Topic: Well, that didn't last long

[Gene]

Went out and bought a Nighthawk 450, 1985, for my darling bride. Decided to ride it to work on Thursday since it needed to be run and she doesn't have her license yet.

Coming up to a green light in a go-ahead lane, cars to the left going straight - only, cars to right turning right-turn only, my lane being a straight-ahead or right turn lane, and out from my left shoots a car deciding he suddenly needed to take a right turn. Instead of continuing, however, he stopped - blocking my lane and just enough of the lane to the left that I couldn't fit between him and the other cars.

And, bam.

dammit. And I just got the blinkers working.

[BomberMann650]

Damnit that’s stupid.  Hopefully the police pin the blame on the cager and he has good insurance.

[Gene]

Yeah, we had witnesses. One guy said he had to leave before he hurt the guy. He was madder than I was.

[ekpent]

 Hopefully your OK by the sounds of it ?  Sounds like the bike maybe not so much .

[Gene]

Beat up - some stitches, bruises and scrapes. But ok. I'll heal. The bike - well - I'll need to look into that. Forks are bent, left peg, left turn signals - actually, if the frame isn't bent I can probably get it back on the road. But I need to look hard at it this weekend.

[Stev-o]

Sorry to hear Gene.  They are out there to get us.

[Johnie]

Glad your OK Gene!

[Gene]

it'll buff out.

[ekpent]

 Sorry to hear Gene,seems like you took a pretty hard hit on your body. Stitches and scrapes sounds pretty rough. Bright side I guess was you were not on one of your vintage orange bikes.  Has your wife had a change of heart about getting out on the road on a bike now ?

[Gene]

I'm not sure. she still wants to get the license - but I don't know if she'll take up riding. I keep telling her it's an inherently dangerous thing to do, even if you are a careful, conservative rider. So I guess we'll see. With most of us we grew up on bikes, she hasn't. So it is a different animal.

[BomberMann650]

Gonna feel that in the morning.  Hopefully you got checked out by the doc already

[Terry in Australia]

Geez that's no good Gene, I hope you insured it for more than you paid for it? Looking at the damage, I reckon they'll just write it off? Cheers, Terry.

[MoMo]

Good that you survived relatively intact.  Check the bike for stress marks at the neck...Larry

[Terry in Australia]

Good that you survived relatively intact.  Check the bike for stress marks at the neck...Larry

Yep, cracking paint around the steering head is a classic sign of frame trauma.

[Gene]

Geez that's no good Gene, I hope you insured it for more than you paid for it? Looking at the damage, I reckon they'll just write it off? Cheers, Terry.

Yeah - prolly a write-off. But, may also buy us a 250 for Dina - which is what she wanted in the first place

Ya know, the problem with knees and elbows is it's hard to find bandages that will stay on. :|

[754]

Sorry to hear about this..
 But.......having met Gene, seeing the pic , and THAT he wrote, it will buff right out.. THAT made me laugh..
 Take care

[Terry in Australia]

Geez that's no good Gene, I hope you insured it for more than you paid for it? Looking at the damage, I reckon they'll just write it off? Cheers, Terry.

Yeah - prolly a write-off. But, may also buy us a 250 for Dina - which is what she wanted in the first place

Ya know, the problem with knees and elbows is it's hard to find bandages that will stay on. :|

That's very true Gene, I've had more minor injuries this year than I've had in years, and the one common denominator has been that most of the dressings I've used were rubbish. I hope your wounds heal fast mate, and your insurance payout is generous!

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Good that you survived relatively intact.  Check the bike for stress marks at the neck...Larry

Yep, cracking paint around the steering head is a classic sign of frame trauma.

Sorry to hear the news, Gene.  I'm glad you were not seriously hurt.

As for the frame, also take some plumb measurements from the corners of the frame and make sure they are even (no frame twist).

[Gene]

Thank you all for the kindness.

Cal, so sorry to hear about your eldest. We can take all the precautions in the world but there are sometimes hits you can't avoid. My best to you and your son and his girlfriend.

I keep going over it in my head, I was looking for an escape route, but they were all more dangerous than the hit. Amazing what a few seconds you can play over and over. I was lucky. The same thing happened to my next-door neighbor's kid who died, so, there's that.

Anyway, some pain killer and a glass of 12-year later, be safe everyone.

Frank - lastly - thank you for laughing. If we can't whistle past the graveyard what's the point? And, as I always say, when it comes down to it, you go for the laughs.

I'm tempted to rebuild this thing anyway - if the frame's not trash - just to see what I imagined. A light, small bike, painted in Bacchus Olive Green, custom striping colors, clean the engine up and have half rat-bike, half custom.

Thanks again. And yeah, I'm lucky. Only going about 50 when it happened but as I've said, you can die at 20 MPH.

[Gene]

BTW, as a point of reference, I've been beat up worse than this.

A buddy and I were coming back up from Mexico in an 85 Mustang. I was the passenger, asleep, drunk as sh*t. I went through the windshield - which was good because the frame in the crash went through the passenger seat. I'm not throwing this out as a lesson, a challenge, or anything. I don't tell people about this incident. Because I don't remember it.

Woke up in a TJ hospital, smuggled over the border by a couple of beefy EMT's who told me to play dead. Spent a week in a San Diego hospital - a large part of it in a bariatric chamber to re-attach the part of my ear that had been cut off.

It wasn't hard to play. Anyway, what I mean to say is be freaking careful.

And, the moral of this story is, I have been injured more in a cage than on a motorcycle. Because at least on a bike you have a sense of fear, or at least you should, because all those cars around you DO NOT CARE you are there, or they - seriously - don't see you.

[754]

  50 really,you bounce well..
I would have thought like 30 ish looking at the forks..

[Johnie]

Gene when I saw your post I thought you were talking about the 750...glad you are healing and you still have that bike to get you around. This sort of thing makes you a bit more leery on the roads. Problem is, you can't correct stupid.

[Gene]

  50 really,you bounce well..
I would have thought like 30 ish looking at the forks..

May have been 30 at impact tbh - I was at 50 when I hit the brakes

[754]

 Feel free to call it the Nightmare..

[Terry in Australia]

"Dead Duck" more like it...........