jonwright
Needs a job
Posts: 2416
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posted April 27, 2003 07:02 PM
 Edited By: jonwright on 28 Apr 2003 00:11
Got Reaquainted With My Mortality Saturday.
So I'm heading out by myself this weekend to Mena, AR to do some touring on the bike and also do some turkey hunting as well. Usually Sherman (Red Elk) and I ride with other folks, but his bike is in a thousand pieces because he is being his usual mechanically obsessive self. Since I was in the western part of the state and spending the night I thought I'd check out some nice roads I've heard about that make for a tough day trip but I could easily travel with an overnight stay.
So I'm getting packed up with my stuff in this handy tail pack. It looks like a duffel bag and sits on the passenger seat of the bike and has bungies to hold it to the cargo hooks.
I've loaded up my heavy hiking boots, change of clothes, various personal effects, cell phone, car/house keys etc. in said tail pack.
The total trip was close to probably three and a half hours as I had close to 250 miles to cover. Near the end of the trip I notice that the tail pack had kinda shifted on to the left side of the bike, but not a big deal. I reach behind myself and slide it back over. It'll be okay.
Well. Here I am on the final leg to my destination. I'm out in fookin' BFE - hadn't seen a house for at least 10 miles and no cars, either, and there is a delicious straight with some nice sweepers - and since it's all pasture I can see through the turns.
I was already averaging anywhere from 90-120 on this road already. So, conditions are right: time to wick it up a notch.
I slam down three gears and gun the 12R for all it's worth. Right at 170 when I let out a 'yahoo!' in my helmet, I crest a small hill.
When I land I hear this commotion from the back, an awful grinding noise, and then the rear starts to get squirmy on me.
I realize something's not right with the rear of the bike. I glance at the dash - no warning lights. The rear end is squirming around and I'm going from yellow line to white line in the road and I realize:
I'm doing 170 mph and my rear wheel has locked.
Scenarios run through my head: Broken chain, shredded tire...oh sh!t. I've shredded a tire - keep bike straight This Could Get Really Ugly When It Goes Past the Cords. My mind then immediatly had a second thought: Wrecking Is Not An Option.
I honestly can't say I paniced. I became razor focused: I Am Not Wrecking.
Feather front brake: rear end gets REALLY squirrly. Okay - don't do that. Keep bike straight - stand up a little on pegs to help distribute weight and keep balance - how long will I have to do this? Now slowing to 120 or so.
Stare ahead and hope tire doesn't blow. That Will Get Real Ugly. Keep looking straight ahead. Don't touch the brakes. Oh yeah - probably need to squeeze the clutch so the engine doesn't do anything funky if it dies or catches up again.
Keep looking straight ahead and keep bike up. My God. When am I going to stop? Now slowing to 90 or so. I'm almost past the This Could Get Ugly stage. I just need to keep this thing upright. I glance at the speedo and now I'm doing a 'comfortable' 50-60 mph. Now I'm pretty confident that I'll keep it upright and I'll be able to stop when the bike was ready.
Finally I glide to a stop. Smoke envelops me and the bike. The engine is still running - I kill it. I take a quick look in the mirror and I see a single darkie as far as I can see that ended at my bike - yep. Rear wheel locked. I put down the kickstand and get off the bike to survey what the fook just happened.
I survey the bike. The tail pack had gotten lodged between the swing arm and the tire.
My razor sharp single focus of "Keep the bike upright" immediatly changed to "I have to get moving again. I'm NOT going to sit here in the middle of nowhere."
I pushed the bike backwards to loosen the pack, and it and all the contents spread out on the road. Where's my phone? Sh!t, I need my phone. I look behind me despondantly but I find it in the fairing under the bike covered in melted rubber and deodorant. It has a broken LCD panel, the back is melted with a large 'skid' mark on the back. My garage door opener is next to the phone in the fairing along with what's left of a deordorant can, a toothbrush covered in melted deodorant and a severed tube of tooth paste.
The bag is in shreads on the pavement. My hiking boots kept the bag from getting wrapped around the chain and such. The boots had holes burned through them from the tire. All of my clothes had holes and metled rubber on them.
My Palm Pilot was unscratched, as it was in the top of the bag. I prayed my phone would work. I turned it on and checked voice mail. I could place calls if I knew the phone number - but the LCD readout is all broken so I can't dial phone numbers in the phone directory.
I then switch focus to the bike. A mechanical inspection of the bike revealed no obvious damage. Tire is melted all the way around with cuts through the rubber (but not too deep or to the cords). Ugly, but it's okay. Broken boot guard and my subframe plastic is tweaked from the pressure of the bag.
