“10 SECONDS” (a short story….. by me…..cuz my bike can talk but not write….ha) “It is amazing how the perception of time slows down, when you are thrust into a high pressure situation…..Any time something like this happens, to me or anyone else, I have to learn from it….I have to…..”mjb Last Sunday, I left on my bike, kind of early in the morning, as soon as the sun was able to shine on me and help keep my 30 year old, insulated leathers warm and toasty. I kind of knew where I was going, just to get to some places I had not been to in a long while. Once I got into the rolling hills, one thing I noticed is that there is still a fair amount of sand on the road surfaces, put there in the winter for traction, on what were I am sure were very icy, steep and curvy hills. Not much of the sand has been washed or driven off the side roads yet but I am riding cautiously and it is not a problem. Just taking my time and enjoying the scenery. I am familiar with this stretch of road. Going this direction, there is going to be 3 consecutive corners, on a very steep down grade slope. The road is crowned and there is no banking, through all the corners. If you were coming from the other direction, it would be a 3rd gear climb, just because of the sharpness of the curves and the steepness of the slope. There are no guard rails or shoulder to speak of, so going off the road surface, on the curves, could mean a very long trip down the hill side, if you somehow miraculously able to miss all the trees. They might not even see you, if you ended up, going over the edge and down there. Full on careful mode is coming up. I practiced my emergency stops and maneuvers on Saturday, to get a good feel for the bike again. I know that putting the brakes on, on sand covered road surface, requires more use of down shifting and more use of the rear brake and a whole lot less of the front brakes. It is imperative, that when on a slightly variable and slippery surface, the front wheel must keep turning, to maintain control and maneuverability, kind of like riding on snow/ice (yeash…I did that crazy shit this winter…..) or air speed, when flying an airplane. I have my head right for what is coming up. The first corner is on the down slope but only 45 degrees to the right. The second corner is still on the constant down slope and is a left hand, 160 degree horseshoe type, blind corner, cut into the side of the hill, which wraps all the way around to the other side. This is the corner you do not want to miss to the outside. It is a long way down and a lot of trees. The third corner is another tighter, right hand, 160 degree horseshoe that brings my course of direction, back to true North. I am also back on what would be considered to be the valley floor. I have a very good mental image, of what is in front of me. I had just come over the top of one of the bigger hills and I got a good look around. I know exactly where I am….. Slowing my speed down from below 40 mph and into 4th gear, I roll into the first corner in the trees… Here is where the 10 seconds start…… I can see this entire corner. I keep to my side anyway. I make the corner very easily and continue to reduce speed. I bring the bike back to full upright and then……. KABANG!!!!! A dead tree limb, about 20 feet long, with all its branches, falls from the big tree I am rolling under. The branches end, hits the ground first, to my left. I did not see it coming. I don’t know if it had just snapped off in the wind or if it had been hanging there. The visor on my helmet, that helps shade my eyes and nose from the sun, partially cuts off my vision upwards. Typically, I am not looking for things falling out of the sky, while I am riding. (or should i…..ha) As the tree branch falls, it bounces on the branch end, flipping the stump end, about 6 inches in diameter, right across my windshield. The windshield snaps completely off and flies back and hits me in the face, real hard. I am still on the bike and we are still rolling and upright. However, there is one problem now…… I cannot see……. All I see is red and a whole bunch of stars, even though my eyes are wide open. Now the hard part……. The windshield has dropped down off my face and is now wedged up against my chest and tank bag and is kind of in my way for working the handle bars. I know the next corner is coming up fast and to the left. I know that going off the corner to the right, is not an option. I also know that even if I lay the bike down, I still might slide off the road and tumble down the steep slope and into the trees. I have no choice….. I must begin making the left hand corner… And …… I still cannot see…… I do not know if something like a car may be coming up the hill at me from around the blind corner but I have to turn left. I also do not want to over steer too far into the corner either. I begin to down shift some more, rear brakes only and cautiously lean the bike to the left as to not go too far over to the other side of the road. I did not turn the bike enough……. I still cannot see …. I can feel