My Clock on the FJ quit working.

[Firehawk068]

About five and a half weeks ago, at the Central Rally in Wisconsin, what had previously been a dead-solid-reliable device...............just quit.
It had always been there..........just a glance away, always steady (albeit just a tad fast against a more accurate device), always guiding me on my journeys and letting me know exactly where among the 24-hour swing of the Earth I was at any given moment..................Sometimes letting me know that it's time to turn towards home. Sometimes telling me "Nah, it's still early enough. Take that other road and see where it goes".
After roughly 143,000 miles of reliability, out in the farm-country of Wisconsin on a nearly deserted back road, making it's way around an easy left-hander..........The Clock stopped.
Could it be that age has finally set in, and the gauges are finally failing?  ...................( My factory speedometer finally gave up in San Francisco at this year's WCR. The noise was so bad, I had to disconnect it! It had been slowly buzzing backwards, taking miles off ever since))
Could it be some vibration related issue finally took it's toll? 
Could it have been the heat from all those years touring in the baking sun that finally killed it? 

Nah.....................the cause of failure was none of those!

The actual reason it ceased to function was caused by an intrusion of the right side mirror mount into the space that was previously occupied by said clock!




Yup...............It happened. My poor, trusty old girl and I both took a tumble down the road at about 40-mph.
Luckily I'm a firm believer in always wearing all my safety gear! (it amazes me how many riders refuse to)
I barely had a scratch on me! The bruises..............well, that's a different story......

These pics were taken at the scene.








I want to take a minute to personally thank: Cap'n Ron, Leon, Fred, Giantkiller-Dan, and Isaac for their assistance in getting the bike upright, and also for their efforts in cleaning up my "Yard-Sale"
When the bike tumbled down the road, both side-cases popped open, emptying their contents down the road and into the grass on the side.
I also want to say "I'm sorry" for causing us to miss out on finishing the "Quest for Cheese!" 

Right at the moment when the Clock on the FJ stopped, the clock seemed to speed up for me................
One instant I was entering the turn, and starting to roll on the throttle to exit.............The very next instant I was tumbling and skidding down the road, coming to rest on my back in the middle of the road, with the bike coming to a rest on it's right side, just at the shoulder of the road approx. 40-50 yards further than me.
I didn't experience any of the "everything happened in slow-motion", or the "time stood still" feeling................It wasn't like that for me at all. It happened so fast, and it was all over in an instant.
At first, I wasn't exactly sure what actually happened? The only thing I was certain of was that at seemingly the very instant that I went to roll on the throttle, the bike slid out from under me and I went down HARD on my left side............Very hard!
After realizing that I was laying in the middle of the road, I quickly got up to move myself to the side in case any cars came down the road (none ever did while we were there)
I quickly took inventory of all my limbs and joints.............Everything functioned as it should, nothing was out of place, and nothing felt broken.....This was a great thing.
I did however feel that my entire left thigh and my left hip instantly swelled up.......It felt as if someone had taken a baseball bat, and tried to hit three homers off of my thigh......
Luckily my riding pants have a large pad in both hips.. I feel as though if that padding wasn't there, I might have had a broken hip? 
My Joe Rocket jacket was shredded, but they strategically put all the padding and protection in the correct places. It saved my ass!
I literally only had a small scratch on my left side "love-handle" where the jacket rode-up slightly during the slide, and a very small "Friction-burn" about the size of a quarter on my left elbow from the inside material of the jacket arm. I had absolutely no road-rash on me anywhere! My helmet has no damage on it whatsoever..............the only thing that happened to it, is the rear "Duck-tail" spoiler wind-deflector  piece came off when I came to a rest on my back in the road.

