http://www.elizabethraab.com/Portfolio/Photography.html

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to give up my SuperHawk… But when you just want to roll out, 10 blocks or so. its not as convenient.

I stopped riding 3-4 years ago, after a brutal 3 months of being bounced off the hood of taxi cabs and squished between parked cars and septa buses that don’t seem to notice anything around them. I think I got a flat tire, (which really isn’t that uncommon) and just never got it fixed. Then I bought a motorcycle…

This summer though it seems like everyones got a bike, or buying a bike, or I’m now hanging out with a crowd that has bikes, and they’re always wondering where my bike is… and … soo… now I’m geeking out and trying not to buy a Cannondale Capo, or a Bianchi Pista… and yeah, someone help me.

I mean, how fucking awesome does this look –> http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/08/cusa/model-8PR1.html

I guess I’m looking for a single speed, or maybe a 3 speed, bike… with at least one brake…
I’ll probably end up building it from parts… but yeah… I need to put the money down and just do it so I have something this end of the summer and fall to enjoy.

http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2008/05/rapha_cycling_g.php

Cycling the streets of New York poses its own unique set of problems, not the least of which is finding gear that doesn’t make you look like a rolling advertisement. Fortunately, there are a few emerging brands that recognize the value in creating stylish, classic apparel with discrete branding. The British company Rapha develops high-performance clothing and accessories for the most demanding road racers and urban messengers around. From featherweight stowaway jackets to touring shorts that won’t make you look like a sausage, smart tailoring, advanced materials and a decidedly non-geeky approach to cycle wear characterizes the label.

On a more generic note, there are a few things I do that require “functionality” more then “style”. As a motorcycle enthusiast, its the hardest thing in the world to find clothing that “works” and doesn’t make you look like a giant asshole at the same time. I’ve recent purchased a whole set of REV’IT Gear that I plan on talking about more in the future… but the bike’s in the shop after the recent adventures I had in Lehigh County… As soon as she’s out of the shop, I plan on going on a nice ride (slower this time ) that will give me a chance to really know if the money I spent on the gear was worth it from a comfort perspective.

Specifically this stuff saved me from some major injury and medical expense.

I present to you, the gear I was wearing when I crashed my bike.

My Head was protected by an HJC CL-SP helmet.

You can see the before and after…

My upper body was protected by a Hein Gericke Urban Jacket (I had it in all black), which, unfortunately, is no longer in production…

You can see the before and after…

Beneath that, I wear a Icon Armored Chest & Back Protector.
This at least, didn’t take any damage, but I feel better wearing it…

On my legs, I wear MotoGP Alpine Pants. I have no idea if their affiliated with the MotoGP Racing ‘group/agency/league/people’… but thats just their name.

Before…

After…

My feet are protected by a pair of SIDI Typhoon Gore Tex Boots.

They didn’t take any real damage, which is surprising since the bike fell on my leg as it slid away from me…

The gloves took a real beating, and I don’t have any injury to show for it, so I’m a fan of these things as well…
I had a pair of Alpine Star SMX-2 Summer Gloves, in Black.

Before…

After…

Anyway, I wanted to share what worked for me, cause, well, it worked.
I’m upright, walking, and in good shape considering what happened.

I just kinda wish that jacket was still for sale, cause I’d jump on another one right away.

enjoy some photos…

I feel like a walking poster-boy for wearing your armor…

I got up Sunday morning to meet my riding buddies at 8am to take a nice Sunday day of riding in. We headed out to breakfast at a friends house in the North East, before heading out to the yearly Norton Rally.

After eating some food, and socializing with the 30+ other riders at the breakfast stop, we all saddled up and headed the over to Washington’s Crossing State Park, where the yearly Norton Rally in our area happens.

Lots of beautiful bikes, of all kinds. Classics, Modern, restored, you name it… it was there.

The weather was a little cloudy, but I decided to risk it, and headed out for a ride with 3 other guys up and in to the country side.

140 miles in to an awesome day, I suffered my first crash in 3+ years of riding.

Coming in to a turn, too fast I now know, I decelerated to 30-40mph, and proceeded to lean into the turn as I had a dozen times in the past 20 minutes as we weaved our way through back country roads… This was in to a blind turn, which is another point where I fucked up, I simply couldn’t see the exit, and wasn’t able to judge it properly… And then, just before the peak of your turn, when you need to be absolutely on the ball…. I see two kids sitting on top of the embankment, on an ATV 4 wheeler, waving at me… I fucked up, looked at them, and lost concentration.

My first ‘oh shit’ moment was when I realized I was going to go in to the drainage rutt along side of the road, and all of the gravel, dirt, and what ever else scary could be sitting in it. At least it wasn’t too deep, 8-12 inches max.

I entered the drainage rutt upright, and moving, still too fast… I then made the next mistake of trying to get OUT of the rutt, but I was moving too fast.

My next ‘oh shit’ moment was when I realized what I was doing was a mistake, and I felt my rear wheel slide out from beneath me as my front wheel found traction back on the road.

