I had a strange day on Saturday. My wife and I decided to go for a motorcycle ride, with her riding pillion. We rode out to a large box store about 30 mins away, and did some browsing. On our way back (same route) I noticed a grey Ford Taurus flying up behind me. I use the word flying, because I was traveling 100km/h, which itself was speeding in the posted 80km/h zone. We were surrounded by wide open farm fields, dotted with the occasional side road. I was a worried that the Taurus wouldn't see us, so I tapped the brakes to get his attention, and rolled off the throttle to about 90km/h. The Taurus had to wait until two vehicles traveling in the opposite direction went by, and then without indicating his signals he roared out around us. Approximately 300m ahead of us there was a white Ford F-150 sitting at the stop for one of the side roads, indicating a left hand turn. He waited. The Taurus, at some point in his passing maneuver, decided that the F-150 side road was the road he needed to turn on, and cut back in front of me, narrowly missing my front wheel. I was still off throttle, and was traveling at approximately 80km/h. The Taurus, now in front of me attempted to make the right hand turn into the side road where the F-150 was waiting, at an estimated speed of 80-100km/h. Obviously, this couldn't happen, and the Taurus slid into the F-150. My wife and I traveled across the mouth of the side road as the impact happened, and with her on the back I got hard on the brakes and came to a stop about 100m further up the road. She dismounted, and in my excitement, I stalled the bike. Leaving her with it, I ran up to the scene of the accident to assist (I am a military medic). There was debris all over the intersection, and into the farm field at the corner. The Taurus has ripped all of the left read undercarriage off of the truck, and the impact caused the cargo in the box to jettison all over. The Taurus had crumpled in the entire left front end, almost half way to the windshield. I quickly noted that there were three people involved. A single occupant in the F-150, and two in the Taurus. No airbags had deployed, and there was no 'starring' on any of the glass. Amazingly, the two occupants of the Taurus were able to get out on there own power. They were two 17year old kids returning from a Lacrosse team try-out. I quickly assessed them, and left them sitting on the edge of the farm field (off of the roadway). The F-150 driver was sore on the left side, but otherwise uninjured. During the assessments, I also called 9-1-1. Within 5-10mins the police came, and began to conduct their investigation. All three involved declined the services of an ambulance, so I left them with a warning of changes to be aware of and instructions to report to an ER if required. It turns out the driver will be charged with reckless/dangerous driving. Both vehicles will be written off.
So, that was the bad luck (almost getting run over), although you could argue that it was good luck in that all involved walked away. Back to the part where in my excitement I stalled the bike out. So my poor wife, who was guarding the bike all this time is ready to go home. I hop on to the bike and hit the starter. There is audible spark, but no fire. And I get Err 12 on the gauge. No problem, I'll just go to the trusty forum and figure out what that is. Except, I have forgotten my cell phone at home (I used the F-150 driver's cellphone to call 9-1-1). So I'm thinking, "Oh, I'll just continue to hit the starter, it'll eventually catch..." Except it didn't, and I killed the battery. So, now my wife is annoyed and I'm trying to bump start the bike. Still no joy. Luckily, the police are still on scene, and I'm able to borrow one of their phones to call CAA and arrange a tow home. Once I get home, I have to charge the battery overnight on the battery tender (that's how dead it was!) The next morning (Easter) I was able to reset the CPS (Err 12) and I had to dis-assemble the ignition switch and clean and lube it (I had pushed it so often, and so hard I actually pushed it beyond one of the little pivot points). Once this was done, the bike fired, and I was good to go.
So, in the words of the helpful police officer who lent me his phone, "It's not often that the first on the scene is the last to leave it!"
Sorry for the length of this, but I though it was an interesting day.
So, that was the bad luck (almost getting run over), although you could argue that it was good luck in that all involved walked away. Back to the part where in my excitement I stalled the bike out. So my poor wife, who was guarding the bike all this time is ready to go home. I hop on to the bike and hit the starter. There is audible spark, but no fire. And I get Err 12 on the gauge. No problem, I'll just go to the trusty forum and figure out what that is. Except, I have forgotten my cell phone at home (I used the F-150 driver's cellphone to call 9-1-1). So I'm thinking, "Oh, I'll just continue to hit the starter, it'll eventually catch..." Except it didn't, and I killed the battery. So, now my wife is annoyed and I'm trying to bump start the bike. Still no joy. Luckily, the police are still on scene, and I'm able to borrow one of their phones to call CAA and arrange a tow home. Once I get home, I have to charge the battery overnight on the battery tender (that's how dead it was!) The next morning (Easter) I was able to reset the CPS (Err 12) and I had to dis-assemble the ignition switch and clean and lube it (I had pushed it so often, and so hard I actually pushed it beyond one of the little pivot points). Once this was done, the bike fired, and I was good to go.
So, in the words of the helpful police officer who lent me his phone, "It's not often that the first on the scene is the last to leave it!"
Sorry for the length of this, but I though it was an interesting day.
