Oh yeah, those tubes are bent...as is the radiator. Most of the exterior fairing panels are toast and the fairing stay and windscreen bracketry are likely tweaked. The windscreen and sidecase covers are heavily scratched. As an extra bonus, the rear rack has a big piece missing and there's a nice gouge in the left side engine case. It may possibly be totalled. Still starts and purrs like a kitten though.
It was a downhill right hander. As near as I can tell, the surface of the pavement consisted of semi liquid asphalt ooze which was fairly greasy in the afternoon heat. The rider I was following got pretty out of shape so I knew what was coming. I nailed the brakes but not far into the turn it was obvious that friction had left the building. At that point I could have lowsided but there was a fairly wide strip of grass so I decided to stand her back up a little and take my chances upright and off of the pavement. I ended up with my wheels in a shallow ditch. This was a relief because at least I wasn't going to enter the rock/tree zone a few feet away. I was losing speed but the ditch got deeper and eventually made a short 90 degree jog to the right. The FJR ended up about a bike length away from the impact zone, pointing back the way I came, the tires at the pavements edge and right bar in the ditch. I wound up in the ditch about ten feet from the bike. Pavement conditions aside, my final analysis is pilot error.
I can't say that my gear prevented much injury in this case but who knows. Some very nice local folks hauled the bike back to their house on an atv trailer. Keep in mind I'm nearly 250 miles from home and by now it's going on 4pm. After calming my distraught wife (what part of "I'm fine, I didn't get a scratch" don't they understand?) she called my oldest son and he headed out with the shop pickup. He arrived around 9pm and I hit the door at 2am. It was a long day. The next morning I spent an hour or so scrubbing mud and grass stains from my gear. It was due for a good cleaning anyhow. The bike was picked up by a local shop today and hopefully we won't be without a land yacht for long because the wife is kinda pissed that her comfy pillion is out of commission. :angry2:
Here's hoping everything turns around quickly.
