Crashed the bike :( (have video)

exalted512

I'm copying and pasting this from what I typed up on a motorcycle forum - so a lot of it might be irrelevant, but I have lots of pictures and a video!

First and foremost, I'd like to do a gear review. I think it's absolutely the most important thing that someone could learn from my wreck. It was very, very fast and I am 100% fine. I got a heat burn on my elbow, which I'm assuming was my first point of contact. No hole in the suit there though. This is going to be a long post, but please take time to at least look through the gear review.

Recently I got a Leatt neck brace. I can't imagine what this crash would have been like without it. I was worried about the mobility of my head, but I have no issues like I did with the little $30 foam EVS one I had, which I couldn't wear for more than a lap. My only issue with this one is at full TUCK on the straights, it hits the tank, not allowing me to be completely under my stock windscreen. The tenth of a second that might cost me is a welcome drawback. If it was two tenths, I might have issue though

You can see it took a hit from my helmet. The mark is on the left side of the brace. I can't recommend one of these enough...




Heroic kangaroo suit held up okay. It's still 'safe' by my standards, aside from the arm zipper breaking. It was actually completely open when I stopped tumbling. I tried to zip it back up and thats when it came off on one side. I'm not sure how it came down. Might have been the cause of the heat burn? It allowed the suit to twist, moving the elbow armor around.

Shoulder and broke arm zipper side:




Small hole on the right side of the butt


Shoei RF-1000. This thing is old, but it held up great. 5 year life span my ****. As I'm tumbling, I faceplant at one point and thinking, ****, I'm going to have to buy a new helmet. About that time, I hit my head a couple more times...lol


Ripped the back off:




Gloves held up great, again. The stitching around the stingray on the palm in this picture had started to come undone after the last wreck. You'll notice the titanium knuckles are dented as well now. The left glove also got some damage on the wrist strap and the metal loop. I'm guessing I was grinding on the little metal loop and that's when the damage to the strap happened as well. Same glove: you can see the stingray at the wrist took a nice hit as well.



Other view:


Vortices are a little scraped up, but nothing wrong otherwise:








My only injury:


Don't skimp out on gear. I promise, the money you save initially will not even be close to the money you pay later in medical bills. I took some ibuprofen immediately after I got back to the pit. I had a slight, slight amount of soreness in my lower back/hip after the wreck which increased marginally when I woke up Sunday. As I started moving around, it went away and hasn't come back unless you actually put pressure on it. Stretching and good gear really does work! The only thing that really hurt much at all was the heat burn.

Not pictured are my Knox Contour Race back protector, RS Taichi chest protector, and Know Cross Shorts. All played vital roles IMO. I landed hard and rolled hard. Those shorts did wonders I'm sure. I bit my tongue as well. I recently bought a mouth piece, but haven't had time to mess with it. I'll make sure it's in before I get back on the track again.

exalted512

Now for the wreck:

Not that I've been having the greatest of luck anyway at MSRH this year...but this is my first 'real' crash on the track. I blew my engine at MSRH in February during the races, took my street bike out instructing Level 1 to earn some credits to sell to pay for the engine, when someone lost their coolant cap and dumped coolant on the exit of sugar and spice and I wrecked the street bike, causing quite a bit of cosmetic damage. First 'play day' at MSRH this year since the races and I was ready. Got my suspension set up by Roger and the bike was feeling good.

Went out in the second session after lunch and this was the result (crashed going into the carousel if you want to fast forward to about 1:20)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zvN1sHgrwk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zvN1sHgrwk

I was coming in a little too hot attempting to catch a tow off of someone I had no business trying to catch a tow on...haha...much less trying to make up time. I went a little wide because I saw I was coming up on Allan and didn't want to have to touch the brakes any more than I had to. I knew I was coming in fast and that input might've upset the bike enough to crash. You see I hit a small bump, the suspension came up and when it came down, it never hooked back up. I might not have been off the bike quite enough, even though I was still pretty straight up and down. I don't think I was too hard on the brakes, I think I was just simply going too fast and MAYBE not being off the bike as much as I should have been. The speed had to be close to the 130 mph mark. I was going in too fast to even down shift from 5th :ian: (too scared..haha) For reference, the top of 4th is around 130.

