KiwiBiker Paeroa Ride/Accident

[Gixxer]

stick to what's good dude.

[bluninja]

Nhuanh, glad to see you are so upbeat about the whole thing. I would echo your sentiments about wearing the right gear at all times as it has saved me after bouncing off a 4 wheeler (tractor). Funnily enough I totalled my bike too, and I was crying on the way to hospital in the ambulance cos I'd wrecked my 18 hour old RSVR the answer for me was to buy another new RSVR. So tell us all what bikes you are thinking of. I've got a few recent bike mags lying around if you want to lust over some recent models.

Hope your ankles mend properly and quickly.

TTFN

[Kwaka-Kid]

ill sing to the same tune as you simon, wear the gear, and also wishing you the fastest possible recovery.

well, ive lernt my lesson about gear and i didnt even need to get hurt i think thats one thing all KBikers should take away with them out of this accident, if they didnt already know.

i must say (being 17 and all, not much acc exp.) i had never ever been so relieved to firstly see your body in one peice, and secondly that u was actually breathing! sheezus, after seeing the bike i musta just thought the worst.

anyways on a lighter note, have you considerd making the heavenly jump from a gixxer to a ZXR? Kawasaki man i am, good tough bikes. u should try buy a 1972 Kawasaki Z1, they are such nice bikes! i rode one the other month, a better-then-showroom one, as youd expect $25,000 down the track with every little nut and bolt being brand new etc and if anybody wants to see it get down to Mt Eden Motorcycles, it was sold to mike only a month ago

[bikerboy]

glad to see you are on the road to recovery Nhuan. Let us know how things are going. At least you have the thrill and excuse to get a new bike, enjoy the research as there is a lot of great looking bikes out there.:bigthumb:

[NhuanH]

having been a guest of Middlemore Orthopaedic Ward 16 now for just about a full week (stellar care too!) and spending most of it on my back, in between the ebbs of pain, I've beena thinking.  If any of you cats have some time and want a laugh, a cry, some horror (no not really) or just to see how upbeat I truly am, just gimme a ring on 021 703 648 and I'll give u the room number and arrange it.

And no worries bluninja, I am a magazine junkie from way back, so got all the hardcopy research I'll ever need. 

Here are my thoughts at the mo:

The Gix 750 was/is a beautifully balanced machine - 'mo power on tap than any 600 but not enough to intimidate you a la GSX-R1000.  Having said that though I originally (winter last year) went gunning for a Yamaha R6.  But then of course 3 of the manufacturers were producing brand new 03 600s, which are only just landing now (how convenient??).  I've seen the R6 in the flesh, not too foul.  But I like the CBR600RR the best.  Heavy duty swingarm, underseat pipe, cool.  The Kwaka 6 I'm not overly enamoured with.

For novelty factor red baron have a quite recent model ZX-7R, but they always get panned in comparos with the Gix (6 years old, no development etc.), so why seemingly go backwards?

I do love the duke 996/998, but my bike was a daily commuter (Manukau into town), so I would be loathe to treat such a beast to that experience.  And we all know it is a wallet stretcher, damned desmo vakves!

In summary, Gix750 still up there - great bike.Or Honda CBR600RR.

Thoughts?

 

 

[Kwaka-Kid]

i try not to think as much as possible actually..it hurts..

but anyway, honestly didnt know that about ZX7R's, so theyhavent redesigned in 6 odd years? that must mean only one thing... they are onto a winner! you can make a perfect bike any more perfect now can you?

you know you want to turn to the green machine... do it i say! :P

have you considerd a Bandit 1200? ment to be great all round power, that would be a nice bike to commute on wouldnt it? - talk to barry about it, he had one

[wkid_one]

Go for any of the new 1000 - 2003 GSXR, 954 or R1 - you can't go wrong.

