06/02-3 TDs: The Bad
 

Now, for the bad. I'm still really bummed about this so I'll keep it fairly short. I'm devastated about the bike obviously... but more so because I was leaving the next morning for Deal's gap, Charleston to relax, and a track day at Jennings GP in Florida. I had to cancel my trip. I've been a sight to see for the past few days...

Anyways, as I was dropping into the bowl (turn 6) I was coming up on a slower rider; she was riding a red triumph 675. She took a very wide line dropping into 6 and she was coming out very shallow. She spun the rear, and due to the banking of the turn she (and her bike for a little while too) remained RIGHT on the racing line. Not only that, but she was sliding sitting up (not prone). I was coming out after the apex pretty hard on the gas, knee buried into the ground, looking up at the treehouse at the top of 7-8. In my peripheral vision I saw her crash and wasn't initially worried, but due to the banking she STAYED there right on the hot line and I thought "shit, this isn't going to end well". I didn’t have many options and I had to wreck my r6 to avoid any bike-to-human contact.

I couldn't safely get to the inside of her smoothly without lowsiding and putting my bike into her spine. I tried to stand it up and get to the outside while grabbing some front.... wasn't slowing fast enough... tried to stand it up some more and give some more front and the front washed out. My bike missed her by about 2 feet.

There are a few positives to come out of this. I realized yesterday, thinking through how awful this could have turned out, that doing track days has made me such a better rider I can’t even describe it.

If this situation had presented itself to me at my first trackday last august, or sometime during the summer after I started riding one year ago, or if pretty much any street rider was put into this situation, that girl would have been dead or very seriously injured. Track days have given me the skills to minimize how bad Tuesday really could have been. It sucked for me, but it could have sucked much worse for her, her family/friends, etc...

Also, because this crash wasn't due to me making an input error or pushing my limits or something during normal track riding, I won't take a step back in my progress of technique. I could go out today and click off the same laps I was on tuesday. Trying to find positives here... :confused:

The bike is at GMD computrack to get measured and get an insurance estimate. Hopefully this can all work out somehow. My goal is to have something I can ride street and track, somehow.

A guy on another forum was in the stands at the bowl and even though it all happened pretty fast, he got a few photos.

Here's a shot of her sliding on the racing line:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...79e_oLarge.jpg

Here's a shot of me and my bike barely missing her:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...f79_oLarge.jpg


Getting up after the aftermath:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...165_oLarge.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...fe4_oLarge.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...bb4_oLarge.jpg


I am fine. My all my muscles are a little achey, my thumb is sprained and my knee got dinged pretty good. Other than that, no big deal. I've been much more sore after a rugby game.


Here's photos I took afterwards of gear damage and bike damage:

Blew out a seam on the IXS suit:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/DSC02769.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/DSC02770.jpg

Held Phantoms held up great, left:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/DSC02774.jpg

Right:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/DSC02775.jpg

Helmet face shield (and chin a little bit):

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/DSC02772.jpg

Bike:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/DSC02766.jpg

Can got squashed somehow, I think it hit the tires/fence:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/DSC02791.jpg

Hands down, tank slider saved the entire bike. If you have a late model r6 and aren't running these, you're rolling the dice:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/DSC02795.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/DSC02792.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/DSC02794.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/DSC02790.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/DSC02797.jpg

By the way, if you've got wiseass comments, go fuck yourself. Seriously.

E-mail me some pics, or attach some!

Wow.

Damn man, I'm really sorry to hear that. Hope its still streetable. Do you have full coverage?

Somebodt attach a pic :panic::panic:

here you go dlit..

few more..

Sad to see that man.. Good luck fixin her back up.. Thankfully you're smart and you got full coverage.. I might have to look into that.. lol

that sucks, would made a speed bump outa her, but thats just me....


just kidding, hate to see shit like this happen, what class where you in? glad to see you are ok and the leathers did there job

Unfortunately, a lot of insurance companies will not cover "track use or race preparation."

Hope yours does CEO! I'm with Progressive, and they don't. Is that all mud on the frame, or did it get scuffed/bent? :sorry:

damn dude again... you spend more time on the tar than you do on the bike at these track days...haahha... sorry had to insert my wise ass comment...that sucks though. get her streetable again i want to ride with the great chris aka ceo before the season ends

glad you are alright dude, sucks you couldnt be here. However NTS won the drewpy award on the way back to tapoco tonight.

I think he's already gotten a successfully claim put through from the last time... Not sure though..

Damn CEO, sorry to hear that it ruined your gap trip man. Good move to not run the lady down. Was she ok? Did she say anything to you about it? Apology or anything? I mean not that it was her fault neccessarily , but you know what I mean.

damn bruh.

sorry to hear this. but you, and the other rider for that fact, could of ended
up worse.
glad to hear yur pretty much OK.

damn bro... sorry to hear about this... hope things go smoothly with insurance.

glad your alright though

Damn, dude, that fucking sucks. You need to get some track plastics, yo. Go tank sliders though. They really did save your shit.

That fuckin sucks bro, nothing worse than seeing your prized possesion fucked up. Kudos for avoiding the girl, hope she was hot and thankful...:whistle:a little appreciation...etc...wink-wink..say no more...

Just from the look of the rear end and the subframe exposed and seemingly banged up..I'd guess they're gonna total it. I'm no expert but I've seen so many bikes totalled out with way less damage than that.
Hopefully, if they do total it, you can buy it from them for cheap as shit which would allow you to have some spare internals for another r6, or allow you to get crackin in your garage on a badass street fighter/track slut. I know you've alway wanted to get into the stunt scene, here's your chance!!
Seriously though I've wanted to make a 600cc ss go-kart for years now, if that engine's salvageable we need to talk.