Noob mistakes that I generally pride myself on not making, but I really wanted to push Saturday. Mission accomplished?

Damage:
broke clip on
broke clutch lever (fairly certain the perch is fine)
broke master cylinder
broken frame at the front engine mount bolt
bent bolt on the foot peg, or a bent foot peg. havent looked closely enough to be sure yet
dented (but not bad enough to do anything about) tank

Aside from the frame, it could be up and going again already. I have everything to fix it Even the body work damage is VERY minimal. Quality plastics and zip ties that break on impact go a longgggg way. Time to eat crow on being stubborn about my frame sliders, or at the very least, procrastinating to get a 'puck' that's shorter for the right side. Left side (impact side) did great. I think me and the bike both tumbled almost 50 yards. We went in the grass, over the pavement for the mini course, and went another 15 yards or so beyond that. Bike was pretty close to me when I stopped. I just laid there, through a thumbs up to the CW, and gathered my thoughts on what had just happened and if I was okay or not. Ambulance never rolled. A few laps later, a red flag came out for Griff. Thanks Griff, you scared the **** out of my wife...haha

The tanks on the 09 zx6s stick out quite a bit. A while back, I made some fiberglass tank sliders for them. Put them on with some bad **** 3M double sided tape. The left side has a small crack in it. They did their job well. The tank is not scraped up, but it is dented around where the slider was. My next set I will make slightly thinner. My thinking is that it was mostly a complete transfer of energy. By making them thinner, hopefully they WILL break and absorb some of that before it transfers to the tank. However, the MAIN purpose of these are to prevent the metal from contacting the pavement, scraping through, and catching on fire. Without a doubt, they did their job. There is not a scratch on the tank. The left one did pop off. I'm assuming after the tank dented, the tape didn't have as much tape on the tank, and came off. The right side was scraped up as well. No dent, no marks.

Pictures of the bike:


Swing arm is scraped from my boot from riding, not from the wreck:




You can see how the tank slider transferred the energy around it and dented the tank at the edges of the slider




Windscreen is still usable. Zipties rock!




Cracked frame There's a spacer that I lost which is the reason for the gap between the engine and the frame











Hopefully the frame is repairable. I was planning on racing in a couple weeks, but that's not going to happen

There's another race in a couple months which will hopefully be doable.
-Cody

jeremymarcinko

Good you got that high speed crash out of the way. Now you can focus on racing. Thats awesome you didn't get injured.

exalted512

Right? Now that I don't have to worry about keeping the bike pretty anymore, I can really push...lmao

deronb1

Sux man. Glad you are ok.

halo71

Glad you are okay! That was an awesome video.....well before the crash anyways.

headrott

Glad you had no major injuries. I hope your bike is fixable and you get back to doing what you love to do.

helipilotdoug

You are correct when you say don't skimp on the safety apparel! Looks to me like your equipment prevented a much worse outcome! Glad you made it through this with such limited injuries to yourself.

mrbigbluelight

Geeeeeezus ...... glad to hear you weren't seriously hurt.

In your helmet cam video, at about the 2:20 mark, the view of your bike going airborne over you is ..... :eek:
Geeeeeezus ....

Dumb question of the day: the red X's that are laid out on the track that show up every so often on your video ? What's their function ?

Stay safe out there.

steveinaz

Glad you're OK man! Snapped that clip-on right on off.

pdxfj

Good to hear you came out ok. I am a firm believer in wearing gear all the time. Very minor friction burn from your gear, but I'll take that over loosing skin.

