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Old August 12th, 2019, 08:46 AM   #1
adouglas
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Name: Gort
Location: A secret lair which, being secret, has an undisclosed location
Join Date: May 2009

Motorcycle(s): Aprilia RS660

Posts: A lot.
Blog Entries: 6
MOTM - Jul '18, Nov '16, Aug '14, May '13
My run of 32 crash-free years has ended

Eight days ago I crashed at the track and busted my clavicle. Unhurt aside from that.

Classic front tuck heading into Turn 1 after a long straight. I'd hit maybe 120-125 on the straight, banged two downshifts and estimate I was still traveling at 55-65 mph when the front let go. That was carrying too much speed into the corner and I was trail braking really deep. I released the brakes a bit too quickly, which unloaded the front end and the traction pie suddenly got too small to handle what I was asking it to do. 95 points of demand became 105 points and 0.6 seconds later my shoulder hit the ground. It happened so fast I didn't register the impact until after it happened.

Thanks to my airbag vest I avoided further injury despite going through a tire wall (NASCAR tires, which are relatively soft but they ain't no air fence). My face shield scraped briefly and I have rubber scuffs on the helmet from glancing off tires but I recall the entire sequence with perfect clarity. Zero head trauma.

The vest deployed 0.5 seconds after my shoulder hit and while it it could have triggered faster had my tether been shorter, I question whether it would have deployed in time even with the tether as tight as reasonable given the need to move. Slo mo video shows me hitting the ground 0.1 seconds after my butt comes out of the seat, which is necessary for inflation. Factor in the tether stretching to the trigger point (even set as short as practical), firing the mechanism and the 65 millisecond inflation time, and it's clear to me that the vest would not have been inflated by the time I hit.

I seriously doubt a tetherless system would have reacted fast enough to sense the impending crash and fire the airbag either, but I don't really know.

In any event, the impact was one that vests can't really mitigate... straight on to the shoulder, sending a lateral load across my chest and giving my clavicle a compression fracture with significant displacement and a loose piece floating around in there. My shoulder slider is scuffed from the hit.

I'm completely confident that the vest protected me from worse injury. I wasn't even aware of the fracture until I got back to the garage and people had pulled off my gear. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with adrenaline but no doubt the chest and neck support played a part in stabilizing things.

So at my age (60) and after such a long run of crash-free riding, it's easy to see how this might seriously rattle me and make me hesitant to get back on the bike. Not so. Knowledge is power. Having good video, knowing exactly what happened, why it happened, what I did to make it happen in the first place, and exactly what I could have done to prevent it puts my mind at ease. Had there been any mystery or doubt, it would have festered in the back of my mind and made me question every move going into a corner like that.

Had successful surgery on Thursday and am now in this awkward padded sling. The good news is that I didn't need a plate and screws. I've got a rod, which the doc says may get removed if it heals right. Don't know how long this will keep me down but it sure does look like the season is over.

Full-speed and slo-mo videos. These are 60 fps so six frames of the slo mo = 0.1 second. The slo mo starts at the instant my bars move, indicating the tuck, and ends as my right foot passes over the seat.

Link to original page on YouTube.

Link to original page on YouTube.
@csmith12 @Ducati999 @Bigballsofpaint @Koala @Sirref @backinthesaddleagain

__________________________________________________
I am NOT an adrenaline junkie, I'm a skill junkie. - csmith12

Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.
Heri historia. Cras mysterium. Hodie donum est. Carpe diem.
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