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Coming home from work last night in heavy traffic on I295, I was in the middle lane cruising at 60-65mph. The traffic directly ahead started slowing down rapidly. I usually have the front brake lever covered with 3 fingers and I gave it a little squeeze. In an instant the front wobbled and pulled all the way to left and I went down and separated from the bike. It all happened so quickly. I must have slid over a 100 feet on my left side and back. The bike was ahead of me and slid to the left and into the guardrail while I stayed in the middle lane. As soon as I stopped sliding, I looked back and the traffic was parted like the Red Sea around me. I got up and walked to the bike.

A black woman immediately pulled over and asked me if I was all right. A highway construction worker in an orange vest came over and told me he had seen me go down. In less than a minute an EMT guy showed up and checked me out. He was apparently on his way home from work in the traffic behind me. I only had a silver dollar size strawberry on my left knee and some minor scrapes and bruises. When adversity strikes, it always amazes me the angels that appear out of nowhere.

The damage to the bike: front windshield shattered, the headlight, speedo and tach smashed from the impact to the guardrail. The underlying wiring exposed and control unit ripped out. The handlebar was bent on the left side. The left side of the tank and oil cooler cover was dented and scraped, and the forks may be bent. And lastly, the left valve cover has a deep scrape. I fear the bike may be totalled.

Once I get over the shock and have an opportunity to remove the damaged parts and price the replacements, I may seek this audience's counsel.

Regards,
RonBomb

If you report it to your insurance company, they'll likely total it, judging by the damage you mentioned and the age of this bike (none newer than 4 years old). It's not the end of the world if they total it, you'll have have to go through the process to get a "Salvage-Repaired" title for it. If they do call it totaled, usually you'll get the price of the bike for it, and you can take the money to spend on putting her back together. Or don't report it (not sure of the legality), and fix it up over time while keeping the clear title. Hopefully it's not totaled and you'll get some money to repair it.

It's good you're alright, and yes, its strange how often guardian angels appear when catastrophe strikes. Glad you got away mostly unscathed.

so, what happened? why?

glad you're ok and your angels were with you. Got to be a sickening feeling

Glad you are ok. Motorcycles, no matter how much we love them can be replaced or repaired. I bid you luck in getting back on two wheels. Roger

In an instant the front wobbled and pulled all the way to left and I went down

Why did this happen?

what a nightmare story... it gives me chills... the minimal injury report is great news...

Why did this happen?

curiosity is burning me too... rain? oil? any guesses at all?

The damage to the bike: front windshield shattered, the headlight, speedo and tach smashed from the impact to the guardrail. The underlying wiring exposed and control unit ripped out. The handlebar was bent on the left side. The left side of the tank and oil cooler cover was dented and scraped, and the forks may be bent. And lastly, the left valve cover has a deep scrape. I fear the bike may be totalled.

Yep, likely totalled. Dinged gas tank alone is $1800, and that's before labor, fuel pump innards, anything to do with oil cooler assembly. Headlight & instruments are another $2000 or so. Front wheel - if damaged - is $850.

The only thing I'd be worried about is the possibility of fork tube/Telelever damage... if those parts and/or front subframe got dinged, then I'd take insurance settlement for bike and look for replacement. BUT, if the damage is largely cosmetic (eg. a fuel tank dent that's left paint intact), then I vote for keeping the bike and rebuilding using funds = settlement - salvage value. Also depends on your desire to do some wrenching.

This latter option is what I've just chosen for my Rockster, which was hit by another rider this summer as I putted along at 3-5 MPH, low-siding me and resulting in enough dinged/scraped parts to declare bike Total Loss. I have replacement parts on order now and cannot wait to get the winter rebuild project started!

And let us know how your front end let go. I know the feeling: couple years back, hit a fresh farm tractor hydraulic oil slick in slow corner while out for a Buell ride. ATGATT baby!

While every crash is unique, I'd be interested in a detailed description of what you were wearing. All things considered I'd say the damage was practically non-existent since the primary control unit was virtually undamaged and is priceless to replace. Nothing else really matters. And like sweatmark said, ATGATT.

Glad you are okay,
john

Glad you're OK, and that our fellow NJ drivers did not run you over.

Let us know what caused it, and what happens to your bike.

Hi there,

glad you're OK! Such a situation is a shock which takes some time to get over. When you're cool-headed again think about either getting money from the insurance or rebuilding the bike with 2nd hand parts from any of the salvage specialists or available from e-b..

Do you have ABS on your bike or not? If you don't maybe worthwhile replacing your bike with a model which includes ABS. If your bike has then it needs to be investigated why your ABS did not function properly ...

Brgds
Oliver

I appreciate all of your thoughts and reactions.

I have thought a great deal about what happened. Based on how the bike behaved, the front wheel must have locked up when I applied the brake. The only way that could have happened is if the tire had lost all traction with the road. I inspected the front tire and noticed very fine gravelly sand around the whole circumference. There has been a great deal of construction on I295 and its possible that construction traffic dumped some sand, but none was visible on the road. The only thing I could have done differently that might have affected the outcome is to have engaged the rear brake simultaneously. That was perhaps my biggest fault, motorcycle safety 101. ABS might have prevented the accident as well.

As far as clothing, I was wearing a Zero-60 jacket, gloves, but only cotton twill pants. The jacket absorbed most of the friction and my helmet got a few scrapes in the back and left side.

Regards,
RonBomb

Yes certainly, ABS would have been your friend in such a situation. We all learn our lessons ... I have had a similar accident with my Harley and that was the reason to change to a bike with ABS.

Brgds
Oliver

omg1010 wrote:Yes certainly, ABS would have been your friend in such a situation. We all learn our lessons ... I have had a similar accident with my Harley and that was the reason to change to a bike with ABS.

