When trees attack . . . hairy incident content

As of June '09, I own a really nice, well cared-for 4G 1996 VFR750F. It has not been wrecked, had 22000miles when I bought, I've logged nearly 2000 miles since new to me. I joined a sportbike riding group back in July, hoping to learn a lot from the experienced riders in the group. I took my first half-day ride with the Impatient Triad Riders (ITR) group on Meetup.com (motorcycle.meetup.com/272) on Juuly 19, the day after a terrible accident befell one of the group, Mason Levine, who later died from his injuries when a truck pulled out in front of Mason and other group riders as they rode out of a small town on the way to some good riding roads in Stokes County NC.

So last Sunday, the group held a memorial ride in his remembrance, and we planned a short service up at Hanging Rock State Park, where people who knew and rode with Mason could pay their respects and say goodbye.

On the way up, though, about 12 riders ahead of me, about 12 riders behind me, I rounded a curve that opened up into a long downhill straightaway, so I got on the throttle at the apex of the curve, and accellerated into the straight, probably doing 65 or so, well behind the rider in front of me who was reaching the left hand curve down at the bottom of the grade. Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of movement above my head, and looked just in time to see the branches of a tall thin maple or poplar tree falling down as if out of the sky right at me and my bike.

My reaction was to grab the throttle and wring it hard, I could see the tree coming down on me like a guardhouse gate closing. At the time I accellerated out of the turn, and before I saw the tree, I had the VFR in 4th gear, turning probably 7000-8000 rpm. So when I grabbed the throttle out of sheer reflex, I had the bike right in the accelleration sweetspot, and I felt it lunge forward just before the tree impacted. It hit my Laminar Lip windscreen air dam, next hit my mirrors and broke them off, and finally bounced hard off the top of my ducking head, and then I was past it, leaves, twigs, and pieces of mirror glass and plastic bits left in my wake. I was not sure my condition or the bike's condition, and I slowed the cycle, and made my way gently over to the grass shoulder, where I made sure my bike would stand on its sidestand, and I took quick stock of the situation. I immediately throught of the riders behind me, and then a member of the faster group came tearing up the hill - we could not see the aftermath, as the incident occurred just around a slight bend in the middle of the straightaway that blocked our view.

I ran down the road to tell the rest of the group, and the other guy continued up the hill to the site of the accident. When I headed back up the hill, the scene was unbelievable, as an 80' tall, 18" diameter pine was laying across the right shoulder, east and westbound lanes, and the opposite shoulder - no way to pass. It seems that the big pine fell for no apparent reason, and it pushed a smaller tree down before it, ultimately crushing the smaller tree beneath it. The smaller tree was what I saw hurtling down from above, the big pine I never saw (I'd seen enough to manage an instant, maximum throttle grab to try to get under the falling branches of the tree I did see).

I can't explain how close a call this was, but i was fortunate to be travelling at a pretty good clip when I first saw the hazard, and estimate I may have been traveling 100ft/sec or more (I was under essentially maximum accelleration) when the first tree hit my windscreen, bike mirrors, and bounced off my helmet.

Pics and short story can be seen here:

http://blog.chrisballance.com/2009/08/23/WhenTreesAttackAnExceptionallyEventfulMemorialRideForMasonLevine.aspx

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ballance/sets/72157621997529947/



courtesy of one of the other members of our riding group.

Thought you all would be interested in this tale, Richard, the rider most immediately behind me (probably a hundred yards behind me) laid his bike down avoiding the tree, but very little damage - he chipped his patellar tibia, and is out of commission for a few weeks, may require surgery.

I'm totally fine, but was extremely fortunate to be alert, focused, and in the moment when this happened, to have the good instinct to try to accellerate out of danger (that is not always the correct reaction, but braking would have been disastrous) and, heeding the words of Nick Ienatsch in his excellent Sport Riding Techniques book, I had the bike in the correct gear so that my engine was revving right in the middle of the VFR's powerband, so when I grabbed throttle, it lunged ahead immediately, without any lag. I figure I was 1/10sec. and inches from a different outcome altogether.

