Rider Down - Extreme delay in posting

Hey all,

As a couple of you are already aware, and some may have an idea, I crashed a bike. This happened on June 17th, 2007 and the VFR was not involved, well, not directly. I have since sold it to have some cash on hand, but it is earmarked for making up a deficit betweenthe insurance check and what the balance is on an 07 Yam R6S I had purchased. No one, including me is sure what happened, not sure if it was something in the road I missed, a tire suddenly deflating (I had a few threads showing, but nothing major. I have seen worse hold up), or a combo. I was riding in a straight line and the next thing I know, I am tumbling across the ground. In doing so, I fractured my left wrist due to having my wrist watch on and severly broke my left ankle. The bone in the ankle, the Talus, shatterd at some point and I think broke at another.

On June 18th, the doc put me in short arm and short ankle cast and put me off work until Aug 18th. At that time, he said if he did surgery on the ankle it would make it worse. As of July 6th, the doc said the wrist cast will probably come off on Aug 3rd since the alignment of the fracture looked good and he still was of the opinion that if he cut into the ankle, it would make it worse.

So now I have been off work for a month and Ihope when I go back to the doc he still won't want to operate, since, being that i am diabetic, it will open a whole new set of medical complications to watch for. The one positive I can take from this crash is this: I was wearing all my gear, helmet, leather gauntlet gloves, Icon Merc 2 jacket, Icon Timac pants, and A* boots. Even though I ended up with a broken anke and fractured wrist, the gear did its job well. If not for the gear, I'd would prbably stillbe inthe hosptital, with much more sever injuries and probably also needing plastic surgery since my face shield scrapped the ground. This also proves that anything can happen at anytime.

Take care my friends.

 

Sorry about your crash Vinny. It can all happen in the blink of an eye. I am glad you didn't need pins in your wrist, although the ankle sounds really bad.

I wish you a speedy recovery and thanks for your other friendly post. Hopefully you haven't needed too many painkillers, I hate them so much I refused to take them when I've had several injuries(a beer now that's a different story) Good luck my friend and keep your chin up.

Rich in Virginia

 

I only take them when I need it. Like after riding a jet ski (lol) or trying to sleep at night. I rode a jet ski the first weekend in July (since I can't ride) an dhad my leg wrapped in a trash bag to protect the cast. It was fun, but not being able to do anything but hold my left leg out like I was going into a left hander on an mx bike made my ankle hurt a bit. Otherwise, I am just sitting here at home, occasionally going to hang with friends. Tho thanks to Hartfords poor communication, looks like that aint happening any more either. ha.

I'll do my best to keep it up Rich. Thanks, bro.

 

I was wondering what happened to you, now I know. Tough break, quite literally it seems @ least it happened riding(doing something you enjoy). I had my ankle/lwr leg ran over by a loaded semi trailer @ work( driver in a hurry I was installing a mud flap & he backed up), hurts every damn day(for the last 13 years). Grinds pops & snaps every morning til' it "beds in" for the day. My best wishes for a speedy & complete recovery; I would avoid surgery unless absolutely neccesary. The foot is one of the worst things to injure being diabetic, watched my ex father in law have a hell of a time after breaking his foot helping push a vehicle that was stuck in the mud.

 

With me, I have to watch out for DKA. Each time my body has experience trauma, it goes into DKA, and I end up with a couple of days in the hospital to fight it. :-(

 

First - Glad to see your ok and hope for a quick recovery!!!

Now ....

Tell me I didnt read that you were riding around on a tire showing threads !!! but you had all your gear on. Not to be mean here but come on people .... all the gear in the world will not make up for a lack of maintance on your bikes !!! And riding around with threads showing on your tire means you had at least months of riding out on a worn out tire.

A $120.00 tire is cheaper than a Hospital Bill ....

