Daytona Trip - Last 2 days (for awhile!!!) Part 2 - THE CRASH

It was a cold Sunday morning in Wilmington, NC. Around 37 degrees, so I decided to wait for mid morning for the temps to warm up. It was another sunny clear sky day so that was nice. My wife would be following me in her car as she had been visiting our daughter and helping her out due to the cat bite she had from the week before. The cat bite had got badly infected and the Dr. thought he was going to have to perform surgery at one time. After he put her on three antibiotics the infection started to go away. A cat bite can be very nasty. That was why my wife was there and heading back with me.

We planned to just head up I-40 and I-95 to get home. We were both anxious to get home after being away for almost a week. We took a break and gassed up along I-40. I knew I would need to stop one more time to gas up and planned on Emporia, VA for the final break/gas stop.

As is common on the interstate, especially I95, we were in and out of traffic. Sometimes it would be a string of 4-5 tractor trailers and we would be in the left lane. Other times things would thin out and would be cruising along in the right lane. My normal cruising speed on the interstates are normally 0 to +5mph of the speed limit. When my wife is following me I keep it right on the speed limit, so I had my cruise control set on 70 and so was the speed.

We were in one of those lull traffic periods just south of Roanoke Rapids, NC in the right lane when immediately my bike began a violent wobble and what I had heard described in rare cases as handlebar "tank slapping". There was no perceived warning prior to the violent wobble, My first thought was that I had a tire blow out and had to maintain control of the bike. The first thing I did was very lightly tap the front brake lever to disconnect cruise control. That was good as it sent a signal immediately to my wife that something was wrong and for her to slow down too which she did see and immediately do (she told me later she saw the brake light flash and saw the violent wobble). The wobble and tank slapping did nothing but get more violent and intensify (being an engineer it reminded me of an uncontrollable feedback, it was like it was feeding on itself and getting worse and worse). My last thought was I am going down! From the first indication of a wobble it was only approximately 2-3 seconds until I & and my Ultra were on the pavement on our left side. I do not remember ever going down. This is what my wife behind me told me later that she saw.

When I first "woke up" I was laying on the pavement and saw my wife and lots of other people and cars parked. My wife said I tried to get up then and everybody held me down. I blacked back out and didn't remember anything else until I "woke up" in the emergency room bed with the nurse talking to me. He was a motorcycle rider and I remember he asked me about cutting my clothes off and I asked him not to until we tried to get them off! I didn't want my jacket and heated gear cut!! At that point I was still numb to the pain and we did get my clothes off without cutting anything! That was nice of him!

When through the battery of Xrays and CT scans and they told me I would need to go to a trauma center due to bleeding and contusions around both of my lungs. I was then flown by helicopter to the MCV trauma center in Richmond. I spent only 3 nights there and they let me come home on Wednesday!


The bike is totaled with over $11,000 of damage. All the damage was on the left side as I and the bike stayed on and slid on the left side only. A lot of internal damage to the "front end" such as the front shocks and triple tree. Looks like me and the bike came close to flipping, but we didn't!!

All damage on left side

The tire separating from the rim is what caused the intense wobble/tank slapping at 70 mph. Local dealer that my bike was towed to inspected the tire and did find what appeared to be a puncture in the tread but no sign of what caused it. I am "anal" with my tire inspections. I had 40 psi in the tire that morning and it had between 4/32 and 5/32 of tread depth. I check my tires like this EVERY morning on a trip! I had around 13,000 miles on the tire. The real problem was that the tire immediately detached from the rim throwing the bike into a sever wobble.

I am being repaired and luckly not totaled!! I have 8 broken ribs, 1 broken collar bone, 1 separated shoulder and a bone chipped on my leg tibia. Luckily it was a cold morning (in 30's when I left that morning) so I had insulated underwear, jeans and chaps on my legs. I had a t shirt, long sleeve shirt, Gerbings heated jacket, nylon inner jacket and my HD mesh riding jacket on. Also had my Gerbings heated gloves on. I had NO road rash! HD 3/4 Helmet was ruined with cuts/scratches/gashes all the way around it. The protective gear really did a GREAT job!

That me in the reflection with my arm in sling!

 I was very happy with the HD mesh riding jacket as it had several small tears in the front in my neck upper chest area and in the back around the collar (odd that I have no injuries on my body in those area, not a scratch!)

What was interesting was no tears/cuts where I made the first impact with the road on my shoulder.

Leather on chaps only roughed up. Interesting that Gerbings heated jacket had a 2 inch hole tore in it but did not cut through any of the wires. Tore a hole all the way through the leather of my Cruiserworks boots (don't guess they are waterproof anymore!). Also had the left lens of my Rayban riding glasses scratch up pretty bad. My wife said I was laying face down at the end. I had no scratches on my face though.

Here is a pic 4 days later of the road contact point with my shoulder. This is what did most of the damage to me!