Bike passes inspection. I gather my very important items (palm pilot, phone, car/house keys, garage door opener) putting them in the trunk and left the rest on the road. It's all toast anyway. No need to figure out how to get it to Mena or back home.
I turn around and survey the skid mark. It goes as far as I can see on the road. I start down the road on the bike and reset my trip meter at the start of the skid: It's well over 3/10ths of a mile - almost 4.
I finish my ride to Mena - cautious of my ugly tire. After a few more miles I gain a bit more confidence in the tire (no flat spots or funny feeling from the back). My friends were hunting, so I went on up into Queen Wilhemina State Park to kill some more time.
When I come back almost an hour later my friends are there.
When I greet them I then crack open the best tasting can of Bush beer I've ever had. I sat down, oddly relaxed, and told them my story.
From Mena today I plan to finish my trip with a loop up by Mount Magazine and try out some new twisty roads - certainly NOT the direct route home.
The weather was oddly perfect. Not too hot, not too chilly. The sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky. Perfect weather.
On Highway 7 and my 13 Miles Of Sex there were NO cars. None. Perfect traffic.
Had no other small close calls with cars that we all endure on the road. None. Perfect drivers.
Didn't see one State Trooper or city boy on the road today. Perfect.
As I'm processing this on my ride today, another couple of toughts cross my mind:
When my bike was coming to a stop, the road was a small two lane. But as it was gliding to a stop, there was a nice groomed gravel area there on the side of the road like the bike was supposed to have stopped there. Perfect.
The bag chose to fall off the bike on a long, long, straight stretch of road and not in a turn. Perfect.
I'm not sure what this is going to mean to me. I do know one thing, though. I'm not going to stop riding. Thoughts of my mortality are ever mingling with how good the sunshine feels on my skin along with just how good a nice head job feels. And my mind clears again as I hit a curvy part of the road.
So now I have a stiff drink to pour, a hot shower to take, and I'm going to enjoy being at home tonight like I never have before. I'll put in one of my favorite CD's.
A perfect evening.
  
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Zhooligan
Moderator
Post Whore Extraordinaire!
Posts: 3829
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posted April 27, 2003 07:15 PM
Sounds like you can count your lucky stars and tnak your maker for keeping a good eye on you! Glad to hear you came out of the whole thing safe and no crash. Can't over rate positive thoughts and the determination to keep it up. Sometimes people bail when they should stay!
Great news. Definitely something for the scrap book!
____________
To those who do not count their life in years, but in how life
has touched them in the past and how much it can hold in the
future; -- Youth is forever.
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bagster
Zone Head
Posts: 630
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posted April 27, 2003 07:31 PM
Good job on keeping focused and not giving in to the forces of gravity. 
I really had a good laugh picturing this ...
"a toothbrush covered in melted deodorant and a severed tube of tooth paste."
I'm sure the memory of this incident will stick with you for years to come.
Cheers to good driving jonwright ! 
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jonwright
Needs a job
Posts: 2416
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posted April 27, 2003 07:35 PM
Yep. Stuck in my mind like seeing Elk in his skivvies.
No matter how hard I try to suppress it, it's there - lurking.
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your car is slow
Needs a job
Fuck Nitrous...Got Boost?
Posts: 4089
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posted April 27, 2003 07:48 PM
wtf...the tire survived locking up at 170mph to a stop?
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Do not taunt happy fun ball!
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jonwright
Needs a job
Posts: 2416
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posted April 27, 2003 07:51 PM
Edited By: jonwright on 27 Apr 2003 20:56
Yes. It was still spinning, I guess, the whole circumference was blistered like I did a HELL of a burn out.
Plus, I only had a couple hundred miles on that tire. Practically brand new. Now it's down to the wear bars.
I shudder to think if it were a tire with 1k+ miles on it.
Perfect.
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Dino
Pro
Posts: 1422
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posted April 27, 2003 08:50 PM
Way to stay focused jonwright! That was a good read
____________
uh oh
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jonwright
Needs a job
Posts: 2416
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posted April 27, 2003 09:12 PM
Thanks, Dino.
I'd almost rather you'd be reading one of my many stoopid posts I put up just to throw people off.
But, instead I have a good story but one that I'd rather not have to tell.
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swft
Needs a life
Full throttle!
Posts: One MEEEEEELLION
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posted April 27, 2003 09:19 PM
That's an awesome story! And glad it all came out well!
