Things that go bump on the road

365 Group


Friday 2/20/09
Today was nice and warm with snow in the overnight forecast.
I had the day off and rode up to Luther's and borrowed his shop. My chain had been all but sending up sparks from the pavement it was so loose.
I need to do a bit of maintenance on my bike but I just opted for tightening the chain. Other things could wait a bit longer.
Luther pitched in and gave me a hand and I was done before I realized that I had even started.
We visited for a while and I headed out to town,
Running down the mountain the bike seemed to ride some better and I didn't notice the chain vibration as bad.
Turning on to Highway 45 I headed east toward Fayetteville. My plan was to meet a guy from work for a sandwich and beer at Penguin Ed's.
Traffic was light and most of the brush had been cleaned off the shoulders of the road. Things were almost back to normal from the ice storm. I was making good time and figured that I would stop by the Grocery store and pick up some Carburetor cleaner and top off my tank.
I turned on my signal and pulled into the turn lane just before Highway 265 at The Bank of Fayetteville and Bizy's .
A couple of cars were coming and as I waited I was slowly rolling forward in anticipation of making my turn. This is probably what helped me the most. A small pickup truck came over the hill and punched me from behind. I had the front wheel cocked just enough for the turn I was going to make that it cause the bike to flip over. I now know how a rag doll feels when it's owner throws a tantrum and tosses it.
I got thrown off over the front of the bike and landed a few feet from it. The bike landed in oncoming traffic on it's side. Even though I knew I wasn't hurt I took my time getting up and made sure. I walked over to my bike and looked to see how bad it was broken. I got lucky in that it just had a few scratches and some new character marks. The crash bar/ cruising pegs took the impact and they had the clamp broken and were loose. A nice lady stopped and blocked traffic while I rocked it back up right. I put it on the stand and asked her to call the cops and then walked over to the truck that had hit me to see if they were OK. The guy driving was sort of freaking out saying he didnt see me. Finally I got him to clam a little and he said he was alright and asked what he needed to do. I told him to pull over into the parking lot and wait on the cops. Going back to my bike I noticed that traffic was piling up and told the woman that she could go on after I rolled my bike across the road. I got up enough speed that I coasted almost all the way up the drive to the bank and Bizys. The guy that hit me helped me push it on up out of the drive and we looked it over.
When the cops showed up the guy told them that he pulled over to turn in here and just didn't see me sitting there. The cop asked me if that's what happened. I told the cop that I believed the guy. He wasn't going all that fast when he hit me. After all the politics and back and forthing with the cop it worked out that If I didn't have to go to the Doctor and the trucks driver made good on repairs to my bike he would he wouldn't do an all out accident report. Basically we just exchanged information and let it go at that.
I didn't make it for the sandwich. It took what seemed like an hour to get the bike started and when I did I just headed back to the house.
Back home I looked over everything and really all I could find was the bent peg and broken clamp. About $3 dollars damage. I think I'll take it back to Luther's shop tomorrow and really look it over and then call the cop and give him the damage estimate.

Did you see me? I was on the road, literally.