I know you put a lot of mods into that, pretty sure you just put on rearsets, levers and handlebars last season right? If anything you learned you should be sticking to the more advanced track days I guess? Not that this type of thing couldn't have happened at a motogp event but seems less likely.

I think the clear lesson out of all this is that it's time for a liter bike. And a suzuki at that.

We called it.

CEO... did the bike flip or hit something? I hate trying to tell what all's fucked up from pics like that........ Do you have a list? I'd try to get that bitch rideable and continue on with at least part of my plans...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...bb4_oLarge.jpg


This picture is what it's all about BTW... Forget about my $9k bike in a heap, I'm ok, are you ok?

No.. hes still looking at the bike.. :cheers:


Good fuckin job man! :dthumb:

damn i hope the insurance would cover that. at least you were able to walk away from that. looked like you were flying.

Damn, glad you walked away, and you had the tank sliders so no ball of fire.

Shoulda jumped on that 848 in the background and finished out your day :whistle:

Wait a second... were you recording... video would be solid on this one...

Thanks everyone... riders being cool to me has been a bright spot this week. I'm bumming pretty bad.
Yeah full coverage. Trying to work it out...
I was running the intermediate group. I was running the high end of the group and was only getting passed by instructors that second day. I am not quite sure if I brake late enough and get on the gas hard enough post-apex to be running in the advanced group just yet, but I think I might try it next time.
Because no timing is allowed at these events it is considered an instructional/safety school. The insurance companies are bound to cover you there.

The frame is mostly dirty but I'll know more once it's cleaned off and GMD computrack measures it. My gut feeling is that everything is mostly straight.
I think I might be more bummed about that than the bike.
No claims ever on the bike before... this will be the first.
She was fine and her bike was fine :no:

Yeah I know it wasn't her fault or anything... I would have expected her to be a little cooler to me afterwards in the garage than she was though. I went over a couple times to be like hey are you ok and wow your bike came out great. In her defense, I don't really think she understands what happened behind her there. I sort of told her what went down and she was just kinda like 'oh, i feel so bad about your bike'... but that was it. Oh well...
Yeah... are you running tank sliders? I wouldn't ride a late model r6 over 15mph without em. Buy those shits.
The bike is probably totaled but I think the engine/frame/forks/swingarm/subframe are mostly ok. I think I'm going to end up keeping it.

I didn't have rearsets, they might have helped here since my frame slider snapped off.

And yeah, I think I'll be bumping to advanced in the very near future.
The bike flipped at the very last moment and that's what squashed the can, but not much other damage is on the right side besides the lower fairing. I think the can squashing probably screwed up the exhaust flap valve too... looks like a full system is in order.

Coolant was leaking everywhere and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a hose... so I probably need a radiator or at least some radiator repair.

Footpeg, pretty much all of the plastics, new handlebar (thank you woodcraft clipons), pazzo slutch lever is scratched up but seems to work, barend, frame slider, headlight is completely toast... that may mean the fairing stay is done as well. There's probably more... but it's mostly cosmetic.
That's Gino, one of the instructors, helping me get my shit together so we could clear the track. Great guy, a class act, and felt real bad for me. She was back by her bike getting it started so she could go ride it a more... :no:

But yeah, my initial thing was to stand up and make sure my bike didn't plow into that girl, which was my main goal.

I found another photo kind of like what you're talking about... Although she seemed to be like "hey this is funy we crashed i hope that guy got photos!!!!" and I'm more like "FUCK THE WORLD"...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...552_oLarge.jpg
Probably doing about 75-80 coming out of the bowl hard on the gas at that point.
I'm pissed about this too... covered this a minute ago in the onboard camera thread:

Thats a good pic. You look like you are trying HARD not to knock this broad out.

Yeah, still gotta get some sliders. Was that girl hot?

that chick looks a little like a taller, thicker, Rae :lol:

Seriously.
Not hot enough for my bike to look the way it does.
And older too :lol:

You shoulda hate-fucked that bitch... Given her the finger-butt fish hook and punched her in the kidneys while wipin' nut in her ear...

Shit I don't know if I'm cordinated enough to pull that move off! :lol:

First and last name of the chick please...any additional info will help find her on the interweb quicker. :whistle:
She's at least got a myspace with stupid pictures or better yet she's probably on a forum and posted about her impresions of the wreck.

Game on bro

My hand-cock cooridination is unmatched. Of course, I don't want to match... queer.

:lol:

That blows dude.. Even the best go down at the track. Hopefully you can get back on 2 soon.

Aww, Christopher, I don't have the words. That really sucks.

You should find that bitch and punch her after seeing this pic. She is all "yey, look what I did, that was so much fun!!!!!" and you look like "THIS BITCH WILL DIE SLOWLY!"

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...552_oLarge.jpg

Damn dude. That sux. Glad you're ok

That farking sucks man. Glad you're ok...bikes can be fixed. That's why girls should be chilling in the pits holding an umbrella and a bottle of cold water.































I keed I keed! LOL!

Yeah I'm bumming. Waiting to hear on an estimate still. Supposedly the bike measured up well at GMD computrack according to my buddy who works there, so for starters... it looks like I'll keep it one way or another.

Really it was just a series of things being wrong at once... her line vs. my line, my throttle/lean/etc at the time of her wreck, the banking of the turn and hot line, etc etc.

Everything added up to be fucking not good for me that afternoon. And I sliced my finger open yesterday, works sucks, I have jury duty, and I didn't get the vacation I had planned out.

Can someone wake me up when June is over? Fuck.