Street View of Location of Crash Site

This is the location where myself and Jolene (my bike) went down, the pavement transition from concrete to old asphalt.  The Google street view does not show the blacktop fill in or ridge.  So, either the image capture from January 2011 is old enough to not show my nemesis or my brain conveniently fabricated that detail to save me from some self humiliation.

Post Crash Analysis

I have been replaying the crash in my brain (although some details are sketchy from having my head bounce) trying to analyze what I could have done to prevent the accident.  Every crash you walk or hobble away from is a blessing and an opportunity to learn from.  I think the cause of the crash in simple terms comes down to speed on a unfamiliar road.  Granted for a straight road I was not traveling fast (no more than 40mph).  However, for the conditions of the road and no prior knowledge of this road, I should have been going slower.   In theory, traveling at a slower speed would have given me the opportunity to identify the road hazard sooner and perhaps navigate to a better position on the roadway.  Difficult to say whether or not I still would have fractured my leg in a slower speed crash.  I believe that my fracture occurred from initial impact with the pavement and even at a lower speed, my leg still may have been fractured.  Of course less speed means less kinetic energy available to cause injury.

Safety Gear

I often see other motorcycle riders with very little safety gear on.  Here in California we have a mandatory helmet law, so every rider I have seen does at least have a helmet on.  But I often see people in just t-shirts, shorts, and a couple of times wearing flip-flops.  I get it (well not the flip-flops), it feels great to ride without all of that hot, heavy, cumbersome gear on.  You feel free and more natural in the environment.  In Minnesota where I am from there was no helmet law and often I would see guys only wearing the “protective” head bandanna.  I have ridden twice without a helmet, yes it felt great but wow the risk.

Probably a carry over from military indoctrination, but I have been a firm believer in riding gear all along and except for a couple of times, I ride normally geared up (less riding pants).  This is my second motorcycle crash.  In my first crash, I was wearing an inexpensive textile based riding jacket that shredded badly that resulted in significant road rash on my right arm.  My leather gloves mostly protected my hands and only allowed very minor road rash with the padded knuckle protection ground away.  After that experience, I have insisted on leather riding jackets and good gloves.

Here is the gear I was wearing at time of crash:

• Shoei RF-1200 full face helmet
• Joe Rocket leather gloves with knuckle armor
• Rolland Sands Leather Jacket (no armor)
• Tourmaster Riding boots

My Injuries:

• Proximal Tibia Fracture (part of knee joint)
• Mild concussion
• minor road rash (small circle) on back of left hand
• a few minor scrapes (scratches) on right arm
• and of course soreness but this is not really an injury per say

My riding gear that I was wearing did the job that is was designed to do.  Number one is my helmet.  Without that, I would very likely either have brain damage or be dead.  Number two, my leather jacket.  It took most of the beating from the roadway where it would have been my skin chewed up by the asphalt.  Number three, my gloves.  My gloves were two years old and showing their age with some of the stitching getting a bit loose.  This is how I got very minor road rash on my left hand where the stitching failed and the leather separated.  The knuckle armor however did it’s job as designed.

Riding pants, well in this case it was just blue jeans (as was the case during my first crash as well).  surprisingly I only had very slight road rash on my right hip.  In this case, my jeans actually held up fairly well (first crash they had shredded resulting in significant road rash.)  However, I am wondering if I had been wearing riding pants with some kind of armor if I wouldn’t be sitting here with a leg fracture.  Nevertheless, I am a firm believer in protective gear to help mitigate the level of risk for bodily injury.  No, you will never take out all the risk of riding a motorcycle but for myself, the payoff is still worth the risk.

My gear post crash: