Highside

[bennyboysvuk]

After 10 years without incident, I highsided my R1 on my way home from work on Tuesday. I think the road surface went from dry to damp towards a corner exit at the end of a tree line and the rear spun up whilst banked over to the left.

I landed on my right shoulder and head, but don't remember the point between the rear spinning up and just after the impact. I just remember sliding along the road.

The bike's not too bad really. The front and side fairings are broken and the seat unit is scuffed. The tank has worn all the way through and is leaking. One exhaust is bent. The clutch cover scraped all the way through and the fairing mount punched a hole in the side of the clutch cover for good measure. The left side of the bike is absolutely untouched except for the gear lever, which is bent back by about 25 degrees, which I just can't understand.

My leathers holed through the shoulder and I drove myself to hospital in the evening to get it sorted. The wound was a deep graze with balls of leather melted into it, which they picked out. They said the heat generated from the road had cooked the outside areas of the graze and indeed it had gone white like cooked chicken in a frying pan.

I'm feeling a bit sore around the shoulder, but am generally ok and am looking forward to getting the bike back on the road.

Shoulder of my leathers:


Bike, looking a bit sorry for itself.

Edited by bennyboysvuk on Thursday 13th August 07:46

[bennyboysvuk]

The leathers are made by Spyke and are about 10 years old. They were around £800 new I think.

I'm not exactly sure how fast I was going. I think it was 40-ish, but it might have been more. The road surface was really rough in the centre of the lane though, really cheese-grater like.

I'm not totally sure how I landed on my shoulder and head, but I think I did a half forwards somersault so I think the initial impact was largely what caused the damage to the shoulder of the leathers.

When stopped at the side of the road, I did have that worrying moment where I put my hand in my leathers to investigate the wet feeling around my shoulder and pulled it out again covered in blood.

[bennyboysvuk]

rat840771 said:

Glad you're ok.
A mate of mine recently Highsided his Triple R leaving his close, say 15/20mph on loose gravel, he was very sore for a while. The bike was nearly written off and cost 4.2k to repair!

I think the bike's worth £5.5k or thereabouts so hopefully it'll be mended. I can't see it being £4.2k, but I guess it depends how much the fairings and labour costs so perhaps it is possible.

[bennyboysvuk]

moanthebairns said:

that's written off. Price it up, it will be eye watering.

I hope it's not, but I guess if it is then at least I can go bike shopping.

[bennyboysvuk]

neelyp said:

You're going to need new leathers, there's a guy works beside pope got a set of Alpinestars going cheap.

I plan to take them to 9 Lives to get them repaired, I think they'll need about 5 panels replacing. They've been adjusted to suit my lengthy frame so I can't buy new off-the-peg leathers.

[bennyboysvuk]

Thanks for the info everyone. I have to say I was surprised at the state of the shoulder of the leathers too, but the road surface really is cheese grater like there, which goes some way to explaining why they were so torn up.

I'm quite sad to think that the bike might be a write-off, but from what you guys who have experience in this field have said, it looks like it might be the case.

[bennyboysvuk]

John D. said:

Sorry OP, but love 'the bike isn't too bad' followed by a list of 10 things with holes in them!

I managed to ride it for half a mile until the oil light came on and it rode ok (apart from the bits hanging off) during that brief ride. I was adhering to the old saying about getting straight back on the horse.

To be fair it's probably the most mashed up a bike has been when I've ridden it, but I'm sure it wouldn't take much to make it roadworthy, but making it perfect again is sadly a very different matter.

[bennyboysvuk]

moanthebairns said:

If you're not going to listen to us.....They are fked, my shoulders come with armour and plastic "sliders" for such an occasion. You cooked your skin but you think they are ok? unless you fell on wet and dry that's no excuse cause of a few stones.

No, I agree, they should have performed better, but I think they did ok-ish given the rough surface. The rest of them held together perfectly even though there are other scrapes and scuffs. The shoulder armour didn't reach to the point where the leather went through.

I've got minor grazes and cuts even from inside the padded and plastic armour on the elbows and fore-arms.

I think I'll steer clear of perforated leathers in future since that's got to make the area weaker. Looking online, it doesn't look like perforated leathers are very common these days.

[bennyboysvuk]

Mr OCD said:

Parts prices here:

http://www.ronayersmotorcycles.com/fiche_select2.a...

I've found that simply changing the $ for a £ sign when speaking to Dealers isn't far off the mark.

