I came home "early" from work (Only got stuck in traffic 1 hour). Since my bike needed some gas, and I was really wanting to ride, I took her out to the gas station. Filled the tank, checked the air pressure and thought about taking a nice night ride around the city, to just vent out (been in a lot of stress at work lately).

What was a leisure ride quickly became fast paced. I was riding hard through some of the local twisties and the freeway. Then, I decided to return home since I was hungry, but decided to have one last go at this piece of freeway that is located at an altitude of 3280 ft, fast sweepers, nice transitions and so on.

I took a route that involved going down a looooooooooong uphill avenue, two channels on each side.

I was going WOT...1st, 2nd, 3rd...

Then suddendly I was sliding on the ground "Oh my this is kinda fun" I thought. Then my vision caught a glimpse of the Monster sliding away, with a trail of sparks lighting up the night.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" was my instant thought.

I stopped sliding and tumbling, quickly got up and went to see my bike, which ended much further ahead of me.

Luckily, some Forest Rangers were just leaving a nearby drugstore, and stopped me to help. "Are you ok? Are you injured?"

I just took of my helmet and my gloves while looking at poor little Catherina laying on its side on the street.

I look down and see my jeans ragged on my left leg, around the knee. I lift up the jeans and say to them "Here, seems to be the only thing". They started to clean the wound while I was making some phone calls and texting Stef (Thanks for the help man).

They started going around "Damn man we just heard the engine zooming past and then we heard the crash, we thought you would be in much worse shape". "How fast were you going?" I honestly don't remember, but it was +80 mph easily. I just hit a damn bump, like the ones that I have hit a million times before, but this time I just don't know what happened, when I realized I was tasting some cold asphalt. I slid like 800 ft on an uphill, like 20-30º I assume. My bike slid like a 1000 ft.

I was wearing everything but pants.

Gear:

Scorpion EXO-400: Never touched the ground
Teknic Chicane gloves: I remember putting my hands on the ground and sliding on them. There are marks of abuse, but they held up pretty fine. Not bad for a closeout glove.
Teknic Stinger textile: held up great, just a couple holes that were located near the sides where I had my cellphone and wallet. Otherwise, looks like new. Held up fine.
Sidi Strada Evo Tepor boots: my feet and ankles are intact.

The bike? The left side took all the damage...smashed/rashed tank, broken headlight, broken mirror, broken clutch handle, rashed exhaust and broken rear turn signal.

All in all, seems like I got off easy. Pics of the bike and gear tomorrow.

Gear up, it is one of the reasons I'm just laughing and trying to take this the best as possible. If it wasn't for the damage to the bike, I would be feeling like a million dollars lol.

You know what's ironic? Earlier today a guy called me to offer me some piece of land in trade for the Monster. I told him no.

Who would've guess that at the end of the day, I ended up "buying the farm" LOL

Cheers /26 gear up and let's keep on riding

 

that sucks to hear, but glad that your alright leo

you gonna fix the bike?

 

Thanks Matt. It was a weird accident. Don't know what happened, I guess I just f*cked up.

Yes, going to try to fix it. Cosmetic damage mostly. I'm going to fix and paint the tank, get a new headlight glass, a new handlebar and such. It seems like the previous owner has some turn signals left over, he is going to find them for me.

Sucks that I had the bike up for sale and this happens...at least almost nobody had called me LOL

 

sucks big time... you know what my thoughts are ALWAYS when i go down?

It's never about getting hurt... all I see are dollar signs when I go down.

Makes a great argument for a beater!

 

LOL I was thinking the exact same thing...I was kind having fun surfing in the bitumen until I realized "Hey it is your bike sliding too!"...and then I saw her...

68k BsF...66k BsF...64...oh **** 58k BsF LOL

The thing that pisses me the most is that I was trying to sell her, I was going to lower the price a little, but now I will get her fixed and lower the price accordingly. This turned out to be a terrible purchase lol.

 

Atleast ur alright bro! That's all that matters.

 

yeah... glad you are alright!!!

 

Yeah guys, thanks. Being healthy will keep me able to work extra to raise money to fix her. It could always been much worse.

Had I been wearing my Teknic Tactic pants, chances are I would be left without a scratch.

BTW, textile does hold up well, like I said my estimated speed at the moment of the crash was +80 mph and I did slid for quite a distance. So, for city riding/commuting textile really is effective.

 

man this sounds like the exact same thing that happened to me a few years ago except it was due to cold tires and yours didnt end up in a guardrail

good to hear you're ok though dude

heres a picture of the bike after that accident....

 

Damn man that looks intense! Hope nothing big happened to you back then and you are back to 100%

Here's some pics, first of the gear:

Jeans: my left knee was the only part of my body that suffered any rash. Of course, I'm all stiffened up right now LOL my upper limbs ache if I try to move them fast



Gloves: the velcro was already wasted long time ago, no seams seemed to have broken, just the wear on the palms. For a closeout glove, this held up nicely...no excuse to not have a good gauntlet glove when you could find these for like 20$



Jacket: only small perforations on the left side, which was the first side that hit the ground.



I'm going to sew that little hole and still keep the jacket...very useful for rainy days.



On the back, only scuff marks



Now for what REALLY pains me








The other side:

 

yeah it definitely looks like the bike got the worst of it, but it still isnt that bad for as fast as you were going but i know ducati parts arent cheap.

that happened a little over two years ago and it was the last day i rode on the street, i was wearing full leathers but still managed to get some nerve damage on my left leg because the bike came to rest on top of it.

 

I've had my share of scares with those exact bumps you went down on, for some reason you just can see them until you hit them.

All in all the crash was no big deal, you walk out uninjured which is what really matters, and the bike took almost no damage considering where you fell and where it ended up.

Time to fix it and keep on riding, or finish selling or whatever you want to do, but ride again. I'm waiting for you to get an enduro bike so we can go to the places that really shine in Caracas, cause the streets suck haha.

 

those ballistic jackets with armor really do a great job.

 

Damn that sucks, at least you're ok. Thank god it wasn't a highside.

 

 

Damn, Leo. Glad you're OK and that the gear held up. Considering you were in 3rd gear, your riding gear (and jeans) don't look so bad. The bike looks alright too

 

glad to see you're ok! the damage to the bike looks a lot worse than what happened to your gear, looks there was some luck involved. watching your bike slide away from you down the road definitely sucks.

 

glad to hear you're ok, leo. your bike doesn't look that bad at all.

 

ditch the textile. go leather.
glad youre ok

 

Thanks for the kind words guys. I'll be back soon. I hope.

I have full leather gear, but I also have textile for those rainy days and for in city commuting.

 

Damn, sorry to hear. I know you planned to sell the bike too.

 

Glad to hear you're ok Leo. I guess it's time for some slipons

 

for 80+ mph, the bike looks great!

glad you're safe Leo.

 

glad you made it out ok.

 

same here R1 went down last night