the road and feeling how slick it was I understood how that was possible.

The bike slid across the road and was hit by an F150 pickup. That truck deployed the airbags and had to be towed away. My wife thought the truck may have run over her ankle, or maybe it just trapped her foot, either way her short motocross style book was ripped off her foot, which is not easy to do in a Thor 50/50 boot.

The MD State Trooper on scene was also a rider and I think that helped. He made out the report, told me he would enter that the road was overly slippery into the report. He was strictly professional and I don't feel he could have done a better job understanding our perspective. There were no tickets issued.

We were using the Sena SMH20 bike to bike communicators. They are always on and you hear everything from the other person at all times. That was pretty unnerving to come out of a tough corner, hear your wife scream, hear an impact, then not see her behind you any longer. By the time I turned around I could see airbag smoke pouring out of the pickup windows. It looked bad. The communicators did come in handy when she was laying face down next to the guard rail and I was able to hear her moaning. I knew she wasn't knocked out and we were able to talk without yelling before she started to move.

The tow truck driver found me and wanted to let me know he was just going to drag it onto the bed. He was positive the bike was a total loss. I suspect I will never see that bike again.

Wife is sore, but undeterred. She's already telling me she wants her next bike to be the Super Tenere. We'll see. Let's get her walking without crutches first. But she shows no interest in giving up riding.

Scary day, but all is well.
 
#3 ·
no kidding! plastic and steel are completely replaceable, i'm glad no one was seriously injured! :thumbup:
 
#4 ·
Sorry to here

roads get slippery

I once watched 24 bikes go down on a wet spot. When the cops got there they told us that a pick up had flipped the night before and dumped its engine oil all over the road.

Be extra nice she will feel worse tomorrow. Get her some therapeutic massages next week. My wife is spending tonight in the hospital with an infected throat that almost swelled shut.
 
#7 ·
My wife is spending tonight in the hospital with an infected throat that almost swelled shut.
All the best to your wife. Sounds very unpleasant.

As far as the spot where she crashed, the locals that stopped told us there are about two crashes there a week. Told us the guard rail was new because people kept ending up in the woods. In fact within 3 minutes of my wife's crash someone came around that corner in a full skid and nearly hit the wee again. I got the flairs out of my bike after that. It is a bad spot, not sure how I got through it.
 
#5 ·
At the end of reading the post I realized I was holding my breath. Wow! Is that a Tourance EXP on the back or what? That she wants a new bike is a sure sign she's fine. My last drop a couple of years ago was a low side on a cold, wet road too. The 2012 Super Tenere features traction control I wonder if that would have made a difference.
 
#62 ·
At the end of reading the post I realized I was holding my breath. Wow!
Me too, at least until I saw Dirt Mom resting against the guardrail

Don't know what else to say but I'm glad she didn't get hurt any worse than she did. Wish her a speedy recovery from both of us.

Really missed you here this past weekend.

Norm
 
#6 ·
Glad your wife didn't suffer more injury than she did and hope for a full recovery. Any wipeout involves some luck regarding the outcome, especially right handers (in the U.S). She shows unusual metal to be undeterred - a jewel indeed.

My initial kneejerk thoughts - what tires were on the bike? Could the slide have started on the paint?
 
#8 ·
I am glad your wife is alright.
 
#9 ·
I'll say she dodged a bullit. All the best to her, sounds like she's a trooper.
 
#10 ·
Regarding the tires the rear had an Anakee II and the front a Tourance (original). The front has 11K and I had ordered a replacement Anakee II. It was not down to the wear bars yet but close enough that I was ready to replace. Don't recall the mileage on the rear, but it has good life left. We had ridden a lot of wet roads today and traction had been normal and unremarkable in any of the twisties we rode.

I don't believe she would have been in the paint. She is an advanced rider and very unusual for her get close, but it was a decreasing radius, so I can't say it's impossible. She's not sure, but she believes it was her rear that let loose first.
 
#11 ·
Very glad to see that your wife is ok. She will have a tough night trying to sleep tonight. She be replaying it over and over in her dreams.
 
#13 ·
So thankful your wife came out of this mishap relatively unscathed Jon! Hope she heals up fast and is back in the saddle again soon.
 
#16 ·
Holding my breath for sure -- so hard that when I released it the reaction gave me hiccups! Hope the "day(s) after" are not bad for Dirt_Mom!
 
#17 ·
Damn, Jon! Talk about giving me a scare! Stuff like this really hits home when it's people you have ridden with and BSed over a meal with!
I am glad to hear she's not hurt too badly (although I can say, speaking from experience, the stiff muscles seem to have a mandatory 24-48 waiting period for maximum inconvenience). And the fact that she is already thinking ahead to the next bike says a lot!
As has been mentioned - bikes can be replaced. What counts is that she is ok, and considering what you said about the road conditions on that corner, that you are both ok.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Dirt Mom!
 
#18 ·
Jon,
I am thinking of you both. Please pass on my best to Dirt_Mom. You've got a very special gal to go through that, and start talking about her next bike! And, nice job to you in keeping your cool and taking the photos. They paint a clearer picture better then words can. I am very glad that you are both okay!

