Long story short, was on a group ride last Saturday through the hills out in the East Bay and low-sided my poor SV ultimately into a nice ditch. Corner was about a 30-40 MPH left hander, and unbeknowst to my dumbass, decreasing radius as well.

After replaying this in my head a good 200 times, all the likely suspects appeared as reasons that brought down my noob ***:
- Trying too hard to keep up with the guy in front of me on unfamiliar roads (DOH!)
- Target fixating on the edge of the turn the moment I started to run wide

Aftermath? Better than I thought by far, and I'm still counting my lucky stars. First off, thank god for naked bikes! Tank, tail fairing, cluster, misc mirrors/signals will need replacing, but other than that the frame is still spotless. Rider is a bit sore with a patch of roadrash on my hip, but other than that, good to go.

Also thankful for wearing full gear that day, including A* jacket zipped into the pants. I typically go out in jeans but never again.

Overall, learnt a lot, and although I'm still pretty pissed about it, I'll take this as a very valuable learning experience (about a year on teh saddle).

Question for all teh gurus out there - how do I know if I bent the forks, or worse, the frame? I'll bring it to a shop anyways, but wanted to see if I can diagnose this beforehand.

 

good thing you're still alive

and another testimony to how gear saves

 

If the bike slide rather than flipped you are probably good to go on the frame, unless there was an impact. the fork tubes can be "sighted down" or you can use a straightedge. all this may be moot since it was a lowly SV.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MSchu &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">all this may be moot since it was a lowly SV. </TD></TR></TABLE>

hey!

 

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MSchu &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If the bike slide rather than flipped you are probably good to go on the frame, unless there was an impact. the fork tubes can be "sighted down" or you can use a straightedge. all this may be moot since it was a lowly SV. </TD></TR></TABLE>

besides, if the forks are done, just gives you an excuse to throw some gixxer forks on the thing

glad to see you're ok, it was a tough weekend for riders all over CA...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MSchu &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If the bike slide rather than flipped you are probably good to go on the frame, unless there was an impact. the fork tubes can be "sighted down" or you can use a straightedge. all this may be moot since it was a lowly SV. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Hey!! Will try this when I get home, thanks guys!

 

Sucks to hear! I'm glad you were able to look back and hopefully correct those mistakes so it doesn't happen again in the future.

Good luck with putting the SV back together.