#1 Thread starter
I post this as a lesson for fellow riders. You might want to think twice before swapping bikes with someone.
The short version: I swapped bikes with a riding buddy and he ran my VFR into a guardrail. It�s all repaired now. You can now skip down to the pictures.
The long version: In September I went on an organized weekend ride in the Catskill Mountains with some fellow members of another internet group. That weekend was horrible weather-wise. Hurricane Ivan blew in and I was confined to my tent for about a day and half before the rain let up enough to go for a ride. A group of six of us took a late afternoon ride. Well, we were all having a great time and I thought it would be fun to swap bikes with people. I love all kinds of motorcycles and wouldn't pass up an opportunity to try something different. I swapped with a guy on an FZ-1 and really liked it. We took a break and a guy I had ridden with once before asked me if I wanted to swap. I said sure because he has a Ninja ZX-6 and I had admired those bikes for many years.
(Incidently, the ZX-6 was a nice little bike to ride, great throttle response and a sane riding position.)
In retrospect I shouldn't have been swapping bikes in the first place. When I bought it I had a rule that no one rode my VFR unless I had been riding with them for quite a while. I'm was just too protective of it; I clean it after every ride and make sure all the scheduled maintenance gets done. The only other guy who rode it was a riding buddy of mine who I knew took things real easy.
I had only ridden with the Ninja guy once before and he seemed to be doing okay on this trip. He had recently done the Pridmore riding school so I figured it would be a reasonable risk. Plus, he's a lawyer.
Looking back on the ride now I think he was probably riding a little over his head. He doesn't have as much experience as I do and he was really trying hard to keep up with the guys in front before the swap. Plus we were riding through some gnarly condittions, water in the road from flooding and all kinds of stuff. I backed way off when I had the VFR, on someone else's bike, I'm in the back just cruising, trying to get a feel for the thing.
My buddy was apparently digging the VFR and pushing it too hard. He flashed me a thumbs up shortly before he entered what I think was the last tough corner of the day. It was an S turn (right, then left) over a narrow bridge. He went in too hot. He made the first corner fine, but ended up on the inside of the second turn, not the outside. He didn't have enough room to turn w/o going over the center line, something him and I have discussed you shouldn�t do on the street. He got on the brakes and then fixated on the guardrail to his right. I was right behind him and saw the whole thing happen. He took his left foot off the peg to try to steady the bike and then just hit the guardrail sideways. It slid a few feet and then tipped over on the other side, scratching everything on the left too.
Fortunately for him the soft saddlebags were on the bike (I don't normally have them on, just wanted to dry them out after the heavy rains). He walked away from the accident with no injuries.
I can�t describe to you the feeling of seeing your own bike out of control and smashed against a guardrail. I was lucky myself just to be able to stop his bike safely.
Here are the damages to the bike:
Nick in the rim and slash on the tire:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p96a529a5c7cecca6d69cace43831fed1/f6a0534e.jpg)
Another angle: tire held air for 500 miles
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p0099f6fbdc710e0bb14f83f2ec6d4d00/f6a05342.jpg)
The soft saddlebags, they took most of the hit:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p2f6db35f97a157c18ddf47a32a11cba7/f6a05323.jpg)
The bike required all new plastic up front. Every piece was damaged.
right side fairing:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pc1dcb43beedfdef04a251a79bb5f4ee1/f6a0533d.jpg)
left side fairing:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pe27686a0b867df3fa9ce853665cd66af/f6a050ff.jpg)
front fairings:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pc48a137844799d56c8c2116749cead5a/f6a05336.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pf51b1501ced39122da19f0888c4528ec/f6a05328.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pdd8cd0aeaaf8520c996f45a9251bcc2d/f6a05319.jpg)
Left side, near turn signal:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p40c4f1d259ca88fba26d98f8658c8991/f6a05313.jpg)
A dent in the underside of exhaust.
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p5ee4c28c7d8af3316ea82ef2e925a3b7/f6a05347.jpg)
front fender, scratched paint:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pba77b71066690c9f5154d668a29e8008/f6a0532f.jpg)
rear peg on left:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p2ad7b03185e6e5142a1d3bcc72066e50/f6a050fb.jpg)
The rear brake lever was snapped off. Good thing for the linked brakes as I was 150 miles from home:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pc9e64474ed3e10b65ad159fef05ce3e9/f6a050f4.jpg)
Hard to see all the damage this far away:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p708e4cb3333718284df21f8bf178d316/f6a050fa.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pbb15a7d71239465cbb6459a13ac16b76/f6a050fe.jpg)
clutch lever and bar end scratched:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p59e8fccea3a3c3b03306ab0f2f3f896a/f6a050f7.jpg)
He didn�t miss much did he?