Sincerely,

Barry
 
#20 ·
Thanks for all the well wishes. DM appreciates all the kind words.

GW - I don't know if the traction control would have helped in this situation. It would have if she had grabbed some throttle in the turn, but not thinking she did that. Although since it's unclear what did happen it is hard to say.

Barry - she has already made it clear to me she wants a bike for Nova Scotia so one way or another I still expect to stop in later this year.
 
#21 ·
Barry - she has already made it clear to me she wants a bike for Nova Scotia so one way or another I still expect to stop in later this year.
You have already made it painfully clear that I shouldn't be asking about D_M's sister. But, does D_M have a cousin that might be interested in a goofy guy with a three legged dog? To me, it sounds like you have caught a real nice "keeper". I'm just wondering if there could be another one, just like her, swimming around in the same gene pool.

I truly look forward to seeing you BOTH in Maine later this summer!

B.
 
#22 ·
Scary stuff but like the rest of the commenters I am very glad to hear the humans are OK. You can always buy another bike, but a gal like that is once in a lifetime.

I personally would like to hear your comments on the gear she was wearing at the time, how well it held up, if she had any abrasion through the gear, etc. Try to get a little bit of positive out of an otherwise bad situation.
 
#23 ·
Holy crap. Looking at the photos increased the pucker factor on my couch.

So glad to hear Dirt_Mom is okay; good sign that she's already talking new bike. That's right, walk it off, girl (or hobble for a while, whatever works).

RIP Wee. :(
 
#24 ·
Sorry, Barry. I don't have a source for another copy for you.

I do plan to take some pictures of the gear tomorrow. The jacket and pants are so new they've only been worn two or three times. Don't remember the name of the jacket at the moment. The pant were from Porto Gear. That's a custom made gear company available only through ebay. I had heard Swingset talk about them on his podcast. Did not expectation we'd put them to use within the first month of ownership, but they worked perfectly. They are done and worn through in the knee area, but she had no road rash where the pants were.

The jacket did somehow allow a very small amount of rash on her right elbow (the first side to hit). But it is less than 2 inches square. Jacket is also spent, but happy with the performance. I'll post the manufacture later.

Helmet was the Scorpion modular. I've always been concerned about modular helmets, but this one clearly slid a distance on the road with no failure. It opened fine after the crash and did its job. Due to weight I'm not sure she'll get another one, but can't complain about performance.

Boots were Thor 50/50. The one that stayed on worked great. Not sure why the other came off, but she thinks it may have been run over and come off during that. I believe the boots are still perfectly usable but will need to confirm tomorrow. There are some marks on her leg just above the ankle where the boot came off. Unclear what caused those.

She was wearing fingerless gloves. One finger had some abrasion, but the rest were remarkably fine.
 
#25 ·
Tell Dirt Mom that lots of us are asking after her and that even those of us who haven't met her are sending lots of positive thoughts her way. She is one very lucky woman, guard rails are famous for being really rough on motorcyclists. I kind of know how fast this sort of thing can happen as I was riding on wet roads (with rain) today and almost went down when I was doing hard braking for a stop light. My front wheel did a small skid before I got the bike under control. Scary. :yikes: Needed to change my shorts after that. Considering getting those Trail Wings out from under my bike now. They don't stick very well on wet pavement.
 
#26 ·
Last few crash pics.

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I managed to get the top case on my back seat and salvaged the laminar lip, but that was it. Have a lot of stuff bolted to the bike that is going to belong to Progressive now.

Funny, the bike loss is pretty easy to get over. I felt a little something pulling into the barn and looking where it normally sits. She rode that thing from Tennessee to Maine and even Canada. Lots of history with that bike. But in the end it's a replaceable piece of metal that doesn't mean a whole lot.
 
#87 · (Edited)
Add Accessory Coverage

I managed to get the top case on my back seat and salvaged the laminar lip, but that was it. Have a lot of stuff bolted to the bike that is going to belong to Progressive now.
Almost all motorcycle insurance companies will allow you to add a rider (no pun intended) to your bike policy to cover accessories. When you consider how little you get for a totaled bike (NADA value) versus what you have spent on it (usually thousands), the check you get after a total loss is pretty meager.

It only cost $40 a year to add $2,000 in accessory coverage for my Vee. All that was needed to add the coverage was a verbal list of accessories over the phone.

I'm glad your wife is ok. AGATT AGATT AGATT!! She's brought new meaning to the phrase: "Riding a fast bike at near legal speeds is boring. Riding a Strom at those same speeds is an adrenaline rush."
 
#28 ·
Glad she's fine. Super scary story, especially considering my wife is starting to ride this year.

I don't mean to sound like a jerk here, and I know I often do, but "road overly slippery" sounds like a backwards way of saying "vehicle traveling too fast for road conditions"...

Even experienced riders slip (literally) sometimes...
Any idea on whether she caught the yellow line before she went down?