Ok, this is quite embarrassing for me... But enjoy anyway:
All these crashes are with my street bike 1996-1997. Unfortunately I've had a few more crashes after these, maybe they will turn up here later!
It was going to be the first ride ever on my new bike. I was kind of excited, oh yes! My friend Bosse was supposed to ride behind me on his bike and I was supposed to ride in a gentle manner in front of him. Any way that was the plan, seriously! (I didn't have a driver's license at the time either...)I didn't have any leathers at that time so I had to borrow a set of heavily insulated leathers, and it was one of those extremely hot Sundays so I needed to go fast to cool off! And was I impressed! This bike was a totally different bike than the bike they used at the driving school. This one could accelerate...
After a short coffee break at some friends' we set off for one last road before going home. This road was so narrow that two cars cannot meet unless both of them put a wheel on the grass, but the road was in quite good condition. The unmatched thrill of acceleration was more than present at the moment and I was going a little too fast towards a hidden right bend. I started to brake but not hard enough, I didn't want to brake while turning so I kept the straight direction until I realized that I probably should have turned about 5 meters ago... The bike went down into a ditch, not much speed but unfortunately it hit a big stone when it lay over.
I was feeling really angry because the whole situation was so unnecessary, I was supposed to learn to ride a bike, this was no time to try the limits!
My once so beeaauutiifuul bike was now in a pitiful state... The top fairing was broken, the windshield was broken, the headlight was broken, the temperature meter was in small pieces, the instrument mounting frame was all bent and broken, all fastening stuff on the fairing was more or less loose and the electrical system had short-circuited too! It was a really sad moment!
Bosse had almost every tool you might need so we fixed the short circuit and taped the plastic parts together and I managed to ride it home. After that we spent many hours with plastic padding and adjusting of the devilish mounting frame for the top fairing. I found temp instrument and headlight at different motorcycle junkyards in Sweden, buying everything new would have cost me 10000 SEK. Now I got away with much less but of course the bike didn't look quite as new...
What I learned:
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Go to next crash!
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I have got an Öhlins rear damper on my bike, it was mounted when I bought it. To set it up properly I called Öhlins and one thing they mentioned was that the preload should be set so that the damper compresses 1/3 of its total length when you sit on the bike with your normal riding gear on. I didn't do much about that particular adjustment but when I found the note a few months later I found out that the bike was running very low at the rear (very noticeable when two people were on it). So I increased the preload and lifted it about 15 mm. When I tried it at the track some weeks later I had a few incidents I've never had before: the rear wheel losing grip at the exit of curves. I could handle the first two incidents but not the last one...
It was the last curve in the last lap of the day and apart from the incidents I mentioned everything had gone well. And since I cannot see the point in going any slower in a curve just because it's the last one for the day I put on all the throttle I had at the exit of the most difficult section in Linköping - called "Torparn". Oops! The rear wheel started to spin and fortunately the bike did not find grip but slid across the track. The right side of the handlebar was bent, the tank dented, the top fairing (what else?) was a mess again. I was lucky though, if the wheel had found grip during the slide I would probably have had a highside! Plastic Padding and a few hours later it was back in business again. The reason for all this is not so hard to figure out: the preload was too high, this made the rear wheel less sensitive for bumpy surfaces and then things like this happen.
Later I decreased the preload and haven't had any problems since.
What I learned:
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The
third crash
Ok, so the first crash was due to beginners-bad-luck, the second due to bad set-up of the bike. This one is so stupid I shouldn't really let it out in the open. But I think I must, just to make a point!
It was another track day, and I was riding with the fast group. This is somewhat annoying because everyone passes me on the straight at about 60 km/h faster than me. But apart from that it's better to ride with a fast group since you move your "I can't go faster into this section than this" limit further away all the time.
That was the background, the accident happened at the last heat of the day, it was getting darker so a few of us had the headlight turned on. I had anyway... After riding for about 15 laps or so I noticed a blue light. What is this I began to think, ok - the light is switched to main beam. Like the nice guy I am I thought that it is not so friendly to have this strong light in the mirrors of the others so I tried to shut it down. And where is that damn little lever anyway? SHIT! I should have turned a long time ago, now the bike was on the grass! I managed to keep it upright parallel to the track for maybe 75 meters. Ahead of me I saw a small sanded road which is often used when they arrange car competitions. "That road is probably not so even..." I thought for myself. I started to brake using the front brake as normal. That's a no-no! The front wheel locks and the bike slides over on the right side and what follows is only my guess of what happened: The bike slides on its right side when the front wheel gets caught in the crossing road. The front fork gets bent (both legs) and the bike starts its journey up in the air, lands on its back, breaks what's left of the poor fairing and also bends the rear frame (not the swing arm thank god!). So with the handlebars straight the wheel points at about 20 degrees to the right.
New fork legs are ridiculously expensive (2100 SEK a piece) so I will have to try to straighten them out and put them on again. The mirrors are history, the right blinkers too, the windshield is in molecules and generally all errors from the previous crashes are here again to cheer me up! I have just removed the fork legs (in my hallway) and I think I can use a spare windshield to keep the top fairing together. But next year (1997) I might invest in a RGV fairing in glassfibre which is more durable than just plastics.
What I learned from this incredibly stupid crash:
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I also learned what a fork leg looks like inside, and how fast fork oil gets dirty! And that a garage would be nice! |
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