Once again I find myself posting here....

I am so bummed, I dropped my Bonnie today. I was 1/2 mile from meeting a couple of friends for lunch, coming down a hill with a stop sign at the bottom. The road I was on T's at that intersection at a 45 degree angle and I was going left. As I approached I saw some gravel in the middle of the road just before the stop sign. No biggie, been there, done that before. I am not afraid of gravel. My other bike is a BMW GS and I actively seek out gravel roads for fun. Anyway, I steer to the left of the gravel as I am easing on the brakes and the next thing I know I am on the ground! Turns out that this was a recent tar and chip seal resurfacing (I hate tar and chip seal roads!!) and the gravel I guess was left over and or kicked to the middle from the sides by passing traffic. Though I saw the pile of gravel in the middle, I did not notice that there was a fine layer of pulverized gravel dust coating the entire width of road creating a very slippery surface. A passing car that stopped told me it was the 3rd or 4th bike accident he has seen this year at that intersection. As he pulled away, I could hear his wheels spinning on the same shit that caused me to go down.

Damgae is not as bad as it could have been. But I did shear off the toe piece on the shifter. A couple of quick calls and the local Triumph dealer had the shifter but no toe piece and another buddy was on his way to pick it up along with a bolt to rig up a toe piece. Other damage are buggered up clutch lever, bar end, axle bolt, headlight ring, fly screen and saddle bag. No damage to that beautiful scalloped tank, thank G-D but I did nick the chrome engine clutch cover but it is barely noticable. Also put a small ding in the left exhaust but no scratches. My boot must have hit it as I went flying.

Just writing all of this is making me feel better. The parts should start arriving by the end of next week and I will slowly make her pretty again. No calls to the insurance man for this one. I am going to eat it. In the mean while, I am going to ice my left hip. It sure is sore, though I did have full armored leather gear on which faired pretty well.

Wiping my tears away....

Rick G

Thats sucks to hear, Hope you both are feeling better soon.
Pete

Ps I went down last Sunday.

Thanks. Hope you came out ok on your ooops moment.

I live in an area where tar and chip sealed roads are very common. The amount of gravel that remains after this process is staggering. I ofter wondered if anyone ever thought about the hazzards it creates for motorcyclists.

Rick G

Thanks buddy, just a gravely knee and some scratched up panels, lesson learned bought knee pads
It's cheaper for the county, who cares about our safety right. :huh

In the UK we can sue (or at least try to) the people responsible for repairing the road, for leaving it in a condition that might reasonably be expected to be dangerous to road users. .

Of course, if enough folks do this, then the builders will pay out so much in damages that here will be no money left to carry out any road repairs at all!

I thought about that, but the damage to the bike is all cosmetic and relatively minor. I am sore but don't require any medical assisatance. It will probably cost about $500-700 to put it back to perfect shape. The hassle of finding a lawyer willing to sue the local road crews for less than $1000 would outway anything I might get in return. Plus this happened out of state about 140 miles from home.

I am just going to fix her up and forget that this ever happened.

Rick G

Glad nuttin' broke on YOU!

Need a nice cigar to smoke? (PM me an snail mail addy if yes)

-Eff

PM sent. Thanks so much. I will smoke it after I get her fixed up and then I will take a nice ride, take a break at a nice scenic spot and light her up.

Rick G

That sucks Rick, glad you're OK.

I'd at least make a call to the local folks in charge of that mess and ask them to clean it up, especially since it has caused more than one problem.

rick,

sorry to hear about your tip-over, glad there were no serious injuries.
where you in pa? get better buddy.

matt

Yep I was in PA again, my old stomping grounds. PA is really starting feel unlucky for me as my deer accident was also there.

Thanks to all for the well wishes.

Rick G

For some reason, it's always especially sad when it's a Triumph. (From a guy who downed a 2012 Tiger that wasn't his the other week).

Sorry to hear of this Rick- glad you're OK.
Lots of tar and chipping going on here - sure makes me nervous anytime I'm riding on a treated road.
Get that bike fixed and hope to see you at a 4 winds meeting or ride. Don't give up on PA yet.

Is this Jay? Nice to hear from you! Don't worry I am not giving up on my "homeland". I was just really pissed as I am familiar with that road, and knew that gravel might be at that spot, saw the gravel and still failed.

Upon reflection I have recognized what may have contributed to my drop. It is the linked brakes on my GS. I have gotten so used to the semi linked brakes on my GS that I have gotten in a habit of only using only the front brake lever. When I droped the Bonnie, I don't believe I was using any rear brake at all. That would account for why the front end let lose so quickly and with out warning when I hit that slippery stuff. I think if I had been using proper brake technique, modulating the front and rear brakes on the Bonnie when I hit the gravelly area, the front end might not have washed out and I would have been spared another embarrissing post.

I think I need to go to a big empty parking lot and learn my Bonnie's brakes a bit better.

Rick G

Yes - Jay here - you're probably right about the linked brakes I seem to recall an incident with your ST3 once where you connected with the rear of a car in WV where the lack of ABS on the Duc as compared to your daily driver GS may have played a role - not that ABS would have helped in this situation.

My ST3 incident was just me being an idiot! I was actually purposely only using the rear brake as an "experiment" when a car stopped suddenly in front of me. I did not hit the car, but did hit the ground.

I do believe in the case of my Bonnie, if I were on my GS with the linked ABS brakes, that I would not have gone down. But I may have sailed through the intersection with the ABS pulsing and been broadsided by a car.

You just never know....

Rick G

I remember my first encounter with that crap! I was on my DRZ with 50-50 tires and never had such little traction before. I almost slid right through the stop sign and in to the intersection. Then I nearly dropped the bike when my A* boot slid out from under me. I'm not sure how I got lucky twice.

As if we would let you...

That's okay, I dropped mine in the driveway trying to bump start it.
I lent the bike to my brother and he killed the battery. Lessons learned, don't loan bike to my brother and bump starting is difficult with a cold bike.