Hill End Sunday 5^th July 2009

Paul Southwell (lead)	Honda CBR1000	Cliff Peters	Suzuki GSXR1000
Ian Payne (rear)	Honda CBR1000	Dave Ward	Kawasaki Z1000
Ben Warden	Honda CBR954	Pina Garasi	Yamaha R6
Ha Du	Honda CBR600	Henry Wright	Triumph 675
Cameron Stevens	Yamaha FZ6	13 degrees, 180 km	9 bikes, 9 people

Leg 1: Yarra Glen, Healesville, Yarra Junction, Powelltown, Noojee.

Leg 2: Noojee, Icy Creek, Hill End, Trafalgar Road, Old Sale Road, Crossover, Neerim South.

Leg 3: Neerim South, Jindivick, Longwarry North

Writer’s note: I left it waaay too late to write this and can’t remember anything so I will only write about the accident. The rest of the ride was probably uneventful!

It was a pretty normal winter Club ride: not too long with the short day, with plenty of time spent warming up at morning tea, and a few good laughs over lunch. Wet roads, so we were riding carefully. Just a nice sort of relaxed way to spend a Sunday. Which makes smashing my bike all the more annoying.

It had been pretty damp all day, if not actually raining most of the time. So perhaps when the sun poked its head from around the cloud, my enthusiasm warmed up faster than the roads.

Travelling along the Jindivick Neerim South Road, just after the bridge before a sharp right, off-camber corner, I decided to make the most of the sunshine and overtake Ha going up the hill. Unfortunately, I concentrated too much on overtaking and not enough on the corner coming up.

I braked hard but the combination of wet tarmac and gravel on the side of the road caused the rear to lock up quickly followed by the front. There wasn’t a huge amount of time to consider my options. Perhaps a world dirt bike champion would have drifted around the corner and done a mono on the exit. I just straight-lined the corner and exited the road onto soft muddy grass. In my mind, my calculated stopping point was about 10 metres before the fence but the grass might as well have been ice because the bike hardly seemed to slow at all. With both wheels locked, I dug a trench through the grass, slipping onto my left side just before the fence.

I remember thinking “Hey, this isn’t going to be so bad.” Right before the bike hit the fence. After seeing the spray of plastic bits as it hit the fence, I thought, “Oh no, this is going to be a problem.” Then I hit the tank with my knees before being flipped up and hitting the middle of the fence with my right side. Luckily for me, it was one of those low security style fences that they have around schools. I hit right in the middle, basically bouncing off.

My knees were a little sore but I am very thankful that I was wearing proper motorcycle pants with knee pads, receiving nothing more than a few bruises. Thanks also to the helmet, which suffered a bit of damage, and the SHIFT leather jacket which had armour down the arms. I felt like I had been body slammed in a very hard rugby tackle.

Unfortunately, the bike was not so lucky. The front mudguard was broken, the flyscreen smashed into a million pieces, the gear lever bent 180 degrees, and the instrument cluster was smashed, the speedo the only working part. Also the tank had a dent and some heavy scratches and the left hand radiator cowl was cracked. Later I would find that the steering stop was smashed off and the top of the left fork was damaged where it contacted the frame.

The cavalry (Ian, Cameron, Dave) arrived and were very helpful in getting the bike up. The engine had cut out as Triumphs have a level switch which turns it off in a stack. So, after re-connecting the instrument cluster and resetting it a few times, it fired back into life. Some bending of levers and a generous amount of duct tape and it was ready to ride.

I wasn’t feeling one hundred percent confident so Dave very generously swapped bikes with me. I rode his (new!) Z1000 the final 10 km to the break up point. By the way, the Z1000 is pretty loud stock and feels good to ride. Unfortunately, for those recovering from a recent motorcycle crash, it has a bone jarring ride!

Everyone had a gander at the petrol station and a few jokes were made about my naked bike being made ‘naked’er’. After that I rode home and very quietly tip toed into the house...

Aftermath: Swann Insurance was pretty good. The bike was written off because of the frame damage. I had a new-for-old policy with gear and helmet cover. This turned out well as, after a lot of consideration, I decided that I really liked my old bike and didn’t want to get a cheaper or second hand bike. I needed a new helmet anyway.

The replacement value for my bike was $1200 more than what I paid for it in 2008, after I had taken all the accessories off at home. The new-for-old policy covered the higher price and I paid some extra to upgrade to the Street Triple R. I then put all my accessories on to it.

The insurance premium was not too bad; I am now paying $1033p.a. vs $760p.a. before. (That includes an insured value $2000 higher than last time.) Best of all, the Street R was showroom stock, so I didn’t have to wait four months like I did last time.

Overall, the outcome wasn’t too bad, Of course, it would have been better if it hadn’t happened all. Here are my lessons learned so that you might get some value from my experience:

1. Don’t target fixate and forget about the road ahead.

2. If the rider ahead is going slow, think before overtaking why that might be.

3. In an emergency situation you generally take the reflex option that feels safest.

4. Insurance is worth it.

5. Wear knee pads! (and good gear in general – I bought myself a back protector after this).

6. When bad things happen, it’s nice to have helpful people in the Club!

I think I will be taking it a bit easier from now on as this is definitely my “last bike”. Once it is run in, I will be back out there.

Henry Wright