Dog 1, VFR 0... Hit a dog this morning.

Thank you, I will check that out. I am a member over there but seldom log on to the forums.

 

I took some time today and asked around the neighborhood. Nobody has a dog like that within a couple of blocks of where it happened. Perhaps the word will get out and the squished dog owner will come looking for me. That would be rather nice of them. LOL!

 

Well, I have a new sprocket and chain set from the Sprocket Center, -1 on the front. Haven't installed that yet. She has a new set Road 2's front and back. I think I want to get some EBC brake pads. The CBR 954 has me spoiled in the brake department. It is a lot lighter though.

I have the VFRness installed.

What upgrades where you thinking about? I would like to do something with the suspension. She rides really nice on the highway but it's a bit soft for spirited riding.

Then there is always the supercharger. Eh, that's pretty pricey though. I think a suspension upgrade would be money better spent. I want to keep the stock look. Not interested in a RC51 swap or anything like that. Gold valves maybe?

 

I think that is very good advice. I saw them and thought, "Oh hey, dogs." Then as I got closer I thought, "That black one is looking at me weird... Oh, crap!"

It's 20 mph in my neighborhood, which is good. Lots of kids and pets running around. I should have slowed to a crawl though. I feel kinda stupid for not anticipating this really.

 

Smiley, glad you survived and also like your attitude.
Don't "feel kinda stupid", just try to analyze what happened so that it won't happen again.

Just a few questions . . .
Did you swerve first?
Did you brake first?
Did you do both at the same time? If yes . . . aw fa down.
Did you use both brakes?
At this slow speed my guess is that you swerved and locked up your front brake at the same time,
while fixating on the dog.
Do you think that's what happened?

IMHO, it's bad to have an accident, but it's really bad to not learn from it.

 

I am pretty sure I didn't grab any brakes at all.

I just started to swerve and hit the four legged speed bump. That bumped me off the bike. I think it would have gone a lot better if I would have continued on straight and stood up on the pegs, butt off the seat, rather than hitting the dog while at lean. I am almost 100% sure that I did fixate on the dog, which is why I ran him over instead of missing him. What do you think?

"IMHO, it's bad to have an accident, but it's really bad to not learn from it."

I agree with this 100%. I have been thinking about it all day while out working in the yard. It was a good day for it. A better day for riding though. Unfortunately, both bikes are down now.

The CBR is getting the attention first, parts will be trickling in from Ebay for a while anyway.

I have a track day (actually two days in a row) August 13-14 at Nashville Super Speedway and I really want to ride the 954 at the track again. It's not a great bike track, but it's close to home!

I spoke to Mary tonight and she agreed that she would like to see the CBR up first. She wants to ride 2up before we take it too the track. She will definitely ride 2up on the track again. Gotta love her... here I wrecked the VFR, which she loves, tumbled myself a bit and she still wants to ride. Not one thought about riding being too dangerous or anthing like that.

She is getting her moto license this year. Taking the MSF course the first week of September. i am going with her. I figure I can always learn something new. Besides, I have never taken that class and have always wanted to. Then we have to get her a bike. She's very short, about 5' nothing (maybe less, but don't tell her I said that). We are probably going to get her a Ninja 500. She sat on one and liked it a lot.

 

Bummer to hear....but glad you're ok.

 

Correct. A dog travels based on triangulation. If you "disrupt" the dogs triangle by slowing down and then speeding up, you reduce the chances of an impact as the dog has to "re-triangulate". I should mention though, this assumes the dog is triangulating on you and not a squirrel on the other end of the street.

I'm sure you'll learn all about this in the MSF. There is a section dedicated to this in the PA MSF.

Glad your ok. +1 on the dog patch

 

Thanks for the moral support guys. The bike is pretty much ridable, just ugly. I can't have an ugly VFR in my garage and I have already started buying parts. :tongue:

I actually feel pretty good today. Since i couldn't ride yesterday and the holly bushes were looking pretty bad I decided to do some yard work. I trimmed the bushes and cleaned up around the front of the house. After I was done stood back to admire my work and realized that it looked like Conan the Barbarian had hacked up my shrubbery. I sure do hope I get better at that. Ha!

I think staying active yesterday kept me from getting stiff. This morning I was a little creaky, but that didn't last long.

I went into the garage about 8:30 last night and worked on the CBR until about 11:30. I am going to get THAT bike done and track ready while I wait on parts to come in from Ebay to fix the VFR. Not sure if I can straighten the right front brake rotor or not. It's an aluminum center so it might go back pretty easily. Might not be worth the risk. Not sure what the risk is actually.

I decided this morning it would probably be a good idea to check the runout on the front wheel to see if it's bent.

 

Well shit(pun intended...cuz of the dog crap...get it?).
Glad you fared alright. The plastics should not be too hard to replace.
Good luck.

 

I was looking at the bike last night and it appears that the upper cowl fairing stay is bent a bit. I will know more when I take it apart.

 

Sorry to hear about your wreck but dang glad you had your gear on,,I'm another one that will NOT ride without.

The 500 is a great bike, I have a gal that works for me that has one, shes 5 ft nuthin too. We did a lowering link on it and had foam cut out of the seat, now she can "almost" flat foot with boots on.

 

Youtube videos:
YouTube - 98_VFR800_Damage.AVI
YouTube - RidingGearDamage.AVI

I am have lived in TN for several years, can you tell? ROFL! :biggrin:

 

sorry to hear.
Know the feeling.
Take of yourself & good luck w/ the fix.

 

Track days at Nashville Super Speedway tomorrow and Saturday. It's an evening run from 4pm to midnight. I did this as my first track day and it's nice to be doing it again this year. :biggrin:

I am taking the CBR954RR, which I just got back together last night.

See? No dog can keep me down!


Still waiting on parts for the VFR. The plastics should be here by next Friday. I will take plenty of pictures and do a full write up on the Hong Kong fairings.

 

UPDATE:

Fairings were junk. The color was wrong, the paint was bad and there was damage to the finish on some parts. I sqabbled with the seller in eBay and I pretty much got no where.

All this left a bad taste in my mouth and I never did anything with the bike except replace both rotors, which were bent. I rode it a few times the remainder of last year but mostly it sat.

This year I have been riding it more. The CBR doesn't get the fuel milage and the Viffer is more comfortable. Today I was out riding and going a long at a pretty good clip when the right side mirror blew off! I turned around and picked up the parts and as I was doing this a Sheriff rolled up. He asked if I was Ok. and I told him what I was doing, "Yes, my mirror blew off and I was picking up the part." As I said this I was thinking that he probably was wondering how fast I was going to make the mirror blow off. ha! So, I return to my bike and I realize that I have no where to put all this mirror parts. The thing broke into several pieces so I walked back to the Sheriff and told him I had no place to put it. He told me to throw the parts in the floorboard and he would take care of it for me. Cool guy.

So, I get back on the bike and as I am doing so, a guy walks from his house and pokes his head into the Sheriff car. He points my direction a few times and I am thinking, "Oh, shit". This guy lives on this street and he turned left right in front of me to get into his drive way. I had to bite the brakes pretty hard, but it wasn't really a problem.

I get the bike going and start to take off and the Sheriff ways at me. I roll up to the car and he asks me if I had been doing wheelies. I told him no and I don't think that my bike will do a wheelie. He just laughs at me and says, "Ok, buddy just keep it under the speed limit." All the while he is smiling at me. My guess is he isn't hassling me because I stopped to pick up my bike parts.



Anyways, if anyone has a right condom mirror for cheap I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Did you ever consider that if you didn't have bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all?