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My Motorcycle Crash
Last update Sometime in 2004
03/28/01 10:00AM
I've decided to make a web page describing the details of my crash, so I don't have to constantly send updates to everyone :)
Some background:
I ride a 1996 Honda VFR750. It's my first bike and I've put over 7000 miles on it in the past 7 months I've been riding. It's a great bike. I joined the internet VFR mailing list before I bought the bike, and that's what ultimately convinced me- the type of guys that ride VFRs. They're generally more experienced, safer, smarter riders. These are the kinds of guys that I want to learn from. Once or twice a month, the local Bay Area VFR list gathers for a "lunch ride" where we ride from a 76 station in Milpitas up Sierra, Felter, then Calaveras Rd all the way down to 680 & 84 in Sunol. The whole ride is about 30 miles and it'll take you 1 - 1.5 hours to complete. I had been on two or three lunch rides previous to the one where I crashed. Since I live so close to Calaveras Rd, I drive it all the time. I've ridden it at least 30 times and driven it at least that many times in my car. View pictures of my bike that I've taken up in the hills here.
The Road:
Calaveras is what us motorcycle guys call a "goat trail." It's only ONE LANE WIDE, even though the road allows two way traffic. If one car encounters another, they both must negotiate a place to pass, often requiring one or both cars to slow down to a crawl and drive off of the road a few feet. On the 17-mile long Calaveras Rd, there are 5 or 6 completely blind left handers (when driving North). They are sharp corners that have your view blocked by a rocky cliff that goes up to the hills above.
My Gear:
I always wear the following gear:
Arai RX7-RR4 Helmet
Tecnik Kevlar Gloves
Aerostich Roadcrafter full riding suit (www.aerostich.com)
Daytona Highway GTX boots
On Thursday the 22nd, an email went out announcing a lunch ride for Friday (the 23rd) at Noon. I said that I'd be there.
I met up with everyone on Friday. There were 8 people that showed up.. more than usual. When we left, I was third, right behind Matt Wallace and David Patton. We were up on Felter and I decided to pass David- I was a little faster on the road because I'd ridden it so many times. It was his first time on the road. We stopped at the beginning of Calaveras Rd to wait for everyone to catch up, then proceeded up the windy goat trail. About 5 miles up, I came around one of the left blind corners discussed above and BAM. I hit a minivan (Matt Wallace was about a quater mile ahead of me so he didn't encounter the minivan on this blind corner). I tried to swerve out of the way, but the whole left side of my bike hit the front left corner of the minivan. I then slid about 20-30 feet and came to a rest on my right side with my bike 5 feet from me.
There are no posted speed limits on this section of road (that I know of), but I couldn't have been going more than 20-25mph.. simply because it's impossible to go much faster than that. The minivan was probably going the same speed (if not slower) in the opposite direction. I believe it was a simple case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The minivan driver and passenger were a nice older couple that enjoyed touring some of the Bay Area mountain roads.
I rolled over onto my back and realized that the bottom half of my left leg didn't roll over with me. It was obvious to me that my leg was broken somewhere- I thought it might have been my knee. Once all of the other VFR guys were gathered there on the scene I was a bit more relaxed and was able to wait 20-25 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
Rod took some on-scene accident pictures that can be viewed here.
When the ambulance arrived, they removed my motorcycle suit (no need to cut it- Another guy on the scene was also wearing the same suit so he showed the EMTs how to unzip it) and cut my jeans off. They put a brace on my leg and told me that if they were to take me to the hospital in the ambulance, it would take twice as long- the road is just too curvy... they ordered me a life-flight. I got a ride in the chopper to Valley Medical Center where they wheeled me into the trauma unit to take x-rays and make sure that I had no injuries. The conclusion was that my only problems were a sprained left ankle and a broken left femur (biggest bone in the body- upper leg). There's no doubt in my mind that my Aerostich saved at LEAST my knee and my boots saved my ankle.
They put me in for emergency surgery where they made an incision just under my knee and put a long nail all the way up the middle of my femur. They made another incision at the top of my femur to attach it with screws. I've got two screws at the top and one at the bottom, as well as the femural nail.
The next day, I was moved to Kaiser (that's my HMO) for recovery. The Kaiser Orthopedic doctor wanted to do a CAT scan on my leg to make sure everything was straight. He was especially sensitive to these types of injuries because he had the exact same injury when he was 17- He broke his femur on a motorcycle and had a femural nail inserted. His isn't completely straight so his left foot sticks out a bit..
I went in for the CAT scan on Monday (26th). The Doctor came and talked to me on Tuesday to tell me that my femur is indeed rotated 10 degrees out and my left leg is about 1cm short. These were well within his "industry's" margins and most surgeons would just leave well enough alone. He said that under trauma surgery, it's very hard to get things lined up perfectly because there are no real guides. He gave me the choice... whether he wanted me to go back in and twist it right and make it the same length. After talking to friends and family for a few hours, I decided that I might as well.
