ninjette.org - View Single Post - What lessons have you learned from crashing?

Kurgan · August 25th, 2011, 12:23 PM

My lesson I learned from crashing my first 250R was that tar strips on the road are evil, and so are Progressive Insurance monkeys....

I was going around a downhill left hand turn, and both the front and rear tire rode across the tar strip while the bike was leaned over and the whole bike slid a foot to the right....while leaned over....my eyes almost popped out of the helmet and my stomach dropped out.

So I straightened up and tried to slow down, but there wasn't enough straight road left to do that, so I ended up going into a shallow ditch. That wouldn't have been too bad....except for the 4 foot wide tree growing at the end of the ditch.

I was full on both brakes but still hit the tree around 15mph nose first. Ended up breaking the right mirror off, cracked the nose in half, broke the front fender in 3 pieces, bent the fork tubes, and bent the crap out of the left mirror with my leg as I went up over the tank and into the tree myself sideways. The bike was surprisingly still ride-able at that point.

I was more pissed than anything and spent the next few minutes swearing nonstop at myself, at the tree, and at the idiot who laid tar strips in the middle of an off-camber downhill left hand turn. And yes, I had that "Days of Thunder" moment just before the crash when the line from the movie went through my head...."awww ****, this is gonna hurt...".

The padding in my jacket saved me from a broken left arm/shoulder, there's a nice scratch in my helmet, and I had bruises down the inside of my legs.

The Progressive Insurance monkey faxed me a list of parts that needed to be repaired.....half of which weren't from the 250R at all, things like mirrors from a ZX14, and a 4 carb bank from the ZX6R.....he tried to undercut me and screw me out of a new bike at every possible turn until I asked to speak to his boss. That's when I finally got a decent settlement offer from them.

August 25th, 2011, 12:23 PM	#33
Kurgan ninjette.org guru Name: Kurgan Location: Texas Join Date: Aug 2011 Motorcycle(s): '09 Ninja 250R Posts: 260	My lesson I learned from crashing my first 250R was that tar strips on the road are evil, and so are Progressive Insurance monkeys.... I was going around a downhill left hand turn, and both the front and rear tire rode across the tar strip while the bike was leaned over and the whole bike slid a foot to the right....while leaned over....my eyes almost popped out of the helmet and my stomach dropped out. So I straightened up and tried to slow down, but there wasn't enough straight road left to do that, so I ended up going into a shallow ditch. That wouldn't have been too bad....except for the 4 foot wide tree growing at the end of the ditch. I was full on both brakes but still hit the tree around 15mph nose first. Ended up breaking the right mirror off, cracked the nose in half, broke the front fender in 3 pieces, bent the fork tubes, and bent the crap out of the left mirror with my leg as I went up over the tank and into the tree myself sideways. The bike was surprisingly still ride-able at that point. I was more pissed than anything and spent the next few minutes swearing nonstop at myself, at the tree, and at the idiot who laid tar strips in the middle of an off-camber downhill left hand turn. And yes, I had that "Days of Thunder" moment just before the crash when the line from the movie went through my head...."awww ****, this is gonna hurt...". The padding in my jacket saved me from a broken left arm/shoulder, there's a nice scratch in my helmet, and I had bruises down the inside of my legs. The Progressive Insurance monkey faxed me a list of parts that needed to be repaired.....half of which weren't from the 250R at all, things like mirrors from a ZX14, and a 4 carb bank from the ZX6R.....he tried to undercut me and screw me out of a new bike at every possible turn until I asked to speak to his boss. That's when I finally got a decent settlement offer from them.