Peace, hope y'all stay alert out there, you really never know what to expect on the street.

Chris

 

Wow....you are one lucky dude!! I've noticed when pruning/cutting trees at my house is that they are alot heavier than they look. You could have easily been killed. Someone above was watching your arse that day!! Glad you're ok.

Regards,
Rollin

 

Bloody hell that sure was a close call for you. Good sense to do what you did and thankfully you had the presense of mind to trust your instincts.

As you say, you never know what can happen and I found that out years ago as in the dark of night I hit a tree that had fallen. My lights didn't pick it up on the cold, wet night and I went over the bars and ended up amongst it's branches. Luckily I wasn't at a high rate of speed. Pretty well unscathed too.

Regards
Shane

 

Happy to hear you're OK, and no one else was seriously injured. There must be a "tree hugger" joke in there somewhere.

 

Wow, that is pretty crazy! Glad you came out alive to share the story with us.

 

If I send you a $ will you pick up a lottery ticket for me.

 

Holy crap. Again, if there wasn't pics, there is no way in hell I would believe this.

Glad your safe. Get that bike back in commission & get back in the saddle.

KC-10 FE out...
lane: :usa2:

 

That there's some scary shit. Glad you came through ok.

Out here in the west we have to contend with rocks falling off cliffsides, not to mention big critters everywhere. Never had to dodge a falling tree, though I have had to take evasive actions to avoid trees laying at 90 degrees from vertical and blocking the road at eye level.

 

Thanks, y'all. An interesting back story to the tale is that when I first brought the bike home in June '09, I was familiarizing myself with the bike, and taking off the various fairing pieces and I found a dessicated but intact large iridescent orange Scarab Beetle wedged into the space between the upper and lower right fairing pieces. I looked it up on the internet and a Scarab is an ancient symbol of good luck, and immortality. I figured his final resting place was my VFR, and if he wanted to ride with me, that was just fine, so I fashioned him a safety cocoon out of foam, put him inside his protective jacket in a little box, and from the day I brought it home, "Henry" rides under my VFR seat wherever I go - I figured a little good luck and immortality would be a good thing to take with me out on the road.

I ordered a pair of used 4G mirrors off of Ebay (may be one of the members here, I know somebody is parting out an entire 4G bike (sans rear wheel? Seems to me I read on these pages recently about someone who got rearended, maybe that's the source for my mirrors? They were a nice deal, and although I want to change out the mirrors for some '00 stems with extenders eventually, I can't wait to get back on the road again.

Loving the VFR, Chris

 

i just read this thread, and all i can say is WOW! that's an incredible story, and i'm really glad you weren't seriously hurt. while i don't believe in "luck" at all, i do believe that things happen for a reason. still, i'd keep the scarab beetle right where he is! again, glad everyone came through this okay.:thumbsup:

 

Holy Mole! What a close call! Great awareness and reaction there! This underscores the necessity of paying strict attention at all times and being in FULL control of your machine so that you can react in the quickest fashion to anything that might occur. Because if it isn't a tree, it might be a car, a deer, a child, a dog, or Sasquatch leaping out of the shadows.

Good work! ...and I am very sorry to hear of the reason for the ride. What a sad day, eh?

 

More a solemn day than sad, but really a majestic sight seeing 25 sportbike riders making a day of it. Had some rain up on Squirrel Spur, and Meadows of Dan, grounded us for more than an hour, rode in the pouring rain back home too, with no mirrors - talk about nerve racking! But I wasn't about to call it a day after the tree. What more could happen, right? All in all, a once in a lifetime experience I reckon.

Y'all stay safe, don't be all distracted looking up at the sky for falling trees and shit, awwight?

Peace -

the pimpdaddy

 

That does sound intense and I am glad you can see the deeper meanings and the positive aspects to the special nature of the ride.
"Stay thirsty my friends...", oops, I mean stay safe!!!