After the crash he was very apologetic and felt horrible about the whole thing. He accepted full responsibility for the incident. I was expecting a few thousand dollars in damages, but was blown away when I took the bike to the dealer and they gave me an estimate of $4,971! The plastic especially was very expensive, over $400 for each of the three fairings. The one good thing was that the bike only had cosmetic damage.
Naturally the other guy freaked out at the price. I looked over the bill and the damage and felt that the dealer had marked things up a bit. For instance, if there was a scratch on one piece, bam! Total replacement at full price. After some negotiating on both sides I reached a cash settlement and got the entire bike fixed to my satisfaction. In other words, no one but me (and now you) knows that it�s been down.
Here�s what the bike looked like when I got it back:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pa7a20ff3537d06a82ba1a51a6734f4bf/f68d0f0b.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p82775d4de86bc1444df3479eb0f5711b/f68d0f07.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p69f1ae8c7df4320a9c58785e2af1a7fa/f68d0f0a.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p828e08b31d60ed8493703a69c38bfe31/f68d0ef8.jpg)
Happiness is...new rubber
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p7398b258cd83c919bc9aa62e27c90dbf/f68d0f04.jpg)
But my ordeal wasn�t over yet. The dealership screwed up in a couple ways. The mechanic didn't slide the front cowling on correctly so it was sitting over the top of the dash pad, instead of under it. Not good if it rained. They forgot to install the clutch lever, but had it inside and I got both issues squared away. Later that afternoon I noticed a couple scratches in the fairing from installation:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p9d8c358e201d5ee0e6ee29866951c907/f68d0f02.jpg)
They totally owned up to the mistake and offered to make it right. They gave me my 20,000 mile service for free and attempted to buff out the scratches. When I got the bike back after the service the manager told me they had just put brand new plastic on it to do it right. So now, it�s all fixed.
I learned a few things from the experience: it only takes a second for a crash to happen, I understand why it's hard to get demo rides from dealers, crashes in real life look just like they do on the squid videos and I'm happy that I didn't blindly follow someone into their own crash by target fixating on them. As far as swapping bikes I think my original policy was the best. Although it all worked out in the end it was a horrible experience to go through.
Finally, I have to say that the whole episode is a testament to how great of a bike the VFR is. I had a chance to "get out of it" and get another bike, but I'm very attached to it. It still lights my fire.
Edited to add: not sure what's going on with the pics - it's doing the same to me. There are a lot of pictures, so that could be the problem.
The short version: I swapped bikes with a riding buddy and he ran my VFR into a guardrail. It�s all repaired now. You can now skip down to the pictures.
The long version: In September I went on an organized weekend ride in the Catskill Mountains with some fellow members of another internet group. That weekend was horrible weather-wise. Hurricane Ivan blew in and I was confined to my tent for about a day and half before the rain let up enough to go for a ride. A group of six of us took a late afternoon ride. Well, we were all having a great time and I thought it would be fun to swap bikes with people. I love all kinds of motorcycles and wouldn't pass up an opportunity to try something different. I swapped with a guy on an FZ-1 and really liked it. We took a break and a guy I had ridden with once before asked me if I wanted to swap. I said sure because he has a Ninja ZX-6 and I had admired those bikes for many years.
(Incidently, the ZX-6 was a nice little bike to ride, great throttle response and a sane riding position.)
In retrospect I shouldn't have been swapping bikes in the first place. When I bought it I had a rule that no one rode my VFR unless I had been riding with them for quite a while. I'm was just too protective of it; I clean it after every ride and make sure all the scheduled maintenance gets done. The only other guy who rode it was a riding buddy of mine who I knew took things real easy.
I had only ridden with the Ninja guy once before and he seemed to be doing okay on this trip. He had recently done the Pridmore riding school so I figured it would be a reasonable risk. Plus, he's a lawyer.
Looking back on the ride now I think he was probably riding a little over his head. He doesn't have as much experience as I do and he was really trying hard to keep up with the guys in front before the swap. Plus we were riding through some gnarly condittions, water in the road from flooding and all kinds of stuff. I backed way off when I had the VFR, on someone else's bike, I'm in the back just cruising, trying to get a feel for the thing.
My buddy was apparently digging the VFR and pushing it too hard. He flashed me a thumbs up shortly before he entered what I think was the last tough corner of the day. It was an S turn (right, then left) over a narrow bridge. He went in too hot. He made the first corner fine, but ended up on the inside of the second turn, not the outside. He didn't have enough room to turn w/o going over the center line, something him and I have discussed you shouldn�t do on the street. He got on the brakes and then fixated on the guardrail to his right. I was right behind him and saw the whole thing happen. He took his left foot off the peg to try to steady the bike and then just hit the guardrail sideways. It slid a few feet and then tipped over on the other side, scratching everything on the left too.
