Buttercup's Demise

Early yesterday morning, as I was heading for Philadelphia to help teach an Advanced RiderCourse, my 1999 VFR (Buttercup) was rear-ended at a traffic light by an SUV.

I always watch behind me when I'm stopped, and flash my brake light when someone approaches.  I knew the guy was back there but I didn't think he was that close or coming that fast.  I didn't feel the need to evade.  It's harder to judge in the dark.  The light turned green and I started moving through the intersection and then I felt the impact.

I was not hurt, but as for the bike, I think the worst thing is that the rear subframe is bent/twisted.  Also smashed tail light, cracked rear cowling, cracks in the 2Bros CF pipe, bent brake pedal, etc.

I am guessing the bike will be totaled, but I don't know for sure yet.  If so, it might be fun to try something else, despite the fact that the VFR was pretty close to perfect for me.  I would like a bit more pillion comfort for my wife.  Thinking about maybe a C14.  Who knows.

Anyway, there's my first (and maybe last) ride report on VFRD.  And if I do end up departing the VFR community, I just want to thank everyone for all their help and advice over the two years I was here.  You people are great!

--Eric

SO what was this Dum A's reason, did he even know there was a red light? Sounds like he didn't see the light, including not seeing your flashing brake light.

Of Course to evade in that situation, (and your right harder to judge speed at night). The intersection would need to be empty to do so , and blowing an intersection to evade takes practice(in order to allow yourself to do that if needed) cause its not natural to do it. There's a very short period of time to decide and to engage).

Fix it and ride it.

Fix it and ride it.

+1

Fix it and ride it.

Haha ... I was waiting for Rob to chime in.  There's a lot of expertise here in the rebuilding of whanged 5th gens. 

Glad  your  ok  and   if  you  leave  us  best  of  luck  .

Sorry to hear about the crash and the mangled bike, but I'm glad you're OK.  I hope the idiot was at least cited.

I do the same thing when stopped at lights - cycling my brake light for drivers to see - but you never really know if they're paying attention.

Your insurance company might total the bike, but if you're interested in fixing it, ask what the buy-back price would be.  From there you might consider repairing it yourself.  Personally, I'd probably just move on to another bike, but I'm not that mechanically inclined and I don't have much free time to work on a project in the first place.  If you love working on motorcycles, though, it's probably a good option.

Whatever happens next, I'm glad you walked away.

Keep us posted.

I'm sorry to hear about your incident, but I am happy to hear you're okay.  Bikes are cheap to replace.  

Just because you may get something else (Ohhhh, the horror!) doesn't mean we'll kick you out.  At least not right away.  

And a side note, my brother has a 5th with a Corbin seat and the pillion backrest, which his wife seems to really be comfortable with.

My thanks to everyone for the advice and good wishes.

As to spud's question about what the other guy said, he didn't say much about WHY it happened, which I guess was just being smart on his part.  He did say he was sliding, so at some point he saw the need to stop, but obviously too late.  Since the light had turned green, maybe he was just looking at that.  And it was 5:30 AM so maybe he was still half asleep.  It was raining at the time, or I might have heard his tires screeching.

But i'm wondering what I could have done better.  I was already starting to move through the intersection when he hit me.  I don't know how I could have sufficiently kept watching my mirrors in order to see the need to evade while still watching all the other stuff we need to watch when getting through an intersection.  But I could probably do better than I did, and you can bet I will be working on it.