Fall TWT Arkansas Rally 09/02/05

[mnapuran]

Well, up in Arkansas! My quick ramblings. Time for bed

 

[Cagiva 549]

you guys need to be spending your money at retail establishments , dont be giving it to the state. SEYA

 

[mnapuran]

Another amazing day of riding... more info in my Blog

 

[mnapuran]

My update from today

 

[FotoMoto]

Oh man, that's Paul "scratch" Massie who tossed his triumph. ****, that sux, especially since he was going to ride and room with me at the end of Oct. out at Big Bend. I'm sooooo glad he's OK but I know he always wears good gear (WORD).

I also see a VTEC with a missing mirror and clutch lever. Is it related to Scratch's ax or a simple drop.

 

[Bagwell]

Man, I am glad Paul is ok. I will get the plastic welding stuff together and be ready on his return.

Everyone have a safe rest of the trip.

Vaughn

 

[Soloman]

Well, I made it home in 6.5 hours taking the ultra boring route. However like any other ride on a major highway, it didn't go without incident. I had one driver who looking right at me still decided it was best to take my spot in the left lane, but the most amusing was a the brilliant individual in Sherman who jumped onto 75 with his new GSXR-750. He was wearing shorts, tennis shoes, a tee shirt, and his helmet, well he goes into the left hand lane and tries to pop a wheelie about 10 times never getting it more than a foot off the ground. I got tired of his speeding up and slowing way down in the left lane with me right behind him so I did the stupid thing and passed him on his right before he really got it up and dropped it. Thank goodness, he decided to exit about 2 miles after he got on and just sped away on the service.

Oh and finally, no cord yet, but it really can't be far away.

J

 

[mnapuran]

Glad to hear you got back safe J! I got home at 3:15pm, and we left right at 8:30am. Good time really.

The VFR is Gary's.... he was in a rush to help at the accident site, and didn't fully put his kickstand down before leaving it Luckilly, it was still ridable, and certainlly fixable

I put up my last little blurb in my Blog...

 

[bowillyard]

Thanks again, I had a great time. I will practice a lot before I go again, so that I won't slow everyone down. The roads were awesome!!!!!

 

[Squeaky]

Another amazing day of riding... more info in my Blog

I did some hunting, but here's the correct link to pics from Day 2. The link in the blog is empty.

 

[VFRJohn]

Back home

Checking in - got back home about 3:00-ish. No real excitement, but saw several different cagers and one motorcyclist having roadside sessions with Texas highway patrol folks between the Red River and Paris. Of course, I noticed that all the guys riding behind me slowed down all of a sudden, while I kept sailing along - till I saw the flashing lights ahead on the roadside. Apparently, those "Valentine" devices really do work... for those who have them!

Thanks everyone, for helping make this a fine Labor Day holiday! It was definately a pleasure riding and hanging out with all of you.

Double thanks, Scott. Hope your ride home turned out good.

John

 

[mnapuran]

Re: Back home

Of course, I noticed that all the guys riding behind me slowed down all of a sudden, while I kept sailing along - till I saw the flashing lights ahead on the roadside. Apparently, those "Valentine" devices really do work... for those who have them!

Actually John... I was behind you, and I got headlight flashed by an on coming car... which is a sign of a cop for us up ahead... so I slowed down

Thanks for leading the ride home today too

 

[letsride]

I had a great time, thanks tourmeister. The best roads, good weather and excellent company This was a test for the wee strom, there is no "wee" about her The bike is simply amazing, pegs are a lil low (feelers got smaller) but it has remarkable flickability yet stability, plus the motor is electric smooth and pulls waay strong for a wee yet does not break traction while getting on the gas close to the apex. Took the looong way home today, Albie and myself covered NE Ar before turning back home bound, tested it's dirt capability along the buffalo river and the power to weight to suspension dynamics are spot on. No matter how hard I try to find a weakness (to make a case for the big brother) she just shuts me up

 

[Dirtrideroader]

Oh man, that's Paul "scratch" Massie who tossed his triumph. dang, that sux, especially since he was going to ride and room with me at the end of Oct. out at Big Bend. I'm sooooo glad he's OK but I know he always wears good gear.

Paul,

Sorry to hear you had an incident. Please let us know all the details when you get around to it.
I guess now is the chance to get the DS bike you apparently needed for this ride. I have to warn you though, you probably would have needed full knobs that far off the road.

Hope everyone got home ok.