After collecting everything and picking up all the broken pieces of fairing and windshield, and packing everything back into my side-cases, I looked the bike over to asses the damage.
The protective gear that I installed on the FJ did it's job as well!  The engine guards took a scraping, but nothing contacted the engine and no fluids were leaking out!
I attempted to start it up to see if it would run. After a few sputters from clearing the fuel that ran into the carbs from laying on it's side, it fired right up and ran perfect!
I took her for a quick spin down the road and back to see if it would ride straight..............Nothing bent that I could tell, except for the shifter arm. I eased it out just a little to keep it from hitting the side-stand (wouldn't downshift) and everything worked as it should. Amazingly, despite having been smashed in, all the lights and turn signals still worked correctly (even the tachometer still functions)
Feeling confident that I could ride the FJ back to town, and a quick check of the distance back to the Round Barn, Ron gave me the quick question "Cheese or no-cheese?"
My only thought at that moment was getting back to the Lodge and further assessing my situation, so I mistakenly answered "No-cheese". In hindsight, I should have said "cheese" cause the outcome of my situation would not have changed any, and I feel as though I deprived the crew of some fresh Wisconsin "Artisan-Cheese".  (I promise, I'll find a way to make it up to you guys) 

On the way back to town, the shifter-arm came off the bolt and I lost the ability to shift. Apparently when I pulled on the arm to bend it back out a little, I must have popped the little snap-ring off the end.
I slid it back on and held it in place with my boot for the rest of the ride back to town.
Fred came to my rescue! He just happened to be carrying the exact spare snap-ring that I needed, as well as the pliers to re-install it! (thank you again Fred!)

By this time, my left leg was one solid purple bruise from my knee to my hip, and all I wanted to do was eat.
We all ended up walking across the street to this awesome 50's-themed, drive-in Burger place to get some food.

I'll finish the story tomorrow, and explain how this whole thing happened..............................(more to come)

[Pat Conlon]

Well shit. I am glad you're ok. Bruised and sore for sure, but essentially ok. Sorry to hear this Alan.
The same thing happened to me several years ago so I can relate.
One moment everything is fine, next moment wham! Happened so fast. A blink of an eye.
Sliding down the road at 50mph. Face down. I remember seeing the asphalt grinding away at my face shield and chin bar, thinking that it looked like a giant belt sander.
I hit sand while at full lean in a corner and washed out the front. Broke 4 ribs on my right side. No fun.
No road rash for me either. The gear did its job. My ribs broke from my elbow compressing in on my right side.

Heal well amigo! Forgive yourself. Don't listen to that radio station KFUCK     Pat

[fjbiker84]

Fortunately you're OK.  What do you think caused the bike to lose traction?  Gravel or dirt in the road? 

[FJmonkey]

Wow Alan, glad you are mostly unhurt. We can never predict when we will go down, but we can chose to use protective gear for both bike and rider. Your good choices paid off. Looking forward to hearing more about it when you post up again.

[ribbert]

Well, you know what they say..."You ain't rode til you been throwed" 

That's rotten luck Alan but as we all know, it can happen to the most vigilant rider.

Glad to hear no serious injuries and it's a great testament to protective gear and engine bars.

Noel

[timleslie1957]

  First and foremost, I am really glad you got out of this spill without critical damage to your body.  The pictures were very informative, if not nightmarish, to me.  I an a newb here and you made me reflect on my own riding habits.  Without elaborating, I have a fantastic helmet that I am sure will do its job in an accident.  But, that's it.  Jeans and a jacket.  Good golly Miss Molly what in the hell have I been thinking?  My riding bud berated me on not having protective clothing on while riding my new to me FJ1200.  This struck home ... very hard.  Me, with a gorgeous young wife, two boys ages 4 and 5 ... great home and job ... tooling down the road like I own the world and am invincible.  No more.

Could you please (if this is not too tacky a question to ask right now) provide the gear types and brands you donned on this fateful trip?  I am plugging down money this week for the protection.  Thank you ... and again ... I am so glad you came out as well as you did, although the soreness must be crazy.  Here's to happier and less "eventful" trips, fellow rider!   

[red]

Firehawk,

Hey, torn-up riding gear never looked so good!  Glad to hear you were undamaged, mostly, but I 'spect you will be taking things easy for a few days. 

Too bad, about that clock.      

