New info on me, piecing together the crash and the bike. All look pretty good.
I met the adult who found me after the crash in the grocery store today. On the day of the crash, he was with his son and his son's buddy, both students of mine. Tyler the 8th grader buddy said he heard heavy throttle and then nothing. Bad sign. They came across me and I was laying in the ditch with the bike. I was moving. They did not see the deer. Tim, the man's son said it was he who woke me up. I asked if he thought I was dead and he said, "yeah." lil fugger! I seem to recall sort of crawling away from the bike but I thought I woke up on the road. I must have crawled to the center of the road and bled a while because their was a small pool of blood there. I remember seeing the father now that I saw his face today. He said I was in shock when I got up. I didn't really know what was going on but I remember the guy looked concerned. I did know I hit a deer, crashed, the bike was laying in the ditch and I was alive and relatively uninjured. I didn't care a hell of a lot about anything else but I remember the man saying, "you're in shock." No f-ing surprise!!! My 14 is laying there with a hole in the engine, I was definitely in shock over that....and I survived the wreck. No idea if I tumbled over the ditch like the bike did. If so, I was extra lucky. They reminded me that an electric company truck stopped and I didn't even notice. They claim that person called the ambulance. Actually, I think I noticed, I just didn't care. I was more occupied with my injuries and my wrecked bike but yeah, I was also thinking, I must be in a state of shock, at least mentally.
Timmy and Tyler were the two worst behaved 7th graders I had last year and I mean those little shits were terrible. I hope this has forged a new bond. I will threaten to hug them if they are bad next year.
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I'm healing well three weeks later. The scabs are almost entirely gone and I have purple skin over the wounds now. I expect it will turn normal skin color at some point. The boney knee areas seemed to heal fastest. The fleshy calf is closing much slower for some reason but it was the largest wound. I think the wound being on the soft tissue makes the healing lag behind the boney areas for some reason. I believe the thumb wound was almost to the tendon and became mildly infected but even it is growing smaller. My hands are very close to being back to normal except for the purple scar tissue and that thumb wound.
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THE BIKE
Hub:
"It all narrows down to that front end and frame. Front wheel spins straight is one rim not needed. The fork stop uprights, that's just a quick look and no need to touch things for now. No frame tweak, no heavy indent at the one fork stop is no front end worries either.
1. Look at the bracing bolts at the frame sticker at the neck. Those should not break off or show 'raw' cracks.
2. Look at the front top engine head [brace] brackets. Those will snap at the frame. Brackets take out the frame.
3. Look at the steel battery strap [left side] and see where that large hole is for say the forman grill and that rubber grommet sitting in there? That's where the weak point is at the back of the frame.
Used pod is the big ticket if not new.
Where the front engine Y brackets are... we see any cracks at the frame around that area? Front end (not forks) takes the hit, that neck will move the energy right at that flex point. Energy keeps moving back, rear frame [I forget where] will have a crack. Shows up well against a black frame.
When you take the forks off, look for a crease at the lower pinch areas, meaning, right now you can drop the one leg down so you look for a crease... back to energy taking out the upper and lower triple trees. Go look at the fork stops right now. One stopper now looks like this / and the other stop is upright, or not bent meaning?"
**I had a quick look at the bike today. The steering locks are freakin huge. It would take a tremendous impact to actually bend one of those over. I did notice the RH lock was indented from impact with the stopper on the steering neck, I can feel it clearly with my thumbnail and even see it. The LH stopper was also indented but a lot less. The RH steering lock indention was more pronounced. Neither lock was actually bent over to the side though.
**Could see no cracks or wrinkles on the steering neck. The steering neck too is freegin huge. I don't know what it would take to bend that.
**No leakage from fork seals. Hard to believe the forks would still be straight but from installed inspection, I see no sign of damage. Of course, I will need to remove the forks to do a better inspection.
**Multifunction meter was ripped off. Not only was it ripped off, the aluminum tabs in the fairing stay/multifunction meter bracket were busted right off. I have an aftermarket fairing stay/multifunction meter bracket sitting right behind my desk here so that's no big deal to replace. I had planned to buy a used multifunction meter to install aftermarket clock faces and gear indicator all under the clear plastic case so that is no huge deal either. Sucks to loose the factory installed part but that starts to matter a lot less now that the bike has been wrecked.
**LH handlebar wiggles a bit, looks as though it's angled lower than normal, loose in the clipon. I see a white mark in the finish telling me the handlebar bent. I suspect the bolt that holds the handlebar to the clipon was pulled out a thread. All damage to the handlebar, I think. I always wanted to remove the control pods and go with narrower CF handlebars anyway. RH clipon looks OK. Lever is there but damaged badley. Stock clutch MC looks ok except reservoir busted off.
RH lever also damaged but quite serviceable, front brake still has some pressure but not much. Reservoir ripped off that one too. RH handlebar looks ok.
**Front engine mounts look good. Still intact.
The frame slider on the RH front engine mount busted off. The slider bracket broke off at the place where the slider attaches to the engine mount but the engine mount did not break. The slider is gone but the bung of the slider remains at the engine mount with the bolt. The engine mount appears to be undamaged...just remove the bolt, remove the bung and put the OEM engine mount bolt back in.
There is an accessory bolthole in the engine mount bracket that has no OEM purpose. This bolt hole is empty OEM. It is located above the actual front engine mount bolthole. The accessory hole is used along with the engine mount bolthole to attach two point frame sliders such as those I had on my bike. The threads in the RH accessory bolthole did not look straight but seemed stretched backward as they would be from the bolt being ripped out toward the back in the slide. The accessory bolthole has a flat surface around it to mate with a frame slider mount. This flat surface has a large chip out of it toward the back. The chip would not seem to compromise the strength of the engine mount bracket inasmuch as its ability to support the engine. I would not rely on the accessory bolthole to hold a frame slider again and I presume the threads are severely damaged since the steel bolt ripped right out of it.
LH frame slider was not broken off. Engine mount bolt and accessory bolt on LH engine mount bracket still in. LH front engine mount looks undamaged.
**I see some blood on the front brake lines and RH fork tube. From deer I'm sure.
**there is a small puddle of oil on the floor under the chin of what remains of the lowers. I believe it is just oil that spurted out of the engine into the RH lower. It has draind off now and dripped on the floor. Not from forks, from engine which we know broke open at the crankshaft cover.
**just a few ticks in the finish of the RH leg of the swing arm, probably from flying rocks. Nothong close to a heavy scrape on the swing arm. The axle sliders front and rear looked untouched. I don't think the swing arm suffered much of a blow at all.
My hope is the forks didn't either but I will need to remove them and check for a crease at the clamp area or unstraightness.
Tsukigi Cannon muffler looks completely unbent at the tab that mounts to the muffler support. I feel a flat spot on the side of the round muffler where it dragged. I don't think the flat spot is just from ground down metal, it must have gotten hammered. The RH Vortex rearset footpeg took the brunt of that side blow and saved the muffler.
Will have a closer look soon. So far, all damage is consistent with my theory that the steering whipped hard left full lock which threw the bike over to the right. Only thing is the blood on the RH fork tube...I would expect to see that on the left if the deer pulled the steering hard left.
Main concern now is the chip in the accessory mount on the RH engine bracket. Do you think that makes any difference? I think not..just don'tuse that accessory mount anymore. What's your thoughts, Hub or anyone?
* Last updated by: Rook on 7/10/2021 @ 5:23 PM *
'08 MIDNIGHT SAPPHIRE BLUE Now Deceased