Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge New Harley Down

79 degrees yesterday so i went for a ride through Placerita Canyon here in So Cal.. happened upon a poor guy named Bruce.. 2nd week with his new V-Rod. He was down in the gravel alondside the road.. took a turn too wide and his front end went under. Luckily he was well armoured. He got up with a compound finger fracture and a busted kneecap (bleeding and swollen despite full leathers and kneepads... had a good gash on his helmet too.. Waited with him for the medicos and towtruck to arrive. Not a whole lot of damage to the bike except for some cosmetics and extensions (peg, mirror). no frame issues that i could tell.
I gave the towtruck guy a hand by riding the bike over to his truck .After spending the previous hour on my BA.. that V-Rod felt so unstable to me. I couldn't determine where the center of gravity was on it.. it was like I was on an old bicycle. I couldn't imagine taking canyou twists at any rate of speed on that.
I was happy that guy was ok and I wasn't about to start talking him down from his new (now old & busted) Harley at that point.. just a testament to Triumph and the ability (at least mine) to be able to "feel the road under me"

Bad news Chris when any bike hits the dust, hope he recovers and buys a proper bike that handles on corners

That's too bad for the guy.
I like the look of the v-rod (night rod in matt black?).
Perhaps they might handle a bit different when they haven't been chucked up the road though?

Glad he's still here to hold court telling of his spill.

You're a good man for stoppin', Chris.

Regarding the V-Rod....
I remember when H-D first introduced the bike and the magazines did a write-up on 'em. One of the major complaints about the machine was that with it's offset triple-clamps and subsequent long rake, the bike felt like it wanted to fall into turns and didn't give the test-riders a very secure feeling when attacking the twisties. The sense was that it was a great motor let down by dodgy frame geometry.

Kind'a looks like the poor dude you helped out, might have found this out the hard way.

Hate to hear of any rider taking a fall, But it will give him a story to tell.

Good of you to assist a fellow rider, no matter what the bike. Glad to hear everyone was not hurt that bad.
Your good Karma will be coming along when you need it most.

Heard the one about the rider who dropped his machine in gravel and made his way to the nearest cafe?

Walked in and the waitress took one look at him, all dirt and scratches, and said, "What happened?"
"I just went down on my bike."
Without missing a beat, she says, "Lucky bike."

Okay, I'll stop now.

Had an opportunity to ride a V-rod a while back....that's one Harley that deserves a bashing. Didn't like the vibration, the handling, the feel of the front end or the looks. #1 on my list of crap from Harley.

Hope the guy wakes up and gets rid of that POS...you should have got his phone # so you can tell him where to get a Triumph for a replacement .

Tom.