All packed up and ready to go

[NobodySpecific]

so i'm that guy...i crashed pretty hard on rt 212 at the north carolina/tennessee border. i came out of a corner, got distracted by the steep and very close 20-25 drop off and proceeded to run off the road. my front tire immediately sink into the super soft dirt and launched me off the front of the bike. as best as i can tell i landed on the top of my left shoulder and my head, rolled onto the front of my head, then slid along the right side of my head. the bike flipped onto the nose and landed on the right side and slid about 10 feet down the embankment. we couldn't get it back up because it was too soft and steep so we called a tow truck while we assessed the damage.

my shoulder, ribs, back, and neck hurt (mostly just stiff, except for my shoulder which might actually be hurt), my jacket has a hole where i landed on the shoulder and i have various scuffs on the rest of my leathers. my helmet is toast, with rash on 3 sides. the bike is amazingly ok. the guage cluster and headlight housing shattered (but the glass and bulb are intact) and i bent the rear brake lever. various dents and scratches but it's definitely rideable.

the bike stopped on a rock or it would have been 25 feet down in a ravine. somehow i didn't go down the embankment either or it could have ended worse. i'm sorry to the guys for ruining the day yesterday

[NobodySpecific]

please don't post anything about the crash on facebook, i haven't told anybody about it yet and woul like to do so myself when i have a chance to. thanks

[JettaJayGLS]

Wow man...thats rough, but glad the bike is rideable and you are relatively un-injured

[markbvt]

Keith's not the only one. I crashed the day before in WV. Coal dust is really slippery shit, and the car in front of me slammed on the brakes. As soon as I touched my front brake the wheel locked up and down I went. Bike's fine, and so am I except for a tweaked ankle. Keith and I are now the ibuprofen twins.

It's not stopping us though. About to head out for the Cherohala Skyway and then the Dragon.

--mark

[qqac]

Very sorry to hear about the crash, that sucks! But keep it all in perspective: you and your bike are a little banged up, but not too badly. Now that you've gotten that over with, make the best of the rest of the adventure!

[TIMMYDUCK]

Vermonters are the toughest guys anywhere.

Safe travels on the rest of your trip.

[JettaJayGLS]

It's not stopping us though.

Hell yes.

[catamount]

Damn! Sorry to hear about the get offs! The good news is that you can both continue riding.

Now that you've gotten them out of the way... you can really enjoy the rest of the ride.

[Doc]

Sad to hear. Really glad everyone is ok. No more crashes ok?

[yesterdayze]

Glad you guys are both okay. Keith it sounds like you got the worst of it, that sucks dude! Take care of that shoulder and don't be afraid to get it looked at. I've had enough broken bones that I just ignored and some of them I shouldn't have. I have a wrist with a bolt through it now to remind me that sometimes it's best to just deal with it as soon as you can.

Hope you guys have a safe remainder of the trip!

[MotoFreak]

Well Holy Shit boys! Glad you're both ok, and Keith, jeesh bro, talk about being lucky. Lessons learned...watch out for the Semi's on 129.

[NobodySpecific]

no trucks are allowed on 129 (at least not the fun part ) but we took it pretty easy up on the dragon. killboy was there, so we might show up on the page at some point. time for dinner, today was a long day, but at least we didn't have any crashes today

[Sportygurl131]

ride safe!!

[Paul_E_D]

Gravity seems to weigh more heavily on you vermonters! Glad to hear you still rollin. Have a great trip. I'm jealous.

[markbvt]

The Dragon was incident-free, but a little underwhelming. Definitely a fun road, but we all enjoyed other ones more, the Snake in particular. The Cherohala Skyway was awesome too (be sure to ask David about it), and the southernmost 80 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway are unbelievable.

--mark

[markbvt]

We're all home safe now... so I can post the pic.



David and Paul had already removed Keith's bags from the bike at this point. Keith called 911, a very friendly cop with a VERY relaxed southern drawl showed up a while later, and eventually a wrecker arrived to winch the bike out of the ravine. Once we got it topside, a small amount of work was done to it, and it fired right up. Amazing.

--mark

[MotoFreak]

WOW

[yesterdayze]

That could have been a lot worse of a tumble by the looks of it!

[NobodySpecific]

Yeah, there was a creek down at the bottom, not to mention all of those trees, and a little ways down there was a freshly dug culvert that would have certainly caused some serious damage to both me and the bike. Thankfully I wasn't going all that fast when it flipped.

[AHAMAYs2]

Holy shit! You guys will habe to tell us some of the stories tonight

[kingkawi]

Wow glad to see you guys made it back in one piece. Hope you had a blast.

[SVenpointsixtwo]

I believe this pretty much sums up our trip:



Or maybe this:



Note the North Carolina dirt all over my bike and leathers... yup, may have had an URE (Unexpected Road Event ) on the Cherohala Skyway... no biggie, was able to rip the dragon in proper form!

[catamount]

Great pic!!!!

[AHAMAYs2]

I believe this pretty much sums up our trip:

Note the North Carolina dirt all over my bike and leathers... yup, may have had an URE (Unexpected Road Event ) on the Cherohala Skyway... no biggie, was able to rip the dragon in proper form!

[markbvt]

I believe this pretty much sums up our trip:

--mark