Raydog bites the dust, Pt II (the bike)

[raydog]

Usually when we damage our bikes, we post the pics and the rest of us send notes of sympathy and understanding.........NOT HERE! The purpose of this thread is actually the opposite. When you come down from supersonic speeds, carve your beloved bike into the turn, feel the tarmac's rough surface with your knee in comfort, then, at 60 mph the motorcycle is torn from you and instantly revelations about the seriousness of the crash and ensuing damage overwhelm you....the results could only be bad or worse. When I stood up and realized I was OK, I ran to the bike, pulled it up and it instantly started! I dropped it back into gear and rode it 1 1/2 miles back to the paddock!

Anyways, I finally rolled it out of the garage to access the damage and basically was blown away at the LACK of damage! Some lower fairing scratches, big black frame slider and Woodcraft cover took 90% of the hit...EXACTLY what they were designed to do. That is really satisfying to me.....being the benefactor of MUCH LESS damage than could have been. pics below. Doyle

 

[raydog]

Sorry, didn't upload onto opening post so here they are.

 

[Poppy]

I will say looking at the threads regarding the ooopsies of several riders, I was surprised at the lack of damage to your bike, compared to the other I saw. Plus the pictures show it just sliding along, no major tumble. Very fortunate!!!

 

[aussiesuzukirider]

Being set up right from the start makes all the difference, not just the correct riding gear but also placing the right pieces of protection on your bike.... not that you wouldn't do all this anyway Doyle

 

[Blanca BusaLess]

That is impressive, the lack of. I'm curious. Did you contact hard parts and then wash out due to it or low side cuz tires lost grip? If you contacted hard parts do you think the extra pad on stator cover could have been point of first contact and possible reason why? Maybe that 1/4 was the lil bit of lean you needed? Just asking cuz I'm trying to get deep with this

 

[raydog]

That is impressive, the lack of. I'm curious. Did you contact hard parts and then wash out due to it or low side cuz tires lost grip? If you contacted hard parts do you think the extra pad on stator cover could have been point of first contact and possible reason why? Maybe that 1/4 was the lil bit of lean you needed? Just asking cuz I'm trying to get deep with this

Oh, it's deep around here alright.

Seriously though, I'm impressed with your inquiry because some of us were debriefing about that exact issue! On one hand, the cover saved the bike from much more damage by sacrificing itself......on the other hand, an OEM cover is significantly thinner AND I crashed BECAUSE of tripoding onto that very cover. I can tell you that my slicks (medium soft) were wonderful for the whole day, with amazing control and adhesion. I got low and hard down for dozens of apexes prior to the crash. The pics, witness observations and my self analysis confirm that I simply leaned the bike too low and created the problem myself....BUT, with a stock cover, I bet I'd have ripped that corner fine and not crashed (not because of any greatness on my part, just fortunate luck had that other part been on!) Another self criticism....if I had been farther off the bike allowing the bike a few degrees LESS lean, that would be the best behavior BUT an old and serious lifelong back injury (from crashing a police car) makes it hard for me to be Ben Spies. I think I'm slowly getting more flexible through yoga however, we'll see. Doyle

 

[isiahstites]

Doyle for us both going down on the same side at about the same speed your bike faired so much better than mine. And for the record it was much easier staying with you when you were on the naked busa than it was when you were on the red one.

Scott

 

[Fastfrog007]

Mine got more damage falling in the driveway

 

[raydog]

Doyle for us both going down on the same side at about the same speed your bike faired so much better than mine. And for the record it was much easier staying with you when you were on the naked busa than it was when you were on the red one.

Scott

Yeah, I basically held it to 70-80% on the black one, the tires are very untrustworthy! (plus the difference in suspensions).

 

[GoldenChild]

You faired well..

 

[Blanca BusaLess]

Thanks. I was curious about that. Whether or not the extra little pad on cover stuck out so much so that it became first point of contact and lifted tires off. Do many folks you know who track Busas have same cover or do they use oem one to gain more clearance? Do the slick track tires allow one more lean or do they just hold better than street tires but offer no Addtl lean? Something else I wonder about.

 

[raydog]

Thanks. I was curious about that. Whether or not the extra little pad on cover stuck out so much so that it became first point of contact and lifted tires off. Do many folks you know who track Busas have same cover or do they use oem one to gain more clearance? Do the slick track tires allow one more lean or do they just hold better than street tires but offer no Addtl lean? Something else I wonder about.

More good questions, re: using slicks....it's not that they allow more degrees of lean (although I'm sure that's the case when compared to many street tires) it's that, when properly heated, they allow more adhesion to the tarmac, therefore more control AND potentially more speed at the same time is the result. When you "unload" the best tires in the world, you take away their miracle adhesion (like I did when tripoding). Re: the Woodcraft cover, quite frankly I never thought it would be an issue! I don't know about other track riding Busas, there just aren't enough of em for me to notice (usually track riding Busas are an occasional experience, not a constant track bike). I'm actually considering creating a left side cover that is totally flat and tighter at the bottom so if it scraped, it wouldn't catch as readily on the ground (doesn't mean you couldn't still unload the tires but it would take a lot more to do it). You know, this is really part of the fun for me, the whole development angle. Especially since I'm not in traction at a local hospital! Doyle

 

[isiahstites]

Thanks. I was curious about that. Whether or not the extra little pad on cover stuck out so much so that it became first point of contact and lifted tires off. Do many folks you know who track Busas have same cover or do they use oem one to gain more clearance?

I had one on when I went down.......I do not believe my unweighted the front like in Doyle's case but I am sure it was the first part to hit.