Pants on the Ground

[Captainm63]

Thanks Pants,

That does help and you have a great point about us not having a whole lot tied up there with our NH's.  I did have that thought actually..."at least it's paid for".  I know I am going to have some misgivings at first when I get up on the bike again.  I was going to wait awhile to fix it, but I think I need to fix it as soon as possible and get back in the fight again.  You're right, I was a lot more sore these past few days.  My is neck kinda sore on one side, so I am figuring out where I really must've fallen! lol.  Keep healing Pants!

I am still playing the thing over in my mind and am kinda bummed out today.  Still can't believe it.... 

I think I understand.  Once the "I didn't die" internal celebration wears off, the thought of "I wrecked my bike" kind of sets in.  But here's the deal - and this is really the point:

It's a nighthawk.

At best, it's a $2,000.00 fully replaceable toy.   It's not a $20,000.00 piece of chrome.  And you got plenty of help.  You can fix yours just like I did mine.  I've got a few "dings" that won't be fixed, but hey, I bought the thing to ride it, not kick the tires in a parking lot and talk about riding it.  I can have just as much adventure with a dented left muffler as I did before.  And so can you.

You should be more sore today.

Don't forget to go through your bike from front to back and tighten down any loosened fasteners.

The ride yesterday messed with my head.  I decided the first stage was a trip to the gas station about 2 miles down the road.  I stopped, took my gear off, and assessed everything.  Checked the bike out, and decided to venture further.  But I stopped often and was very cautious.  It will take some time, but I think I'll be OK.  Hope you will be too.

[Captainm63]

That's a great explanation Bumblebee, thanks.  I will think about that and will use my experience to learn and build my skills.  I have to get back to fixing the bike and getting ready to get back to riding.  I love the freedom and this experience is not going to keep me away from it. 

The ride yesterday messed with my head.  I decided the first stage was a trip to the gas station about 2 miles down the road.  I stopped, took my gear off, and assessed everything.  Checked the bike out, and decided to venture further.  But I stopped often and was very cautious.  It will take some time, but I think I'll be OK.

You'll be ok. That's just part of the process of coming to terms with reality.
Before, you intellectually in a passive sense knew crashing could possibly maybe but not likely actually kind of be dangerous and that you could but probably won't ever go down. Your body not having experienced a crash before believed what your hallucinating inexperienced brain told it. Afterward, your body is telling your brain to shut the hell up because it doesn't know what it's talking about and that the ground is a really big heavy menacing thing just waiting for the slightest chance to knock the snot out of you again.
It takes a while for your body to start trusting your brain again and for your brain to come to terms with not knowing what it was talking about in the first place and to come to grips with reality.

If you well and truly learned from what happened, by mid summer you'll be a much safer rider. Then by this time next year, you'll be far more skilled and safer than you could have ever become if you had never crashed in the first place.

Take it one ride at a time, put in some parking lot slow school practice, think about precisely how a motorcycle functions and you'll be ok.