View Single Post
Old October 12th, 2016, 10:10 AM   #22
FrugalNinja250
ninjette.org certified postwhore
 
FrugalNinja250's Avatar
 
Name: Frugal
Location: Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW)
Join Date: Mar 2010

Motorcycle(s): Several

Posts: A lot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaliGrrl View Post


Wasn't up to riding away from this one, but that's ok.
Get back to riding as soon as you can, particularly if this is your first real crash. That'll help you mentally get past this, because the mind naturally builds connections between activities and negative results and the longer you go the harder it will be for your mind to start associating riding with positive feelings.

As to the bike, look at where your handlebar risers mate with the top of the triple tree. If there's a gap then they're bent. They are not straightenable because they're cast and hard as hell. The bars on the other hand are fairly easy to straighten because they're mild steel and fairly ductile. Use a length of pipe perhaps 2'-3' long that fits over the bars and with the end of the pipe at the midpoint of the bend just ease the bar back. The main thing is to look at the neck of the bar where it installs in the riser, if it's strongly bent there then it's best to replace instead.

I've been down on my bike 5 times. Once when pulling off on the shoulder onto grass where I discovered grass is the same as ice. Twice on ice, but those were less than 5mph. Once in my driveway when the kickstand found a crack in the asphalt under the gravel (oddly enough, though that one was a slow speed lay down rather than a full fall, it did the most damage to the bar and actually broke off the clutch lever), and once getting hit head-on by a truck turning into the wrong side of the street. I had to ride that one back to work, around 7 miles, with pieces falling off with every bump.

Except for the two ice events all those other crashes happened in my first year of riding. I've ridden 80K miles since then.
FrugalNinja250 is offline   Reply With Quote