Tailgate
Senior Member
Now with photos: Tailgate joins FZ Krash Klub
Well, to my great surprise, I krashed yesterday, 8/12/2008, while on a steep part of cable car/vehicle shared, California Street, in San Francisco. I just entered a new block on the right side lane (2 lanes my direction) and the street surface immediately changed to a new-looking concrete. Okay. There was a steet repair crew at the bottom of the block at the intersection in my lane so I turned my bars left to enter the other lane (which the cable car also uses). Before I knew what was going on, krash! My front wheel suddently slid out from under me and I went down. It was too late; I hadn't noticed that there was a dramatic unequal street level difference between the two lanes/sides of the same direction of the street.(maybe the only block in SF where this is, is it slated for asphalt overlay?)I went down on my left side, slid for a while. Sh...t! One of the street repair dudes at the bottom ran up to me and helped my upright the bike. Talk about a absolutely crap/suck feeling! After a minute or so of getting oriented I managed (I'm on a fairly steep SF hill) to get my bike out of the cable car/vehicle (both share the lane) way. The cable car operator was courteous and had only rang his ding bell a one timess while up the block and was politely reminding me that I was holding up his cable car loaded with tourists/passengers. OMG, after almost 7K miles on my FZ6 I managed to crash/drop it! I thought that I was invincible. Last time I went down on a bike was in the 1970's. Now, for the positive: I was riding in near full gear. Tactical boots, mesh riding jacket, and kevlar enforced denim jeans, summer weather gloves. My left glove took a slight scrape (and saved my palm, fingers!) and my left boot took a scrape on the top side. I have two small, insignificant abrasions on my left knee because the kevlar knee enforcemenmt on the jeans somehow managed to shift during the incident so it didn't really protect me. But now, for the really positive news: my frame sliders greatly mitigated my FZ6 damage! I am SOOO glad that I had switched the longer slider to the left side (incorrect manufacturer directions re this). I took very, very minimal damage to the cherry condition FZ6. A slight scrape on the left engine case, a bent gear shift arm ($13 or so), and a minor scrape on the left-side faring. I'm going to get a new shift arm, find Yamaha Team Blue spray can match/touch up and simply touch up spray paint the faring and thank here everyone on FZ6-Forum for having drilled the importance of frame sliders into me! I am actually almost happy after the incident since the frame sliders mitigated, I'm sure, much of what would have otherwise been significant damage to the engine casing and faring, grab bars, etc. I consider myself lucky!
Well, to my great surprise, I krashed yesterday, 8/12/2008, while on a steep part of cable car/vehicle shared, California Street, in San Francisco. I just entered a new block on the right side lane (2 lanes my direction) and the street surface immediately changed to a new-looking concrete. Okay. There was a steet repair crew at the bottom of the block at the intersection in my lane so I turned my bars left to enter the other lane (which the cable car also uses). Before I knew what was going on, krash! My front wheel suddently slid out from under me and I went down. It was too late; I hadn't noticed that there was a dramatic unequal street level difference between the two lanes/sides of the same direction of the street.(maybe the only block in SF where this is, is it slated for asphalt overlay?)I went down on my left side, slid for a while. Sh...t! One of the street repair dudes at the bottom ran up to me and helped my upright the bike. Talk about a absolutely crap/suck feeling! After a minute or so of getting oriented I managed (I'm on a fairly steep SF hill) to get my bike out of the cable car/vehicle (both share the lane) way. The cable car operator was courteous and had only rang his ding bell a one timess while up the block and was politely reminding me that I was holding up his cable car loaded with tourists/passengers. OMG, after almost 7K miles on my FZ6 I managed to crash/drop it! I thought that I was invincible. Last time I went down on a bike was in the 1970's. Now, for the positive: I was riding in near full gear. Tactical boots, mesh riding jacket, and kevlar enforced denim jeans, summer weather gloves. My left glove took a slight scrape (and saved my palm, fingers!) and my left boot took a scrape on the top side. I have two small, insignificant abrasions on my left knee because the kevlar knee enforcemenmt on the jeans somehow managed to shift during the incident so it didn't really protect me. But now, for the really positive news: my frame sliders greatly mitigated my FZ6 damage! I am SOOO glad that I had switched the longer slider to the left side (incorrect manufacturer directions re this). I took very, very minimal damage to the cherry condition FZ6. A slight scrape on the left engine case, a bent gear shift arm ($13 or so), and a minor scrape on the left-side faring. I'm going to get a new shift arm, find Yamaha Team Blue spray can match/touch up and simply touch up spray paint the faring and thank here everyone on FZ6-Forum for having drilled the importance of frame sliders into me! I am actually almost happy after the incident since the frame sliders mitigated, I'm sure, much of what would have otherwise been significant damage to the engine casing and faring, grab bars, etc. I consider myself lucky!
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Sorry, I can't resist.