I agree with the bike gear- hence why I was wearing armour - however you must remember the following - bike gear is only designed to protect you in two instances:

1. The point of impact immediately after falling from the bike when you hit the ROAD

2. Sliding down the road.

I am sorry to burst your bubble - but I believe it was pure luck your injuries were not more severe.  Yes the gear had a part to play - but it only protects elbows/knees etc for ONE impact!!!  CE Armour is not designing to stop your leg break from a sideways impact.  Bike gear is not designed to protect you from collisions with trees/cars/curbs and in some instances can actually do more damage than good.

I recall you were wearing Jeans without CE Armour, you were lucky the injury was your foot - as had you impacted your knee/femur - you'd be in traction right now.

Sobering thoughts - but something all bike riders should remember - there is no gear on earth designed to protect you from colliding with a stationary (or heaven forbid, approaching) object - don't kid yourself if you think there is!!

Best option is to ride within your limits, for the conditions, and being aware of those around you.....

DS

 

 

[bluninja]

Dan, a different slant on it. Saying he's lucky that his injuries aren't worse. You could equally say, that given the volume of traffic on that road he was unlucky that a car happened to be coming along at the point in time he was on the wrong side of road.

I agree about armour though. It's designed to spread and absorb the energy at impact to reduce injury. Not just when you hit the pavement though...it's there for sub 70 kmh offs where you will tend to tumble rather than slide (something to do with friction coefficients between tarmac/rider). You will notice most armour is at joints as your bones are designed to break somewhere in the middle, and this is normally a simple repair (but painful and takes a while), compared to repairing joint damage. One wears armour to give a better chance at survival, or reduce injuries in case of an accident, not to make the rider feel invulnerable. Even wearing full armour on his legs, an impact on the thigh of sufficient force would have snapped his femur.

As for armour causing more damage...hard armour is normally the culprit as under certain conditions it can shatter or just twist and cut into the body. Foam type armour with no shell to my knowledge has no adverse properties in an impact. And the one use only? yes there are some armour types that are destroyed internally, or compressed in an impact and do not afford a second protection (your helmet filler is a prime example). Others however can be used over and over, subject to the material returning to it's original shape before the next impact. 

At the end of the day, all things considered, when all is said and done

the biggest safety aid is a riders hazard awareness, forward planning, and bike control.

TTFN

[Kwaka-Kid]

Originally posted by bluninja
given the volume of traffic on that road he was unlucky that a car happened to be coming along at the point in time he was on the wrong side of road.

so like.. its the old ladies fault for driving on her side of the road? right? :P haha nah.

im really really confused about all this armour stuff, i think i might just stick to not crashing... also i cant afford armour anyways, i ride to work and back every day, 16km wearing jeans and skater shoes, a leather jacket and gloves (not to mention my helmet) and on proper weekend rides i trade the shoes in for my Sidi's. but thats it, the only time ive worn leathers was @ Track time 2, where i borrowed my dads old ones that date back to around '86

[bluninja]

Kwaka....you missed the point....and nowhere did I say that it was the other drivers fault. Try reading the quote of mine you posted again, and bear in mind that if there is only a car passing in the opposite direction say every 3 minutes and they are passed in 3 seconds then you have 177 seconds where there is nothing to collect you if you stray to the wrong side of the road. Had nothing been coming, nhuanh would have returned to his own side of the road with a bit of a fright and nothing more. I wonder how many people over the course of that ride ended up in a position that exposed them to oncoming traffic, but escaped because nothing was coming the other way.

As for armour....well if you can afford bikes then you must be able to afford armour. You may be the best rider in the world, but you can still be taken out by a car (bumped from behind in a traffic queue, sideswiped by a car changing lanes without looking, taken out by a car shooting out from a junction into your front wheel, diesel, gravel in the middle of a blind bend). Having said that as long as you know the risks, you are entitled to make your own decision about the level of protection you use. 

TTFN

[Coldkiwi]

I agree with ya Bluninja. I commute 25k's everyday wearing either full leathers or armoured wet weather gear... not because I intend to thrash the arse out of my bike on all three decent corners on my ride in... but because I pass close to a thousand cars on the way and the odds of one sleepy driver who's had a bad morning pulling out without looking for me going past just aren't that small!!

