Laid The Motorcycle Down
 

As some of you know I got my 2008 Ninja 250 not too long ago, well it's thrashed now.

Yesterday I was on my way home from getting a haircut and running a few errands. I decided to take the back roads where there is a lot of hills and twisties, you know, the fun stuff. The speed limit for these curves is 40, I can imagine I was going about 45 or 50.

Well I encountered a curve which had gravel where the driveway comes out. I see this, and know I can't turn enough to avoid it, I panic and hit the brakes. Yep, I grabbed the front brake hard, and felt violent wobbles in the bars.

From what I remember I was thrown over the bike and slid for a long ways with the bike on me and then off the road. I fell and slid on my left arm and knee, which I almost broke, and got pretty severe road rash. Luckily I was wearing my Joe Rocket jacket and still have my elbow, which is perfectly fine, just sore. My jeans really didn't do anything, but tear and get ground into my knee. I hurt my wrist pretty damn bad and have to wear a brace for a couple weeks. My helmet didn't have a single scratch on it.

I don't really know what to do with the bike, for now it's going to lay in my garage untill my knee and wrist heal. After that I will decide if it's worth spending the time and money fixing it. I haven't really assesed the damage, but I can tell all of the plastics are trash, and my kickstand and shifter were shredded off of the bike.

I'm just glad I was able to get up and brush myself off after the crash. Pics will come later.

edit: I just noticed it took me a half hour to write this because of my wrist lol.

Sorry to hear that man. Glad you're no worse off than that. Could have been a lot worse. Had a friend a long time ago just cruising through the neighborhood hit some loose pebbles and rolled the shit out of his bike. He did have any leather on and little rocks tore him up. He was behind me and I watched in the mirror. Geeez he was flipping like a rag doll. At only about 25 or 30 mph.. Good luck on getting healed up. keep that road rash clean.. ( Ouch).. :(

shit man.


sorry to hear it. glad you're ok though, that's definitely number 1.

yeah..when you're new..shit, even for experienced riders, first instinct is to grab a fistful of brake. takes a lot of training (either by yourself or through a school) to overcome that habit. I crashed trying to do wheelies within a month of buying my second bike, my shiny new CBR, so don't feel too bad.

you didn't call insurance I take it? When I crashed I forked over cash to get it fixed..2 grand and 3 months. luckily the mechanic is a friend so labor was cheap and the work was quality.

get back in the saddle man. the worst is when people crash and never ride again. Hope you get better soon man. and yeah..to those who ride..second guess those jeans. they're as good as tissue paper when it comes to asphalt. I have the scar on my ass and calf to prove it :)

That gravel's dangerous stuff, I just reacted to quick which is why I fell. I knew better than to hit the front brake in a corner. Lesson learned.

I'm actually thankful to be limping around, rather
than having broken bones or worse.

I haven't called insurance. I will probably just fix the bike on my own out of the garage.

Wearing jeans just isn't enough, I am definately forking over the money to buy riding pants. I had also stopped by the motorcycle shop and spent 250 bucks on quality boots and gloves just before it happened, but had to have them ordered. My Nike Shox got pretty shredded up, and they were almost brand new...damn. In all seriousness I will get the propper gear and always wear it when I ride from here on out.

glad you arent badly injured...

I do think its a shame that for most people it takes them crashing to realize they need full riding gear.

Gear up, or dont ride. I think you know that now.

My dad used to think jeans was enough... until he spent about 2 hours in the emergency room getting tar/gravel/sand picked out of his legs. He got hit by a truck that ran a stop sign because he was late getting home to his wife (from his girlfriends house)... the cops didn't even give the guy a ticket, but he got a divorce out of the deal from what I heard

Shit dude, I fugging wear a t-shirt and jeans during the summer. Sometimes shorts lol.

that's because you're a hardcore badass. not everyone can be like you steeda.

enjoy the road :)

I recommend not doing what i did. I will get a set of riding gear in the spring. lol.

I had a good amount of gravel and jeans in my knee, they just gave me one sweep with a soft brush to get that crap out. It hurt.

Steeda you need to invest in some gear, at least pants and a jacket. There are quite a few textile jackets out there that actually aren't that hot to wear.

Will do. In the spring.

Damn Vern, sounds like it could have been a lot worse. Glad you're not hurt to bad and everything should heel up. Them damn scooters will get ya killed. I'm just glad that you are still with us and can walk and talk!

Close one!

Here's what it looked like when I bought it:

Attachment 14811

Attachment 14812

And then after the wreck:

Attachment 14810

I decided I will just end up fixing it myself. I bought turn signals and all new plastics off of eBay for around 500 bucks with shipping, can't go wrong with kawi green.:D

I'm going to need to find a shifter kickstand and a few other things. Shouldn't be to hard once I get it taken apart.

how bad is the gas tank? it looks dented but is it leaking or anything?

The tank is pretty wrinkled, I'll just take it to the body shop and have it repaired and painted green.

The left bar is bent to hell, and I have to replace the seat.

should of just bought a new bike for all that. lol.

Not really:/ I think I will be spending around 1 grand to fix it once I factor in the little parts I haven't noticed. When a new bike in comparable condition to what I bought it as would be at least 2 grand, more than likely a little more, I don't see the logic. Not to mention tax and registration on a new bike.

Well, I stripped every piece of plastic off. So just the tank is on it now. I have to take some broken parts off of the frame and replace them including the left peg, shifter, kickstand, and clip-on.

Tank should be coming off soon, after that it's just putting it back together. Thanks to eBay it will be fixed for $900 with a like new tank and some small things like rim stripes, levers, and stuff like that.

I still am having trouble walking because I can't flex my knee much because of the wound ripping open again. I will get some pics up soon of the progress.