Got rearende by a grand cherokee today

[zmeiaspas]

I was actually filming a video but I guess my batteries had too little juice left so the camera stopped filming a few seconds after I turned it on .

I'm kind of pissed that I didn't get it on tape ...

What happened was I was going happily for my after-work-evening-ride when the car 4-5 cars ahead of me got on the brakes for no particular reason in the middle of the highway. I managed to stop as fast as the other cars in front of me and as we were about to begin speeding up I hear tires screeching and I just knew something not particularly cool was about to happen to me. Half a second later I felt the front of a grand cherokee sending me in the other lane after a kind of uncomfortable fall. Thank god nobody managed to run me over while tumbling and sliding.

Tell you the truth I don't blame the guy for hitting me all that much ... as much as he should have been keeping his distance it was EXTREMELY hard to see because of the sunset glaring right in our eyes.

I am very pissed off because I turned on the camera 3 minutes before the crash to catch the beautiful sunset and the damn thing turned off seconds after that because the ****ing batteries died [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvDo_TpOz70"]This[/ame] is all I got from what I thought was a 25 minute video.

But anyway ... I am fine except for a little penny-sized patch of road rash on my foot. I cannot believe that my wonderful vertigos got a hole on them. And this is what my leg and boots look like after the crash (see attached images)

I got some hydrogen peroxide for the rash. I'd take any advice on how to treat it - it's not bad at all so I might as well just let it heal.

Now the worst part: my brand new powerlet heated armored gloves arrived 2 hours before my ride and I was giving them their first test ride Now they are a little scuffed but oh well - I hope the heating still works fine.

As for the bike, I thought I was taking a video so I spent 10 minutes like an absolute retard kneeling around the bike and waving in front of the camera showing you guys the damage ... needless to say when I got back home and checked the videos (or the lack of thereoff) I was pretty pissed. Well, subframe got torn from the main frame on the right side, fairings are rashed up, frame sldier took the brunt of the hit and got halved in size. The bike still ran tho so I was contemplating whether I should get her home but the cop advised me to just toll it so that's what I did. I won't be surprised if my swingarm and rear tire are also messed up as they, together with the exhaust (which is smashed up too) + subframe took the initial impact.

So yeah, all in all - went out for a ride and hopefully got a new bike :cheer:

P.S.

Sorry to anyone trying to get home after work and getting stuck in huge traffic during rush hour on route 9

Lesson learned: don't buy Sidi Vertigos ... I don't wanna know what would happen if you crash at 120mph at the track.

 

[ender]

Sorry that happened, but glad you are alright. That is the scary part, wondering if someone else is going to run over you.

Are you going to look at any different bikes?
If you have thought about fixing your FZ6, check out www.kycyclesalvage.com and find an FZ6 with front end damage.

 

[Botch]

Holy Crap, glad you got out of it without too much injury!

 

[rickvan67]

I commute frequently on my FZ and that's one of my biggest fears, some jacka$$ not paying attention and rear ending me. I hate to disagree with you but based on your account, the crash was entirely his fault. Rules of the road dictate you remain in control of your vehicle and compensate for "road conditions". Sun in your eyes is one of the best reasons to increase your following distance. Just out of curiosity, what color are your riding jacket and helmet? I've always wondered how effective the dayglow colors are in making people see you. I wear a Firstgear green dayglow jacket when I commute. I'm sure I lose some "cool" points but I think it makes me much more visible.

 

[codeblue]

Sorry to hear about your mishap, but very relieved that you got out of it with "minor" scrapes. Sorry about your ride.
This is why it's important to wear the proper gear ALL THE TIME 'coz we just never know.
Speedy recovery.

Ares

 

[RJ2112]

Just as a point of reference...... you may not feel everything from this event for a day or two. If you feel any worse, make sure and get seen by your Dr. Glad you came out of that as well as you did.......