 

[Tourmeister]

Left Eureka with Mitch around 8:00am. We had a great ride back down through the Pig Trail at a comfy 55 F!! Of course I left the heated liner at home Then we ran up and over Magazine Mountain. We ran down Hwy 27, which is a great ride with MUCH less traffic than 71 and 23 South of Ozark. But it is a tad bit out of the way. We parted ways somewhere South of I-30 and he took off for Tyler while I still had about another five hours to go... Let me just say there are some fantastic FM's between here and Longview I think it was right around 580 miles by the time I got home at about 7:30pm. Having been off the bike for a month, I am SORE!! The GS ran great, averaging about 45mpg despite some intense flogging. I even got in some DS'ing on the way up and back curtesy of the GPS autorouting

I had a great time as usual. It was a great group of guys. Paul's getoff was unfortunate but thankfully he seems to have walked away pretty much unscathed. Of note is the fact that his head hit on the left forehead side of the helmet and his left knee got ground up. The good thing is that he was wearing a full face helmet and his leathers!! Both items did their jobs! I hate to think what that knee might look like if he had been wearing just jeans... Thanks to Kent, Stuart, Gary and John for making sure everything was taken care of so the rest of us could finish the ride without worrying!

 

[Snoopster]

Scratch: So Arkansas claims another victim. Glad to hear that you are okay but sorry about the bike. I hope the knee is not giving you too much trouble. I'm sure we will hear your story when you are ready to tell it.

 

[STrider]

Scratch-- Sorry to hear about your get-off. I hope you are fairing (or 1/2 fairing... get it?...Sprint RS...? sorry.) as well as can be expected. Let us know your status & whatever help you need in the meantime.

For those who don't know or haven't had the opportunity to ride with him, Scratch is a top-notch rider and friend.

I'm taking this as a reminder that it can happen to ANYONE, and will immediately be re-evaluating my long standing "I don't really need riding pants" position.

 

[scratch]

Scratch: So Arkansas claims another victim. Glad to hear that you are okay but sorry about the bike. I hope the knee is not giving you too much trouble. I'm sure we will hear your story when you are ready to tell it.

Thanks Deb. Simply put, I'm the victim of my own ineptitude, and that's all there is to it.

For those who don't know or haven't had the opportunity to ride with him, Scratch is a top-notch rider and friend.

I appreciate the compliments Matt, but I'm not nearly as a good a rider as I thought I was.

_________________

First off, many thanks to Stuart and Kent – they sacrificed the remainder of their ride to haul me and what was left of my bike back to the motel – I owe you guys big time! I need to thank John and Gary too for staying with me while waiting for the truck and trailer to arrive. You didn’t have to do that, but it sure helped keep my spirits up during the interval.

My apologies to the rest of the group for creating a little more drama than anybody needed. Faisal and Stuart were healed over in the turn right behind me, but were able to avoid being distracted by my antics and got around me safely. It was such a relief to know that I didn’t take anyone else down. Anyway, you were all great and I thank you for showing so much concern (and tolerance) for me after I fell.

Here’s the long explanation from my perspective:

I had successfully negotiated a number of similar turns just before that one and felt like I was in a pretty good groove. A momentary lapse of attention at the turn-in point of this left-hander put me way off at the outside edge of the pavement. My first thought was “Where the heck did the road go?!” I kept trying to lean it over a little more to get back on some clean surface but I kept looking at the edge of the road, so target fixation had something to do with it I’m sure. It dawned on me that this was do-or-die time, so I leaned over for all it was worth to try to save the situation, but I had run out of second chances. The bike went into a pretty hard wobble as one (or both) tires came loose. I recall falling in a hard low-side, then the bike was gone in a flash and I was tumbling like a rag-doll for what seemed like forever. Just when I thought it was all over, WHAM! there was one more hard flip before coming to rest flat on my back down in the brush at the bottom of the embankment. I’ve heard other people describe the sensation of getting off a motorcycle at speed as feeling like someone is beating you all over with a 2’ x 4’. Well, I can now confirm that! My previous serious fall was at @ 20-30 mph and didn’t seem to be nearly as violent.

