The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[Shon Trimble <shon.trimble@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, all.

I've been remiss is posting my activities to the Digest lately, and
thought I would catch you up.

First, the Good:  Two weekends ago a friend of mine who rides a '97
Trophy 900 and I trailered our bikes out the Black Hills of South Dakota
(we live in Sioux Falls) for three days of camping and curve carving. 
Wow!  What fun!  The weather was perfect, the roads were awesome, the
traffic was light.  The wildlife was out in full force, too, which was
neat to see but made us a little cautious, too.  I think I know who
would win if a motorcycle hit a buffalo.  Remember that the Sprint ST is
my first bike, purchased in April, and thus this was my first real curve
carving experience.  I couldn't be more pleased with the bike.  It has
so much low-end torque you just pick a gear and cruise.  My friend is
significantly more experienced than I, but he took it easy, and I kept
up with him just fine.  It was a very educational experience.  It kind
of makes driving to work a little less fun than it used to be, though. 
Oh, well.

Second, the Bad:  Before this trip I knew I was rapidly approaching the
time that I would have to replace my rear tire.  There was still a
little bit of tread in the middle and the sides were OK, but it was
starting to diminish pretty quickly.  I didn't think it would be any
problem getting 3 days of driving out of it.  Wrong!  Halfway through
the third day, white cords started showing through.  I noticed this
after an extended stretch of 80-90 mph sweepers!  Great curves, but the
bike felt a little squirrely.  On one turn it started drifting off line,
and I had to really back out of it to keep it in line.  I thought,
"Hmm.  I don't feel like I'm pushing that hard."  Lo and behold, my tire
was almost gone!  Well, I nursed it 50 miles back to the trailer,
staying below 45 mph the whole way, slow acceleration, very little
leaning, stopping frequently to look at it, and all turned out OK.

The tire had about 5200 miles on it.  It was the stock BT57.  Never
noticed any wear bars, but maybe I don't know what to look for.  Eric
says that they should be obvious.  It was almost all solo riding.  I
wanted to replace both tires with Pirelli Dragons, but would have had to
wait for them on back-order for who knows how long.  The front tire is
fine.  I decided to just put another BT57 on the rear until next time.

And finally, the Ugly:  I crashed!  Yes, crashed.  I picked up my bike
this last Saturday with the new rear tire.  I knew that new tires were
not as grippy as the old until they were scuffed in a little, but I
didn't realize how much so.  I got to within blocks of my house, went
into a left-hand turn on smooth concrete at about 25 mph and wham!  The
rear tire slid big time right out from underneath me.  I chopped the
throttle (I know, I've read Keith Code -- keep the power on, but like he
says, it's very difficult to counteract survival reactions -- I failed
to do so), the bike quit sliding and caught, flipped over high-side to
the right, tossing me off and continuing to slide and mutilate itself.

The good news is that I am OK.  I was wearing my helmet, Triumph Horizon
leather jacket, jeans, and boots.  I have some very stiff, sore muscles
in my chest of all places, but other than that escaped almost completely
unscathed!  I almost couldn't believe it when I stood up and checked
myself over.  My bike, on the other hand, looks pretty bad.  Almost all
of the plastic is destroyed.  I think the bike hit on it's right front
and then flipped over its top to the left side and skidded to a stop. 
The left foot peg and shift linkage are broken off.  My dealer, who was
gracious enough to promptly came to the site of the accident and rescued
my baby, says that mechanically most everything should be OK.

I feel kind of dumb for not knowing just how slippery new tires can be,
but I guess we all live and learn.  If anyone else doesn't know, let
this be your warning.  It also reinforced my instinct to wear all my
protective gear.  The thick leather of my jacket definitely saved me
from any road rash.

Anyway, thanks for listening (reading).  Sorry for the length of the
post, but I feel better getting it all out in the open. :)

- -- Shon Trimble
   Sioux Falls, SD
   Red '99 ST

 *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
 The ST Mailing list is sponsored by the Unofficial ST Website
   http://www.TriumphNet.com/st for ST and Mailing List info

=-=-=-= Next Message =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=