I've had riders who choose not to wear gear in warmer weather heckle me a bit and wonder how I can wear full gear in warm weather. My canned response is "sweat washes off, road rash does not".

polkfarmboy

YOU ARE A F##KING NUTCASE !!!!! :cheesygrin:

newbie308

Ridin like you stole it huh! Any time you can walk away it is a blessing! Glad you are O.K! Too, bad you don't live near me! I specialize in welding machinery, and I'm sure that the frame repair would be no problemo for my shop!

Toolfan66

That is awesome, and sad at the same time..

Glad you are here to tell us about it. That makes the time I laid my bike down seem like child's play. I was picking gravel out of my butt cheek for days it seemed..

engtaz

Glad your OK

exalted512

mrbigbluelight wrote: »

Geeeeeezus ...... glad to hear you weren't seriously hurt.

In your helmet cam video, at about the 2:20 mark, the view of your bike going airborne over you is ..... :eek:
Geeeeeezus ....

Dumb question of the day: the red X's that are laid out on the track that show up every so often on your video ? What's their function ?

Stay safe out there.

The camera is actually mounted on a fork attached mount. So the bike never went over me, thank God. If it would have, I probably would've never known. I closed my eyes and hoped for the best...lol.

The X's are put out to show newer riders the correct line. Some are different colors, indicating turn in points and where you should be upon exiting the track. Not a dumb question

steveinaz wrote: »

Glad you're OK man! Snapped that clip-on right on off.

Yup. That's what they're designed to do. The mount on the fork is separate. Throw a $10 pole in the mount and you're good as new!

pdxfj wrote: »

Good to hear you came out ok. I am a firm believer in wearing gear all the time. Very minor friction burn from your gear, but I'll take that over loosing skin.

I've had riders who choose not to wear gear in warmer weather heckle me a bit and wonder how I can wear full gear in warm weather. My canned response is "sweat washes off, road rash does not".

Agreed. I ride the street as well. I don't wear leathers, but I'm still in a jacket and overpants with boots. People ask me if I'm hot...well, yeah! But I enjoy riding. If it's too hot for gear - it's too hot to ride.

polkfarmboy wrote: »

YOU ARE A F##KING NUTCASE !!!!! :cheesygrin:

:cheesygrin:

newbie308 wrote: »

Ridin like you stole it huh! Any time you can walk away it is a blessing! Glad you are O.K! Too, bad you don't live near me! I specialize in welding machinery, and I'm sure that the frame repair would be no problemo for my shop!

I have a friend that I'm praying will be able to fix it!
-Cody

polkfarmboy

When me and my wife saw this we just went straight for the vid and never saw the 120 timeline. Every high speed twist and turn had us cringing as we anticipated the crash

ZLTFUL

I have had one crash where I was going nearly that fast (120ish in turn 3 at MPH) and the bike cartwheeled over me. Same as you, most of the damage was sliding damage to my gear and relatively minor damage to the bike. Love frame sliders right up to the point they catch the edge of the track and send the bike ballastic over you.

Glad you are OK as that looked pretty scary especially from crashing at that close to 0*.

Been watching the video a bit and from what I can see that bump definitely compressed and then unloaded the suspension pretty viciously, coupled with (even though not max braking) hard braking and just starting to tip it in, the tire seems to have just said, "You know what...eff this crap." and just let go.

ZLTFUL

exalted512 wrote: »

Agreed. I ride the street as well. I don't wear leathers, but I'm still in a jacket and overpants with boots. People ask me if I'm hot...well, yeah! But I enjoy riding. If it's too hot for gear - it's too hot to ride.
-Cody

Bingo.
And when they ask me if I am hot, I just reply that water is a lot cheaper than skin grafts.

[Deleted User]

Glad you're okay.

ratster

I hate that your frame broke,but glad your gear worked. I love my Shoei and Helds.

