Over the last year or so I've posted a few times on this forum about "hanging it up", retiring from riding after 40 years of great times, fun rides and absolutely not a scratch on me. In fact my last "retirement" was earlier this year, sold my Heritage Classic, gave my reasons why (getting older, slower reaction time, concerned about rest of family if something happened to me that required more extensive changes in lifestyle).

As I've posted every time I "hang em up", I get the urge to enjoy riding "just a little longer". A few weeks ago I agreed to buy a 2008 XL1200C anniversary bike, low miles, extended warranty, a nice ride. Yesterday I finally got the clear title from the seller, registered the bike in my name, and took it to the HD dealer to give it a final checkout.

On the way home, not two miles from the dealership I got careless - enjoying the ride, the great weather and the joy of being on the road again. I was even considering getting a Road King to "fill out the garage". And the next thing I knew I was on the ground. My full face helmet has quite a group of scrapes and marks. Without it I'd certainly have hit the ground with the left side of my face. As it is, the damage was on the helmet. My face escaped all damage. My Fox Creek Riding Jacket took the blow with a few small rubs, no damage to me and nothing very much to the jacket. My over the ankle boots saved my left foot, although later in the day I did notice some swelling and put an Ace bandage around it. Seemed to help.

But what did have a problem were my pants. Like many others I wear jeans. They cut through like butter in just a few feet. Got some rash and a couple of pretty good sized strawberries on the left knee and leg. Nothing permanent and nothing too painful, but enough to let me know that I messed up. The bike had some damage - not too extensive - I was coming to a stop as a 110 degree turn when I fell. The HD dealer will put it all together again for less than the deductible on my insurance policy.

Overall, very lucky. They say there are two types of riders those that have fallen and those that will. I'm now if the first category, and here is what I learned:

1) Over 40 years of riding I've taken several MSF classes, basic and advanced; an exceptional one on one training through BikeSafe NC - two riders for each police motorcycle officer; a Keith Code Superbike School class - learning how to handle the bike at speed in a controlled environment on a race track; many other smaller classes. Never been without instruction for more than two years. Even though I hit the ground really fast (went back to check everything out - turns out I was braking on sand - my fault entirely, I didn't see it - no excuse) the training took over - having all the gear prevented me from any serious injury, but made me realize that when riding two up my wife's gear won't cut it. She has a helmet without a chin bar/guard. If she was on the back, she'd have hit her face hard - I can't get that image out of my mind. I'm the operator and it's my responsibility to ensure that my passenger will be safe. Her helmet goes to day. Her jacket is a denim mid weight - that goes too. Same problems with jeans.

That surprised me the most. The jeans wore through in less than two feet of skidding and I was sliding for another 15 feet on the ground - if I was at higher speed the road rash would have been very bad, and there could have been even greater damage to my legs. If I had on my Aerostich suit I'd have no damage at all. That suit has body armor and the built in knee pad would have prevented all of the damage to my knee and leg. Yeah, I don't ride it because it's not "cool", but today I'm wondering how cool it would have been if I rubbed all the skin off my leg.

2) Another surprise is the Harley itself. The handlebars bent near the mounting stem - it took a lot of energy out of the fall. Reminds me of a crash zone on a car. I had never thought about it before, but I was impressed. Less encouraging was the gas tank. When I hit the ground gas leaked out of the tank - the tank wasn't damaged, but the gas appeared to seep from the tank vent. It may have been a fire hazard if circumstances were different, but it wasn't anything that added to my problems. The gear shifter bent pretty sharply, but that also protected my foot and served to absorb more energy in the fall. Foot pegs were solid and mostly undamaged - another energy absorber.

Overall, the Harley showed me another part of it's design - one that you hopefully won't have to experience first hand, but if you do fall the HD will provide some extra passive safety and is strong enough to protect you in a modest spill. At no time did I get pinned.

