Had my first accident yesterday......

[capz]

........and it was humbling to say the least. I got caught in a quick rainstorm. I was coming around a corner approaching an intersection. Picture tall, thick brush on the left. The only stoplight is on the left, after the intersection. So you don't see it until you're on top of the intersection. The light was red. The car in front of me never hit his brakes. I'm sure he didn't notice it was red until he got around the corner, so he ended up blowing right through it. I didn't notice it was red, braked too hard, the rear tire fishtailed on the wet pavement and sent me over the handlebars. I was wearing full ATGATT so I didn't have a scrape on me. Helmet hit HARD, hardly felt it. Only damage was a sprained right wrist. The bike ended up with bent handlebars, headlight bracket and brake lever. And the tach housing cracked. Oh and an ugly dent in the tank.
Could have been worse if I kept my eyes on the car in front of me and blew through the light. So I'm feeling lucky today. How could I have prevented it? Slow down on wet pavement and approaching every intersection. Increase rear brake pressure in relation to the front, especially in the rain. Never count on cagers to do the right thing. One reason I was going too fast through the intersection was his brake lights never came on so I assumed for a split second the light was green. Any tips or remarks are welcome.

[gammer]

Glad you are ok and like you said, humbling.

Never count on cagers to do the right thing.

I think this is the key here. When I raced motocross, my mentors always told me: "Ride your own race". Same theory applies on the street, except you're not racing...just trying to stay upright.

[hppants]

Glad to hear you are OK - hope your wrist heals soon.  Another testament for ATGATT - I bet any doubt you had about your gear is no longer there.

You faired remarkably well for a high side fall.  The wet pavement accident brings back bad memories for me too.

Unfortunately, all of the parts you list as damaged have been sold except for the tach.  There is another member looking at it, but if that falls through and you are interested, let me know.

Hope you heal quickly.

[hockeyhawk]

Glad that things were not worse. Good thing for ATGATT. Hope your wrist heals up fast.

[JB1290]

Glad you weren't seriously hurt. Hope you heal up fast.

[Captainm63]

Glad you are ok!  I too had the bent handlebars and smacked my helmet on the pavement when I went over mine at my own recent off.  ATGATT really does work.  You are right, cars cannot be counted on to do the right thing.

[SirSeanSean]

Wow, glad to hear your ok....... Welcome to the club, wish you didn't have to join though.  Weird feeling during the crash huh?

[jerjohn]

Glad youre okay. Seems you got the right attitude and ideas about what happened, so no remarks or tips from me. I hate riding in the rain. Again, glad youre okay bud.

[drdubb]

Glad to hear you survived and were wearing the gear.

We really need to get a patch for all of us crashers and maybe an emblem on our avatar.

[capz]

Thanks for the well wishes everyone. The parts I need are on order. The only thing I'll have a problem fixing is the dent in the tank and the paint scrapes around it. I have touch up paint and a dent puller but my limited experience won't make it disappear. I'll post a pic and hopefully get some good tips.
It stings to have to get a new helmet too. It looks ok on the outside but I know I'm supposed to trash it.
And it seems the bike will be healed before my wrist. Sprains take a long time to heal up.
Next time I get caught in the rain, I probably won't even touch the front brake. It happened so fast I didn't have time to think what to do. Instinct tells you to just grab it.

[bajakirch]

It happened so fast I didn't have time to think what to do. Instinct tells you to just grab it

I hear you. The last time I dropped the bike was when I was pulling into my garage. I was trying to do a slow speed 180 to park the bike and went just a tad wide. I thought I was going to hit my trailer so I instinctively grabbed the front brake mid-turn. BOOM, down went the bike, faster than I could even think about it.

Sadly, I did more damage in the garage than when I laid it down on the street less than 2 weeks prior to that.

[kwagoner82]

Somehow i missed this one, i am glad to hear your ok. The only tips i can think of is kick the damn house and get back on and make sure you replace your helmet. its designed to be a one hit wonder, if you hit it really hard the impact area has been compromised and maybe even cracked, i wouldn't trust it to save your life again. It did its job.

Were you upright when you started to brake? I just went to my MSF and one of the things they harped about was it takes less time to stop safely in a turn by putting the bike upright and stopping than trying to stop while the bike it tilted. This is especially true in rain because the bike can and will fishtail. Hell when they had us run up to speed and stop as fast as possible my little DZ200 they had me on locked up both brakes, scared the hell outta me. I thought i was going over and then the whole ass started to get loose and then i just thought i was gonna fall.