If this means my number just came up, I'll take it

[Gone in 60]

What's the saying? There are riders who have crashed, and riders who are going to crash?

Guess my number just got called, but if this is the one that pushed me over the "have crashed" line, I guess I'll take it.

Riding the Bonneville to work, and a block before the office, a lady turned left in front of me into her office parking lot. She saw me, hesitated, and then gunned it and tried to make her turn in front of me. I started emergency braking, then, of course, she panicked and stopped right in front of me.

I could see that we were going to hit, but I looked down at the two RLETs on my levers, which I was now squeezing with all of my might, and they gave me the power to stop even harder. At least I had slowed significantly.

Luckily, if we were going to hit, I hit her in the best spot. My front wheel went into the gap between her front wheel and fender. So, the bike wedged and stayed up. Lunched my front fender, scuffed up my forks.

I talked to the lady, she said "I saw you, why didn't you stop?" Really? Having been an insurance investigator, I figured the best thing was to take a bunch of photos before moving anything. One driver who was next to me before the accident circled back and gave me his info, saying "I saw everything".

The whole thing was pretty minor, but a good Samaritan called 911, and as I was parking my bike, was insisting that I lay down. I thanked him but said it wasn't necessary. Soon, a phalanx of two fire trucks, an ambulance, and three police cars showed up. Great.

The firetrucks and ambulance got a thumbs up from me, and kept rolling, while the police took our stories and information.

I pulled what was left of my front fender off of the wheel, and rode the final block to work. I rotated the bars forward in the clamps, and the bike pulled to the right a bit as I rode. Maybe tweaked the forks in the clamps, hopefully that's it as far as structural damage.

We'll see how insurance shakes out, I immediately filed a claim with her carrier.

I'm torn about the RLETS on the Triumph now.. they either just saved my life, or created the bad juju that made that lady want to turn in front of me, then panic stop. Hm...

[Rocky_imp]

Stupid people!!!!!
Glad it was only fairly minor and you weren't hurt.

[LongRanger_imp]

Yow. Let's chalk this one up to the "have crashed" category. We'll have no more of that, thank you very much.

Certainly glad you're okay. Sounds like she violated your right of way. A good defense attorney could pin it back on you for not avoiding her, but that would be lame. Hopefully all goes well with the insurance adjuster and you two can be on your way.

[KiowaEagle_imp]

Thank goodness you had the foresight to install rlets on your Triumph! Imagine the outcome without that extra layer of protection and performance!

[Gone in 60]

The irony is that she was pulling into her office, AAA Insurance. I'm going to chalk the RLETs up to a positive spiritual force in mitigating the accident, not contributing to it.

[Cormanus]

Gone in 60, I’m glad you’re OK. Accidents certainly cause one to question the power of the RLET, but I think your conclusion is the right one. I’m sure my recent ‘off’ would have Ben worse without them.

[suhawk305]

Thanks goodness this “have crashed ” is minor. I think people like us, with many years of motorcycle riding, learn not to trust any other motorist or even an animal while riding. Unfortunately, situations like yours are unavoidable.
Yes, I am in the “have crashed” category with a couple of bad ones during my reckless youth years.
I’m sure Psychologists have a term for people like me: a person who gets discharged from the hospital in the morning, my parents the go to their jobs leaving me to inspect my crashed CL350, minor damage displayed, put on my scuffed-up (with pebbles still embedded in it) BUCO helmet and down the road I go... Only to return after few hours to a very unhappy mother!

[Gone in 60]

I was thinking, if she hadn't stopped right in front of me, I probably would have hit her SUV further back, into a solid surface like her door, rather than into the gap between the wheel and fender. That would have been a much more damaging hit to both the bike and me. As it is, my tank isn't at all scuffed, and my mirrors are bent forward, which tells me that I didn't slide forward on the seat, and my forearms bent forward and pushed the mirrors, while my hands stayed on the grips. Impact speed must have been less than 20. For a split second, I was thinking I might have been able to stop short of hitting her.

[Houtman_imp]

I am very glad that YOU are ok !

[the Ferret]

Glad you are ok Gone. Rlet's have no power over others so they couldn't have made her turn in front of you, their sole purpose was to make sure you got slowed enough to avoid injury.