3) Another surprise is that the training worked. I had no warning, but I kept my cool, instinctively kept my body relaxed to absorb the blow, and didn't rush up immediately. I took a few minutes to check me out and didn't rush to lift the bike off the ground. A very kind gent in a pickup came by immediately and helped me lift the bike and asked if I wanted a ride to the hospital. I thanked him and rode back to the dealer and the bike is being repaired as I write this.

The bigger issue is riding two up. I never really considered what would/could happen to my wife in an accident. That has really been the big eye opener. How would any of us feel if we caused someone else to be injured due to our actions? The least I can do is be sure the gear she wears is up to providing serious protection. I may include her in my future trainings - taking two up safety classes.

My suggestions: (1) consider leg protection and the rest of your gear. My gear helped to avoid serious injury, but jeans are useless as protection. I realize that they are the "official gear" of cruising, but I will likely rethink that before riding again; (2) do take regular training - you may never need it, and I hope you don't, but it kicked in automatically and allowed me to steer instinctively into the skid preventing a high side. That alone was worth the 40 years of training. A 30 MPH high side would not have been a pleasant experience. (3) Feel comfortable that the Harley is a pretty strong bike. Yes, I was lucky and I know it, but the bike didn't come apart beneath me, the crash designed handlebars took my arm out of danger early on and certainly spared the potential for road rash and damage by that design. (4) Consider your passenger. Most likely they don't have the experience that you do. Maybe review their gear choices and ask yourself if any changes need to be made. I still get a chill wondering what I would have done if my wife was on the bike with me an I was visiting her today in the hospital facing facial reconstructive surgery.

I don't want to end this on a down note. I made a mistake in judgement, despite 40 years of training and riding - the error was mine. But even with that mistake, the gear worked, the training worked and the bike minimized further injury. All good. But it was a warning and now I have to decide if my gear needs to be updated (like riding with the Aerostich suit all the time) and taking more training is clearly needed. I'm over 60 years old, still enjoy the ride, but yesterday served as a wakeup call. Things can happen quickly and without warning. Maybe, for me, the answer is to consider the consequences of riding without full gear realizing that at 60+ I don't have the reflexes or recuperative power that I did 20-30 years ago.

 

Glad you're okay. Thanks for a good analysis of the cause and effects.

 

Glad to hear you're okay. That's the most important. I almost took my first "digger" this morning simply turning into my parking space at work, forgetting about all of the loose dirt and pebbles there from the parking lot being swept to that point. Front tire started to go under, and honestly, I couldn't tell you how I kept it up. Just some reaction that I can't seem to recall.
Again, glad you're okay!!!

 

Been thinking about the wifes gear lately, need to "suit her up", going shopping this weekend. Thanks for the post. Glad your instints kicked in.

 

62 here also, Not too concerned about my reactions, I feel they have not slowed up any, But I am concerned about healing up if I do hit the deck....
I am sure glad you are doing ok and no more damage to you and your bike than what your discribed. That sand can do that to you ever time. I always recall a riding instructor stressing sand on the road after a rain. the only time I ever went do was like you hitting sand and gravel in the middle of an intersection while making a trun off the main road onto a secondary road. I was in my mid twenties at the time, but it was turning dark and I was just completing a 4 hour trip on a 1976 XLT1000

 

Damn. Glad your ok.

 

Glad to hear you're OK. Yeah I got out of the habit of wearing my leathers... That's about to change...

 

Glad your ok, after knee hitting the pavement a month ago, wife and I will be wearing overpants with knee protection when we ride. We already wore FF and jackets, never thought to much about the pants until then

 

Most important you are ok. It's encouraging that you are taking the time to analyze what happened and hopefully you never have to use what you recently learned.

Wife and I just switched to FF for no other reason than piece of mind.

 

Glad you are ok!! Thanks for the reminder...we all get lazy sometimes when you are talking about riding gear. It is just so nice to ride with tee shirts...no helmet...jeans...but stupid at the same time.

...but when a reminder comes our way, better listen. Thanks.

I just got out ALL of the gear I own and looking to see if my pants are safe!!