Yep...

[mfresh]

Low sided ~3 hours away from home on Cherohala Skyway on the way to Robbinsville, NC to ride "The Dragon's Tail".

Luckily only my pride and my wallet got hurt.

$400 to get it towed back to my house.

Sigh...

Thanks to @BlueJeepYJ for the ride back and @vman1313 for the crash pics.

[csmith12]

You're good and that is all that matters. Poor bike, maybe it's not as bad as it looks. You can hope right?

[BlueJeepYJ]

Just glad your ok brother! No one else has ever gotten to ride 3 hours on the back of my bike!

[Joshorilla]

Wo, you've totaled that bike, hope you have good insurance!

[mfresh]

Originally Posted by BlueJeepYJ

Just glad your ok brother! No one else has ever gotten to ride 3 hours on the back of my bike!

Haha man my ass was quite sore that's for sure. That 650 sure has a good bit of torque on the low end, almost felt like I was gonna fly off the thing.

@csmith12

Yeah one can only hope. The guy hasn't dropped it off yet. Sucks cause I just had my clip-ons, rearsets, flushmounts, and various other things finally installed.

The gas tank looks damaged. That was the biggest thing I remember.
@Joshorilla

Just liability. Even under full coverage I don't think insurance covers you crashing by yourself does it?

[Trailerboy531]

Full coverage covers everything...fully. Liability on the other hand will not cover this. Hope the "plastic thing" didn't get damaged

I have a headlight for sale!

Glad you're okay dude.

[Alex]

Aw, shoot. Glad you're OK.

[mfresh]

Thanks guys. Guess I'll decide when it gets here to either rebuild or part out or something... Maybe convert it to a track bike.

Sucks I turned off the GoPro right before the fall. Would've been interesting to see.

Luckily I was able to find my GoPro amongst the debris.

[psych0hans]

That looks pretty nasty, I'm glad you're ok though. Good luck getting her back in shape .

[mfresh]

What sucks the most is that the weather is finally starting to get nice.

It will be torture!

[psych0hans]

http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=127260

[250rr]

That sucks. But not as much as if you were actually injured!

[Yakaru]

*hugs* go play some league while you recover :P

[Jiggles]

Congratulations on your crash and induction as a real motorcycle rider! As always your complimentary R6 is waiting for you at your local Yamaha dealer.

[mfresh]

Lmao Jiggles.

I will admit; I did just look at R6's on Craigslist...

I love my Ninja, but there's at least 1k worth of damage. Hell the fuel tank alone is half that.

Overwhelming sadness... what to do.

@Yakaru

Installing the client now. Then I can remember what my account information is and send it over to yah.

[Joshorilla]

It's a write off.... Seriously, you'll need all new plastics, new forks, new gas tank, new brake rotors, new tyres, new headlight, hell I wouldn't be surprised if your frame is bent, and all those together cost!

Just part out whatever looks decent and sell "as is"

[Yakaru]

Originally Posted by Joshorilla

It's a write off.... Seriously, you'll need all new plastics, new forks, new gas tank, new brake rotors, new tyres, new headlight, hell I wouldn't be surprised if your frame is bent, and all those together cost!

Just part out whatever looks decent and sell "as is"

I'm tempted to agree with Josh This damage looks worse than my bike did, even after you remove the 'dirt and mud factor' and I'm only barely willing to try salvaging her into a track bike. I think you may be in the market for a 300 or a 'new to you' 250 soon.

Let me know if I can do anything to help. Except money, I'm completely tapped out :P

[aeroblade]

Aww man, that really sad, my heart is broken seeing your bike! But glad you're alive and well to ride another day!

I guess its time for a new bike cause I doubt fixing this up would be worth it. The 300 makes more sense now rather than spending the money on a track conversion.

+1 Joshorilla san makes good sense

The exterior does seem to have taken the brute force of the crash but the damage seems more than just skin deep. It'll cost you way more than just 1000 bucks!

