I had a TIF.... my first real Bike crash...., I've had 2 in my life. I was driving back to our Place in the woods from a friends house on the Kawasaki 650W1
I had gotten as a basket case.... I loved that bike ! I had just came through a long series of corners and was doing about 45mph and I backed off the throttle because there was a big chevy 4x4 down the road ( first car I incountered on the lonely highway) he was stopped in the center of the lane
which I thought was strange, so I moved over to the left lane to go around him and I saw his big front wheel turn real quick to the left I thought Oh shit!
And sure enough He guns it to turn around.... I angled to the left to miss him but he was faster than I was, and I hit his tire and my knee hit the top of the bend in his hood and up I went.... I must have been thrown a good 30 feet straight up ! when I came down off the road a good 10feet off the highway I slid to a stop on my back.... the first thing I did was raise up on my left arm to see if that idot was still going to run over me ! because I didn't know if my bike went through his cab or not ! .... he slammed on the brakes and stopped and I realised that this is what a fly feels like when you swat them with a fly swatter ! I was totally stunned it took a few seconds to just breathe again ! My knee and wrists hurt and my butt from landing but other than that I was fine ... but it took 15 minutes to recover from the impact....... My poor bike was a mess forks were bent back to the engine and everything was tweeked in diferent directions.... he , his hunting partner and I got the bike into the back of his truck and he took me home....
I had a 1947 motors manual on the back of the bike at the time that came off, ( broke the bunji cords.) and I tossed it in the back of his truck.
He takes me home we unload the bike and that's the last I ever saw him..... but I forgot the manual ! and that really sux !
it took me about a month to get it back on the road but I quickly discovered that the engine had a main berring that was broken... that impact was a very hard one ! I straightened the fork tubes in the crotch of an oak tree and with a Hydrolic jack..... but it wasn't ever right again.
sense the bike was a 1968 W1 there was no getting parts for it in those days so I sold it to a friend for $100. and he was going to restore it....
a very stupid move on my part, but that's how it goes sometimes ! I had built a log cabin from what was on the land there, and we had very little with a 1 year old Kid at the time.... so there were more important things going on at the time !
.... in retrospect I should have slowed down more instead of changing lanes,.... but instead I figured I'ed blast by the ding'a'ling and be on my way
but it didn't work out that way ! .... I estimate that i hit him at between 30 and 40 mph is all, but that was more than enough to destroy the bike !
and it took me a good 8 months to stop limping from the knee impact a month before I could use my hands again without wincing ! Not much got done on the log cabin that summer ! LOL
....Bob..........
