Foo - Rider down.

A good friend and coworker of mine who shared the same humongous cubical I had when they moved his desk into my space during renovation was killed last night in a motorcycle accident.

We're not sure what happened. All I know was, he had just installed a new profile for his power commander and modified his shifter's connecting rod with an inline pressure sensor for the quickshift that he bought. I was with him when he modified it and I know he cut the thing short so the pressure sensor was hanging on by only a few threads. That, and his tires were getting nearly bald and had a small flat spot on them. It was overcast, cool, and the ground didn't provide much grip last night.

Before he left work last night he said he was going out with a few of his friends by this long flat 25 mile stretch of road to try and set a new speed record on his R1 and go above 187. The last thing I said to him was, go slow, take it easy, be careful out there. I've been on the R1 and was just test riding an older cbr600 last week, just got into a small accident myself yesterday going in to work, and I always joke that our accidents come in pairs. Every time either one of us has an accident, the other one always has one within a few days. I told him yesterday afternoon when I got in to work that he better be careful cause I just went down. It's been that way for 2 years now through about 10-12 accidents between us. He took the R1 out for about an hour during lunch, came back and said a lady in a van almost wiped him out. It was like death was just catching up with him after my accident in the morning.

I know none of us could've talked him out of it but I just wish he would've waited for new tires and a warmer day to try it. Any number of things could've gone wrong. Somewhere out there he's up on one.

I'm sorry to hear that slvoid. My thoughts are with his friends and family. :(

Do you guys not have a local track where you can play around? Even back roads are not the place to race.

What a tragedy. You have my sympathy on the loss of your friend. :(

Sorry about your friend, Slvoid. That's horrible.

sorry to hear about your friend slvoid.

but it has to be said that doing 187mph on a motorbike is ********, and its a good thing nobody else was hurt/killed

Sorry to hear about that.

You said the right thing to him last night.
Maybe someone will read your post, and learn something from it. Partly bald tires and possible condensation on the road surface are something we all should consider.

damn, that's terrible - i'm really sorry to hear this. i assume he was a young guy? please be careful and don't do the same thing.

That sucks, slvoid. Sorry to hear about that. Chin up.

Smart or not, what happened sucks. Sorry to hear that. :(

He was only 36. The guy loved bikes. Started riding bmx bikes, then dirt bikes, mountain bikes, eventually moved on to sport bikes. I've been on it. I tested out a cbr 600 just last week thinking I'd get a kawasaki 636 this summer, I don't know anymore. I don't even know if I wanna ride to work anymore this week.
He said he had enough of the streets and was working on turning his R1 into a track bike. He was saving up money to buy a trailer so he could take it to a local track. He put all the money he had into the 4 R1's that he's had. He was always borrowing money from me for lunch and whatnot. He's as passionate as they come but I guess he just couldn't wait to get on a track. Live fast, die young, that was him.

Sorry about your friend man.

It's not one of those things you think will happen, even when doing something with a lot of risk involved.

That sucks. Sounds like he was the type that would have rather gone that way than lived and been paralyzed.

It's pretty damn hard to kill yourself following the speed limit (oops) with a bike that's in working order (uuuh) and a rider that's sober (at least he was). Too bad he never made it to the track :(.

Wow that's rough. It sounds like your pal was aware of the risks and that you did your part in warning him. It reminds of the famous climber (not rider) Joe Simpson who wrote a lot about his climbing buddies not making it in his book "The Beckoning Silence". I recommend it to help put things in perspective.

Sorry to hear this slvoid. I lost a friend a few years back who died in a motorcycle accident. Really sucks. :-(

Wow this really sucks.
I just found out that he was returning home with his friends when some idiot driver turned into him. He was thrown off and hit by another car and died as a result of his injuries. That really sucks. It almost happened to him that afternoon and it just caught up with him again that evening. So apparently he did get to go on his speed run, everything worked but never made it home afterwards riding slow and safe. Sometimes you can be 100% legal in complete control and some idiot just takes you out.
I hope the driver gets what's coming to her I really do...

Sucks to hear that, but about the driver, I'm not saying it was right but sometimes I ride on the other side of the road coming around a corner, most times its alright I once nearly hit a car... But sometimes when you do something stupid it unfortunatley injures/kills someone else and possibly it was one of those things, however I am not saying it was right but... I'm going to shut up now cos what I am saying probably wont come out right.

That is so sad... and I was actually thinking about a motorcycle... I think I will get an english horn instread!

i want to get a motorcycle at some point in my life, but i'll probably ride it much like i do my bike: weekday mornings, weekends, lite traffic areas, etc.

thats pretty crazy, and quite awful, sorry to hear that slvoid. As dangerous as cycling could be, i can't imagine cranking it up a notch and riding a cycle capable of 100 mph+, im perfectly content with a max speed of around 30-something.

Anyways, where in NY was this guy trying to pull of insane speeds like that? That seems like something left to the salt lake flats in Nevada, not here in the urban jungle. Is there a track around here, that i don't know of?

Exactly why I never ever will own a motorbike.

Out there near jones beach, there's a LOOOONG flat straight section of road with nothing around it. Go there saturday morning at 2am, sit on the side of a road with a radar gun and it'd light up like a christmas tree with high 170-180 readings.


thats pretty crazy, and quite awful, sorry to hear that slvoid. As dangerous as cycling could be, i can't imagine cranking it up a notch and riding a cycle capable of 100 mph+, im perfectly content with a max speed of around 30-something.

Anyways, where in NY was this guy trying to pull of insane speeds like that? That seems like something left to the salt lake flats in Nevada, not here in the urban jungle. Is there a track around here, that i don't know of?

Out there near jones beach, there's a LOOOONG flat straight section of road with nothing around it. Go there saturday morning at 2am, sit on the side of a road with a radar gun and it'd light up like a christmas tree with high 170-180 readings.


Did you see "The world's Fastest Indian" yet ? Check it out if you have not.

That really sucks. Stupid people should not be allowed to drive, especially at night (my guess is that the driver was drunk).

I'm still keeping my scoot though. It's less dangerous than how I ride my bicycle, and if I die anyway I die happy.

Sorry to hear about your friend slvoid and the way he went. My condolences to his family and you.

Did you see "The world's Fastest Indian" yet ? Check it out if you have not.

Well that "thing" that the guy strapped himself onto... in the middle of the desert, that's a bit different than a sportbike on the street. :p

Well that "thing" that the guy strapped himself onto... in the middle of the desert, that's a bit different than a sportbike on the street. :p

It is very different, But a nice movie.


I like the part about the cork in the tank at tech inspection. :)