Sorry to hear about your drop. Hope you heal up quick.

 

SportyPig, man i hope your OK and take easy now.
sorry no parts here

 

I had been working on a "Gathering of the Guard" for the Patriot Guard Riders for the last several months over in the Smoky Mountains. It was this past weekend. That's when it happened. I will just copy the post on the crash details from that thread. I think everything is easy enough to follow.

From the Patriot Guard Riders Website: Yes, da Pig went down:

Many have heard and inquired about my crash last Thursday. I wasn't really trying to keep it quiet, just didn't have internet except from my Blackberry, not really easy to do much typing from there, especially not while in PAIN!

Thursday night, after a couple of days running around East TN pulling together last minutes details for the Meetin in da Mountains, I crashed. I had just been to dinner with a few of our early arrivals, and local PGR members at Quaker Steak and Lube. We made a couple of stops to arrange for our "discount" adult beverages for the GOTG.

It was dark, pretty steady rain. I was following Heavy, with SneakySnake and GG in Heavy's truck. As we merged onto Alcoa Highway from John Sevier Highway in the curve there was a piece of rebar. I didn't see it. At this point in the road there is a concete curb, about 5 inches high and 18 inches wide between the lanes merging. I hit the rebar. That knocked me a bit sideways, and into the concrete curb. Then the sparks started flying.

I didn't know what had happened, but I couldn't understand why I was riding along on a piece of rebar! I was running around 45 mph at that time, and excellerting to merge into traffic. Me and da Pig slid down that concrete curb for probably about 20 ft.

Heavy noticed that I was no longer behind them, made a U-turn, did a little 4 wheeling and I think probably gave Mrs. Sneaksnake (GG) a bit of a scare. By the time they got back to me, I was up trying to pickup my bike, and with the assistance of a passer by, was able to do so. Some pretty nasty road rash on my right arm.

I got on the bike, and Heavy followed me back to the Days Inn. Got in the tub in SneakySnake's room to clean up a bit. Quite a bit of blood. Stacey, who I had been working with at the Days Inn came in with some cleaning supplies and helped as well. It was pretty obvious that I was gonna need a little medical treatment (I guess that little hole in my elbow with the bone exposed was a give away).

Heavy took me to UT Medical Center ER. I won't make any comments about that facility.

On the way back from the hospital, we had to go right past where I had crashed earlier. I asked Heavy to slow down, to see if I could find that piece of rebar. We were about to decide that it had been picked up by LEO as a safety precaution. But then we spotted it. Turned out, it was a 12 ft. long piece of rebar. I asked Heavy to put it in his truck. Afterall, I kinda felt like I had paid for the thing at that point. I plan to cut a section of the rebar and make it into a chromed flag pole for the bike.

My injuries are mostly some heavy road rash, bruises, and I now know, a cracked rib. I didn't see da Pig in the light of day, until this morning (3 days later) Mostly a few scratches, probably need new pipes, oil tank cover, rear turn signal lens, and mirrors. Wasn't happy to see the cracked mirror (7 years of bad luck!!)

 

Thanks for all the help, and offers to help!!! I have been able to get the bike in proper running order, and street legal, and was able to FINALLY take my first ride this afternoon. We are still both pretty scratched up, but help is on the way for both me and the bike.

The totally wrapped right arm was good for a really nice "sympathy discount" to replace the riding glasses I lost during the crash. Not to mention being quite a conversation starter. LOL. I knew there had to be a silver lining to this cloud somewhere.

Thanks again!!