My mind was in a fog for a few moments and I took a couple of deep breaths. Hmm. No pain in the chest. I was dimly aware that was confirmation there were no broken ribs. Next, I checked my arms and legs to see what other damage I had sustained. The hands felt a little numb but flexed O.K. and my arms and shoulders seemed to be in working order. A burning sensation in my left knee got my attention so I slowly moved it back and forth to test it out. It was pretty sore, but not so bad that I thought anything was too seriously wrong. About that time Stuart and some of the other guys came down to provide aid. After evaluating my condition and giving me a moment to collect myself they helped me to my feet. Looking around, I saw the bike laying a couple of yards away where it had to come to rest after taking out a small tree. Everybody pitched in to pull it up to the road where we could take a look at the damage. The fairing, gauge cluster and headlights were destroyed; so it probably hit the tree more-or-less straight-on. The shift lever and linkage was broken, the left foot peg was twisted around and the passenger peg bracket had snapped off on that side, and there were lots of scrapes on the left engine case and the belly pan just beneath it. The right side of the bike had almost no damage at all, and the tank, seat, seat-cowling and muffler were in pretty good shape. The tank bag was still attached and undamaged except for being a little dusty. The front wheel and fender look fine and what really surprised me is that the brake and clutch levers appear to be virtually undamaged - they almost always bend and snap in a simple tip-over, but nothing happens to them when the bike goes down at 65 - 70 mph?

I’m certain that my riding gear saved me from some serious abrasions and impact injuries – the visor popped off my helmet, but otherwise it did its job perfectly. Still, it’ll have to be replaced. My left glove was torn open at the little finger and the leather was nearly worn through at the palm but it held together well enough so that I only got a very superficial scrape on my pinky finger. There’s some swelling on the back of the hand from flopping around and it’s still somewhat sore, but I can grasp and carry objects with little difficulty. The pants wore through the top layer of leather at the knee and popped a seam, but the inner layer of leather remained intact. I didn’t have knee armor in place, but these particular pants have ¼” thick foam padding sandwiched between the leather there and that helped absorb some of the impact. Other than a small amount of slide-burn on the kneecap and some slight swelling and stiffness, it’s doing pretty good. Tested it fully bent today, and there’s no serious lingering pain after doing so. Normal walking and stair climbing doesn’t present any problems, but I may have it checked out by my doctor just to be sure everything is good to go. My jacket was undamaged except for a very small tear on one arm where it snagged a tree branch, but that can be repaired. The left boot almost wore through at the big toe but doesn’t show any other damage and the feet and ankles are fine. Otherwise, I’ve got a little stiffness in my neck and shoulders. There were lots of other places along the route that didn’t have soft dirt and small brush to fall into, so things could have been much worse. Dumb luck was obviously a factor here.

Lesson learned? Pay close attention at all times and leave yourself plenty of margin to recover if you miscalculate. I just got sloppy…

So, other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln? Well, the riding was great up to that point. Besides a light sprinkle on Saturday, the weather was cooperative and not too hot. It was a nice break from what we’ve been having to deal with down here in Texas lately. Scott’s routes were spectacular as always. We enjoyed some great meals at the local restaurants there in Eureka Springs and I celebrated the evening after my little get-off with a couple of mugs of this tasty ale –

It seemed appropriate.

 

[Tourmeister]

...and I celebrated the evening after my little get-off with a couple of mugs of this tasty ale –

And a few heaping portions of my Wild Turkey! When I got back my bottle was almost empty and it wasn't even opened when I left. Of course, he had a little help from Stuart and Kent

 

[scratch]

...and I celebrated the evening after my little get-off with a couple of mugs of this tasty ale –

And a few heaping portions of my Wild Turkey! When I got back my bottle was almost empty and it wasn't even opened when I left. Of course, he had a little help from Stuart and Kent

I swear I didn't touch it! I was working on a bottomless cup of wine instead.

 

[mnapuran]

hehe.. it's true I was there observing

Oh.. semi off-topic. My front tire did make it home, and I will be replacing very soon.

Also, for those that know about me dropping my bike the day before I left, and the damage.... I did some "repairs" today, and took some pics of it and my tires post trip.

Pictures

 

[scratch]

Also, for those that know about me dropping my bike the day before I left, and the damage.... I did some "repairs" today, and took some pics of it and my tires post trip.

Nice work, Mike. Think you could do anything with my bike? :scratch

 

[mnapuran]

lol... dunno man. That might take more then some cleanup and vinyl

 

[scratch]

So you're saying that probably won't buff right out...? Oh well.

Say, how's this for a strange coincidence - I fell down on the TWT Fall rally just outside the town of Fallsville.

 

[birdwh]

It can happen to the best of us. One second of distraction can trump years of total concentration. In some cases it's just a roll of the dice: deer ambush, tire carcass on a dark night, cager swerves right...

"You aren't paranoid if they really are out to get you" -unknown

On a happier note, now you can get that new Sprint ST! Get the crimson red ABS model. Those just don't stay on the showroom floor long enough for me to get a good look.