GRAVEL NINJETTE HIGHSIDE SLIDE! take a familiar road for granted

[Klondike1020]

Today I flew back into town and grabbed my ninjette to ride home with the evening sun in my eyes. I decided to take back roads home and swing through some winding country.

I went down a familiar road I've been down a hundred times before and I slowed to the speed limit 35mph as it is enforced w enthusiasm. On my way in to the second half of an S they milled the pavement and dumped loose stone. Very loose.

I tried to save it by gently easing off the road into the grass w a bit of a wobble and I had to break a little hard to stop before a pole and sign.

I am glad I didn't have a go pro so everyone could tell me fifty ways I should've saved it but I did my best and rolled when I hit the ground.

Broke my break lever /switch clip on , tail fairing, throttle and mirror

I got up. Gained composure and rode it home

[Motofool]

I assume that you are OK.

Did the tire(s) skid over the grass?

Over there, 35 is the speed limit for four wheels.

[Panda]

Sucks you had a get off man. Glad you seem ok.

That gravel is ridiculous. You should call your town and see if you can get any relief. You may not be able to but maybe worth asking.

[7oxSin]

u ok? hows ur baby?

[alex.s]

nice! good job

[Klondike1020]

I just rolled out. Just a little embarrassed as I am a particularly cautious motorcyclist and the sudden road work on a familiar back road took me by surprise. There where no signs at all from the direction I came and one on the other end.

I am certainly taking this up w the town.

I am certain there will be more accidents.

Atgatt- lol I have been wearing sneakers and jeans lately
Luckily I had boots on.

It was a bummer for sure.
After years of ridding this is my first real crash. I've had close calls and dropped my bike in my garage and lawn.

My gf is freaked out and a 26 year old was killed yesterday w the same first name as me in the same area by a distracted driver from Florida.

Sad . It was a friends cousin - he just got married.

Sobering reality

That's why I try to have a sound respect for my own mortality and what dangers are presented to myself and others.

But I am fine and ill have the bike going again in a couple days I am sure.

[Klondike1020]

If you zoom in on the top pic -

Does everyone agree that they transitioned to gravel at the worst possible moment ! Like its a legit motorcycle death trap

[NevadaWolf]

So what did they do? Were they chip sealing the road?

Sorry about the wreck and glad things are well enough you were able to ride home.

[Sirref]

that is ridiculous, it looks like it transitions right at the earliest reasonable turn in point wtf. on top of that there was no warning whatsoever? no signs or anything no "oh we changed the road up to gravel recently, slow it down a bit" nothing like that? seems a little ridiculous to me. glad your ok that could easily have been worse

[7oxSin]

its time to make the state buy every one on this forum a new bike! sue them s for everything. even ur gf could sue em for emotional distress!

[Klondike1020]

They milled te pavement and dumped loose stone on it w/o any oil or anything

No sign

Typically "loose stone " signs are placed ahead of areas like this or at the very least "road work"

It was a ****** spot

[verboten1]

whoah man, I'm glad you are ok!

[alex.s]

i've run off quite a few times. at race tracks mostly, but also on street. trees and rocks and cars REALLY suck. grass sucks too. its like oil pavement or black ice. gravel is kinda scary cause it moves you around a lot and its almost like you are fighting the bike but it slows you down a lot. deep sand is similar but the grooves in deep sand can really grab your front wheel and try to turn you. sand on asphalt seems scary at first but unless its like an inch of sand i've never had to worry about it. usually sand on the road means high wind which is a bigger concern. mud sucks. i got stuck in the mud at buttonwillow and it was awful.

sometimes you come into a low traction situation very quickly and you need to make a turn to keep from hitting something but it seems like you're already maxed out on everything. just relax. do the best you can. don't give up. and ... here's the important part... run a gopro next time!

[aeroblade]

When I first saw your bike's pic, I was like " Holy **** "... only to later realized that it was customized that way. :P

Glad it wasn't worse...

[psych0hans]

I'm glad you aren't badly hurt... Gravel is really my worst nightmare while riding and we have a lot of gravel in the places I ride.

[ninjamunky85]

Man that suuckks.

Avoiding gravel on the road is one thing, it's a whole different thing when the whole road is covered with gravel. wtf!

I would definitely take this up with the city, which it looks like you already are doing. The fact that there was no warning, when the transition is clearly in a spot that is hard to see, is clearly a hazard.

I would honestly try to get them to pay for your repairs. Probably wouldn't be worth it though if you had to fight with them about it though. At least the damage wasn't too bad.

...and yeah grass sucks, even on knobby tires, on street tires it's like ice.

[Used Ninja]

Get your compensation! No emotional distress like someone suggested, but just enough to cover your damages, and just a little extra for the trouble =p. No loose gravel sign must really suck... especially when it is that insane amount of loose gravel wtf. Loose gravel is my enemy and I always go so slow across any gravel.

I had fun times in gravel too... when I was like 15 or something and riding around a crappy little Honda I would practice in gravel and grass (it was trash) and woo did I have some fun hard braking in the gravel and feeling like a boss because I never fell down (still haven't) nor have I crashed

[dfox]

make sure you go back there and take a ton of photos/video showing that the construction was not properly signed. You can bet you'll get push back.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Klondike1020

I just rolled out......... the sudden road work on a familiar back road took me by surprise. There where no signs at all from the direction I came and one on the other end.

