[ST] Dirty gets dirtier

[Steven Kohlscheen <Steven.kohlscheen@xxxxxxxx>]

Well it was bound to happen, and I can finally say, I have been down on the
street.  Coming home Friday night at 11pm I I decided to take a slightly
different way home so I could top off the tank for the blast to Kansas City
for the weekend.  I had a normal day at work, and I was excited to go to KC
to see friends, family, the HD factory open house, and V-Rod showing, and
the Renaissance Faire.  These other thoughts my have conspired to cause me
to not pay close enough attention to what was coming up in a corner.  As the
headlights illuminated the entire corner I froze on the thick layer of dirt,
and rocks that were spread all over the corner and in that panic I rookied
myself right off the road, I target fixated on the dirt in the corner and
panic braked hard enough to lock the rear up.  I slid to a gentile stop
about 10 feet from where I left the pavement, both I and the bike on our
left side in the mud and wet tall grass.  I think I was saying something
along the lines of "that was stupid, that was stupid..." all the way along
in the slide.  After switching off the bike, which had apparently stalled
because I was standing on the rear brake.  I quickly assessed my situation
and position, judged nothing to be broken and decided to get off my butt and
get the bike righted.   I got the bike righted when I heard something taping
on my helmet, I looked up into the branches of a tree that was about 4 feet
behind me and the bike, great, low clearances now too :)  After testing foot
traction I decided I wouldn't be able to push the bike up the slight hill to
the road, so I fired the bike up, and walked it up the hill.  This is when I
realized that the bike was on it's side for a little while, paranoia about
hydra lock flared up and I shut the bike off again.  This plunged the entire
area into darkness as there were no street or house lights in the area.  I
was about to start inspecting the bike with my min-Mag light for damage when
I realized I was standing, broadside to traffic direction, in the middle of
a pitch dark corner, in the middle of a quick complex of corners within easy
driving distance of a few notorious bars.  Hell with it, I'm going home.
When I got to the first well lit intersection I looked down to see huge
clumps of wet grass and mud packed in various places, including the pannier
latch.  I knocked off all the stuff that looked like it might cause a
problem and proceeded home.

At home I took inventory of the bike.  lots of new dirt on the left fairing
and a broken left bag mount rail.  The bag latch is also almost torn off
it's mount.  Drat, I'm gonna have too drive to KC for the weekend.  Grrrrr.
When I got back Sun night I washed the bike to see what was really damaged.
There are very light scratches in the paint right in front of the side air
duct, and a little half-moon crack around one of the mount points in the
left lower.  That appears to be it.  The gas station drop on the other side
did more damage.

I'm ok, I was wearing my Arai Quantum/f(undamaged), Joe Rocket Rhino
jacket(mud smears on the back, no damage), Sidi Strada boots(mud caked
around the ankle armor, washed right off, undamaged), Giali cordura cargo
pants(muddy, no apparent damage) and Teknic Violator II gloves(dirtier, no
damage).  I have a small abrasion spot on my left knee where the pants slid
up just a little bit, and a few muscle groups are sore from picking the bike
up, but all seems in order.

So the lesson for the day kids is, keep your eyes, and mind, on the road,
and don't panic.  BTW would anybody happen to have a spare left hand bag
rail(part # A9508024)?  Neither St Louis dealer has one, and the one my
father works at isn't open til Tues.  My next trip is October 4, so I got a
bit of a timeline working here.

Steven "Dirty Dawg" Kohlscheen


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