Ok folks. I learned alot tonight! First of all, and of utmost precedence, is that if you are used to riding a modern sportbike with warm tires and toasty roads, BE CAREFUL THE FIRST FEW RIDES ON YOUR NEW OLD VIRAGO. I barely made it a mile without dumping my brand new old bike. That's right, Mikey's first motorcycle accident in a little under 20,000 miles of experience.
First of all, the new bike is beautiful if I may say so, and has made it 25 years without a blemish on it. Some young kid goes and buys it and lays it down immidiatly. No bad damage, but damn that sucks by principal.
The setup: about 18 degrees, ice cold motor, ice cold tires, ice cold roads. I'm running the bike with the choke half on to keep her up when I'm at low revs. I'm approaching my right turn, and I realize I'm coming in way too hot. Blame excitement, negligence, stupidity, or my brain's imprint of taking turns pretty quickly on a GSXR. Either way, I realize I'm hot, so I say "Oh thats OK, I'll just lean further and harder, like I always do". The instant I lean the bike into the turn, the little voice in my head says, plain as day and very casually, "Now we crash." I lean it pretty hard to avoid making a wiiide turn into the other lane of traffic, and sure enough, I see the bike lay down and slide away from me across my lane. I immidiatly bounce up on my feet and just kind of stand there in the road looking at my bike. Shock, I suppose. I wish I could have seen my face. My buddy, who was in the car behind me, pulls over and gets out with the same look that had to be on my face. I walk over to my bike, look at it some more, then remember I'm in an intersection. I pick the bike up and walk it over to the curb. Keep in mind, the good, kind citizens of Pensauken, NJ, do nothing to assist me. The traffic in the lane I was blocking just creep hesitantly towards me, in an attempt to push me off the road. Thanks ***holes.
Bike sustains scratches to beautiful chrome exhaust pipes, bent rear right signal, bent mirror, and the highway peg's mount was actually rotated around on the engine guard it's mounted too. "Not bad!" I pronounce. I didn't know what to expect...I've never crashed before!! Arghh...
The elbow armor in my Fieldsheer textile did it's job flawlessly, and my Levi Strauss jeans did their job perfectly. The Levi's job, of course, being to tear a little bit and offer no impact protection. So, I've got an aching knee and a sore left arm (Don't know how that happened).
Anyway, after that little mishap, I rode 50 miles up 295 back towards home. No leathers, just jeans with some thermals, sneakers, a hoody, textile with liner, balaclava, scarf, and helmet. And a pair of leather work gloves. I was pretty cold. But it was an interesting experience. I pulled into Applebee's of Hillsborough and walked through the little lobby/waiting area and saw some dude with his face and arms buried in his hoody. I looked at him, laughed, and said "You think you're cold?" He took one glance at the helmet in my hands and said "Oh, wow". 18 degrees. With sustained winds.
Yeah.
But I love the bike!! She's awesome. I can't wait to do some riding once the weather becomes friendlier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U71EmHzltz0 A quick video of me doing a walkaround/startup in my garage after I got home
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4...n/IMG_0152.jpg Front
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4...n/IMG_0147.jpg Rear
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4...n/IMG_0145.jpg Front
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4...n/IMG_0146.jpg Left
Chrome straightpipes before my wipeout:
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4...virago7502.jpg
Chrome straightpipes after my wipeout:
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4...n/IMG_0151.jpg
More damage:
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4...n/IMG_0149.jpg
Mooninite Suicide Bomber:
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4.../mooninite.gif
For everybody who read my entire story, thanks, I know it was lengthy, but hey...it's what happened. Be safe everybody, and go for rides even through it's close to zero Farenheit.
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