the sand that is built up on the shoulder, is now under my front wheel and that means I am way to close to the outside of the corner. I have to move the bike to the left, even if it means laying it down. I still cannot see…… I lean harder left and I am going slow enough to turn the handlebars hard left as well. The front wheel gets back on to clean pavement but the back wheel, now in the sand as well, breaks loose and begins to slide to my right. I am now going down the hill sideways. I have my speed way down now and I give the bike a little gas but I am still sliding on the rear tire. I just now catch my first glimpse of where I am, as the red and stars begins to fade away and I can see the hill side and trees in front of me, as I continue my slide to the right, down the hill. I just about got the bike stopped now and I put my right foot down to catch the bike but the sand made for unsecure footing and I couldn’t hold the bike up and we flopped over onto the right hand side and we slid about 4 or 5 feet, to a complete stop. I laid there as the rest of my vision returned and listened to the bike idle down and stall from the carburetors flooding the motor out, from lying on its side. There was complete silence…….. As I lay there, I began to laugh. Partly I think, from having my face smashed and I have been knocked silly and party because I just survived a big dose of “What The Hell?” I slowly get up, look for traffic, then stand the bike up and look it over. I also looked back up the hill but the tree branch was too far around the corner for me to see where it ended up but I am fairly certain it ended up in tact, on the opposite shoulder of the road. Other than the windshield being gone and a little scrape on the case guard, lower right fairing edging and the edging on the fairing, from laying it over on its side, the bike is completely in tact. Both mirrors, turn signals, all good and working condition, nothing to do at this point but to get rolling again. I know the motor is flooded out big time but it is warm so I just got it rolling down the rest of the hill, ignition on, and dumped the clutch. (on your EFI HD’s, you must turn the ignition switch off and then back on again to reset the fuel pump auto shut off, if you lay the bike over) The bike chugged at bit at first but was running on all cylinders in just a couple of seconds. Now, without a windshield, I am catching all the wind directly in the face and chest. I do have on very good glasses for the wind and of course, I have my red helmet on. Not so bad at all. Considering what had just happened, I am a happy camper. As I am rolling along, my nose starts running from what I believe is the extra wind hitting me in the face. I passed a couple of cars that were coming at me. They both looked at me kind of funny. I just figured it was because of the missing windshield but when the third car went by and the looks on their faces, I glanced in my left hand mirror and I saw what they saw…….. I did not have a runny nose. I had a bloody nose and the wind was blowing the blood all over my face and down on the front of my coat. I stopped at the next visually safe place on the road. Out came my emergency kit that I keep in the small pouch that is on the back of my passenger back rest. (make note of that, if you are ever riding with me….) I get out the emergency T.P. and roll up 2 plugs to put in my nose, to stop the leaking for now. I detoured back a few miles to get back to the river valley and stopped at the canoe/boat launch and washed myself up as best I could. I rolled up another pair of nose plugs and I started rolling again. I stopped one more time to pull those plugs out and the bleeding had stopped. I washed up again and headed for my final fuel stop so that I would be sure to have enough fuel for the non-stop ride home on the back roads, traveling at a significantly reduced speed. Made it home no problem but with just a few stares from some on lookers. The oddity in all this for me is that just the day before; I went out and practiced my emergency stops and maneuvers and I have to believe that is what saved me from having a way worse situation to deal with, if ever again. I managed to control my bike and get it stopped in a very challenging location and situation, all without being able to see. Maybe it was pure luck or bad luck, depending how you want to look at it. I choose to look at it this way…….. Pure instinctive reactions….from experience and practice…. All in just about 10 seconds……. P.S. The Xray showed I did break the lower part of my nose but nothing needs to be done about it. I did joke with the doc about actually being able to breathe better than before so he says we are all good but I do not really recommend the method I used. Swelling is almost gone with the discoloration and the minor cuts are healed. New windshield is sitting next to the bike and will most likely be put on this Saturday.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 21:38:22 +0000
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