Fortunately for him the soft saddlebags were on the bike (I don't normally have them on, just wanted to dry them out after the heavy rains). He walked away from the accident with no injuries.
I can�t describe to you the feeling of seeing your own bike out of control and smashed against a guardrail. I was lucky myself just to be able to stop his bike safely.
Here are the damages to the bike:
Nick in the rim and slash on the tire:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p96a529a5c7cecca6d69cace43831fed1/f6a0534e.jpg)
Another angle: tire held air for 500 miles
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p0099f6fbdc710e0bb14f83f2ec6d4d00/f6a05342.jpg)
The soft saddlebags, they took most of the hit:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p2f6db35f97a157c18ddf47a32a11cba7/f6a05323.jpg)
The bike required all new plastic up front. Every piece was damaged.
right side fairing:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pc1dcb43beedfdef04a251a79bb5f4ee1/f6a0533d.jpg)
left side fairing:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pe27686a0b867df3fa9ce853665cd66af/f6a050ff.jpg)
front fairings:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pc48a137844799d56c8c2116749cead5a/f6a05336.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pf51b1501ced39122da19f0888c4528ec/f6a05328.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pdd8cd0aeaaf8520c996f45a9251bcc2d/f6a05319.jpg)
Left side, near turn signal:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p40c4f1d259ca88fba26d98f8658c8991/f6a05313.jpg)
A dent in the underside of exhaust.
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p5ee4c28c7d8af3316ea82ef2e925a3b7/f6a05347.jpg)
front fender, scratched paint:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pba77b71066690c9f5154d668a29e8008/f6a0532f.jpg)
rear peg on left:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p2ad7b03185e6e5142a1d3bcc72066e50/f6a050fb.jpg)
The rear brake lever was snapped off. Good thing for the linked brakes as I was 150 miles from home:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pc9e64474ed3e10b65ad159fef05ce3e9/f6a050f4.jpg)
Hard to see all the damage this far away:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p708e4cb3333718284df21f8bf178d316/f6a050fa.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pbb15a7d71239465cbb6459a13ac16b76/f6a050fe.jpg)
clutch lever and bar end scratched:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p59e8fccea3a3c3b03306ab0f2f3f896a/f6a050f7.jpg)
He didn�t miss much did he?
After the crash he was very apologetic and felt horrible about the whole thing. He accepted full responsibility for the incident. I was expecting a few thousand dollars in damages, but was blown away when I took the bike to the dealer and they gave me an estimate of $4,971! The plastic especially was very expensive, over $400 for each of the three fairings. The one good thing was that the bike only had cosmetic damage.
Naturally the other guy freaked out at the price. I looked over the bill and the damage and felt that the dealer had marked things up a bit. For instance, if there was a scratch on one piece, bam! Total replacement at full price. After some negotiating on both sides I reached a cash settlement and got the entire bike fixed to my satisfaction. In other words, no one but me (and now you) knows that it�s been down.
Here�s what the bike looked like when I got it back:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/pa7a20ff3537d06a82ba1a51a6734f4bf/f68d0f0b.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p82775d4de86bc1444df3479eb0f5711b/f68d0f07.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p69f1ae8c7df4320a9c58785e2af1a7fa/f68d0f0a.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p828e08b31d60ed8493703a69c38bfe31/f68d0ef8.jpg)
Happiness is...new rubber
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p7398b258cd83c919bc9aa62e27c90dbf/f68d0f04.jpg)
But my ordeal wasn�t over yet. The dealership screwed up in a couple ways. The mechanic didn't slide the front cowling on correctly so it was sitting over the top of the dash pad, instead of under it. Not good if it rained. They forgot to install the clutch lever, but had it inside and I got both issues squared away. Later that afternoon I noticed a couple scratches in the fairing from installation:
(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid143/p9d8c358e201d5ee0e6ee29866951c907/f68d0f02.jpg)
They totally owned up to the mistake and offered to make it right. They gave me my 20,000 mile service for free and attempted to buff out the scratches. When I got the bike back after the service the manager told me they had just put brand new plastic on it to do it right. So now, it�s all fixed.
I learned a few things from the experience: it only takes a second for a crash to happen, I understand why it's hard to get demo rides from dealers, crashes in real life look just like they do on the squid videos and I'm happy that I didn't blindly follow someone into their own crash by target fixating on them. As far as swapping bikes I think my original policy was the best. Although it all worked out in the end it was a horrible experience to go through.
Finally, I have to say that the whole episode is a testament to how great of a bike the VFR is. I had a chance to "get out of it" and get another bike, but I'm very attached to it. It still lights my fire.
Edited to add: not sure what's going on with the pics - it's doing the same to me. There are a lot of pictures, so that could be the problem.