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Rambler 1-1

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Posts posted by Rambler 1-1

  1. Posted · Edited by Rambler 1-1

    Hey guys, Something interesting happened which I just feel like sharing.

     

    It's finally spring up here in the Great White North, and I have been taking my beloved motorbike in to school for the last couple months. Today was the first day in months that we didn't get any homework (because of exams tomorrow), so I decided to celebrate by riding over to EB Games and buying a new game. It also happens that I have a motorcycle road test booked for Thursday, so I figured getting some practice driving in heavy traffic would be good.

     

    I was approaching the big shopping center where EB Games lies, flanked by Wal-Mart and a bunch of other big stores. The traffic was a little on the heavy side, but I was holding my own. I just had one more intersection to go. It was a very stale green light, and there was a car going the other way, waiting to make a left turn across my lane (Think "right turn" for you brits). I figured he wouldn't turn in front of me, there wasn't enough space. However, as I passed the "point of no return" for stopping at the light, it turned yellow and the car pulled out in front of me.

     

    There wasn't enough room to go left of it, and there was a car in the way on the right. I didn't fancy stopping in the middle of an intersection or slamming into this bozo, so I braked hard. I came to a stop midway through the crosswalk on my side of the intersection as the left-turn artist passed in front of me. Out of habit/instinct, I checked my mirrors, and I didn't like what I saw.

     

    There was a large white minivan (actually, there was nothing "mini" about it...) bearing down on me from behind, breaks screaming. I twisted the throttle and dumped the clutch in an attempt to get out of the way, but before I could, the van had hit me with a crunch. With both feet still planted on the ground, I pretty much jumped off as my bike shot out from under me, propelled by the van. I fell back onto the hood of the van, which thankfully had now stopped. I have an image burned into my head of my bike (which i had rebuilt myself) crashing to the ground in the middle of the intersection. I almost cried.

     

    As soon as I got my balance back, I ran over to my bike and pulled it upright. Everything seemed to be in slow motion, I guess I had a massive adrenaline rush. I pushed it off the road and stood it on it's sidestand on the sidewalk, then ran over to the van, which was still stopped in the middle of the road. I was in full gear, ie armor jacket and gloves, helmet and goggles, and I'm nothing short of 6'2, so I must have looked pretty intimidating going up to the van driver. Predictably, she didn't protest when I told her to pull off the road so we could "talk things over".

     

    I'm not hurt at all, which is a miracle. Not even whiplash. The license plate bracket broke off my bike in the crash, so I had to fabricate a new one, and I had to bend the handlebars back into shape. Other then that, no damage. I love that bike.

     

    My exhaust pipe scraped the van's hood pretty well, but aside from that there was no damage there. Fortunately, the woman who hit me was very cooperative, and we have settled things without going to Insurance Hell.

     

    I rode the bike home fine, albeit with no license plate because it had been broken off, and with crooked handlebars. As soon as I got home, I bent the bars back straight again, and found a piece of nice thick aluminum which I bent into a new license plate bracket. Therefore, the "bodywork" repairs (aside from a dent and a few scratches in the gas tank) cost nothing at all. The person who hit me agreed to pay for a new rear tire, since the one mounted had been damaged, and I had it installed today. I have some pictures here of the bike as it is now, all repaired, as good as (or better then) new.

     

    The funny thing is, even though motorcycles are generally perceived as being more dangerous then cars, I'm sure that if I were in a car, there would be hundreds, if not thousands of dollars of damage done, and I would probably have whiplash. Not so here, I'm feeling as good as ever!

     

    Anyway, I'd like to pass on what I've learned from this... ordeal.

     

    First, all of those who are driving, please take special care to watch for motorcyclists. I'd like to track down the guy who turned in front of me and give him a piece of my mind...

     

    Second, to all of you who ride motorcycles, it's up to you to be very careful of other drivers to keep yourself safe. Even in the best situations, a motorcyclist can disappear into a blind spot in a split second.

     

    Finally, anybody who dares ply the roads of doom these days, take no green light for granted! If I had slowed down a bit and given the driver behind me a bit more time to react, Maybe none of this would have happened.

     

     

    Here's my new bracket, which I am rather proud of. The red circle shows where the bit that broke off was.

    IMAG0002.jpg

     

    Here's the paint from the van on the underside of the exhaust pipe. Most of it has come off, but there is still some left. The pic was taken from the back of the bike looking up.

    IMAG0004.jpg

  4. Posted

    Just as a side note... don't post any comments on that video on youtube. You try to point out some common sense, and some rational, and you get a crap storm raining down on you. I know the latest trend is to hate Americans just because we're Americans, but geez, I never knew it was a religion. Seriously, youtube has done more harm in destroying peace among mankind than any war or social upset has ever done.

     

    Agreed!

     

    Also, Thank you Typhoid for your explanation.

  10. Posted

    Thanks guys, I kinda forgot about my birthday myself, so man was it a surprise to see this topic...

     

    I got so spend weekend doing RCAC gliding and soaring ops out of an airport a couple hours south of here, and boy was it a great way to spend a birthday. Got to sleep in the hangar (which had a very well-stocked fridge, btw), then up at O'-dark-thirty for the briefing the next day. I was only on ground ops, so I did some tow cable splicing and pre-flighted a couple SGS 2-33s, then one of the lieutenants took me up in the L-19 glider tug to check out the winds aloft. Man, I love that plane!

     

    Sadly, the gliding was scrubbed due to gusting winds, so we spent the day having various lectures from the LCO, which was still pretty fun. As a bonus, my dad let me drive the jeep down there and back, so I got to make use of my new solo driver's license!

     

    Anyways, that's enough rambling. Thanks again, guys.

  21. Posted

    If you can find a Suzuki SV1000S, that is an excellent bike. Unfortunately, the owners usually know that too, so they can be expensive. The Honda VFR800 Interceptor is another nice bike in that class which is an excelent deal.

     

    Beyond that, I've only read about other bikes in that class. I worked on a ZX-9 once, but all I remember was how much of a pain it was to get the spark plugs out and how tedious it was to sync the carbs. And I've never heard of the Aprilia Falco or Futura, over here Aprilias start out at 20 grand, so they're far out of the reach of some 16-year-old mechanic.

     

    Make sure you take the bike for a ride, and look for shake in the steering head and flat spots in the power curve, as well as checking all the gears. Also remember to check for oil leaks and other obvious problems, and never accept "They all make that noise" answers. If you have a mechanics-savvy friend, bring him along.

  25. Posted

    Hey guys, on Thursday my family (mom and brother) and I are heading to LA for a visit to Disney land. I was hoping to convince my mom to allow a side-trip to March Field for a day, as I'd much rather spend a day seeing the icons of my childhood, rather then marching around an overcrowded, fursuiter-infested theme park chasing after my brother, arguing with my mom and trying to get "It's a small world after all" out of my head. Thank goodness for roller-coasters...

     

    Anyways, if any of you guys are from the LA area (I know that's pretty vague, but you know what I mean), maybe you could give me some pointers on how to get out to March Field from Anaheim, or a brief on the museum or something.

     

    As for the rest of the trip, it's all been painstakingly planned down to the minute, there's not much anybody could help me with there...

     

    Thanks!

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