4 days later, road contact point

Now that it is over with, my wife took this picture as she knew I always posted pictures of meals I had on my motorcycle trips. It was appropriate for the first hospital meal in ICU. It was really good since I had not eaten for almost 36 hours at this point (they wouldn't feed me anything until they were sure no immediate surgery would be needed (seemed that it took them a long time to determine that!!)

My first meal in the hospital!!

Anyway, I am doing pretty good and hope to make a full recovery in a "few" weeks. Looking at getting a new 2012 Ultra Limited! For all you fellow riders, just make sure you check those tires. I just don't know what else I could have done to have prevented this accident from happening. It has gone through my mind many times over the past 12 days!

Just want to say how helpful all the people involved have been. My wife said folks stopping at the scene on the interstate were great. They helped her get some of the important stuff off my motorcycle and into her car as well as getting my motorcycle off the travel lane until the towing service got there. The emergency room, hospital staff and copter crew were all great too!

Daytona Trip - Last 2 days (for awhile!!!) Part 1

Well, it has taken me some time to get this written for the last two days of my trip to Daytona. The first of those two days was great, the second one was not so great as you will see, if you don't know why already!!

I got up on Saturday in Yemassee, SC and it was just a beautiful sunny, cool morning. All the rain was gone just as the forecast said. Had a great FREE breakfast at the next door Denny's complements of the Best Western motel I was staying at.

There was a second bike parked securely at the motel lobby as I came out.

This was a beautiful custom blue "Ultra" owned by Kevin from Maryland heading for Daytona. He was lucky that he missed the rain but saw it up ahead and pulled into the motel for the night. His bike even had the blue Dakota digital gauges in the dash and of course in the inner fairing was painted blue too! Kevin and I talked. He does a lot of long distance riding too. He had ridden straight from Maryland last fall to Biketoberfest, stayed there for 12 hours and rode straight back to Maryland as an example. I told him about the four corners tour and he had not heard of it and was excited to learn more and maybe do the ride also this summer. I gave him the web site and we parted ways.

It was only in the 40s so the heated gear was on and up I95 I went. Stopped at the Harley shop in Florence. Nice little shop out in the middle of nowhere. Nice folks. Took a break and headed on over to Wilmington to spend the night with my daughter and wife. It was a nice leisurely bike trip on some nice roads. Now on to tomorrow Sunday, March 11!!

Daytona

Great two days of riding around Daytona! Headed first to Daytona Destination on Thursday morning.

 Quite a place anchored by Dayton Harley Davidson shop and J&P Cycles. Lots of vendors there. Could have spent a couple of days there and probably not covered all the vendors! Did pick up my souvenir 2012 Daytona Beach Bike Week Tshirt!!

I was surprised at how big Mobil 1 was there with their motorcycle oil truck and displays!

Even had the Budweiser Clydesdales!

The only real ride is a route named "The Loop". It is about 22 miles long and is a good ride, although pretty straight but very scenic and diverse. Wasn't too crowded. Maybe passed 20 other motorcycles on the route. I made one stop at the ocean and they even have dedicated motorcycle only parking for the beach!!

 I took a walk on the beach and had lunch (an apple!). Met a couple from Niagara Falls, NY. They were riding a Kawasaki Vulcan. They had trailered down with their motor home on Feb 1 and were heading back on April 1.

 Had to take one self portrait!

And one closeup of the pelicans!

Rode by and through Daytona Racetrack and "downtown Daytona". Most of the vendors/displays there were not set up yet. Even though there was a lot of traffic and congestion. It was also getting "hot". Around 85 degrees and it really felt hot in the stop and go traffic.

Clouds started to move in and the chance of rain was picking up. Headed back to the hotel around 4 pm and had a few sprinkles along the way. Seemed that most of the other riders staying at the hotel had the same idea as we pulled in mostly together.

Talked to a couple of guys from Morgantown, WV. They had trailered down. One of them had dated a girl from my hometown in WV. The one had over 30,000 miles on his 08 Fat Boy, so he has done some riding!

Got up on Friday morning and rain was to move into the area by early afternoon. I decided to just start heading north instead of going back to Daytona. Stopped by the Jacksonville and Brunswick Harley shops. Talked to a guy from New Jersey at Brunswick. I took his picture for him with his bike in front of the shop sign. He was actually heading to the Panama City area of Florida to camp for a few days. He had "been there and done that" for Daytona. He was a retired fireman and had the fireman Harley Davidson Ultra Classic (that is a pretty red!!). He and I shared our riding philosophies which were very common. We both liked to ride for the sake of riding as opposed to destinations and bike rallies. He was a really nice guy and we shook hands as we departed.

Had a nice ride up US 17 through Georgia. This is a place I stopped for a "break" (nice big tree!).

