Remember this?
Well part 2 of that was just yesterday at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.
But before we get to the grimy...
So what happened?
Unlike my crash on the Aprilia at Buttonwillow, this was an isolated incident with myself.
Turn 6 (Carousel) is a fast, wide, and sweeping
left turn that starts from a top of a hill,
and ends at the bottom of it.
The map above shows an approximate illustration of what happened; the circle is where the whole thing started, the square the point of impact (on the ground), and the X where it all ended up.
It was the 3rd session of the day and I have decided to mount my camera on my helmet, and follow my friends Trung and Stuart to record them for a lap each. First I followed behind Trung for a couple of laps, then I passed him to follow Stuart for a lap. After a full lap behind Stuart, I decided to move ahead of him to do a lap on my own. A lap and half later at Turn 6, it happened as follows. Exiting Turn 6, I must have gotten on the throttle too much too soon when I was still substantially leaned over, as I felt the rear tire lose traction, spin, and start sliding from under me to the right.
Given that you only have two small contact patches from two tires, you really want to minimize the active duties of the tire at any given time, which is why it's key that when you're already using it for gripping at extreme angles, that you don't utilize it for braking or accelerating abruptly simultaneously. If the latter is done, the rear tire spins as you ask too much grip from it, and it starts to slide underneath you. If you let it slide, it will result in a lowside; the bike ending up on its side sliding on the pavement, or if you chop the throttle shut while the rear tire spins and slides, it might result in a highside; the rear tire gripping too suddenly, acting like a catapult and throwing you off the bike and up in the air.
You ALWAYS want to avoid a highside to minimize damage to the bike and injury to you. If you could, opt for a lowside, the lesser of two evils. In my case, neither happened. Though I succeeded in not letting the rear tire slide and causing a lowside by standing the bike up, something else happened. Perhaps, though not being highsided off the bike, that I was slightly thrown up and off the bike just enough for me come back down on the bike, but inputting force on the handlebars that made me lose control, eventually causing me to slam myself and the bike violently on the ground on the left side.
What followed is basically the bike and myself tumbling on our own. How do I know this? Because even though your body is supposed to shut you down moments before something horrendous is about to happen to spare you off the visual/aural experience, mine didn't, so I was fully conscious from start to finish. I had a brief glimpse of the R6 upside down in the air, and the crunch of metal slamming on the ground was unmistakeable. After that brief glimpse, all I could see were my arms and legs, with the world spinning in the background. I distinctly remember catching my thoughts and telling my body to not stiffen up and just go with the tumble to minimize injuries as I have read over and over and over again.
When the tumbling stopped, I was face down on the gravel, still conscious. I intentionally decided to not move and just lay there, to gather my thoughts, my breath, and recollect myself. Stuart and Trung eventually passed me (but without seeing the accident), and Trung had thought I was dead, not moving and face down. After a few moments and when I saw the front wheel of a bike pull up in front of me, I got up to indicate that I'm alright and will not be needing a ride from the ambulance. The bike laid on its side a few feet ahead of me, and I saw my camera a few feet behind me. I went to pick it up and hoped that the footage was not lost in the impact against slamming my head on the ground (the camera touched the pavement before my head did. Mounted the passenger seat of an instructor's bike, and back I went to the pits to assess the damage on me.
Nursing a MASSIVE headache.
This is how Trung deals with utter shock
of witnessing a traumatic event.
Me still nursing a massive headache,
Rusty sad at the turn of events,
and Belle sad due to both Rusty and I.
Considering that I felt this incident was WORSE than the Buttonwillow incident, I came out even better. Nothing broken, no gashes or wounds this time, not even any bruise. My left knee once again slammed on the ground, but the suit protected it this time, which left me with just a swollen knee for a handful of hours. The suit not only did a very fine job this time of keeping me unscathed, but it also survived the ordeal pretty well, pretty much still structurally whole and fine to be used again. The helmet also worked very well, so well that the impact on my head did not knock me out, but it can't be expected to be used again.
It's the day after now, and all I feel is a little stiffness in some areas. A warm showered loosened me up in the morning, and I was still able to give my brother a haircut, and saddle up on the R1 to meet a coworker for lunch to gush over how extremely lucky I was.
This is twice now that I've totaled a bike that I really, absolutely enjoy. It's back with Rob now for assessment of the damage, mainly to measure the frame to see if it's straight or also compromised. A number of parts on the bike are obviously damaged, cracked, bent, or tweaked, but the frame is the crucial member. If the frame is also tweaked or damaged in any substantial way, I may part with the R6. If the frame is relatively whole and unscathed, then it may be worth my while to bring the bike back to life. The beauty of owning an R6 is that you own a bike that it not at all lacking in used parts.
Belle does a walk-around video of the bike.
Last shot of the R6 just before the lap
when the incident occured.
(note camera on helmet)
However this experience has once again left me reflecting and realigning my disciplines...