Brgds
Oliver

I am not so sure that ABS would have helped, as an extreme example imagine you hit some black ice at night in a turn (have done that) "without" using your brakes, I do not see how ABS could prevent you from going down in that situation. And if the sand/oil mixture was extensive enough and you braked hard on it "while" leaning the bike even a little at 60 mph your wheel is going to break free no matter what. In an ideal straight line emergency braking situation ABS would certainly help, but would that give you a false sense of security in a non-ideal situation?

A longer buffer between the bike and the car in front would have helped in this accident, followed by quick reflexes to get off the front brake (something that is not easy to learn) and instead use the rear brake "lightly" until your over the sand, while gently pumping the the front brake to feel when your over the sand. Though the feed back from the telever is not very good and that makes it even harder on a BMW.

R1150Rclean wrote: A longer buffer between the bike and the car in front would have helped in this accident, ...

I was not there, but I do drive in NJ. The drivers in NJ do not allow this. When traffic is moderate to heavy, it is difficult to leave space between me and the car in front of me. Some clown will insert his vehicle in that space, even if it is not large enough. If I drop back to leave more space between me and the clown, a new clown comes along, and so on.

R1150Rclean wrote: I am not so sure that ABS would have helped, as an extreme example imagine you hit some black ice at night in a turn (have done that) "without" using your brakes, I do not see how ABS could prevent you from going down in that situation. And if the sand/oil mixture was extensive enough and you braked hard on it "while" leaning the bike even a little at 60 mph your wheel is going to break free no matter what. In an ideal straight line emergency braking situation ABS would certainly help, but would that give you a false sense of security in a non-ideal situation?

My friend, in such extreme situations it is of course possible that even ABS does not help (for example if your bike is not straight). But then nothing will ever help you - or do you think you'd be able to release the brakes before you're down? Such things happen in a fraction of a second and your down before you even know what happened ... Modern ABS works with a frequency of 1 kHz which means the reaction time is around 1 ms. No human being is able to do this ...

There is no 100% solution against such situations but ABS can help a great deal to prevent this.

Brgds
Oliver

rdsmith3 wrote:

R1150Rclean wrote: A longer buffer between the bike and the car in front would have helped in this accident, ...

I was not there, but I do drive in NJ. The drivers in NJ do not allow this. When traffic is moderate to heavy, it is difficult to leave space between me and the car in front of me. Some clown will insert his vehicle in that space, even if it is not large enough. If I drop back to leave more space between me and the clown, a new clown comes along, and so on.

Boy, are you right on that! And it's not just in NJ. I just let 'em in and drop back, let 'em in and drop back. Life's too short to spend time in any Emergency Room.

I hate Emergency Rooms.

Get yourself a good horn (like a Stebel Nautilus or Fiamm Freeway Blaster) to wake these clowns up ...

Brgds
Oliver

omg1010 wrote:Get yourself a good horn (like a Stebel Nautilus or Fiamm Freeway Blaster) to wake these clowns up ...

Brgds
Oliver

I have one of those, but it is no use in these situations. I also have two 50 watt driving lights that go on when I flash my super bright high beam, but people around here do not care. They will just give you the one finger salute (you must have some equivalent in Germany) and keep going.

Glad you are OK, and the only angst left involves bike parts, and not your parts.
Near what exit on 295 if I may ask.

Most of the road south of Burlington to Gloucester County is an absolute mess with construction, it's loaded with sand, oil, rough road, and darting cagers. The Construction goes all the way down near mia casa at Exit 22...

Add to that 3 lanes with cattle chutes at high speed, and I take the back roads as much as possible.
The stop signs to enter freeway traffic are a nightmare. (Yes, stop signs to enter onto a freeway moving at high speed, with NO SHOULDERS, and 18 wheelers barreling in the rightmost lane. Someone eases their car out one foot too far, and the results will be international news.)

I thought I never see the day when I prefer to ride on Rt 130.

The cagers absolutely do not care. No one gets in the way of their self importance. Death to anyone that gets caught in it.

Example #1:

Yesterday, a cager pulled in front of a bike and killed a pillion passenger 500 feet from my house.
The only thing that awaits the cager is a careless driving ticket. And we wonder where NJ drivers get their attitudes about bikes?

http://www.nj.com/gloucester/index.ssf? ... xml&coll=8

omg1010 wrote:

R1150Rclean wrote: I am not so sure that ABS would have helped, as an extreme example imagine you hit some black ice at night in a turn (have done that) "without" using your brakes, I do not see how ABS could prevent you from going down in that situation. And if the sand/oil mixture was extensive enough and you braked hard on it "while" leaning the bike even a little at 60 mph your wheel is going to break free no matter what. In an ideal straight line emergency braking situation ABS would certainly help, but would that give you a false sense of security in a non-ideal situation?

My friend, in such extreme situations it is of course possible that even ABS does not help (for example if your bike is not straight). But then nothing will ever help you - or do you think you'd be able to release the brakes before you're down? Such things happen in a fraction of a second and your down before you even know what happened ... Modern ABS works with a frequency of 1 kHz which means the reaction time is around 1 ms. No human being is able to do this ...

There is no 100% solution against such situations but ABS can help a great deal to prevent this.

Brgds
Oliver

During years of ridding dirt bikes I learned to release the brake on a skidding front tire, and to shift my hips/weight to overcome a sliding rear tire. I have used those dirt bike techniques on the road many times to correct for a sliding front and rear tire, including due to spilled oil. I can see Abs working on a dry road in a straight line emergency stop, but that is something you should be able to do with regular brakes. Now I have seen an advantage with Abs brakes on a car in that you can hit the brakes AND steer the car at the same time, and that allowed me to avoid an accident. Not sure if that would work on an Abs bike.