Sorry to hear about your off Travis, a high side at our age and at that speed, man, that's a recipe for some serious damage.
I occasionally forget the stand, always as a result of a distraction that interrupts the sequence, thank goodness for the safety switch, it's never lost on me that each time I do that is a potential road strike at speed and the certainty of a nasty outcome. There is a very good reason pilots are taught to start over on pre flight inspections if they are distracted or interrupted.
Here, we ride on the LHS of the road so an extended stand is higher off the ground because of the camber, which is almost worse because it lets you ride further and faster, but when it does hit, say on a bump or a LH corner it sends you spearing off into oncoming traffic.
I worked for Honda in the 80's and manufacturers were at the time making an effort to address this problem, albeit a seriously misguided one. Some had rubber tips that looked like pencil erasers that would deflect when the weight of the bike was placed on the stand but if it clipped the road while in motion, it would flick the stand up (sort of worked, sometimes) Another (terrible) idea that made it into production was a side stand that would only stay down while weighted, what a disaster, if you stood the bike upright or even leaned up against it, the stand would flick up. We are talking the 80's here, what was so hard about coming up with the safety switch/engine cut-out idea, the mechanical action of the side stand retracting would have made this easy, the stand itself being an actuator like it is now.
Nothing leads to a rider forgetting to retract the side stand more than being on an unfamiliar bike. The first turn from our shop was a sweeping left hander a few hundred metres away. We had so many incidents on test rides that it became a habit borne of necessity to stand there and oversee their departure, it was fortunate that corner was a divided road with a heavily planted out and wide median strip, it saw quite a bit of action.
Travis, I guess you don't need reminding that you got unlucky
and lucky, that could have been so much worse.
19 mths ago I had a off that resulted in a neck injury and spent months shuffling between bed and couch on a walking frame, sleeping upright and relentless 24/7 severe pain. My ability to work remains limited to this day and I still can't ride the FJ too far, fortunately the more upright and better sprung RT can be.
The point of relaying this story is,
I was going probably 15-20kph!, a fast running speed, just enough momentum to throw me forward and land on my head, had I landed on my feet at that speed I probably wouldn't have even fallen over. Haha, maybe God has favourites.
As they say, you ain’t rode ‘til you been throwed. I guess we have both now earned our stripes as bona fide riders.
Glad to see it hasn't dampened you enthusiasm for riding, get well, and get back on it.
I think a trailer might be a good idea guys. I'll start looking for one now.Hopefully the Australians don't give me too hard of a time.
Haha, I don’t think anyone would begrudge you driving to the rally under the circumstances, just don’t get used to it or even think about pulling the same stunt next year
Noel
