It was the first sunny day in Portland in quite a while.
Balmy 45 degrees, the asphalt only slightly damp from the previous days rain.
I was at my shop, waiting for Heath to come get his XS650 we'd just gotten running the previous evening. He'd partied all night and was running late.
Evan had come by too, on his XS400.
Heath finally showed up, so we headed the 6 blocks over to Marcus' garage, where Uta already was.
Marcus got his GS550 out and warmed up, Uta went and gassed up her KZ440, and Heath did some offroading out of the gas station to get over to Marcus'.
We'd been invited by a new friend, Todd, to join in on a quick jaunt up Skyline Road to eat at Helvatia Tavern, with a group of people we weren't familiar with.
Our friend Chad, and Marcus' girlfriend Kristin were already at the meeting place waiting for us, Peets Coffee on Hawthorne.
People were trickling in, and we had a nice little turn out. Only 3 sportbikes, rest of them old jap bikes.
We stood around and waited for the last to show up, drinking coffee.
A couple more are parked around the corner, but by the time we left, 16 bikes, 17 people.
We leave at about 12:30, and make our way from SE Portland over to Burnside, across the bridge into West Portland, and then on up to Skyline.
We stop part way up the beginning to get everyone together, and for the guy with the CB550 to fix his clutch cable, and to adjust the idle on Heaths XS650.
I noticed as my tires were warming up, my GS550 was getting a little twitchy, so I let a couple pounds out of my tires.
We take off once everyone is sorted.
Here, the groups separate a little.
The two sportbikes, the GS1100, and a little suzi two stroke triple and I pull away from the folks behind us.
Every corner is still wet, so really, we are taking it quite easy, all things considered, but we have a bit of a lead on the next group.
I pass the Suzi triple, and have the GS1100, the Duck, Aprilia and the RR or whatever it was in front of me, and I'm cookin a little bit to catch up to them, as the reason I had passed the Suzi was because he was lagging behind a little.
We come up to the highest point of Skyline, which is a blind rise that has a short (50 feet) straight bit of road before heading into a small downhill chicane.
As soon as I get over the blind rise, I notice white stuff on both sides of the road, and a sudden lack of interest in my bike in heading any direction rather than forward.
I look down, and see sheet ice covering the entire road.
I look up to see the GS1100 travel across the oncoming lane, hit the ditch and fly into dirt embankment on the wrong side of the road.
My bike is really uninterested in changing directions, so a quick feather of the front brake, quick tap of the back to get it out to the left a bit, stayed in 3rd, applied a tad of throttle and made the right hand turn of the chicane a bit crossed up, then opposite for the left.
Ice stopped about 200 feet down from the top of ridge.
I stopped my bike and started running up the hill to try to warn people, but I was too far away, so all I could do was watch as bike after bike went down, sliding into the bikes and people that had went down before them.
This picture is where my bike was stopped. It was the soonest I could do so safely.
Right across the road just past the snow here is where most bikes and people ended up.
Here you can see Kristins booboo from the crash.
And, here's a GS1100 that needs a new bottom end...
Of me and my friends, I, Uta and Heath stayed up. Marcus and Kristen went down on the GS550. It will need some work, but case-savers saved the day on his. Chad on his KZ650 went down. Will need a new bottom end. Evan went down on his XS400. Probably the least damaged in my group of friends.
Everyone is sore, but no ambulances were required, and we did get everyones bike home. The gs1100 and gs550 are at Marcus' house, and the KZ650 and XS400 are at my shop.
It was pretty terrifying to not be able to keep anyone from crashing, and not knowing if 6 of my friends had crashed, and if they had, if they were OK. Huge adrenaline rush. I just couldn't tell who was still up in all that chaos.
Careful out there, ladies.
In all, 7 bikes, 8 people went down.
