How I Crashed My Bike: Like A Pro

The rain wouldn’t stop all night at the Hat Rally. As we were packing up in the morning, I had my ‘rainy-cold-day conversation’ with Greame:

“it could be much worse”

“yeah it could hail or snow, pffffffft this is nothing”

… it seems like it rains every time we ride so this is pretty much standard.

What the heck just happened?!?!

On the way back home Julie joined us on her GS and, as we cruising along, I was thinking to myself: “How good are my tyres on wet!”

And as I was coming out of a bend, accelerating gently back to 100 km/h, the rear tyre suddenly lost traction on a glossy patch of bitumen, did a little left-right dance and next thing I knew I was rolling and bouncing on the bitumen … a personal best of 70m – for the record.

When I finally stopped I was just annoyed, not even shicked really, just annoyed. I picked myself up, and all I could think was: “what the heck just happened?!?!’

And there she was (my bike), laying on the side of the road, pointing the wrong way, with a smashed up right side panier, the fuel cap open up and petrol running into the side case, soaking all my precious camping gear. My first thought was “Damn it –I just filled up!” but I can be thrifty like that 😉

As I tried to lift the bike, I knew straight away that something was wrong with my right hand. Julie and Greame rushed to help. After we stood the bike up, I quickly assessed all the damaged bits: the break system, hand guard, windscreen, indicator, side-fairing and the side-case – “not too bad, it’s all fixable.”

A Ride for my Ride

After an hour on the phone I learnt that BMW road assistance doesn’t cover the cost of towing if it’s not a breakdown, and my insurer Swann only answers phones Monday – Friday and don’t organise towing at all! Lesson: read the agreement properly before you purchase the policy.

Luckily my mate John lives close by and was able to rescue my bike with his trailer and drop me off to Goulbourne hospital.

So a big thankyou to my super-duper mates Greame, Julie and John for all the help!

Goulbourne Hospital

John and Greame stayed with me until my husband arrived from Sydney. Meanwhile, we had Maccas and analysed the crash in our standard, optimistic manner:

“It could be much worse!”

Five hours later I was finally called in to see the doctor who shook her head: “Why the hell did they keep you so long – a high-speed motorcycle accident should be categorised as more urgent!”

Hmm, couldn’t have agreed with her more 😉

The x-ray showed a fractured wrist (ulna) but it was in a good position so there shouldn’t be complications … should be bike on my bike in six weeks! Woohoo!

I’m down but not out!