I have confidence in my own abilities to minimise the risk (of course, lane splitting is a calculated risk in itself) of hitting a car by knowing how hard I can get on the brakes and looking well ahead... but you can always get surprised no matter how good you are. So I assume the worst could happen everyday.

Or look at it this way kwaka ; If someone said "I'm going to throw you out the side of this truck at 50km/hr" would you want to be wearing your jeans or be in the thickest damn armoured leathers you could get?

It's not worth the risk man.. bite the bullet and get some gear. Motomail hada huge sale on in the weekend and cycletreads are having one in march: make use of them!

 

[bikerboy]

Hey Kwaka, their right, haven't you heard of gravel rash? You get it when you fall off and slide. It doesn't have to be a long slide or even very fast. Denim will burn through in seconds when sliding, then the fabric actually burns into the skin( due to friction) and gravel and dirt etc. get rubbed into the wound. It looks like a rash but it is virtually impossible to clean thoroughly so it gets infected.

It generally occurs in minor falls where the rider gets up with scraps and bruises, so doesn't get medical attention. Eventually this seemingly mild scrap or "rash" turns into a nasty infection so bad and deep that it generaly leads to large chunks of skin being cut out or worse, amputation of the limb if left untreated. There are some pretty hiddious pictures I've seen.

An accident like Nhuan's where there is impact and landing aren't as common as getting knocked off and sliding, then impact.

This sounds like a lecture but is meant as friendly advice.

[Kwaka-Kid]

bluninja - i saw ur point exactly, sorry, i hate the net :P cant tell if im being a smart-ass or not, well basically i always, am, and yes afterwards you made it blind obvious so i got your point fully

and about the gear... humm harr humm harr, i dunno aye. its alotta dollars when you aint got that many.. and yeah i was hit off my 250 once when over taking, and my thin az skool pants melted into side of knee, and my skool sweatshirt prolly wasnt the best leather jacket impersonator ever... but i rolled onto back for most part of the slide and my skool bags plastic clips took most of damage, aswell as my calculator in fron pocket.. haha.. the calculator that saved me much pain.. i still have it today in my room

but i dunno hey, i look at it this way:  The chances of me having an accident are i feel alot more minimized then most riders.. i am not saying i dont/wont have accidents, but like.. im the worlds most paranoid rider :P you guys saw how slow i ride! and how far away from the yellow lines i stay! and ive NEVER lane split.. and hardly EVER overtake.. i use my bike like a car most of the time, alrite when traffic is dead still ill go in 1st gear down the side of it.. the only time i ever put myself at risk is coming down Atkinson Rd in West auckland, downhill SSS bends, so beutiful.. i can do them @ 80k' now on the 400.  but anyway getting back to the way i look at it, pain is a small thing.. i dont mind putting up with a bit/alot of pain for the sakes of $1000. i mean, seriously, That gear wont stop me from smash impact and dieing. the body/head just cant take a big impact, and so therefore the gear is for slides etc. and i know it hurts and i been thru that (altho not in hospital) but i look at it as like, if i just put up with some discomfort/pain/absolute agony, i save myself money aswell as being more liklely to lern my lesson not to crash doing whatever i was doing.

i spose to break that down, i ride in the gear i ride in to help make myself a more cautious rider, knowing how much worse off ill be if i dont keep the bike shiney side up, and for me, it does change my riding style, i noticed this as when i went to puke and wore leathers (for the first and only time) and armourdillo and everything else i worked that bike as hard as i ever had before, and there is no way in hell i would have done it without the gear (that may not have saved me much, but its a sub-councious thing) so yeh.

sorry if to some of you older guys (i think im youngest here) i sound arrogant/anything else bad, but i am taking in all of your opinions and i am learning heaps so thanx for everything here so far.