(You can click any picture below to
enlarge it.)
Brewer and Beltless were going for a ride, so I
decided to come along. The plan was to meet Brewer in Austin
a little early so he could get a look at my new farkles... we also
had to make a stop at Kinkos, but then we were off.
Brewer
loaded Beltless' house into his GPS, but of course he got us
lost. Here we sat on the side of the road while Brewer
figures it out...
But, we finally found it...
Sorry... I forgot the screen name of the guys with the brand spanking new Dakar... sure was pretty!
Our assignment for the 2nd Foto Assignment is trains, so we set
off in search of trains, but only found livestock...
We were even able to find the largest
Oatmeal container we'd ever seen...
And not long after the picture was
taken, I crashed.
Slippery I guess, who knows? I landed on my
face/head. Right side of the forehead above my eye.
I
was following the guy in front of me. He made it through
with no problem, but obviously I did not. Brewer was behind
me and said I was probably going about 20 mph. Yes, probably
too fast for crossing water... you do not need to tell me.
The bike is actually not too bad. It slid on the right side a
ways. My footpeg got bent, but I straightened it to good-as-new with a little help from a vise. The mirror broke.
The turn signal broke. The Acerbis hand guard looks like road pizza (pisses me off because I literally just installed it
the day before the ride). The brake lever snapped off. The engine guard took a shot.
And, finally the pannier rack has some nice skid marks on the
right side. All easily fixable (except the hand guard... figure I will leave it like it is... Joel did give me a band-aid to put on it.)
The helmet took the brunt of it. But, goes to show you why you should wear a full-face helmet.
My right glove has a hole in the palm. The Joe Rocket jacket also took a shot in the right elbow, but it is fine.
Brewer is of the opinion I should replace the helmet. I needed an
excuse to get an Arai XD anyway! I also need new gloves.
My pants and boots don't have a scratch... interesting.
Here
was the danger zone....
See the algae? Never ever ride
through algae. And yes, I knew that. I just didn't see
it.
We called Lone Star BMW to see if
they had a lever in stock. They said, "No."
They would have to order one. I explained my situation to
them and asked if they could take one off of a new bike, sell it
to me, and replace it once the part came in. "No, we
ain't gonna do that."
Now that's
customer service, you bunch of assholes. Leave a BMW owner
who's in a bad spot... 3 hours away from home... in a bad way
without offering any assistance. Dickheads.
I
digress...
We rode on... and even found that loose livestock...
After riding about an hour with only a rear brake (snapped off
front lever at the worst possible place), we arrived at a Chinese
restaurant near Brewer's house. We had a little lunch and
headed to Brewer's house. Brewer let me borrow a brake lever
so I could make it back to Houston safely.
I
stopped along the way and called my BMW dealer in North
Houston. I explained my situation to Greg, the parts
guy. He didn't have the part in stock either, but without me
even mentioning it, he suggested he take a lever from a new bike
and sell it to me. Once the new part came in, he would
replace the lever on the new bike.
Hey
morons over at Lone Star... you should call the Houston store and
sign up for some customer service lessons because you guys SUCK!
I
want to personally thank Greg and BMW of North Houston for all of
their support... not only in this situation, but with all of my
past and future business.
Anyway,
I got back to Houston pretty late, parked the bike, straightened a few things, and removed the lever to take back to Brewer.
As the evening
wore on, my head hurt, my left shoulder hurt, my chin hurt and my neck
hurt.
The next day, it appears the damage to my brain was a bit more than I initially thought. I spent most of
the following day with blurred and double vision out of my left eye (which sucked by the way).
It's better now.
O well, I'm not as young as I used to be...
All the broken bits
on the bike are just about replaced... and my head seems to be
fine now too... relatively speaking.
Lesson learned:
don't land on your head!
Thanks
for coming along on my ride crash.