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jonwright
Needs a job
Posts: 2416
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posted April 27, 2003 11:09 PM
Edited By: redelk on 28 Apr 2003 06:08
Okay, since I'm in Dallas the rest of the week here's the shots of my evidence. We'll see what I feel like this weekend. I may just be in a group of guys that just have to see the skid mark for themselves - and willing to take the trip.
http://www.sportbikes.com/wwwthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=central&Number=407696&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1
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harryzx-12
Needs a job
Posts: 3643
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posted April 28, 2003 02:30 AM
Glad you came out of it ok. That could have been really bad. Glad you kept your focus.See ya at DG-5.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways- Body thoroughly used up, totally worn out...Screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride !!!"
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Ninjaman12R
Needs a job
as a Deal's Gap tour guide.
Posts: 4767
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posted April 28, 2003 05:02 AM
Wow!!!!!
Man you are one lucky dude!!!! Glad you kept your head and didn't panic. It could've been "Real Nasty" if you'd lost your cool. Glad your ok Jon, see you in a couple weeks @ DG5.
____________
What we're dealin' with here is a complete lack of respect for the law.
Sheriff Buford T. Justice of TEXAS
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redelk
Moderator
Please... speak to the hand.
Posts: 3212
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posted April 28, 2003 06:11 AM
Edited By: redelk on 28 Apr 2003 07:14
Saw the "damage" first hand and heard the details yesterday. Here's a few of my obseverations.
THE BIKE
Quite surprising.
The swingarm has two parallel grooves where the chain was forced against it. The left boot guard was tweaked and broke one of it's mounting points to the peg bracket. There's a few very minor scratches on the tail plastic, indicating the departing moments of the tailbag as it slid off to it's grizzly fate.
The fairly new tire looked like he'd done a 100 mile rolling burnout. There's a 2"~2.5" wide swatch on the center of tire's tread that is worn down to the wear bars. I could see where small rocks and such were briefly enbedded in the melting rubber. Some of the "rock craters" would have a trailing gash as the rock rolled it's way off the tire. This section was still extremely soft and was taken well beyond the level of blistering.
About an 1" on both sides of the center swatch, the rubber was severely blistered. It basically looked like a toasted race tire. I could still roll off little balls of rubber. It appears that the tire went from rolling at approx. 170 to about 30... while the bike was still trying to move forward at subsonic speeds.
It might have locked up a few times, but there's little sign of the tire remaining in any one location for any extending length of time. No major flat spots as the signs of "boiled rubber" were fairly even around the whole tire.
THE RIDER
No surprise here and a reminder of why it's such an honor to have jw as a riding buddy and more importantly... a good friend.
As he calmly detailed the series of events, there never was a tone of arrogance, self endulgent pride, humor or "I'll never ride at speed again" fear in his voice. If I was forced to use a single word to describe his tone, it would be... humble.
At first, I found it difficult to fathom the seriousness of what transpired. When he concluded, I still did not fully comprehend the complete depth of his experences. Treating it like a typical bench racing session, I threw in a few of my supposedly comparitive tales. They were "comparitive" until I actually inspected his bike and it's rear tire.
After seeing the bike, it was myself that was now humble. Not just humble, but thankful and as I said before... honored. Humbled to be in the presence of such a level headed individual. Not just in this case, but he's like this all the time.
Thankful to my Higher Power that something having such a great potential of resulting in seriously bodily injury at best and more likely, fatal at worst... ended up being nothing more then a topic of casual conversation.
... and again, a honor to say that I can say I am a friend of Jonathan's and he's still my friend today (alive friend at that).
As for bringing up the "visualization" of me in my skivvies, all I have to say in reply to that is one word.... THONG!
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There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.
-Ernest Hemingway
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your car is slow
Needs a job
Fuck Nitrous...Got Boost?
Posts: 4089
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posted April 28, 2003 06:27 AM
glad your ok man...ida probably had to clean my drawers
____________
Do not taunt happy fun ball!
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kawachan
Pro
Posts: 1031
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posted April 28, 2003 08:41 AM
DAMN JW!! Way to go keeping it on two wheels. Time to invest in a better pack I guess.....with a better mounting system, of course.
Wear bars?? I don't see them?! Wear bars are when you start seeing white........lol
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RED NINJAS RULE!!
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rubber pants
Zone Head
Posts: 798
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posted April 28, 2003 09:02 AM
LESSON TO BE LEARNED HERE!!!!!!
