It's not If, It's When...

[Qbird66]

No rides for Steph and me for a while...

[lolife]

I'm sorry to hear about your crash.  After reading that story, I'm at a loss for words.

I'll keep you & Stephanie in my prayers for a speedy recovery.  I'm glad to hear your gear worked and you're here to tell us the story of what happened.

[beachy]

 If that were my wife it wouldnt be if or when it would be over! Sounds like a nasty one thankfully your both alive. praying for her complete recovery

[JoBu]

Oh my goodness...I'm so very sorry to hear about your incident.  First and foremost, I wish you & Stephanie a quick and complete recovery.

I know the area of which you speak (family up in Tullahoma and Lynchburg).  I can almost envision the area in which you went down.  Kudos on your attempt to lessen the severity of the accident as well as your success in keeping your bike up until the HD had passed.  

Do take care of yourself and I hope you and Steph are up and riding again in the not too distant future...

Best wishes...

Joe

[Mac]

My home is in Shelbyville, right between Lynchburg and Bell Buckle.  

I know the area you're talking about. Glad you and the missus are alive and doing so well.

If/when you get back to riding again, come back and I'll show you some of the better backroads around here.

[Ghost]

Hey Qbird, we rode together once a couple months ago(green tiger from SC ).  Sorry to hear about the wreck, and hope for a speedy recovery for the both of you!  

Rob  

[Travman101]

Speedy recovery.

To those with more experience than I, I have a question about this incident as a lesson learned.  I've only been riding 3 yrs and have never had a tire go out like that.  Seems that his first response was to lay the bike down as safely as possible or did I read this wrong.  Is this the only option when a rear tire blows.  It their really no way to apply front brake or down shift and come to a somewhat manageable stop while upright.  Veterans, sound off.

Thanks,
T

[Brent099]

I'm really sorry to hear about your wreck.  I hope you both recover quickly.  Glad your helmets did their job and your injuries weren't more serious.

[Qbird66]

Speedy recovery.

To those with more experience than I, I have a question about this incident as a lesson learned.  I've only been riding 3 yrs and have never had a tire go out like that.  Seems that his first response was to lay the bike down as safely as possible or did I read this wrong.  Is this the only option when a rear tire blows.  It their really no way to apply front brake or down shift and come to a somewhat manageable stop while upright.  Veterans, sound off.

Thanks,
T

Hi Travman

In other circumstances, you'd be correct - try to stop while upright. I had a few factors working against me.
1. When the tire blew, it did not stay entirely on the rim - it displaced to the right, putting the left side of the rim on the ground, which caused the bike to start to fishtail.
2. The brakes on the Honda ST1300 are linked, so when you apply the front brake the rear brake also engages, which is a bad idea when the tire is no longer completely on the rim.
3. We were in 3rd gear almost at the bottom of the RPM range, and I was concerned that downshifting while fishtailing may cause the tire to "grab" somewhat - I'm good on the clutch but didn't want to risk it.
4. The terrain - when the tire blew, we were about to head downhill, with a nasty drop-off past the left ditch - the one we were heading toward (tire displaces right, bike goes left).

These factors influenced my decision to lay it down, then when we crested the hill the HD coming at us changed that decision. I was able to keep the bike up for approx 1000 feet (we went back last week and "measured" with a car odometer) - had we stayed upright another 50 feet we'd have missed the driveway and probably walked away (we were at the bottom of the hill, and there was a nice grassy runoff rather than a ditch).

Hi Ghost & Brent - hopefully we can ride together again next year.

Thanks for the well wishes and prayers!

[Travman101]

Hi Travman

In other circumstances, you'd be correct - try to stop while upright. I had a few factors working against me.
1. When the tire blew, it did not stay entirely on the rim - it displaced to the right, putting the left side of the rim on the ground, which caused the bike to start to fishtail.
2. The brakes on the Honda ST1300 are linked, so when you apply the front brake the rear brake also engages, which is a bad idea when the tire is no longer completely on the rim.
3. We were in 3rd gear almost at the bottom of the RPM range, and I was concerned that downshifting while fishtailing may cause the tire to "grab" somewhat - I'm good on the clutch but didn't want to risk it.
4. The terrain - when the tire blew, we were about to head downhill, with a nasty drop-off past the left ditch - the one we were heading toward (tire displaces right, bike goes left).

These factors influenced my decision to lay it down, then when we crested the hill the HD coming at us changed that decision. I was able to keep the bike up for approx 1000 feet (we went back last week and "measured" with a car odometer) - had we stayed upright another 50 feet we'd have missed the driveway and probably walked away (we were at the bottom of the hill, and there was a nice grassy runoff rather than a ditch).

Hi Ghost & Brent - hopefully we can ride together again next year.

Thanks for the well wishes and prayers!

Qbird,

Thank you for the clarification and helping us learn from your unfortunate incident.  I always feel it's important to learn form unlikely events just in case you run into one of them.

Thanks,
T

[BentAero]

Qbird:

Any idea what caused the tire to blow? Too low of air pressure? Slice from hiting something?

[knolltop314]

May the healing proceed fully & quickly ...............

Thanks so much for the heads up re State Farm.  Will look into that!

[Kat-Rider]

Sorry to hear about the accident.
Hope the healing goes well.

[f6rider]

I haven't been on much lately, but Ghost told me what happened. Sorry to hear about the accident. Sure hope you guys are doing much better now.

Greg

[bomber]

Here's wishing for two things . . .

First, and most importantly, a quick and complete healing process for both of you . . . . .

Second, a hope for a lack of experts to pop in and tell you how you coulda done it better.

Take good care!

[Qbird66]

It's been a while since I've checked in. Steph wound up having 4 surgeries to repair her ankle - she's been 100% weight bearing for about 6 weeks. She's walking unassisted in PT and uses a single crutch otherwise. She has a limp at this point - slowly working on ankle flexibility and strength to reduce the limp and eliminate the crutch. She still has pain when walking, but it's too early to tell how much her flexibility and pain will improve.

I'm pretty much back to normal, my collarbone is finally healed. I started lifting weights again a couple weeks ago - I am quite weak on the left side!

We were in Atlanta for a tradeshow last week, and we had time to take a 2 hour ride on a friend's Goldwing. She did so well that while passing through St Louis on our drive back to Kansas City, I bought an '06 Wing! As much as we loved the ST1300, her ankle just isn't up to the seating position it requires.

It turns out that we picked up a nail, which caused a slow leak resulting in the blowout. I've already ordered a TPMS system for the Wing

We're moving back to GA in late May. It will be a while before she feels up to hitting the twisties like we used to, but we'll get there. I look forward to riding with ya'll in June, if you'll allow a Wing in the group!

[cultureslayer]

We were in Atlanta for a tradeshow last week, and we had time to take a 2 hour ride on a friend's Goldwing. She did so well that while passing through St Louis on our drive back to Kansas City, I bought an '06 Wing! As much as we loved the ST1300, her ankle just isn't up to the seating position it requires.

This is a perfectly legit reason to get a goldwing.  

[beachy]

congrats on the wing, glad to hear your about back, 4 surgeries later and shes ready to get back on a bike shes a keeper. all  kidding aside hope she heals up good as new

[miles]

Thanks for the update.  I'm glad that both the physical healing and the emotional healing are progressing well.

[bomber]

Well done -- glad to hear you're both on the mend!