On Monday I was taken off my morphine IV and put on percacet pills for pain. Percacet takes a little longer to get into my system, but once it's in there, it works just as well. Goooood stuff.
I was discharged last night (Tuesday the 27th). Right now I'm laying in bed at my Dad's house where I'll be for the next few days until the Doc calls and tells me when I can come back in for my fixit surgery (most likely Fri or Sat). Not fun.
03/29/01 7:00PM
My second surgery is scheduled for Saturday morning at 9:00AM.
03/31/01 7:00PM
Just woke up from fixit surgery. IV is in my left elbow, so I'm typing with one hand. Doc said that everyting went perfectly. My left ankle was sprained so bad and causing me so much pain (more than leg) that they put it in a cast while I was under. My Dad took some more pictures of me and my cast, I'll post them when he emails them to me.
9:00PM
New pic of me
I obviously haven't shaved :)
04/01/01 9:00PM
IV is still in left elbow, so I'm still typing w/ 1 hand.
Pain is moderate- I'm still using the morphine button. Phys. Therapist got me standing up w/ a walker today..and that was about it. I have to give myself shots in my stomach twice a day- "Lovenox" - prevents blood clotting since my leg is immobile. FOX is the only channel on the hospital TV system that is all fuzzy- so no Simpsons. heheheh
Overall I'm doing all right. (Did you hear about the guy who got his whole left side cut off? Don't worry, he was all right. har har har)
04/02/01 2:00PM
I think they are going to send me back to Dad's tonight. I'm still in quite a bit of pain, but morphine helps, of course.
04/02/01 6:00PM
My Dad is going to come pick me up in about 30 minutes. I told the Doc that the percocets he sent me home with last time weren't as effective after a few days.. so he gave me 50 more... AND 50 vicodins.. so I can go back and forth :)
I hope they serve me dinner before my Dad gets here. I'm hungry. Ascending those two flights of stairs at my Dad's house is NOT going to be fun.
04/03/01 9:00AM
Coming up the stairs last night actually wasn't too bad at all. Walking is less painful, but it's a more difficult task to accomplish- The big cast on my left leg is so heavy, my leg doesn't really have the strength to lift it... so I have to step forward with my right foot, move my crutches forward, then pull my left foot forward using a rope wrapped around my cast at my ankle. I'm still pretty much bed-ridden and I pee in a little urinal here in bed. heh
The vicodin doesn't work nearly as well as the percocet did (when I first started taking it). I just have an extremely high tolerance toward drugs I suppose. Everyone tells me how great this stuff is, but I can hardly tell that I took anything. I may just try some aspirin or advil tonight. It's all about just keeping my mind occupied with other things.. like making web pages. *grin*
I've taken a lot of time in the past few days exchanging my emails with some experienced riders on the VFR list criticizing my own riding. Could a lot more riding experience helped me avoid this crash? who knows..but the simple fact is, I need more constructive learning time on the bike. I'm going to sign up for the California MSF class that I never took. I'm sure it'll also help me gain some needed confidence getting back on the bike after a few months off.
Tue 04/03/01 11:00AM
I just got back from walking to the bathroom and washing myself up on my own.. quite the accomplishment. My leg is hurting like a bastard right now, but the pain should go away once my heart rate slows back down and I find the ideal way to prop my leg up with the pillow. I'm finally feeling like I'm healing. Last time I was at my Dads, my leg was starting to get a little better, but my ankle was getting a lot worse. Now that my ankle is in a cast, I'm not having that problem any more.
It feels good to be clean and not smelly. heheh
Tomorrow I'll try to get up a few times throughout the day. We'll see.
Thu 04/05/01 9:00AM
I got up once yesterday.. and I'm still hurtin pretty bad today. I'm slowly trying to ween myself off of these vicodins. I'm down to taking one instead of two. I'll try to get up once or twice this afternoon. This "not being able to do anything" is starting to suck bigtime.
Thu 04/05/01 8:00PM
I got up twice today. Vicodin makes you constipated, so I drank some Milk of Magnesia.. so one could say that my getting up was not really by choice :). My Dad wants to see if I can make it down the stairs tonight. We'll see...
I've got tickets to see U2 one week from tonight... and I MUST go :)
Sat 04/07/01 11:00PM
Made significant progress today- I was able to walk down a flight of stairs and sit on the couch in the living room for a few hours.
Tue 04/10/01 4:00AM
Like many nights, I woke up in serious pain in the middle of the night. I took a percocet about an hour ago, and I think it's just starting to kick in. They usually take awhile...hopefully I'll be able to fall back asleep soon.
Yesterday I made it downstairs again to get my lunch. I'm going to have to do the same everyday now. Once I got back upstairs, I took two percocets (I'm trying to go back to them instead of the vicodin). About an hour and a half after I took them, I walked to the bathroom.. and I experienced NO pain at all. It was amazing. I'll have to take some BEFORE I go down to get lunch today ;)
Wed 04/11/01 12:01AM
Tonight I made it down two flights of stairs to my motorcycle, where I examined it a little further and took some more pictures of it. My friend Alex brought me my mail and a wheelchair that Kaiser had delivered to my house instead of here to my Dad's (Thanks Alex!).