I high sided my 5PW R1 at less than 30mph... it only needed fuel tank, nose cone, rear seat unit and a couple of small bits due to scuffs... bike was valued at £3100.

Cost of repair was in the region of £4,000, but importantly after such an accident the bike would never be the same.

Write if off to experience and go and buy a new one.

Thanks for the link. That's fascinating re the parts prices. I've selected tank and right side fairing and I'm nearly at £1500 already.

So in the likely event that it is written off...I've heard that the 2009 R1 is a great road bike, but given the nature of my off, perhaps an S1000RR with TC might be a good option. I think those are my initial thoughts/short list.

[bennyboysvuk]

moto_traxport said:

Flipping hell Ben, just read this - hope you get well soon / sort the bike.

Think you've got the same leathers as me from memory Spyke Big One. I've crashed in mine half a dozen times at speeds up to 100mph and they've coped okay. Some road surfaces are super coarse and conversely offer poor grip due to the contact area so comparing crash damage is always hard work.

It looks like you've had a initial impact on the shoulder and then your shoulder has been pulled out of the armoured foam "cup" and then ground away at the leather in front of the shoulder area. If it stayed in the armour i.e. the leathers were tighter across the shoulders (you still a skinny git?), it might have been better protected but possibly more likely to break bones.

Get back on an SV650 - more than fast enough on that!

Thanks Jon. You're spot on regarding how the leathers wore through. I'm still tall and slim and I do wonder if my even older Spyke leathers (from when I really was super-slim) might have worked better since my shoulder would have stayed in the cup. I had a good look at the leathers last night and the tear in the shoulder goes from perforation to perforation so I do think a solid panel would have worked better.

I'm mending ok. Still a bit achy around the shoulder as I think I will be for a few days, but I'm getting there.

[bennyboysvuk]

LoonR1 said:

Plenty of bikes have got TC, as have many cars. You can and will still crash in either. You can't defy the laws of physics, despite the views of many on here.

I've always disliked TC in cars and never felt the need for it unless being really lazy and leaning on it in really slippery conditions.

However, having never ridden a bike with TC, I don't know if it would have saved me or not. From what I remember, the rear went so fast that the first thing I knew about it was that I was sliding down the road on my backside. I've no idea how modern bike TC deals with changing surface grip. Possibly as badly as I do.

[bennyboysvuk]

Mr OCD said:

As Loon says TC isn't necessary the answer and won't rescue all eventualities ... so I wouldn't base your decision on a bike having such system as your primary criteria.

The 09 R1 > is a good road bike (they have TC from 2012 btw), but in all honesty any Superbike from that era is better than you or I... so it will come down to what you like and your budget.

I'm really quite happy to have a bike without TC. I've had 10 years without incident after my racing days and 5 years on the road on the R1. The sound of the 09 R1 alone is making me think that it might be the way forward.

[bennyboysvuk]

R1gtr said:

At least you can go bike shopping now, and bin those leathers, they should not way have fallen to bits like that. You can get superb leathers for £500 these days, don't bother fixing the old ones.

I agree, but I've crashed in this brand of leathers at over 80 on track and walked away without a mark on me.

I quite like the idea of a £560 set of Dainese with their solid looking shoulders. http://www.dainese.com/en_en/laguna-seca-evo-p-888...

I'm not sure if the fit is suitable for someone as tall and narrow as me though. i'll have to check them out and see.

[bennyboysvuk]

Jonjo91 said:

But you crashed at 40 and they also fell to bits...
Just invest in new ones, I'll be surprised if the repair company doesn't highly suggest the same.
Also, glad you came alright from the spill!

Don't worry, they'll definitely be getting replaced with something more sturdy and possibly tighter fitting too to ensure that the armour stays where it's supposed to be if I happen to be in the same situation again.

[bennyboysvuk]

LoonR1 said:

On track in slick mode I get the amber light flashing at a few points. I don't know whether that's TC or anti wheelie though, I think it's the latter, as they're both points where I open the throttle fully exiting corners and the front goes light. On the road in a lower mode (more likely to intervene) I have never had it kick in, other than once when it had somehow shifted to Rain mode and it kept kicking in whenever I opened the throttle until I noticed a few minutes down the road. I think TC is more mentor than anything else.