I'll have to show this to the girlfriend. She had a low speed get off 3 weeks ago on the dragon,she's still bruised up. Maybe your video will convince her that her gear really will protect her,if she would wear it.

scottyboy76

My heart was pounding all through the video, glad you werent hurt seriously.

exalted512

ratster wrote: »

I hate that your frame broke,but glad your gear worked. I love my Shoei and Helds.

I'll have to show this to the girlfriend. She had a low speed get off 3 weeks ago on the dragon,she's still bruised up. Maybe your video will convince her that her gear really will protect her,if she would wear it.

Please do. Show her this as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VruWHHEnZGw


Stripped the bike down tonight. Everything seems to be fine. Dropping the engine tomorrow and sending the bike off to a friend this weekend who is going to see if can fix it or not...fingers crossed!
-Cody

Syndil

Wow, great vid. Glad you are ok. Three questions:

1) How much of this was due to that other rider passing you just before you entered the turn? I've gotten in trouble myself many times that way. Testosterone just kicks in and says, "aw, hell no! BANZAI!!" and makes you do something stupid. Usually I realize I'm about to do something stupid the instant just before I do it, but by then it's too late.

2) Is the bike going to be race worthy even if you can fix it? The term "frame damage" just raises a huge red flag in my mind.

3) How much of this gear do you wear on the street? I wear quite a bit more than most people I see out on the roads (full suit, helmet, gloves, boots), but I don't wear a neck brace or a back protector, although the jacket is padded on the back. I already get puzzled looks from idiot Darwin Award nominees riding in shorts/t-shirts/no helmet, so I don't care about that, just wondering how useful a back protector and neck brace would be on the streets.

Dawgfish

Glad you are ok. Stay safe!

monepolk

Glad that you're ok.

boston1450

Someone is watching over. Glad you didnt get hurt too bad. I ride with tanktop & shorts & sandals all the time unless its ride night. I own 3-4 helmets that get used only if i leave state. Dont do highways. Dont go fast. I watch video's like these & i have to say youall are crazy. Lol. My son has one of these fast bikes & he enjoys it also. I am thankful he wears gear also. I love watching races & hope everyone is safe. Good luck fixing you ride. Hope its fixable. Be safe and have fun. Ride it like ya stole it

ZLTFUL

Syndil wrote: »

3) How much of this gear do you wear on the street? I wear quite a bit more than most people I see out on the roads (full suit, helmet, gloves, boots), but I don't wear a neck brace or a back protector, although the jacket is padded on the back. I already get puzzled looks from idiot Darwin Award nominees riding in shorts/t-shirts/no helmet, so I don't care about that, just wondering how useful a back protector and neck brace would be on the streets.

As a retired racer and track day junkie and having had the back protector and chest protector save my a$$ more than a few times on the track, I have to say, I feel naked without full gear on the street. I just think about how many more things there are to hit on the street when tumbling after an off....

As far as the Leatt brace on the street, I am sure there are instances where it is going to save your butt. But I tend to only wear mine on the dirtbike. It's one of the few calculated risks I take on the street.

Think about the types of injuries that you are most likely to receive on the street versus on the track.
On the track, there is usually far less blunt force trauma but there is more sliding, bending, breaking types of injuries. There is usually far more run off area and while people do tumble, it is far less likely than on the street.

Now on the street, you are far more prone to blunt force traumas, tumbling and bending/breaking injuries because you have trees, poles, posts, cars, trucks, curbs, small and large mammals, garbage cans...see what I am getting at?
Chest and back protectors are going to help distribute those impact forces better than not having them at all.

I am a total ATGATT fanatic and tend to not even ride with people who wear no gear. Most of my riding friends are ATGATT tools too. But I aslo believe in to each their own. I like to minimize the risk as much as I possibly can without detracting from the ride.

exalted512

Syndil wrote: »

Wow, great vid. Glad you are ok. Three questions:

1) How much of this was due to that other rider passing you just before you entered the turn? I've gotten in trouble myself many times that way. Testosterone just kicks in and says, "aw, hell no! BANZAI!!" and makes you do something stupid. Usually I realize I'm about to do something stupid the instant just before I do it, but by then it's too late.

