CrashTestDanny
formerly known as danf
Well, I'm back from my annual trip to the Busa Bash at the Dragon, HIDs installed, tires cooked, and dragon more than insulted this time!
Had a great time, yep! Last year the best I could do was about 19 minutes through the dragon. This year, I had a nice smooth rythm all the way through and never took more than 15 minutes, except on our tribute to VMan run, when we were all doing less than the speed limit. Even on that run I was pushing it for the first half because I started about 10 minutes after everybody else so I could get video of them all going by CROT..
Here's a little photographic evidence of my infractions...
My chicken strips on the rear are history, and the front are nearly gone as well!
In fact, if you look at US129Photos, they put my pics in the Hayabusas group because I was moving so fast!
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ThumbPage.aspx?e=4689175&g=07&s=175
I'm happy to report that of 7 bikes that crashed this weekend, none of them involved injuries serious enough to warrant a trip to the hospital, only one bike was not rideable at the end of the day, and no STs were harmed during the event - unless you count mine having to pull taxi duty for a shaken up fallen comrade...
Day 1 - Andy low-sided. While sliding towards a fairly steep drop-off, the rider realized his busa was about to learn to fly, so he bade it farewell. But it did not. The bike left the edge of the cliff and flew - without hitting trees - about 30' down the bank where it landed upside down against a pretty tiny stump. But that stump was just enough to keep it from going farther. The bike was running that evening, but it was not road-worthy. I'll try to get video of the rescue efforts up sometime...
Day 2 - on a 20-25 bike group ride up to 'top of the world' (Abrams Creek Campground road), we come around a switchback curve at low speed to find oil in the road... The three bikes ahead of me went wide and it looked good, so I went wider... at the curve exit, I saw a mount of dirt, leaves, and other garbage sticking out about 15" into the road. Nothing to do at that point and the head started shaking as I hit it... I started cussing at my stupidity and hit the gas to power out of it. Ok - saved myself from being the second crash victime at the bash... but checking my mirrors at the next curve, I realized something was wrong. I went back to find we had a minor drop - rider was just getting back on. Suddenly, Mikey - riding with his [HOT] Mom - dropped it at under 2mph... way to impress Mom! Both ok - let's go before another... crash!!! Larry (AKA Intense on h.org) had gone into the curve to turn on the section that is steeply inclined - he got sideways on that incline and decided to slow to a crawl. Then he needed to support himself, so he stuck his foot out, but no ground... oops! Well ok, this was a little more serious - Larry can't really lift his arm, he's white as a ghost, and clearly shaken. Plus the busa has lost its left front peg... So we send 2 bikes to the nearest gas station to bring back someone to ferry the bike because nobody thinks Larry should get back on - except Larry and we're not really listening to him at this point. Meanwhile, the guy with the bagger (yep - that's me) has thought to bring along Gatorade and nuts, so we work on getting Larry a little less shaky and figure out who's going 2-up with him down to the gas station... well, with a day-long on the back, plus some experience riding a 200+ # passenger, we decided I was probably the best choice... So we get Larry down and while waiting for his bike to get to us, we decided some ice for his shoulder would be a good idea. Yes, once again the ST shines through, because I was the only one carrying a first-aid kit with an instant-cold pack... Larry's ok last I checked, but he's going to need some healing...
Day 3 - Most exciting crash of the weekend... Brendan decides he liked Andy's stunt and wants to try it... not quite the same place... If you head out 28 from CROT - about 2 miles in, you'll see the gouge his bike left, as it took a dive into the river! Brendan didn't dive in with it, but no matter - his new name is Aquaman! Fun stuff!!!
No other crashes worth mentioning...
I really need to make a STOC meet or two, but I don't know how these busa boys would survive without me to carry all this stuff for them!
Had a great time, yep! Last year the best I could do was about 19 minutes through the dragon. This year, I had a nice smooth rythm all the way through and never took more than 15 minutes, except on our tribute to VMan run, when we were all doing less than the speed limit. Even on that run I was pushing it for the first half because I started about 10 minutes after everybody else so I could get video of them all going by CROT..
Here's a little photographic evidence of my infractions...
My chicken strips on the rear are history, and the front are nearly gone as well!
In fact, if you look at US129Photos, they put my pics in the Hayabusas group because I was moving so fast!
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ThumbPage.aspx?e=4689175&g=07&s=175
I'm happy to report that of 7 bikes that crashed this weekend, none of them involved injuries serious enough to warrant a trip to the hospital, only one bike was not rideable at the end of the day, and no STs were harmed during the event - unless you count mine having to pull taxi duty for a shaken up fallen comrade...
Day 1 - Andy low-sided. While sliding towards a fairly steep drop-off, the rider realized his busa was about to learn to fly, so he bade it farewell. But it did not. The bike left the edge of the cliff and flew - without hitting trees - about 30' down the bank where it landed upside down against a pretty tiny stump. But that stump was just enough to keep it from going farther. The bike was running that evening, but it was not road-worthy. I'll try to get video of the rescue efforts up sometime...
Day 2 - on a 20-25 bike group ride up to 'top of the world' (Abrams Creek Campground road), we come around a switchback curve at low speed to find oil in the road... The three bikes ahead of me went wide and it looked good, so I went wider... at the curve exit, I saw a mount of dirt, leaves, and other garbage sticking out about 15" into the road. Nothing to do at that point and the head started shaking as I hit it... I started cussing at my stupidity and hit the gas to power out of it. Ok - saved myself from being the second crash victime at the bash... but checking my mirrors at the next curve, I realized something was wrong. I went back to find we had a minor drop - rider was just getting back on. Suddenly, Mikey - riding with his [HOT] Mom - dropped it at under 2mph... way to impress Mom! Both ok - let's go before another... crash!!! Larry (AKA Intense on h.org) had gone into the curve to turn on the section that is steeply inclined - he got sideways on that incline and decided to slow to a crawl. Then he needed to support himself, so he stuck his foot out, but no ground... oops! Well ok, this was a little more serious - Larry can't really lift his arm, he's white as a ghost, and clearly shaken. Plus the busa has lost its left front peg... So we send 2 bikes to the nearest gas station to bring back someone to ferry the bike because nobody thinks Larry should get back on - except Larry and we're not really listening to him at this point. Meanwhile, the guy with the bagger (yep - that's me) has thought to bring along Gatorade and nuts, so we work on getting Larry a little less shaky and figure out who's going 2-up with him down to the gas station... well, with a day-long on the back, plus some experience riding a 200+ # passenger, we decided I was probably the best choice... So we get Larry down and while waiting for his bike to get to us, we decided some ice for his shoulder would be a good idea. Yes, once again the ST shines through, because I was the only one carrying a first-aid kit with an instant-cold pack...
Larry's ok last I checked, but he's going to need some healing...Day 3 - Most exciting crash of the weekend... Brendan decides he liked Andy's stunt and wants to try it... not quite the same place... If you head out 28 from CROT - about 2 miles in, you'll see the gouge his bike left, as it took a dive into the river! Brendan didn't dive in with it, but no matter - his new name is Aquaman!
Fun stuff!!!No other crashes worth mentioning...
I really need to make a STOC meet or two, but I don't know how these busa boys would survive without me to carry all this stuff for them!