[Slick_Stevo]

Manny, geeze that really sucks ...glad you are okay though

[vman1313]

DUDE...I am just glad you are OK! When you were not behind us, I kept hoping you had turned the wrong way or something AND when we saw the bike I was just glad you were OK! You can gain pride back and refill your wallet BUT...just glad you are ok!

YEAH it SUCKS we had JUST turned off the GoPros to save them for the Dragon.

[ZackoFF96]

oh my god, that is a horrible accident but i am glad that you're OK!

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by mfresh

..........Luckily only my pride and my wallet got hurt.

Lucky indeed !!!

What do you believe your riding error was?

[rojoracing53]

Up your insurance, go drop your bike in a ditch two weeks later and then file your claim

[mfresh]

Lol Jason. Not a bad idea...

Originally Posted by Motofool

Lucky indeed !!!

What do you believe your riding error was?

Heh... Riding inappropriately on public roads.

It is clear canyon/mountain riding is not an alternative to the track-- not for the way I like to push myself and the bike.

Something about carving through a curve... becoming an extension of your bike... speaks to me on some wierd level I can't shake off. Even now I can't stop thinking about getting on a bike again... Needless to say, the impulse I have to ride inches away from the pavement is not meant, or at least definitely not safe, for the street.

From a more "technical" standpoint of what went wrong. In short, my lean angle was too large and my front tire lost contact with the pavement.

From what I understand, the faster you go the more lean angle required to maintain speed through a turn. Of course the larger the lean angle, the smaller your contact patch on the tires. It is entirely possible to have too much lean angle which is why body positioning is so important. Kicking your knee out and hanging off the bike is to offset the bike so it is more upright throughout the turn to minimize unnecessary lean angle and maintain good tire contact with the road.

The faster your entry speed the wider the angle of entry in general needs to be. From what I have seen of a typical track, it is about the size of a two lane road which gives a good amount of room to initiate your turn. Unfortunately on the street you can (read: should) ride on only roughly half of that space -- the right lane. Makes things a bit more "hairy".

Riding on the street there's always that paranoia in the back of your mind in regards to crossing the yellow line and getting into a head-on collision. I see cagers ride the line or even cross it during a turn so I tend to ride on the "outside" of the lane because of that.

The turn I low-sided on was coming up. Fairly steep corner and unfortunately not the best visibility. I started the turn and as I approached the apex I saw what looked like mud/gravel kicked over from the side of the road covering about half of the lane-- right on my line.

I was able to steer towards the inside of the lane but my natural tendency to avoid crossing the yellow line pretty much left me with half a lane worth of road to work with. I remember shifting more weight on the inside peg to complete the turn and hearing my left rearset peg (which I had positioning in the highest "hole") scrape against the pavement.

Miraculously I still felt traction on the tires, but when I heard that peg scrape my mind basically went "oh ****" and I chopped the throttle and that's probably right about when the bike slid out from under me.

Next thing I remember is my mind going blank and "rag-dolling" across the ground. I got up off the ground rather quickly and to my surprise nothing seemed broken. I saw my bike laying behind me roughly 20 ft or so away. Parts of the fairing all over the place. Interestingly enough I saw parts of other bikes laying on the ground too. Apparently I was not the first one to wipe out in that exact spot.

Here's a short clip Tony took: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nisgybjvhzlpzas/IMG_6311.3gp

In retrospect it all seemed to have happened so fast it is hard to tell how accurate my "analysis" really is. Unfortunately I had just turned off the GoPro prior to the crash. Bummer.

Chalk it up to a learning experience.

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by mfresh

I chopped the throttle

this is the cause of the crash.

[mfresh]

Originally Posted by alex.s

this is the cause of the crash.

Yeah man. I heard that peg scrape and thought it was already over.

Talk about "survival reaction" biting you in the ass.

I've been in other "hairy" situations and learned to keep proper throttle control even in "oh ****" moments.

Unfortunately the peg scraping was something unexpected-- took me by surprise. My mind did not account for that possibility.

[Trailerboy531]

For future reference when you hear and feel the peg scrape do not think "this is the end" instead tell yourself "F*ck, I am a badass."