2) Is the bike going to be race worthy even if you can fix it? The term "frame damage" just raises a huge red flag in my mind.

3) How much of this gear do you wear on the street? I wear quite a bit more than most people I see out on the roads (full suit, helmet, gloves, boots), but I don't wear a neck brace or a back protector, although the jacket is padded on the back. I already get puzzled looks from idiot Darwin Award nominees riding in shorts/t-shirts/no helmet, so I don't care about that, just wondering how useful a back protector and neck brace would be on the streets.

1. All of it. No way would I have gone in that fast otherwise...lol. I usually grab 2 down shifts. I was trying to start only doing 1, but that time I never grabbed any.

2. Yeah. The frame is broken at the front motor mount. It's in on the of the pictures. I'm all about safety. If I didn't think it would be fine, I wouldn't trust my life with it.

3. If I'm commuting, I wear a jacket and over pants (armored pants that go over your regular pants). Depending on the weather is depending on what jacket. If it's not super hot, I'm in a leather jacket. Then textile, then mesh on the 90*+ days. I also wear my helmet, gloves, and more of a street riding boot, but it's still a motorcycle boot.

I'm not nearly as protected on the street, and honestly, I feel a lot less safe. Without a doubt, the track is sooo much safer than the street. No cars, everyone is alert, no curbs if you run off, and you're wearing the most amount of protective gear.

If I'm out 'on the twisties', I dress like I do at the track. Having said that, I don't really do that much anymore.

boston1450 wrote: »

Someone is watching over. Glad you didnt get hurt too bad. I ride with tanktop & shorts & sandals all the time unless its ride night. I own 3-4 helmets that get used only if i leave state. Dont do highways. Dont go fast. I watch video's like these & i have to say youall are crazy. Lol. My son has one of these fast bikes & he enjoys it also. I am thankful he wears gear also. I love watching races & hope everyone is safe. Good luck fixing you ride. Hope its fixable. Be safe and have fun. Ride it like ya stole it

Riding without gear is way crazier than the track. You could slip on some oil/gravel at a stop light and if the bike landed on you with flip flops on, it ain't going to be fun.
-Cody

boston1450

exalted512 wrote: »

1. All of it. No way would I have gone in that fast otherwise...lol. I usually grab 2 down shifts. I was trying to start only doing 1, but that time I never grabbed any.

2. Yeah. The frame is broken at the front motor mount. It's in on the of the pictures. I'm all about safety. If I didn't think it would be fine, I wouldn't trust my life with it.

3. If I'm commuting, I wear a jacket and over pants (armored pants that go over your regular pants). Depending on the weather is depending on what jacket. If it's not super hot, I'm in a leather jacket. Then textile, then mesh on the 90*+ days. I also wear my helmet, gloves, and more of a street riding boot, but it's still a motorcycle boot.

I'm not nearly as protected on the street, and honestly, I feel a lot less safe. Without a doubt, the track is sooo much safer than the street. No cars, everyone is alert, no curbs if you run off, and you're wearing the most amount of protective gear.

If I'm out 'on the twisties', I dress like I do at the track. Having said that, I don't really do that much anymore.



Riding without gear is way crazier than the track. You could slip on some oil/gravel at a stopi light and if the bike landed on you with flip flops on, it ain't going to be fun.
-Cody

.Theres a difference between flip flops & sandals. Lol. .your correct. My friend was riding and slipped on some dirt & broke 3 ribs. He had a helmet & leather jacket on. He was tied up for 3 weeks in hospital. He didnt ride the ride for 3 months

exalted512

boston1450 wrote: »

.Theres a difference between flip flops & sandals. Lol.

Not as far as protection falling off your bike goes
-Cody