I wrecked my bike!
Here are the pictures.
Well, from how the story goes, I was sideswiped by a lady in a silver/grey Toyota which sent me careening into a Nissan Maxima to try and remove its fender and wheel. Failing that I put my leg on the ground and put the bike on top of it to ascertain the friction coefficient of aforementioned leg.
A nice guy in a truck stopped and shouted something which I couldn't hear. After what seemed like a minute (20 seconds at the most) I realized I still had my helmet and earplugs on. I removed them to hear "are you ok?" to which I answered "yes".
I wasn't. My left leg had taken some damage, the top of the foot was burned off, right through the shoe and sock. The shoe was wedged behind the shifter against the engine! The knee had a large chunk of meat taken out but wasn't bleeding. There's something to be said for shock.
The paramedics arrived while I was on the phone with AAA and insisted that I hang up and let them check me out. I wanted to get towed off the freeway so I told them to wait. This annoyed them and they said that if I didn't let them check me out they'd leave, so I thanked them and said I was ok.
AAA gets a huge thumbs down for their service, they used to allow people to add the RV towing immediately and pay via creditcard, not so nowadays, it'll take a week for the service to take effect but they'd do a courtesy tow off the freeway so I found myself at a local gasstation 40 minutes later. I did get to sit in the Highway Patrol cruiser for the time it took the towtruck to arrive.
Meanwhile I called a friend and asked if he could come up with a trailer, he said he was real busy and asked what the problem was, I explained the accident and he felt real bad! hah! Then I called my girlfriend and she came up with the trailer and picked me up along with the bike.
She had never driven a trailer before so I drove the Jeep to my work to pick up the paycheck I was en route to get, limped in and got it, then headed home.
Driving a stickshift with a messed up leg wasn't pleasant, but it was a breeze compared to the feeling of scrubbing out the wounds in the shower later. It felt like holding a blowtorch to my leg.
Wrapping the leg up and taking a codeine I went to the local carshow but had wasted too much time and was too late.
A month later and with a straightened shifter on the bike I was back on the road but managed to hit an oilslick and hit a car. When it rains, it pours. I ended up selling the twice-smacked bike to a friend of mine who fixed it up and sold it.
Go Home