From there I clearly remember the bike loosing traction in the rear wheel, and sliding out from beneath me to the right. I fell, with the bike, to my left, and landed hard on my left side, elbow, hip, shoulder and slid.

I must have been between 30 and 40mph when the bike came out from beneath me. It came down hard on the frame slider, which popped right off, absorbing most of the impact. The bike slid 30 feet easily, I slid about 20 feet, first on my side, then on to my front.

Theres something really illuminating about the quality of your life as you hear pavement scraping away the side of your helmet and Plexiglas face shield.

I came to a stop and stood up, which is a mistake. If you have any kind of broken bones, putting weight on them is a big no-no… and if you have a concussion, you could lose balance and fall over again….

I stepped out of the road, and sat down on the side of the embankment and took my gloves and helmet off to make sure I was still in one peice.

About that point the rider behind me was getting off of his bike, and coming over to check on me. He reached down and shut off the horn, and made sure the engine was turned off.

I started to examine my self, and too my sincere surprise, found a few bruises, and one minor scrape on my wrist. Luckily, I came away from it with no serious injuries… My gear though, did its job, and needs replacing.

I was wearing my helmet, a mesh textile armored jacket, armored gloves, armored pants, and heavy riding boots.
The jacket is torn up significantly on the left arm, the gloves have a number of holes, the helmet is scraped up pretty bad on the left side.

The bike has some significant cosmetic damage to the left side of the front fearing, the left side muffler, and a snapped off frame slider that thankfully did its job and absorbed the initial impact of the fall. The bike slide approx 30 feet from my judgements, and… somehow still has a working turn signal on that side… The mirrors are both intact, no broken glass (amazingly, my last bike seemed to break mirrors like it was going out of style). The upper faring which holds the windscreen in place is snapped just behind the left mirror.

I have no idea how much all of the repairs will cost, but I’m convinced that mechanically, the bike is fine. I did, in fact, ride it home under its own power. There was some weird engine bliping, and weird idle issues at first, but I think having dumped violently, and running on its side for a moment or two doesn’t help with your timing… It definitely needs to be looked at, but in all, I think its fine.

My one major concern is the front fork, which feels slightly off angle… but considering that it slid freely, and didn’t impact anything, it should be fine as well.

The 3 other guys who I was out with all stopped and came to my aid quickly, I can’t thank them enough for their patience, generosity, understanding, and care. I think all of them were as surprised as I was, that I was ok

I took a few minutes to sit back, catch my breath, and make sure there weren’t any lapses in consciousness and to let the adrenaline fade. Once I, and the other guys I was with were convinced I wasn’t about to keel over, we started to talk about the ride home.

Since it was 330pm at that point, One of the guys I was with decided that he was due home at some point as well, and since he lives a scant mile away from me, decided to escort me home. We stopped along the way for some coffee and food, had some good conversations about riding, and the world. I was home by 7pm at the latest, and started to make the phone calls I needed to make to tell my family about the adventure.

So here I am, 24 hours later, bruised, one minor cut, and feeling alive.
The mistakes I made.
…Too fast in to a turn I wasn’t familiar with.
…Too early in the season for me to ride as aggressively as I was.
…Allowed my self to get distracted by things not in the road.
…Stood up after I crashed.

I was reminded of how great life is, and how quickly it can be snatched away.
Not that I was close to death, but looking at my armor after the fact makes me realize how bad it could have been…
I’ve got some real good people in my life who are willing to stop what they’re doing to make sure the next guy is doing alright. I owe them.

I’ll probably edit this post for sanity sake as I read through it and see my structural mistakes, but thats the story…

Time to fix the bike

So, here’s something new.

… and

a 1998 Honda SuperHawk VTR 1000f, with some after market parts thrown in for good measure.

I’m looking forward to riding season.

Anyway.
I’m reserved to the bike being totaled. it sucks, cause I love it, but I’ve already got 3 leads on replacements.
The crew I run with *flashes gang signs* is one of the best group of people I’ve come to know in the city. Caring, sympathetic, and energetic people who share my interests in motorcycles.

Two of them have bikes I might be interested for sale, theres a 3rd I haven’t heard back from yet, and then today I stopped by the parking garage around the corner from my house to talk to the manager. There’s a 98 VFR 800 sitting in the garage thats been there for over a year. The manager gave me some contact info for the owner, and I made the phone call. He’s a recent father, and his wife has insisted that he stop trying to kill him self So, there it is. Sitting there, in this garage for over a year.

He was busy at work, and he’ll call me back later today, so… who knows?

It seems like a better deal then one I’m being offered that has 62k miles on it
but we’ll have to see what comes of it.

I’m saddened by the loss of the first REAL bike I’ve really ever owned and cared about. Not to belittle my passion for the 76 360t I had over a year ago, but to be honest, it was on its death bed before I bought it

Though to be honest, I’m more frustrated that some fuckwit decided it was a good idea to fuck with my bike in the way they did.
Senseless barbarism of things that aren’t yours, because what? the reptilian side of your brain decided it was a good idea to take it for your very own?

Some days I have a lot of faith in the human nature, other days, ugh.

More later.