[Pat Conlon]

Reminds me of an anecdote  from hippie Jon Cain:

Jon rides up to a stoplight and a Harley rider is stopped right next to him.
The Harley dude yells to Jon, "Hey guy, aren't you hot wearing all that gear?"
Jon raises his face shield and replies, "Yea, this gear is hot, until you need it...then it's pretty cool.."

Alan, I think you've just helped a newcomer.

[CutterBill]

When someone, eyeing my gear, asks me, "Hey, aren't you hot?"  I reply with, "Yeah, but I'd rather sweat than bleed."

Timleslie... FirstGear and Joe Rocket make pretty good gear at a reasonable price.
Bill

[aviationfred]

Alan asked all of us that were riding with him on that day too withhold mentioning this incident on any of our rally write ups until he posted.

I was riding directly behind Alan when this happened. As I was about to enter the corner, all of a sudden Alan is on the ground, his FJ doing the jitterbug dance down the road and I am doing the best I can to scrub speed and stop as quickly as I can, 1st was to avoid Alan and the 2nd to be able to get off the bike and render assistance. Once I was able to stop and get off the bike, it was a great relief to find Alan mostly un injured.

When Cap'n Ron asked Alan, Cheese or No Cheese..... I was so hoping Alan was going to say CHEESE ME. when the response came back No Cheese, I fully understood that we all were in the position to make sure that Alan and his FJ both safely make it back the the motel.

As far as safety gear goes..... A torn up Jacket, pants and a helmet are a small price to pay to save your hide from road rash. One of the things that I noticed with this forum. When we all meet at various rally's, everyone wears full head to toe riding gear. Often times while riding in a group ride locally here in Kansas, I am asked if I am really hot in my gear, or simply....why do I wear my gear everywhere that I ride. I tell them, the gear can be the difference between walking away with a few bumps and bruises, or an ambulance ride to the hospital with a few broken bones. Yes, I speak from a personal experience. I also prefer Joe Rocket as my brand of choice for mine and my kids riding apparel.


Fred

[1tinindian]

Alan and I also had an eventful, early morning ride, the next day...
More to follow..

I await the rebuild progress on the FJ!

[Bezmozek]

Yup...............It happened. My poor, trusty old girl and I both took a tumble down the road at about 40-mph.
Luckily I'm a firm believer in always wearing all my safety gear! ...

Sorry to hear that, we have saying here, that every crash you can leave on your own feet is good crash.
Luckily you are OK and old girls heart still beats, I think some of the guys here will be happy to find spare FJ clock for you

[aviationfred]

  Good golly Miss Molly what in the hell have I been thinking?  My riding bud berated me on not having protective clothing on while riding my new to me FJ1200.  This struck home ... very hard.  Me, with a gorgeous young wife, two boys ages 4 and 5 ... great home and job ... tooling down the road like I own the world and am invincible.  No more.

Could you please (if this is not too tacky a question to ask right now) provide the gear types and brands you donned on this fateful trip?  I am plugging down money this week for the protection. 

I made a separate post for some samples of Joe Rocket gear, click on the blue link

http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=17300.msg174119#msg174119

Fred

[rlucas]

Alan asked all of us that were riding with him on that day withhold mentioning this incident on any of our rally write ups.

... When Cap'n Ron asked Alan, Cheese or No Cheese..... I was so hoping Alan was going to say CHEESE ME. when the response came back No Cheese, I fully understood that we all were in the position to make sure that Alan and his FJ both safely make it back the the motel.

I had gone out alone that day, so I missed the excitement.

I got the artisanal cheese, though. Five pounds. There's still about 2.5 pounds left, if anybody wants some (Buffalo cheddar, butterkaese, and farmer's cheese).


rossi

[timleslie1957]

When someone, eyeing my gear, asks me, "Hey, aren't you hot?"  I reply with, "Yeah, but I'd rather sweat than bleed."

Timleslie... FirstGear and Joe Rocket make pretty good gear at a reasonable price.
Bill

Thanks.  I am looking at both of those.  I appreciate the get back!