Whatever the reason the person hit you, they hit you. Their insurance is going to need to take care of whatever is wrong. That includes injury to your person. No documentation of what happened to you at the time of the accident may come back to haunt you.....

 

[afpreppie04]

Ouch! Sorry to hear about that. Makes me wonder about my Frank Thomas boots, they look like a similar design to your Sidis. If the subframe is ripped off the frame I would think the insurance would total it. Well I guess it depends if the subframe broke and came off, or if the mounts in the frame itself were the parts that broke. Now what is this I hear about a Versys? :spank:

 

[wrightme43]

Sorry about the crash man. That sucks. I hope you heal up quick and get your bike or another one soon. The gear did a good job really man. Think how jacked up your foot would be in tennis shoes.

 

[VEGASRIDER]

Bad luck. Less than 10% of motorcycle crashes are from rear enders. Glad you cam out okay though.

Heal quick and thanks for posting.

 

[chuckfz6ryder]

Sorry to hear about your accident, but not too much damage to you considering you were hit by an SUV. Glad he hit the brakes. My cousin was stopped to take a left across 2 lanes, and the girl coming up behind him was drinking a huge coffee, couldn't see past her cup, never hit the brakes. I'll take your injuries over his thanks. Sucks that alot of your roads run east/west. Solar glare in the AM ride as well? I'm sure you'll heal fast, get the bike repaired/replaced before winter gets here and give me a shout to ride around the Quabbin.

 

[zmeiaspas]

Thanks a lot for the good wishes guys! Appreciated. I was thinking about riding my bike back home but the officer thought this wasn't such a good idea with a broken subframe and possibly damage to swingarm/reartire. As for me - to tell you the truth I don't even classify myself as injured.

Ouch! Sorry to hear about that. Makes me wonder about my Frank Thomas boots, they look like a similar design to your Sidis. If the subframe is ripped off the frame I would think the insurance would total it. Well I guess it depends if the subframe broke and came off, or if the mounts in the frame itself were the parts that broke. Now what is this I hear about a Versys? :spank:

I'll get to the towyard tomorrow and I'll take a few pics. As for the versys - I can see you visit other motorcycle forums too huh Well, quite frankly I was planning on getting a dual sport IN ADDITION to my FZ and before I bought the FZ I always considered a Versys my dream starter bike (as I am tall and I really wanna do both street and adventure riding but I just can't decide where to start). I only have 3700 miles under my belt so might as well buy myself a versys or a KLR650, learn to ride and then jump on an FZ1. But we will see what the insurance company will say about it - might end up with my old trusty FZ6 (that mind you, started up without even thinking about it)

chuckfz6ryder: my heart is BROKEN that I will miss the last sunny day (i.e. tomorrow) before a week of rain From one point of view I really hope to get a new bike in less than a week but on the other hand I have no garage and I can't get it in my room/house (I don't own - I rent) so storing the bike for the winter (especially in a temperature-controlled environment) will be quite an issue for me.

But we will see what happens with insurance.

Thanks again everyone :iconbeer:

 

[zmeiaspas]

I commute frequently on my FZ and that's one of my biggest fears, some jacka$$ not paying attention and rear ending me. I hate to disagree with you but based on your account, the crash was entirely his fault. Rules of the road dictate you remain in control of your vehicle and compensate for "road conditions". Sun in your eyes is one of the best reasons to increase your following distance. Just out of curiosity, what color are your riding jacket and helmet? I've always wondered how effective the dayglow colors are in making people see you. I wear a Firstgear green dayglow jacket when I commute. I'm sure I lose some "cool" points but I think it makes me much more visible.

Riding jacket and helmet are both black with silver/signal-red elements. As much as I agree with you I don't know how much would brighter gear have helped in my case. I had very hard time seeing whole cars in front of me let alone someone on a bike. I can't believe how bright the glare was ... I ride this road every day at the same time (approx) but today was just ridiculous.

