Arby
04-23-2006, 09:03 AM
I'm posting this as a follow up to the terrible news that Wild Will posted the other day.
About five or six years ago, my wife decided she was going to get her own bike. We have female friends that ride solo, and she was ready to join them.
I didn't discourage her, but nor did I encourage her either. To be honest, it scared the crap outta me. But how can I say to her, "Yeah, I can do this, but you can't."
So, I tried to help her make good decisions along the way.
First off, she signned up for the beginning rider course. But they were booked up several months out.
Meanwhile, we're looking at bikes. I try to steer her towards a small electric start dual sport, like a Suzuki DR200, or maybe a little UJM like a 250 Nighthawk. To make it short she decides on a Buell Blast. They had just come out, and there weren't any on the used market yet, so we go to the Harley dealer.
The Blast was a 4395.00 retail bike, but this guy has jacked it up to 6395.00 otd. When we decide to walk away from this deal (and dealer), the salesman is screaming at us that buying a Harley Davidson product is not like buying a "jap" bike.
I know the Blast would have been a good choice, but it ain't gonna happen now, Jude wouldn't ride a Blast now if they were giving them away.
So, we go from there to the multi-line dealer in town. She had had her eye on this new left over Kawasaki 600 Eliminator. sort of a cross between a ujm and cruiser. Light weight, low seat , easy to reach flat (not bucko) handlebars.
It's also got about 70 horsepower, instead of the 25 or 30 that she should be starting with. The engine is a detuned 4 cyl Ninja, 6 spd, mated to a shaft drive.
She's eager to begin riding, so we begin her training in the driveway. She has owned and ridden 100cc dirt bikes, so she knows a little bit already.
After I'm convinced she can start and stop, we're ready for more advanced training. Not too far from our house is a subdivision with all the paved streets and other improvements done, but due to legal problems, no houses have been built. It's miles of completely deserted streets.
I ride her bike to this location, with her on back.
Then she takes the controls.
I have her doing every drill I can think off. I won't list them all, but after several weekends of this, she's sick of doing drills and practicing, and I'm confident enough in her skills that I hop on back and let her ride us home.
We begin doing some easy back road riding, she's doing really well. Smooth and confident(but not overly so).
This one Sunday ,early PM , we're heading home. Our road is a paved county road, then we turn onto an unpaved county road for about 50 or 60 feet, before turning in to our driveway. The 50 ft of dirt road is actually a bridge of sorts, a culvert pipe in a swale with concrete or sand bag headwalls, no guard rails or anything protecting the sides and then covered with fill dirt and a sandy type of road base topping.
Judy is in the lead, slows down nicely, and makes the turn off the pavement onto the dirt road, her speed is about 5 mph.
I'm a little ways behind her, so another car, traveling in the opposite direction, turns onto the dirt road between me and Judy.
Everyone is going nice and slow and things are happening in a nice orderly manner.
I can only guess what caused the chain of events that followed.
I believe Judy suddenly saw that car in her mirror, and decided to hurry up towards our driveway, to get out of the way of that car. The only thing she was used to seeing in her mirrior was me on the Buell.
With 70 or so horsepower on tap, all it took was a little twist of the throttle and her bike began spinning the rear wheel. This threw her off balance and she rolled the throttle on even more.
That started a fishtail, that quickly became a violent tank slapper. She's still only doing about 5 mph forward, but about 50mph side to side. She looks like a rag doll being shaken .
I want to reach out and pull in the clutch and stomp the rear brake for her more than anything I've ever wanted, but, of course I can't.
Now the bike is pointed at the side of the road, it's starting to get traction, and propels it's self, with Jude still hanging on, off the side wall of the culvert and out of sight into the swale. It's a real life horror movie right in front of my eyes.
This has all happened in the span of about 30 or 40 feet.
I jump off and throw the bike down and run over to where she went out of sight, thinking the worse. She's under the bike, but trying to get out from under. The neighbor(in the car) comes over to help.
I'll cut this short. Broken Scapula, cracked or fractured what ever the upper arm socket is called that fits in the scapula, three fractured ribs, damage to the left knee, and a large indent in her thigh from the handlebar that somehow did not break the skin or the bone, but destroyed the flesh in between.
She didn't even have to spend the night in the hospital.
but she spent many a uncomfortable night healing up.
I know that what happened just would not have happened if she had been on a 25 or 30 hp bike. Would something else have happened? Who knows.
Except for the dent in her thigh she completely recovered, but sold the bike. She's happy to ride with me, but doesn't hesitate to remind me that her life is in my hands.