[mfresh]

Originally Posted by Trailerboy531

For future reference when you hear and feel the peg scrape do not think "this is the end" instead tell yourself "F*ck, I am a badass."

Lmao!

I had just installed my SVRacing rearsets and positioned them in the highest position and furthest back. I was like, no way these are gonna be touching anything.

Definitely just gonna be like "yeah I'm a badass" next time, lol.

[rojoracing53]

Originally Posted by Trailerboy531

For future reference when you hear and feel the peg scrape do not think "this is the end" instead tell yourself "F*ck, I am a badass."

I can't drag my pegs or my knees

[Jiggles]

Originally Posted by rojoracing53

I can't drag my pegs or my knees

Try gluing your ass to the seat

[Trailerboy531]

Originally Posted by rojoracing53

I can't drag my pegs or my knees

Stop being so slow dude.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by mfresh

........In retrospect it all seemed to have happened so fast it is hard to tell how accurate my "analysis" really is. ..........
Chalk it up to a learning experience.

Awesome, Manny; your analysis is very detailed and it really compensates for the lack of video !!!

For what I can understand, I believe that your mistake was excessive entry speed.

That was the decision that set up a chain reaction, because you had no safety factor for dealing with a surprising emergency.

The last mistake was closing the gas, because by doing so, the bike did squat and suddenly had less ground clearance.

Twisting the throttle would have extended the suspension, creating maybe enough ground clearance to free the peg (which ended up working as a pivot to lift the front tire).

Once in trouble, you may have been able to quickly stand the bike up, brake hard and lean over again.
By doing so, the speed to resume the turn had been reduced, as well as the necessary lean angle.

Since you have not completed that turn yet, it is evident that extreme speeds and lean angles are not always the best approach to turn quickly.
As Kenny Roberts said, "learn to go slow to go fast".

[motoduelist]

I'm glad that you're okay. I went 400 miles yesterday hoping that I could meet up with everyone. I always worry about something like that happening to me when I ride alone up in the mountains.
Posted via Mobile Device

[GearMonkey]

Manny, sorry to hear about your disappointing day, bad but could've been a lot worse. Glad you're ok, that's the important part.

[lgk]

Sorry about the crash.
Maybe its time you turned to the dark side and join the street fighter crew.

[mfresh]

Well I have the bike sitting in the garage.

I haven't done a super thorough inspection of the bike yet, I need to clean it up first.

However, in terms of body work here's what is damaged:

• Cowling needs to be replaced
• Front fender needs to be replaced
• Left side fairing is... gone lol
• Left side rearset is bent to hell (pretty damn good survivability, props to SVRacing/Blair)
• Left side clip-on snapped in half but otherwise the controls are still there

That is pretty much it from a brief visual inspection. The gas tank is not nearly as bad as I initially thought. There's a dent on the top where the GoPro was mounted but other than that looks good.

Somehow the side mirrors survived and the head light is in, seemingly, damn near perfect condition.

The only thing that worries me is that I can't quite tell if the forks are bent. Once I get the bike naked and cleaned up (mud all over the place) I'll be able to better asses if there's any major frame damage.

I am quite certain it rained the day before so the ground/grass was probably still fairly soft and may have absorbed a good bit of the impact.

If this is all that needs to be replaced then I don't think it will be too bad to repair. I may end up going with black fairings as tyga-performance has them priced quite attractively. Wonder if the bike will look odd with the front half black and the back half red.

Here's hoping.

Update

Oh yeah, bit of a funny tidbit. When the guy was dropping the bike off at my place and finally rolled the thing off the trailer he was like, "What is that, a Ninja 1000?". I said "nope, Ninja 250". "250?? What the heck, it looks larger."

Lol. Heh.

Common mistake.

[Sipper']

It's always best to leave yourself options on the street and since you were peg dragging already, even with rearsets, then you had 2 options, let off or upright and depending on your line through the corner you may have left yourself with one option. I've done it before myself, actually twice so I am only offering some hard learned experience.

This level of commitment is best saved for the track. Save yourself time, money and possibly your ass and keep that speed on the track.

If you just can't seem to control yourself enough on the street, then make plans with your maker....