A group of us on mixed bikes went for a short 50 mile ride out and back, and as everyone separated and went their own ways I was left riding with a friend, just the two bikes.
He was on a 650 Ninja very pretty little black thing with 1,200 miles on it. He has only been riding for two summers, and likes to go with others, so it was a fun ride.
Until...I'm still not sure exactly what happened. He was getting ready to turn off toward his place, and I passed him on a stretch of 6 lane highway with a meridian, instead of turning he followed me, but his lane changing went bad...I looked in my rear-view mirror and all I saw was dust on the side of the road.
After an emergency stop, I study my mirror to try to ascertain what has happened, thank god I see a helmeted figure wandering out of the dust!
The ninja is a complete loss, it tumbled end over end several times and ended up about 50 feet from where he ended up. I see skid marks on the road, then slide marks and pieces of bike, then the marks leave the road and there are gouges in the sandy dirt on the meridian. The bike is just a mess, both of the headlights were on the shoulder of the highway on the opposite side of the meridian. Chunks of plastic all over.
Ryan was conscious when I got there, some good Samaritans had chased him down and gotten him sat back down. I had someone call the paramedics then had him lay down, he was lucid and knew a few random facts. He had some good scrapes on his elbow, the fancy coat with the pads had torn and let the road in. He was only wearing jeans on the bottom, so his knee had a gnarly gouge and impressive road rash. He had even ripped the back pocket off of his jeans and a paramedic found his wallet somewhere.
There was no damage on his helmet, it was still shiny clean, still cant figure out how that worked out.
So then I had the unenviable task of calling his wife and trying to keep from freaking her out while at the same time telling her to meet us at the hospital, because her husband had been in a motorcycle accident. I failed, still freaked her out. Sigh...I really tried.
At the end of the day, his Ninja is totaled, his wife gave me a hug, and he has some serious bumps, scrapes, and bruises to heal.
When i finally asked him what happened he said when he tried to change lanes, he turned on his emergency blinker, and was trying to turn it off, when he locked up his back brake and "high sided it"
Thank god he was ok. Did I mention that we were both doing about 70mph?
He was on a 650 Ninja very pretty little black thing with 1,200 miles on it. He has only been riding for two summers, and likes to go with others, so it was a fun ride.
Until...I'm still not sure exactly what happened. He was getting ready to turn off toward his place, and I passed him on a stretch of 6 lane highway with a meridian, instead of turning he followed me, but his lane changing went bad...I looked in my rear-view mirror and all I saw was dust on the side of the road.
After an emergency stop, I study my mirror to try to ascertain what has happened, thank god I see a helmeted figure wandering out of the dust!
The ninja is a complete loss, it tumbled end over end several times and ended up about 50 feet from where he ended up. I see skid marks on the road, then slide marks and pieces of bike, then the marks leave the road and there are gouges in the sandy dirt on the meridian. The bike is just a mess, both of the headlights were on the shoulder of the highway on the opposite side of the meridian. Chunks of plastic all over.
Ryan was conscious when I got there, some good Samaritans had chased him down and gotten him sat back down. I had someone call the paramedics then had him lay down, he was lucid and knew a few random facts. He had some good scrapes on his elbow, the fancy coat with the pads had torn and let the road in. He was only wearing jeans on the bottom, so his knee had a gnarly gouge and impressive road rash. He had even ripped the back pocket off of his jeans and a paramedic found his wallet somewhere.
There was no damage on his helmet, it was still shiny clean, still cant figure out how that worked out.
So then I had the unenviable task of calling his wife and trying to keep from freaking her out while at the same time telling her to meet us at the hospital, because her husband had been in a motorcycle accident. I failed, still freaked her out. Sigh...I really tried.
At the end of the day, his Ninja is totaled, his wife gave me a hug, and he has some serious bumps, scrapes, and bruises to heal.
When i finally asked him what happened he said when he tried to change lanes, he turned on his emergency blinker, and was trying to turn it off, when he locked up his back brake and "high sided it"
Thank god he was ok. Did I mention that we were both doing about 70mph?
