Yay. For once I have good news. So when the so called friend/ family member wrecked out bike he mentioned that he thought something was wrong with the throttle. He said it didn’t feel right to him, and Hubby agreed it was an excuse because the bike was in the best shape it had ever been in. He tried to say the throttle hung up on him and wouldn’t roll back, and that’s why he hit the rear brakes locking up the rear tire. No, you hit the rear brakes because you’re an idiot who was going too fast and reacted wrong.

Anywho, one of our friends at the bike shop offered to send the right clip-on off to Yamaha for testing. Two weeks ago I handed it over to him for the testing. He got it back today and just called me with the news. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the right clip-on. Besides from the actual metal clip-on part being busted during the wreck and the handle bar getting bent back, the clip-on is in perfect working order. It rolls smoothly, and they had no problems with it working properly even after the wreck and the damage to it.

The only issue we’ve ever had with the throttle is when we’re using the canyon dancer when hauling the bike. Sometimes it will pull the grip down over the bar end, and you have to put it back into place. That had happened the day before the wreck at Deal’s Gap, but not only was it fixed, the entire grip was replaced when Hubby went to Wheeler’s shop. Then Wheeler greased it up properly and made sure it worked. I mentioned I even had all the paperwork from the work Wheeler done.

Even though the accident wasn’t reported, I did take pictures of everything including the scene. An eye witness (not Hubby) gave an account to a cop friend of ours who checked it out for us. After seeing the photos and talking to the witness our cop friend (who not only investigates most bike accidents in the county but also rides) confirmed the accident was a cut and dry case of going way too fast for conditions and not handling the bike properly.

I love it when I’m right.

I finally have decent photos to share of the wrecked GSXR. The photos don’t show half the damage, but now that we’ve inspected it we’re not sure if it’ll be totaled out or not. You can see the new photos here. The reason we’re not sure if it’ll be totaled out is because we made a list of everything that’s damaged.

It doesn’t look like the damage costs more than the bike, but we’ll see. The subframe is damaged, but it’s a bolt on. The main frame isn’t warped or twisted. It’ll really just depend on the insurance adjuster they send. We know of bikes that haven’t been totaled out that had a little frame warping where as other bikes that had no warping, but were totaled out because the frame was scratched. Well the frame is scratched on this one, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

A lot of us were talking about how he’s lucky he wasn’t wearing his backpack. This guy almost always wears a backpack when he rides full of his normal commuting stuff sometimes including a laptop. If he’d had his laptop this time it would be trashed. Hubby has been wanting to take my laptop to work with him some so he can use it on his lunch break, but now I’m not so sure I’m going to let him. Awhile back I saw a laptop that was a protective hard shell case. It looked kind of like this Rimowa luggage. If I could find something like that, and if I knew it would hold up during a crash I might let him take it, but for now my laptop is staying at home.

Do you see that? That is why I can’t stress enough why you should wear your gear at ALL times, not just when you think you’re going to be riding hard. When we met up with friends for bike night one of them asked us why we were wearing our gear for a casual ride to a bar. Alli casually replied “because we always wear it…for safety reasons.”

Well that guy got a first hand look at the reason why we wear it today. A group of about 8 of our friends were riding up the mountain today. On their way back down the mountain, cruising through a slower section where no one rides hard, Alli’s boyfriend low sided in front of the guy.

His new 08 GSXR 600 is totally trashed. It’s so new it still has the paper tag on it. We don’t know if insurance will total it out, but it’s a pretty good bet they will. Both wheels are warped, the rear tail section is trashed, the rear sub frame is trashed, rear sets are broken, nose piece is trashed, left clip-on snapped in half, front forks are bent, busted the crank case, front fender is trashed, driver’s seat is ripped, passenger seat probably went over the cliff since it’s no where to be found, bar ends are ground off, swingarm is scratched, brake lights are gone, rear turn signal is trashed, shifter is broken off, and that’s just the things we have inspected. The pictures don’t show even half the damage. The tank is damaged but salvageable. Same goes for the right fairing. Other than that, the entire bike is pretty much trashed.

What happened? It’s just one of those flukes. No one knows for sure exactly what happened. He’s a new rider without a lot of experience. I don’t know if he was trying to ride beyond his limits or if he hit a patch of gravel. There’s always gravel on the roads up there after a big storm, and they’ve had a few this week. He could have done something as simple as hitting a stick in the road, or he could have messed up the slightest little bit. The tire rolled on him, he lost traction in a full lean, and he low sided.

I have a few photos of the bike while I’ll place at the end of this post, but the photos suck because they’re cell phone cam pics. I’m going over there tomorrow with my digital camera to take more photos.

As for the rider, he’s lucky. He’s got a broken arm and a little rash on his knee. You can plainly see where his jacket and his helmet took the brunt of the hit. Now, can you imagine what his head would look like if he hadn’t had on his gear? He definitely wouldn’t be sitting in the ER right now because he’d probably be in the morgue. Wear your gear people. I can guarantee you he’ll be wishing good pain pills were as easy to find as diet pills. He’s going to be in pain for awhile. The broken arm is bad enough he’s going to need surgery, and they’re putting him to sleep just to reset the arm. I feel for the guy, but this is also another reason why I stress to ride within your limits.

Now, for the photos.

New Jersey confirms there have been more bike accidents and fatalities this year, but car accidents are down by 20%. Why? Those gas prices, of course! Bike sales are up, and the dmv is handing out more motorcycle licenses.

Well bike night last night didn’t turn out too bad. We only stayed a couple hours, but there was a pretty good turnout for the first night. The cruiser crowd was definitely much bigger than the sport bike crowd, but our group was thrown together in a couple hours time. We ended up with a group of about 10 sport bikes.

Since this was the first night there really wasn’t much going on. They just wanted to establish a presence as a place for bikers to go on Tuesday nights. There was an itty bitty sign up on the board saying “bike night Tues night”, but it was so small you couldn’t see it from the road. The sign for the store next door kind of overpowered it.

Next week should be much better. Matt works at a graphics shop, so he offered to make a huge sign to put out near the road. That should bring in a bigger crowd. Starting next week Performance Powersports will also be out there giving away bike related stuff.

Indoors there’s a 72″ projection screen setup for the Wii where you can play various racing games to win prizes. We all agreed it wasn’t a great turnout for the first night, but you’ve got to start somewhere. I had fun no matter how many people showed up. Just having a chance to ride was all I needed, and it felt great!

The food wasn’t too bad either, but it was a little on the expensive side for a pub. The cheapest thing on the menu was about $8 (other than appetizers) not including a drink. Service was also really slow. There were only a handful of people inside when we ordered food, yet it still took almost an hour to get it out to us. Everything on the menu though was Irish cuisine, and the food was great.

Afterwards we all made a lake loop, and to me that’s the best part. The GSXR ran great, and was fun to ride as always. I also got to spend some time checking out Chris’s new 08 GSXR600. I’m not big on white bikes, but this one is gorgeous. I drooled over it a few times in the dealership, but it looks so much better out getting some action.

All in all it was a great night, so if you’re near Seneca, SC next Tuesday night stop by Mullens to hang out and win some free stuff!