It looks like I'm going to have to replace *ALL* of the red plastics on the motorcycle.. which means that I might just order another color from Canada.. like Silver (94-97 VFRs were only sold in red in the states, but they were sold in other colors in Canada)! I'll send an email out to the VFR list asking about this. I'd also have to buy a new silver gas tank (or attempt to paint my current one to match whatever color fairings I do order).
In my mail, I got a bill for both the ambulance and the helicopter. Eek! I really hope that Kaiser covers both. On the ambulance bill, it said, "If your automobile insurance covers this, please provide us with your insurance company name and policy number." DOLT! I only have liability.
Ambulance bill total: $767
Helicopter bill total: $4716 !!
12:30AM
I just sent out the email to the VFR list:
To: VFR list, Bay Area VFR list BCC: A few friends..
For those that didn't see my original post, I was involved in an *ahem* encounter... with a minivan. You can read daily-updated information on my crash here:
http://www.linquist.net/kris/crash
For those that are already informed..
I was able to walk down two flights of stairs on my crutches to my bike (in the garage) tonight (quite the accomplishment!!). I took some more pictures of it and took it apart a little to better examine the damage.
Here are the pictures I took (~300k pictures, but they're nicely thumbnailed): http://www.linquist.net/kris/crash/2001-04-10
The good: I'm 90% sure the frame isn't bent at all. The little black sleeve on top of the left fork was torn/broken, but it doesn't appear to have any function other than keeping dirt out. I had a friend of mine sit on the bike and bounce it up and down and everything looked normal.
The bad: I'm going to need to replace:
Entire headlight assembly
Left-front turn signal (right one somehow survived)
Rear brake pedal assembly
Oil cooler
Radiator (I still need to remove the radiator to see if the fan is damaged) Left oil cooler hose left radiator hose Misc. fairing mounts.EVERY RED FAIRING ON THE BIKE. I dropped the bike on the right side 1 week before this crash and I had ordered the left and left-upper fairings from servicehonda.com. I received them, but I'm thinking of returning them now. As long as I have to replace all the red fairings, I might as well order SILVER fairings from Victoria Honda in Canada, right? I think a silver VFR would be awesome (Can someone on the list confirm that silver was an option in Canada in 94-97?).
The only additional investment I'd have to make by "making" my bike silver would be the gas tank. New tanks can run over $500, so I may first see how a red tank on a silver bike looks.. if I don't like it, I'll try to find a place to simply color-match and paint/clearcoat it.
One more question: Please go to the picture link above and look at picture #626 (passenger footpeg mount). It's obviously broken- I can swing it back and forth and it pivots on the one bolt. Is there another bolt on the broken side, or is it welded to the frame? (I forgot to look while I was downstairs.. and getting down there is an event.) In other words, is it a simple part I can order or will I have to get it welded?
I turned the key to the "ON" position and hit the starter button for a tenth of a second (the bike has no coolant and is probably low on oil, so I didn't want to start it), and it turned over with ease. Overall, I'm very impressed with Honda quality.
Thank you all very much for your help. I think I'm going to start a spreadsheet tomorrow listing all non-fairing part numbers and prices (part numbers obtained from http://www.powersportspro.com/partsfish/Login.asp and best prices obtained from http://www.servicehonda.com ) to see how much this is really going to cost me and whether it's worth it or not. Some days I think, "I crashed this bike.. I don't know if I want it anymore.." but most days I think, "I crashed this bike.. I'm going to get it perfect again and ride it until it dies." It only has 17,000 miles on it. It'll ride for at least another 30,000. Original R/R too! :)
-Kris
Sometime in 2004
This page still gets a lot of hits (mostly from Pashnit.com users [hi!]), so I thought I'd give an update of what happened after 4/11/01 :). In April 01, I required a third surgery to correct yet another problem. When the swelling in my knee went down, it was discovered that one of the screws was too long. It wanted to poke itself outside the skin. Not cool.
After that I began recovery. I was out of work for 30 days and on crutches for a total of 3 1/2 months. In May of 01, I bought another 1996 VFR. I couldn't ride it yet, but I was determined to try. In June, I could be seen riding it with a handicapped placard on the front and crutches strapped to the back:
I had no problems until I twisted my knee walking up some stairs in April of 2003. I went to the doc and he wasn't quite sure what was causing me so much pain, but he wanted to go ahead and pull the rod out of there. On July 8, 2003, I had my fourth surgery. Recovery from this one was quick and I now feel that I am 99.5% as good as I was prior to the crash (the half of a percent is some mild pain in my hip on rainy days).
I can still be seen carving the Bay Area mountain roads - including Calaveras - quite frequently.
Be careful out there.