 

[Motogiro]

So glad you're Okay man! your SIDI's probably did as good as most of these boots would on that same spot. As long as you're okay all the other stuff can get replaced as good or better.

Oh yeah I know about those batteries in the GoPro. Had the same thing happen to me and thouhght the camera was just shutting off, which it was but because it wanted fresh batteries. If you shoot 2 GB change out the batteries unless your using lithiums.

Also there is a firmware update for the GoPro that fixes light exposure issues and allows you to use a 4 GB SD card.

http://www.600riders.com/forum/bar/22584-gopro-firmware-update.html

Get better soon!

Cliff

 

[cv_rider]

To reduce the chance of this in the future, you might consider:
1. installing bright flashing LEDs tied to the tail-light. VegasRider has a good writeup on his Hyperlite setup, which I have installed and like. Those flash for 5 sec when the brake light comes on. It's attention getting.
2. Whenever stopping, stop on one edge of the lane or the other. Gives the driver behind more room to swerve out of the way at the last moment if they do see you, and if they hit you anyway, it may be more of a glancing blow than a direct impact.

 

[Iethius]

Wow, glad you are OK.
I'll never wear my tennis shoes to the gas station again, thanks.

 

[yamaowner]

Billerica Motorsports will have a FZ1 at Motorcycle Night in Lowell tonight for $7500 if you want to upgrade.

See New England Street Riders Motorcycle night tread for details.

 

[fz6Soldier]

Glad you are okay. A harley rider just got killed up here in Michigan. He was on his Harley minding his own business and someone wiped him out from behind killing him instantly. It's something we don't have much control over. I'm constantly checking my mirrors at stops and make sure that I'm in first gear.

 

[Tailgate]

Bad luck. Less than 10% of motorcycle crashes are from rear enders. .

VEGASRIDER: Interesting, but I wonder if it's only 10% because motorcyclists have so many more of other kinds (oil slicks, gravel, high/low side, etc.) of accidents, of which some are single vehicle? One source
(phttp://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/0501-avoiding_rearend_collisions.htm)
puts car/truck, etc., rear-end accidents at 31%, so I'm thinking that motorcyclists, while getting rear-ended constitutes only 10% of their aggregate (is that the right term?) accidents, have just as many others rear-ending them (if not more) as do others in cars/trucks.

Here's another interesting (or sobering?) statistic taken from (http://www.missouriaccidentlawyerblog.com/2008/07/missouri_man_thrown_from_motor.html):

Statistics indicate motorcycle riders are four times more likely to sustain injury and twenty-one times as likely to die compared to those in other vehicles.

...probably just a reminder for most of us on the forum, huh?

Finally, as Fz6Soldier has already mentioned, when stopped, I try to keep an eye on my mirrors and on the vehicle approaching from behind and ready, if necessary, to split lanes ...whether LEGAL OR NOT!

 

[Less]

WOW, that's scary. I ride that road all the time and know how dangerous the sun is this time of year. Glad you're relatively OK.

Don't forget to include all of your gear ( boots, gloves, jacket, helmet) that might have been damaged from the crash in your claim. Remember even if the helmet only slightly scraped the road they are only meant for one impact.

Now as far as a replacement bike, if you really are looking at the Versys, National Powersports in NH has a barely broken in one.
2009 KAWASAKI KLE 650 VERSYS - National Powersports Distributors - 1-603-410-4120

Or you can move right up the the FZ1:
2006 YAMAHA FZ1 FZS1000S - National Powersports Distributors - 1-603-410-4120

Hope the insurance wonks don't hold you up.

Ride safe.

 

[necrotimus]

Glad to hear you are ok!

I commute a lot in heavy traffic and my biggest fear isn't getting rear ended but getting caught between the car in front of me and the car behind me. When the situations dictate I leave extra room in front of me to allow someone behind me more stopping distance as well. Also as mentioned I try to pull to one side or another in my lane.