Well I did a little asphalt surfing this morning...

[thirdgenlxi]

Yup yup.... went down again this morning. I don't know what's going on here.... I go 177k miles with virtually no incidents, then now all of a sudden I hit the pavement twice within 4 months... WTF?? Am I getting old and senile or something?? LOL

The good news: I'm perfectly fine... not even so much as a scratch or bruise on me, almost like it never even happened. So no worries there

The bad news: As of right now, the bike is dead.... as in dead dead, physically incapable of running. I'm gonna have to get creative in bringing her back to life, but I fully intend to do so

So.... I was on my way into work this morning. It was 7:30 am and I was less than 2 miles away from being at work. After I got off of I-40 I headed north for a short ways and you get to a fork in the road, where you can either go straight-ish or veer off to the left. I always take the road that veers off to the left, and I had a green arrow so I stayed in the righthand of the 2 left turn lanes and began the turn. I wasn't going fast.... it's a real large wide intersection (5 way intersection) and I was doing probably 25-30 mph (which is actually pretty slow for this gentle of a curve) and soon as I began the turn the whole bike just went ZING right out from under me like nothing. I was barely even leaned at all, and wasn't even in the middle of the curve yet... WTF?? Bike went down on the left side and slid wheels first towards the curb and grass on that side of the road, and I slid behind it. I popped my head up and looked at the bike as it was sliding just in time to see it slam into the curb and flip over onto the right side, luckily landing in some soft grass. I got right up off the ground I think before I even came to a stop, lol.... walked over to the bike as I was taking my (brand new 2 day old) helmet off and screaming a few 4 letter words. I really had no idea what caused me to go down at the time.... I didn't see it going into the turn cuz the glare from the sun made it kinda hard to see such things, but after I was able to look at it a little closer from the other angle, sure enough a big oil slick slippery spot right in the middle of the intersection.... my freakin luck, heh

An older guy in the Mountain Mobility van sitting at the red light got out and asked me if I was OK and if I needed him to call anybody for me. I thanked him for the offer and told him I was A-OK, so he went on his way. Right after that as I'm pondering about WTF I'm gonna do now since it obviously wasn't rideable, I hear "hey Jared, you alright?". It was one of my co-workers from the body shop at our dealer... he was about a half dozen cars behind me, and he didn't see me wreck, but as he was going through the intersection he saw me getting up out of the street and pulled into the gas station real quick when he recognized it as being me. Luckily he drives a pickup truck, so we lifted it up into his truck and headed into work. Thank god he was there cuz I really don't know who I would have called other than a wrecker, and they'll bend you over big time!! Plus I didn't want to wait around for the popo to show up either.... that's always a hassle, and I wouldn't doubt somebody at that intersection called. I just wanted to get out of there quick as possible, and since my buddy was already right there, from the time I went down to the time we drove out was prob 5 mins tops. He's ridden bikes all his life and has had a few similar situations, so he already knew I probably didn't want to hang around for too long and didn't BS around, hahah. He gave me a ride home after work too... very nice people I work with

Anyways, here's pics...

This morning in the truck right after it happened... bike was covered in motor oil. After it hit the curb and busted the stator open, it flipped and flung oil everywhere










Right side landed in the soft grass, so it really didn't get much of any damage other than a little dirty




Swingarm scratched pretty good


Shift lever bent


Now here's the baaaad part.... when it slid into the curb, the stator took a hard direct hit



That silver ring around the stator coil is the flywheel..... it's attached to the end of the crankshaft and spins around the stator coil (well, used to). This is the original 177k mile stator too... I was kinda curious as to how long it would last, now I'll never know :-(



This is even worse... a chunk missing out of the engine case at the bottom part... not cool!!




We stopped by where it happened on the way home after work cuz I wanted to try and find the chunk of the engine case. I found lots of broken metal


But I did find my chunk of engine case that I was looking for! We have an aluminum TIG welder at work and the guy that picked me up today is a welder, so he said he should be able to get her all fixed up there. I sure hope it works!


Uh oh.... I know where and why the oil is dripping, but the antifreeze.... that I really don't know



That's about it..... I'm really bummed about it, but definitely glad I was not hurt at all, thank god. My head never hit the ground so I didn't even get a scratch on my brand new helmet (Scorpion EXO-1000 RPM) that I had just gotten 2 days prior. Oh well at least it's winter time and getting cold, so not riding for a little bit won't be quite as painful as if it were beautiful outside, lol. I went ahead and filed a claim with my insurance since I already know it's gonna be well over my $500 deductible, so hopefully I'll hear back from them tomorrow. I know they'll total it with the broken engine case and all, but if I can get something out of it and still keep the bike then I might as well. Let the rebuild begin!