I am certainly taking this up w the town.

I am certain there will be more accidents.

How-why did you fall?

The important thing is avoiding a bad accident for somebody else, quickly notifying the situation to the responsible party for signaling the road work.

..............I would go as far as placing a hand made sign at there myself.

[MR2Aaron]

Glad to hear you're uninjured. I had a similar thing happen to me a couple of weeks ago. It sucked.

How the heck did you ride the bike home with the brake lever broken off, though?

[csmith12]

Originally Posted by MR2Aaron

How the heck did you ride the bike home with the brake lever broken off, though?

Ahhh.... the beauty of have both a front AND rear brake controlled by different levers.

[MR2Aaron]

Originally Posted by csmith12

Ahhh.... the beauty of have both a front AND rear brake controlled by different levers.

Well, yeah, but the rear brake isn't really enough to ride the thing safely. What happens if a cager jumps out in front of you? I guess you gotta do what you gotta do, though.

I have a buddy who tells me I should keep an extra brake and clutch lever under my seat for just this reason.

[BlueRaven]

Glad to hear your ok without any injuries. Like dfox said make sure you takes lots of pics and/videos of the lack of signage and hopefully you'll be compensated for your repairs.

[Thorgrim]

All things considered, that was a nice save! (Well, you can't save everything but it looks like you minimalized damage to yourself. They make new bikes and parts every day, but there's just one you.)

Set your clock an hour early for tomorrow as though you don't think you're hurt, tomorrow morning you may be singing a different tune.

[akima]

You and your fancy yoshimura exhaust seem ok; that's all that matters!

I'd be interested to hear what you could have done differently (if anything) to improve the outcome. From what you've said it doesn't sound like much. In England they are pretty good with signage for dodgy road conditions. If anything they are over the top with it. Sometimes they have a ton of signage for basically nothing, but the signage itself is a bit of a road hazard; it juts out into the road. Maybe they need warning signs stating: "WARNING: road signs ahead"

Originally Posted by MR2Aaron

Well, yeah, but the rear brake isn't really enough to ride the thing safely. What happens if a cager jumps out in front of you? I guess you gotta do what you gotta do, though.

My rear brake is useless. I think the pads got saturated with some oil during their installation! I don't mind having a weak rear brake though considering that I only ever want light braking out of it anyway. I doubt I'd be able to make a safe journey home just on my rear though.

[LittleRedNinjette]

Good lord! What were they thinking?? "Lets see how many motorcycles we can crash! "?

They are doing the tar and chip crap around here. the still have not swept the roads, at least they aren't that bad... Still a lot of loose gravel though.

[Klondike1020]

Basically I really wrenched my shoulder and have some tight muscles and a bruised up leg.

life is good- fall and get back up . thats about it.



@aeroblade - lol yeah it was naked and mismatched to begin with.
Smashed my tail fairing bent the handle bar down at 70-80 deg bend from teh clipon and broke my miroor and lever clean off.

@Used Ninja @BlueRaven and @dfox - no compensation talked to a lawyer and they said without a serious injury requiring hospitalization and because the accident was during the day no lawyer would try for it waste of time. I should've seen the gravel and been ridding slower in a 35mph zone.

I did document everything with video and photos but I didn't fill out a police report.

@Motofool - I went and got a police officer and he assured me he would have a highway department person bring out signage - I will zoom back by today and check.

@MR2Aaron - I have ridden way worse stuff - the front break wasn't the worst the mashed up throttle and clip on bent straight down sucked.

[dfox]

Originally Posted by Klondike1020

no compensation talked to a lawyer and they said without a serious injury requiring hospitalization and because the accident was during the day no lawyer would try for it waste of time. I should've seen the gravel and been ridding slower in a 35mph zone.

a lawsuit, no. compensation, maybe.

I don't know where you live, but most cities/states you can submit a claim for compensation. I have heard stories, but nothing first hand, from people who have supposedly been paid out for flat tires due to potholes that the city was aware of and failed to fix. Document everything, submit to jurisdiction.

Will you get paid? probably not. Is it worth 5 minutes? you decide. I think you have a very good argument for compensation. Gravel doesn't belong on the road, especially intentionally, without signage.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Klondike1020

...........@Motofool - I went and got a police officer and he assured me he would have a highway department person bring out signage - I will zoom back by today and check.

[Klondike1020]

@dfox @Motofool

I talked to the town superintendent and he was very nice.

He put a sign up sat and said sorry about it.

He asked me to bring the photos and accident form to them and they will submit it to the insurance company.

so we will see what reimbursement does or doesn't happen

[slickt0mmy]

They do the same exact thing on my road. Every year they go around repaving certain roads and my road gets the gravel treatment. We've called the city about it many times and they assure us that they alternate which roads get paved and which ones get graveled, yet our road hasn't had fresh pavement in the past 10 years.

[verboten1]

I like orange parts.....


LOL

[Ytse Frobozz]

Originally Posted by akima

Maybe they need warning signs stating: "WARNING: road signs ahead"

[akima]

@Ytse Frobozz