I have a buddy that this just about happened to on an R1 a couple a years ago. We were crusing on the 15 freeway in So Cal in a hurry to get home after a loooong day riding from Leguna Seca as he was speeding along at about 140.......... I saw his packpack jostle loose on the bumpy 15 (He was rushing the last few miles cause he was getting excited to see his girlfriend?!?) But with the massive acceleration of the ZX12 1270 I quickly caught up to him and waved him down to slow up and stop. Just then his backpack EXPOLDED all the shit on the freeway including his girlfriends presents and his dirty underwear were scatterd all over the freeway as well as his leather jacket (it was hot and he tied it there too) That just about got caught in his chain, but remember this is one of the busiest freeways around and everyone goes 90+ He was very lucky though.What was really bad after all this was running across the freeway trying to gather all his stuff. But from now on on trips if it don't fit under the seat or in our pockets we don't take anything!!!! We smell sometimes a little but who cares. We like our freedom of no crap on the back or on the tank and it can save your life!?!!
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"Ya Gotta Have Big Ones!"
speeddemons.com
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MadMike
Moderator
FEAR THE BLACK FLAG!!!!!!!!
Posts: 6579
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posted April 28, 2003 09:07 AM
Man glad to hear that you are ok!!! wow no more bungi's for you!!! and it is probably a good thing that the tire was slightly still spinning. and glad you did not ride faster then your Guardian angel could fly that day!!! first thing I would have done would be kneel down and say a prayer!
Mad Mike
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200-MPH CLUB MEMBER!
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VincentHill
Needs a life
Posts: 6520
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posted April 28, 2003 10:16 AM
As MM said, you were not lucky, you were blessed! I think I did not breath the entire time I read this! On my H-1R, I had the wheel lock and went off track and was on the Grass with the rear end slidding! All I remembered was how dark it got outside because when you focus as hard as you were, no light comes in. Mine was not as good as yours, Mine was fish tailing real bad and at about 15 to 20 mph, it came all of the war around and threw me off the bike! Still not bad. I was doing about 140 in the Front Straight at Summit Point!
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Made History @ Daytona and still one fast old man!!
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r21xz
Expert Class
Posts: 109
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posted April 28, 2003 08:25 PM
I had a similar experience on a Kaw Eliminator I'd just got finished over-boring/rebuilding.
After a couple days of break-in,time to wring 'er out.
!st,2nd,3rd,just in 4th,wide open,rear locks up!Pull in the clutch,still slidin.Veered toward center divider,than back across to right shoulder and stop.
Turns out,the large nut on the clutch plate backed off,jammed the trans shaft WTF??I never touched the bottom of the engine.
That was a quick old bike,had a blast with it.
jeff
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jonwright
Needs a job
Posts: 2416
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posted April 29, 2003 10:13 AM
Thanks for the kudos, guys. Elk, *sniff* thanks, man. It's good to have such excellent company.
MM, can't say I disagree with you. I'm not really a religious man, but it wasn't my voice that said, "You aren't wrecking today." I'm figuring out what that's going to mean to me.
Glad to be able to see you all in a couple weeks!!!!
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kcadby
Pro
Posts: 1733
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posted April 29, 2003 10:16 AM
ummm...WOWza!!!
Rather be lucky than good...sounds like you were BOTH 
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jonwright
Needs a job
Posts: 2416
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posted April 29, 2003 11:59 AM
quote:
***snip***
Wear bars?? I don't see them?! Wear bars are when you start seeing white........lol
You can see one near the bottom of the picture of the tire. In the middle.
j
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EastBayDave
Needs a job
Posts: 2245
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posted April 29, 2003 01:19 PM
quote:
and it is probably a good thing that the tire was slightly still spinning.
I'd say exactly the same thing. I had a friend have the same thing happen to him; he also had his tail bag come loose at speed. For him it was about 95 on the freeway, & locked his tire in one spot until it blew after slowing down to about 40. You should have seen the hole in his tire 3-4 inches wide!
This is not the first time I've heard this kind of story also; many people have had the same problem. I'd say for future reference we ALL should be a little more careful with tail bags on board! Fasten down that puppy good & tight or else...
Great riding Jon; good job saving it!
____________
Enjoy the ride!
02' ZRX1200
00' ZX12R sold
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slug
Pro
Out in search of my mind...
Posts: 1433
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posted April 30, 2003 03:03 AM
i've had a pack jump off the rear of the bike myself, close to tire, but barely not.
the problem with bungee cords is they stretch. since that time, i use a non-ratchet tie-down. clamp it under passenger pegs, over the load, and tighten. then the free end goes back over towards the rear of the bac, and ties off on anything convenient.
the number one benefit is that at 'speed' the strap doesn't stretch, so there is no chance for hte wind to get under the bag and lift it or buffet it around to the point where it can slip and slide about
glad yer ok and the bike faired well, considering.
 
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aliveagain
Needs a life
Posts: 5033
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posted April 30, 2003 06:10 PM
Jonwright,Isee the picture of you racing in the profile,how much help was that in being able to pull through a tight one such as you just had?
____________
I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
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