05-16-2014, 12:36 AM
Thanks to all for your well wishes. I am riding again. My response to how to better avoid accidents: When I was younger and wilder, I had a couple of cases where I went off the road on sharp curves which I over-cooked. My fault, no question, but I have slowed down and learned a lot of accident avoidance tricks. I have been riding for almost 50 years and about a half-million miles and this was my first serious accident. I was going southbound fairly slow, about 40MPH, on a lightly traveled road. A car coming the other way slowed down and then turned left into my lane almost directly in front of me. It was like he did not see me until the last second. I braked and swerved as hard as I could and managed to swerve around the front of the car. When the front wheel hit the shoulder stone, the bike skidded out from under me and tossed me like a rag doll. I blacked out and woke up flat on my back in a lot of pain. A passing motorist with first aid skills helped me until the ambulance and police showed up. The faulty car driver was never identified and probably left the scene. My lessons learned: I had stupidly taken the armor out of my riding jacket - I am buying a new one of better quality and the armor will stay in. I had an excellent Shoei helmet that had severe road rash on both sides. Just bought a new one exactly the same. I have Held gloves that are expensive but did their job - no injuries to my hands. I had on decent boots - they were scraped up pretty good, especially where they cover my ankles. I usually wear all black, but will switch to more colorful clothes. I was on my Gold Wing, which has big head lights and turn signals that are lit all the time. How could someone not see it? Be careful everyone, you may be a great rider but there are some lousy drivers out there.