A buddy of mine had bought the wrong sized item in a "Outdoors Wharehouse". Knowing that I used the same item in the size he had bought, and as I was due to ride out to his place in Pahrump in about a week, he asked me to purchase the item he needed and we would swap.
I willingly went to this "Shooter's Mecca" as I wanted to go this new store anyway. We have a lot of gun stores out here but few places where you can buy reloading components to make your own ammo. I went there but as with most items related to firearms they had none......thanks BHO!
I wandered arounf for an hour persusing all the goodies that I could not afford and decided that I would be back soon.
The bike had been sitting for an hour and the pipes were pretty cool when a block away a cager entered the road from my left via the drive exit of an "IN N' OUT" BURGER.
He crossed over two north bound lanes, then another pair of turn lanes, then one southbound lane and then into "MY LANE".
He was doing all this under full acceleration with the tires squealing and smoking. I noted the odd behaviour and had been going about 35MPH and I began to slow down but as this was sharp right hand curve I did not slow down enough.
The reliable sphincter ring alarm responded and I quickly realized that in my haste I had neglected to disable "THE ROMULIAN CLOAKING DEVICE" and there was a strong possibility that I was about to be T-Boned from the left side very soon.
At this point I applied all the brakes I had, both front and back and of course the bike slowed down to maybe 20 MPH and then the asphalt came up from the right side and CLYDE began his 25 foot spark fest down the roadway with me aboard thinking this is really gonna hurt tomorrow if I survive this.
We ended up on our right side about 2 feet away from the concrete curb. The engine dresser bars/crash bars and the rear leather saddle bags kept most of the damage confined to the highway pegs and right mirror. However when I finally was able to hit the kill switch {I do not remember when I shifted to neutral,if at all} I realized that I was in a world of hurt, on a busy roadway, at night, on a nasty curve and that I did not want to scraped off the underside of a Chevy Suburban whcih I remember to be right behind me.
By this time the sparking had ceased and the carbs had begun to eject their precious fuel all over my right leg and between the screeching of the tires {remember the Suburban?} gave me an incentive to get out from under the bike and onto the nearby sidewalk ASAP.
Do you realize how heavy these SPEEDMASTERS are? I could not begin to pull out my right foot from under the bike. I was stuck badly and at about this time I realized that I really was in a bad spot.
I had a good Triumph jacket on and the fabric had some damage over the elbow armored insert {this was noted many hour later} and my whole right side was numb and soon to be really painful. The left thumb was hurting like H<>? and I was rapidly going into shock/panic and it was all I could do not lose control of that muscle group that first warned me of impending doom.
Having now been trapped under this 500 # bike for about a minute along come a teenager with his buddy and they ask me "Are you alright?". My reply was actually pretty good under the circumstances "Not really, I am trapped under the bike, the pain is getting really bad, I cannot get up and could you please get some help and get this Motorcycle offa my leg?"
Enter the Chev Suburban from stage right. It had finally stopped about 2 feet behind me but was at an angle. The middle aged pilot had the presence of mind to run the vehicle halfway up onto the sidewalk rather than turn me into road kill. It was a nice gesture on her part.
About 5 people got the bike off me and between all of us got it up onto the kickstand as I had the presence of mind to lower the stand prior to achieving a vertical position.
I straddled the seat and the GOOD SAMARATIANS pushed me off the roadway and up onto the sidewalk.
Somebody stuck a card in my hand and offered to be a witness as he had seen everythng from the sidwalk. He said that the car was packed with teenagers and apparently the driver was showwing off to his peers but had realized that he had caused an accident since he deliberately went through a red light about 300 feet down the road to flee the scene.
The damage to the bike was minimal and the damage to me is to be determined. I doubt I broke any bones but I know I will not be walking on that right ankle for a few days. I incurred some minor owiees on the right knee, thigh, elbow and left thumb. The riding gear worn, including the 12" laced up tight boots, gloves, full helmet, riding jacket with armour and BDU pants with double fabric on the knees and buttocks saved me from some serious injuries not to mention road rash.
I will heal and the bike will be repaired when I get around to looking it over in daylight. In the meantime, my new friend "MRS. ICEBAG" and myself are getting really intimate on my bed and it promises to be a faithful although short relationship.
All I can say is that we are invisible on our bikes and that I need to make my mufflers loud, rude, nasty and obnoxious like those on a Harley and maybe it won't happen again like this.
