Last summer was the first year I had a bike, and when I had my first accident. I was commuting to work on my KLR during morning 'rush hour' in Superior/Duluth. It's not too bad here in northern WI as far as traffic volume goes, but I have literally never seen a speeding stop inside of town. This means that everyone goes 40+ MPH on the 35 main road, even the sheriffs, and you really have to watch your back, as I found out. I was in the left hand lane of the main street coming into town, about 20 feet behind a semi and going about 40 myself. I remember looking in my mirror and seeing one of the faster drivers coming up behind me, and thinking that he was going to have to brake pretty hard to avoid hitting me. Well, he didn't. I felt my bike jump foreword under me, and then I landed on my backpack and slid to a stop along the inside curb. Rolled over and looked at the driver of the car, who was sitting with his mouth open. At least he'd steered into the other lane and not run me over. Now here's the crazy part. When hit, my bike's rear tire ripped the bumper off the car and it became wedged between the wheel and muffler. This kept my bike upright, and eventually I was able to pull it off, start it up, and drive away. Total damage was a cracked rear fender, stressed side panels and muffler, and some loosened bolts. The car on the other hand lost its bumper, had a creased hood, and was leaking transmission fluid all over the road. Praise God I was ATTGAT so my jacket took all of the beating. I was able to drive my bike to the hospital to get checked out, and ended up being fine except for a sore back for a day or two. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the accident; I couldn't find my camera at the time. The insurance company payed out quickly, and I've beefed up my gear with the extra cash. A really good and (again, praise God) cheap lesson about watching my back.
holy crap brother, great story, glad you ok. I know Duluth and Superior well. I have seen cars stopped by the PD along London Road out by the mansion, but that's about it in town. I drive like old people fornicate on the Wisc. side of the bridge, my plastic not intense enough to cover random speed citations over that way. Mostly cops would never pull a KLR over anyway, they are too busy laughing at us. I suppose they could hassle us for receipts for our milk crates.... Guess you taught someone not to eff with a dang KLR. Good on you for still being with us! (I might drive a KLR as well....)
Happy ending, nice. The rear tire survived removing the bumper?? Insurance bought you a new KLR? rear tire? backpack?
Damn son! lucky, and your KLR was all good? sweet!!! I wonder if mine would rip the offending cars bumper off as punishment for univited rear end action
Yes, they payed for new gear (my helmet was the only thing not damaged, strangely enough), backpack, plastics, tire, and a bit extra on top of it all. The police report left no doubt as to who was at fault, and there were several witnesses, so there wasn't much they could do. Oddly enough, the only thing they didn't cover was ibuprofin Come to think of it, I have seen the Duluth police doing speed stops. Never in Superior though. It seems to be state troopers > county sheriffs > city police in terms of professionalism in dealing with people too. Yeah, the KLR is a tough bike. When I got up I was wondering how long it would take the insurance to pay out so I could get a new bike; I was sure the sub-frame was twisted to pieces. Then we looked at it a bit and it seemed fine, so after letting a bit of air out of the tire to get out from under the car, it started up and drove away. The other nice thing about a KLR is if we have flooding like we did last summer, washed out roads don't stop it