There is also the risk that when it does kick in, you chop the throttle shut and have a different type of accident, but an accident all the same. I still struggle to keep my foot down when TC kicks in when driving, as I'm just correcting the car at the point it kicks in as I can feel the car losing grip.

I think I'd treat it like a mentor, as you say. It would be fascinating to lean on it to see how it responds. But like you said earlier, it can't beat physics so in the case of a surface that suddenly goes from dry to wet, the system won't be effective.

The marks on my rear tyre look slightly odd to me too. There are scrapes for the entire circumference of the left third of tyre that are at right angles to the edge of it, suggesting that it didn't necessarily spin up forwards so much as just pivot straight around with not much spin.

Here's the left side of the tyre on the completely undamaged side of the bike (other than the gear-lever which is bent back by about 25 degrees) :

[bennyboysvuk]

LoonR1 said:

I meant to type mental not mentor

Here's a thought on the tyres and it is just a thought process being written down. The bike slid form under you, then you will have released the throttle, whether conscious, subconscious, or when you let go of it. At that point the wheel will stop being driven and may well have slid a little sideways, then dug in and highsided you, that caused you to whack the gear lever and bend it, whilst going over the top and the bike having dug in, now flips onto the other side and caused all the damage to it. Tyres are quite small and getting 90 degree slide marks all round it would be virtually instant in a slide.

I'm finding it a little annoying that I don't know how I reacted. If my little memory of that part of the event serves me at all, then the bike slid so fast from under me that I had absolutely no chance to respond, since the grip level dropped so fast. I've also realised that the tyre was on the slick part when I went onto that damp surface, which can't have helped. I think I need a slightly more wet orientated tyre for my commute.

In insurance news, the bike has been deemed uneconomical to repair by Fourth Dimension (the people who are estimating the damage). They have sent the damage report to my insurers and I await their settlement figure.

[bennyboysvuk]

moanthebairns said:

Your first crash is always dramatic. Ahhh my worlds ended how could I not have saved that etc, we are all guilty of it, your playing it over and over but its getting you no where. Once you crash more its easier to laugh at it or go, "I fked up" and move on

I agree, but this is my 19th off, I think. I fell off a lot when learning how to go fast during my racing days. This is the first crash I've had when I didn't think I was pushing my luck though. I think every other crash had an element of me pressing on or lack of respect for cold tyres, ha! This is why I've been breaking this one down in my mind more intricately.

[bennyboysvuk]

LoonR1 said:

You'll never know. Quite often the brain shuts down / completely blocks it out. Many people can remember just before or just after a crash, but not during.

Fourth Dimension? Here we are weeks and weeks on and it's only just been assessed as a write off, which I said at day one. The joys of MCE.

It's the strangest feeling to not be able to recall the details of something so spectacular. I'd love to have seen it from another angle.

Quite, although I added 5 days to that due to not being around when they could pick the bike up. I should get the settlement figure on Friday. From what I've read on here before, getting a reasonable settlement figure isn't as simple as it should be, so I'm expecting to have to haggle.

[bennyboysvuk]

bass gt3 said:

Sounds like you lost it on oil/diesel for it to go so suddenly. Not much you can do in that case.

The weather was really sporadic, patchy rain at the time and it had gone from dry to wet a bit on my route. I came off at a bit where it went from tree covered to uncovered so the surface was suddenly much more damp at that point, so I’m putting it down to that.

bass gt3 said:

Hopefully MCE will come right.

Thanks. Me too.

[bennyboysvuk]

After 2 months of being bikeless, I now have an immaculate, low mileage 2009 R1 in blue.

I test rode the bike last night and it's a huge change from the 2008 R1. It feels smaller and more agile. The engine seems flatter/less peaky in its power delivery and it sounds different to any V-twins or inline 4s I've owned in the past. The clutch is lighter and easier to use than the 08 version too. The gearing is silly high and I will almost certainly lower that via a rear sprocket change. My 08 bike had a 1 tooth smaller sprocket on the front which made the bike quite lively, which I liked. The current tyres are some fairly well worn Michelin Power 3s, which felt fairly horrible on my test ride, but I'll immediately replace them with Pilot Road 3s.

My shoulder is healing well and only has an area about the size of my little finger nail that's still open. I'm still using iodine gauze under a dressing as recommended by my GP that's being changed every 3 days. It still aches a bit if I lean on it and I'm sure that it will take another 6 months or so before that is completely OK.

I just need to go out and get new leathers, lid and gloves now.