 

Actually, when we stopped for a short break, I was looking at the tire and noticed a small amount of threads showing, maybe a 2 inch long strip, 1/8th inch wide at the most. This was on a SUnday and I was going to go on monday to buy a new tire cause I thought the middle was looking a little thin. And as for months of riding on a worn out tire...Not. I commute 90 miles one way to work. I had checked the tire on tuesday or wednesday and while it was looking thin, no threads were showing at that time. So sometime in the next 600 miles the threads started to show. I would have replaced the tire that saturday, but was busy taking care of other personal business. So I was not neglecting maintenance on my ride. I have been known to change a tire that would easily go another 1K. I changed a front tire at the fall dragon ride last year that would have lasted the whole weekend. It is also not clear, and we will now never know, if the tire went down or started to go down, if there was something in the road I missed, or a combination of the two which caused me to go down. The rims are now broken so I will never truely know if the tire started to lose air.

 

VMan, good to know that you're recovering. Are you type 1 or 2? Hope that the extra complications don't cause too many hassles for you. Keep the foot warm, and circulate as much blood as possible to it, even by swinging your leg back and forth (but you probably know all that already).

 

I've seen tires go from kinda thin to threads showing in no time. I was going to the M/C shop last year on a thin tire to have it replaced. When I got there (about 40 miles) it had threads showing almost all the way around! They couldn't believe that I of all people would ride around with a maypop tire. That last little bit of tread went in no time. I was lucky to have made it in one piece. Hope you have a speedy recovery!ray:

 

Vinny: hope your recovery goes smoothly. I'm guessing it's just as well you don't remember going off the bike. Great to hear the icon stuff worked for you... I was never sure if it was more show than go. Get well soon.

 

Where are you finding $120 tires

 

Will: I am a type 1 diabetic. And I have learned that when my body experience trauma, it's not good as I start to go into DKA, Diabetic Keto Acidosis, which, for those who do not know, can be deadly. The 2 times I have experienced this I ended up spend a couple of days in the hospital, usually with a Saline IV and also an insulin IV. They also added potassium from time to time and that stuff burns going in. My point is that it's something I do not care to repeat if I can help it.

Thanks to those who have wished me well so far. It is greatly appreciated.

 

Probably at southwestmototire.com I think thats the url anyway. They are in AZ.

 

Glad to hear that your okay and are able to write and talk about it.
So, do I dare and ask what bike looks like?
How about taking some pic's of your gear. only if you feel up to it to show us that it could have been your skin instead.

I would like to wish you a speedy recovery and get back on 2 again...wheels ofcourse. :wink:

 

The R6S is totaled. it's not pretty either. Actually it doesn't look all that bad,but by the time you add up parts and all, it gets expensive. Here are pics of the gear;





some pics of the bike, but it does not show all the damage:

Can't see from here, but the rear rim is brokem almost in half:

Front wheel:

 

Hey Vin,
Maybe your ment to just ride Honda's (ha ha) hey non of the guys riding with saw what happened ? strange, be careful with the diabetic as you know.
i am border line and most of my family has it im lucky i guess , have you tried to start your yamaha yet ?
vin stay away from the soaps and get well , Tim

 

Yeah, it runs. Oddly enough, the engine did not take any damage at all, other than the damage to the exhaust shown in the pics. Ruined a perfectly good gatlin gun exhaust mod too. lol As for others seeing it, The ones behind me had ot crested the hill and when they did i was already tumbling.

 

vinny,
now you have a track bike and a street bike cool, whats the other yamaha look like ?

 

ya know , i have a slow leak in my front tire its new but it gose flat in two days and i was going to air it up and ride it to the local bike shop to have it fixed (warranty) but maybe i am going to wimp out and i will haul it in the back of the dually ?

 

:frown: Sorry to hear about your accident. I had a friend go down from a blown front once. There isn't anything one can do but hold on or watch in astonishment. Sounds like you have a good attitude ... hang in there and know we'll all be thinking and pulling for you.