Crashed my bike

[Firstimer1969]

This is not the type of post i wanted to put up but I need to share my pain with fellow Buell owners. I have a 2007 Firebolt which I found a few years ago with only 6 miles on it. Yes only 6! I've been riding for the past 2 years but still haven't reached 1000 miles. Two weeks ago I crashed the bike when a women in an SUV decided to cut across me from a side street. I had spotted her before reaching the intersection she was completely stopped, she decided to cut across but never looked to see if anyone was coming. She was in front of me instantly, i hit both breaks hard and both me and bike went down and slid into the slide of the truck. Once I stopped bouncing around i found myself in-front of the truck on my back.

There were lots of people around who came to help me, an off duty nurse held my head while paramedics arrived. They got me secured onto a hard board and rushed me to the hospital, the trauma teams was excellent and they quickly assessed me. I had no spine or neck injuries but I did have 7 broken ribs and a bleeding spleen, my knee suffered some road rash but that was minor. I spent 10 days in the trauma unit at the hospital recovering. I developed some bladder problems which I'm still trying to sort out. All in all I'm lucky that my injuries are relatively minor, it could have been a lot worse.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my story and share some pics of the bike. It looks repairable but there's substantial damage to the front faring, headlight assembly and controls. I noticed some wiring was also in rough shape. Once I'm feeling better I'll take a closer look.

Thanks for reading. Ride safe!

 

[Negative]

FIrst off ... Glad to see you made it out alive at least !!! ...

Stick around the forum and i'm sure you can find lots of helpful peeps to help you piece it back together ...

 

[iman501]

That stinks man! Glad to hear your alright! Any word on insurance?....

 

[wolfo68]

Glad you're okay man, take your time. we can rebuild that very easily around here.

 

[stamen]

glad your ok [up]

 

[50dro]

Bummer! Glad you're still here to tell us about it though. [up]

I'll be interested to see what your insurance does for you. From the pics, I see frame, swing-arm and header damage plus all the front end damage you mentioned and probably fork damage if I were to guess. You hit some expensive parts on that bike. I'm not very hopeful...

Heal up brother! The bike can be repaired/replaced!

 

[thrstrmech]

glad you're ok...

 

[Gloomshadow]

glad you made it, dude.. don't feel bad, we all go down every once in a while.

I don't see any swingarm damage... and that header damage is nothing, you can wrap that. I cant see any fork damage from here.. the main thing just looks like a cracked front subframe... used ones are pretty cheap. Looks like on of your clip-ons is bent (cheap too).. just looking at it from here I don't think that's gonna cost much to get up and running.. maybe 250-300 bucks depending on where you look for your parts... no big deal dude, don't sweat it! Bikes are replaceable, you body isn't.

 

[100thwindow]

Glad you made it out alive, hope you have a speedy recovery

 

[Firstimer1969]

Thanks all for the well wishes. I know I'm lucky it could have been much worse. If i had frame pucks and swingarm spindles I'd be looking at no damage on the right side, I don't know about the forks but at first glance they looked okay. There wasn't much slide for the bike or me, we both went down and almost instantly we hit the truck. If you notice the tire mark on the front wheel fender it looks like the front fairing took all the impact and not the wheel, If the forks and tree are ok it might be fixable.

Thanks again. I'm not done with bikes yet but my kids don't want me on my bike any time soon.

 

[Gloomshadow]

any damage on your plastics can usually be buffed or sanded out.. they aren't painted. They are cast out of the same stuff they make golf balls out of.. real tough material. It just bends back into shape too..also it looks like your fame damage is real light.. just putting pucks on it should hide that scratch..

 

[50dro]

I didn't mean it couldn't be fixed but insurance companies tend to total bikes with damages like these. For instance they will want to replace the headers not wrap them to hide the damage. They can be big bucks plus the labor associated with replacing them. The list goes on and on and adds up quickly unfortunately.

 

[OldGeezer]

Damn, glad you're OK! Your bike looks lightly damaged, I don't think you'll have any trouble fixing it up. Like folks have said, bikes are fixable/replaceable, people aren't.

Glad you're OK and doing better.

 

[Gloomshadow]

I doubt that bike is insured.. in my State at least, insuring a paid for bike worth under 4 grand isn't worth it, here in Florida only financed bikes or riders without helmets are insured. Unless its some kind of priceless custom chopper.

 

[50dro]

It's worth $4000 if it's totaled. I'm not sure what your rates are there but I have full coverage on mine in PA for under $200 a year. Its worth it to me but it's a decision we have to make and when you're in this situation and don't have collision you're either out of a bike or you are fronting the bill to fix it. I'm not trying to be confrontational...just giving a typical scenario. We'll let the OP tell his story if he chooses. I sincerely hope it all ends well for him...

 

[Gloomshadow]

Last I had anything to do with full coverage I was 25... and on sportbikes the monthly premium was pretty much the same as my monthly bike payment. At least that's how I remember it... that was a long time ago.

 

[Slostang]

Glad you're alright man. Heal up fast and worry about everything else later.

Call me crazy, but a situation like this crosses my mind every time I pull my helmet on. Hope everyone stays safe out there. Too many soccer moms driving tanks on the roads.

 

[Kooma]

Yikes!
glad to hear you're still breathing the bike looks like it faired better than you...

no worries bikes can be repaired/replaced, keep your chin up, you'll be riding again in no time!

 

[redwing]

I had no spine or neck injuries but I did have 7 broken ribs and a bleeding spleen, my knee suffered some road rash but that was minor. I spent 10 days in the trauma unit at the hospital recovering. I developed some bladder problems which I'm still trying to sort out. All in all I'm lucky that my injuries are relatively minor, it could have been a lot worse.

That's rough man. So sorry to hear it. Here's to a full and speedy recovery. [up]

 

[Xrayron]

What kind of gear were you wearing? I'm also throwing you some Rep points because your sharing your financial and physical pain with us.

Any pics of your gear would be cool too. Get well man when my buddy gets back from his cruise I'll find out the stuff he uses for his bladder infections, kidney stones maybe that will help.