RB
About five or six years ago, my wife decided she was going to get her own bike. We have female friends that ride solo, and she was ready to join them.
I didn't discourage her, but nor did I encourage her either. To be honest, it scared the crap outta me. But how can I say to her, "Yeah, I can do this, but you can't."
So, I tried to help her make good decisions along the way.
First off, she signned up for the beginning rider course. But they were booked up several months out.
Meanwhile, we're looking at bikes. I try to steer her towards a small electric start dual sport, like a Suzuki DR200, or maybe a little UJM like a 250 Nighthawk. To make it short she decides on a Buell Blast. They had just come out, and there weren't any on the used market yet, so we go to the Harley dealer.
The Blast was a 4395.00 retail bike, but this guy has jacked it up to 6395.00 otd. When we decide to walk away from this deal (and dealer), the salesman is screaming at us that buying a Harley Davidson product is not like buying a "jap" bike.
I know the Blast would have been a good choice, but it ain't gonna happen now, Jude wouldn't ride a Blast now if they were giving them away.
So, we go from there to the multi-line dealer in town. She had had her eye on this new left over Kawasaki 600 Eliminator. sort of a cross between a ujm and cruiser. Light weight, low seat , easy to reach flat (not bucko) handlebars.
It's also got about 70 horsepower, instead of the 25 or 30 that she should be starting with. The engine is a detuned 4 cyl Ninja, 6 spd, mated to a shaft drive.
She's eager to begin riding, so we begin her training in the driveway. She has owned and ridden 100cc dirt bikes, so she knows a little bit already.
After I'm convinced she can start and stop, we're ready for more advanced training. Not too far from our house is a subdivision with all the paved streets and other improvements done, but due to legal problems, no houses have been built. It's miles of completely deserted streets.
I ride her bike to this location, with her on back.
Then she takes the controls.
I have her doing every drill I can think off. I won't list them all, but after several weekends of this, she's sick of doing drills and practicing, and I'm confident enough in her skills that I hop on back and let her ride us home.
We begin doing some easy back road riding, she's doing really well. Smooth and confident(but not overly so).
This one Sunday ,early PM , we're heading home. Our road is a paved county road, then we turn onto an unpaved county road for about 50 or 60 feet, before turning in to our driveway. The 50 ft of dirt road is actually a bridge of sorts, a culvert pipe in a swale with concrete or sand bag headwalls, no guard rails or anything protecting the sides and then covered with fill dirt and a sandy type of road base topping.
Judy is in the lead, slows down nicely, and makes the turn off the pavement onto the dirt road, her speed is about 5 mph.
I'm a little ways behind her, so another car, traveling in the opposite direction, turns onto the dirt road between me and Judy.
Everyone is going nice and slow and things are happening in a nice orderly manner.
I can only guess what caused the chain of events that followed.
I believe Judy suddenly saw that car in her mirror, and decided to hurry up towards our driveway, to get out of the way of that car. The only thing she was used to seeing in her mirrior was me on the Buell.
With 70 or so horsepower on tap, all it took was a little twist of the throttle and her bike began spinning the rear wheel. This threw her off balance and she rolled the throttle on even more.
That started a fishtail, that quickly became a violent tank slapper. She's still only doing about 5 mph forward, but about 50mph side to side. She looks like a rag doll being shaken .
I want to reach out and pull in the clutch and stomp the rear brake for her more than anything I've ever wanted, but, of course I can't.
Now the bike is pointed at the side of the road, it's starting to get traction, and propels it's self, with Jude still hanging on, off the side wall of the culvert and out of sight into the swale. It's a real life horror movie right in front of my eyes.
This has all happened in the span of about 30 or 40 feet.
I jump off and throw the bike down and run over to where she went out of sight, thinking the worse. She's under the bike, but trying to get out from under. The neighbor(in the car) comes over to help.
I'll cut this short. Broken Scapula, cracked or fractured what ever the upper arm socket is called that fits in the scapula, three fractured ribs, damage to the left knee, and a large indent in her thigh from the handlebar that somehow did not break the skin or the bone, but destroyed the flesh in between.
She didn't even have to spend the night in the hospital.
but she spent many a uncomfortable night healing up.
I know that what happened just would not have happened if she had been on a 25 or 30 hp bike. Would something else have happened? Who knows.
Except for the dent in her thigh she completely recovered, but sold the bike. She's happy to ride with me, but doesn't hesitate to remind me that her life is in my hands.
RB