Did encounter all kinds of weather coming back north. It hit 90 degrees just north of Jacksonville near the Georgia border with lots of sunshine. That really felt like summer time! Had a lot of smoke from wild fires near the South Carolina border. Pretty intense and hard to breathe! The clouds were coming and going and I thought I had it made for a rainless trip (except for a few sprinkles!). I had zeroed in on a Best Western in South Carolina so that I would only have about another 4 hours to Wilmington on Saturday. About 10 miles from that hotel the bottom dropped out of the sky. Winds blew and a hard rain. I didn't have time or a place to stop for the rainsuit so I just road on. Made it to the hotel pretty wet and hard time seeing! The good news was that they had a room! The bad new is this place is really far out in the country! I am having to update this blog from the lobby due to the wireless internet being so weak. I only have one bar on the cell phone signal strength. The cable TV is so blurry you can hardly see anything and the only restaurant anywhere around is a Denny's!! The name of this place is Yemassee, SC. I don't even know how to say it let along know where it is!!

Hey, they did give me a GREAT place to park for the night. Can't beat this for security and out of the weather.

They did have a "local" brew from Charleston, SC at the gas station next door, so that made for a great evening!

The weather forecast for the next two days is SUNNY. That is the good news. The bad news is a return of COLD temps! The low is forecast here for 44 degrees tonight!! Geez, I will have to put my heated gear back on in the morning!! That is a real change from just this morning.

Florida!!

The 2012 riding season really felt like it started today with the warm temps, full day on the road and talking with other bikers.

Left Wilmington around 8 am and it was only 42 degrees, so all the heated gear was back on and turned all the way up! Decided to ride all the way down US 17 to the Georgia line.

Really felt like summer is a coming when a convertible pulled next to me at a stop north of Charleston and put their top down! That told me maybe it was time to think about shedding the heated gear!!

The temps really came up heading into Charleston, SC. Got into the mid 70's and had some road construction and traffic, so it was a little slow going. Had to pull off and gas up anyway, so took the opportunity to take all the heated gear off. Now that really feels good!! Just a beautiful day with partly cloudy skies and lots of sunshine. Didn't hit any other traffic other than in Charleston (and that wasn't that bad).

Passed a lot of bike trailers coming down from the north to bike week on I95. Make it to St. Augustine, FL for the night at a local Best Western. I got a nice parking space under the hotel canopy next to the palm trees!

Tried Sonny's BBQ for dinner. It is really good BBQ. I had the pulled pork platter.

If you are ever in Florida and like BBQ, you ought to try it. The place was crowded with a lot of locals, so it must be good! I might have to try it again while I am down here and have the BBQ with the famous Sonny's Red Ale this time (you can read about it on their website)!!

I just got back in my room from talking with a "neighbor" here are the hotel. A couple from the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. He is a retired State Trooper and they have been coming down to Daytona for 10 years. He has his 2008 Ultra in the back of his pickup truck and only have a little over 4,000 miles on it. We spent a little time talking about my travels and my 75,000 miles I now have on my 2007.

I am looking forward to cruising around Daytona tomorrow. The local Harley dealer here in St Augustine has closed the shop. They are still open for a clearance sale with 35% off everything. They are only open from 10 am to 4 pm. I might have to wait around a while in the morning to go by the shop and see what they have left for 35% off! I am sure the rest of the stuff will go fast next week with bike week. They seemed to still have a lot of stuff in the shop (I had to peer through the windows, aka "window shopping"). At least I may pick up a souvenir "St. Augustine Harley" Tshirt!

2012 Riding Season has started!!

The 2012 riding season has "officially" started with my trip to Daytona! (going down to spend a couple days at the start of Daytona and hopefully avoid all the crowds of actual bike week!)

Left this morning around 10 am heading for Wilmington, NC to spend the first night with my daughter. It was a cold morning but beautiful sunshine and clear blue skies! It was in the 40's leaving so the heated gloves and jacket felt good. As a matter of fact, the heated gear felt good all day as I never saw temps above the mid 50's!!

Only ran upon one other motorcyclists today at a rest stop in North Carolina. He was heading to Southern Alabama from Chesapeake, VA. He was planning to get home today to Alabama. He had a pretty good ride ahead of him since that was around noon! Kinda funny, my hearing is not too good anyway and it is even worse after riding for a few hours and I had a hard time understanding his southern Alabama accent. I picked up a few words but it was mainly a one sided conversations with me saying "yelp",   "that's right", "I bet" hope you have a safe trip"!!

Also, had to pay over $4 a gallon for premium gas for the first time in many years today coming down I95! My real hope is that we don't see $5 a gallon by this summer!!!

Got to Wilmington around 5pm and got "checked in" at my daughter's house! We were planning to go out to dinner, but I got a call from my daughter around 5:15 that she had just got bitten by a cat at the office (she is a veterinarian), so we ended up at a urgent care facility since it bit all the way to the joint on her knuckle!! She had to get it cleaned, bandaged and on antibiotics. So we made it to dinner a little later. Had a Fat Tire on draft with a shrimp Po Boy sandwich & sweet potato fries!

Planning the route to head on south for tomorrow toward Florida. Think I will just head down US 17 and pick up I95 near the Georgia border.