My first...uh, shall we say, faceplant?

[spindrift]

Riding my 796 in Beserkely through a busy intersection (San Pablo and Ashby), in right lane of my two eastbound lanes, traffic held up so I moved to the left lane somewhat aggressively (headcheck and mirrors, all clear), but still going only about 10mph. The vehicle in front slowed down very quickly, I hit the brakes a bit firmly (but didn't grab them) and though the front tire had absolutely no goddamn business wiping out, it did. I was nearly in a straight line, it just suddenly washed out. Afterwards I noticed that part of the intersection was an oil slick, but of course.

Flopped over the front-right side. The right handguard broke off, and I got a little scuff on the edge of the right white gas tank panel/'fairing'. Hit the frame slider on the right a bit. Picked bike up, jammed the loose handguard between my windscreen and the display, chilled for a bit, and then rode home.

Had pretty much full gear on, so just a bruise on right knee where the Dainese-Knee-V guards weren't really covering. Real damage is pride and heartache due to no longer having a pristine bike. I guess it's time to put on aftermarket mirrors now!

Even though I couldn't have done anything about an oil slick and certainly wasn't expecting to brake there, the fact is that there was no reason for me to move into the lane so aggressively, I could have stayed where i was, blah blah. But hindsight is always 20/20.

[minusone]

Bad luck, I was talking to an insurance assessor who was evaluating my last hyper, and he said it doesn't take much to render the bike a write off. He said if you built the bike up from the spare parts catalogue it would cost over $100k

The damage to pride is tiny compared the price for a handguard and parts.
All these things add to the experience of riding an owning a Ducati.

[65bayracer]

Originally Posted by spindrift

in Beserkely through a busy intersection (San Pablo and Ashby)

Man...I hate it down there. I live in Oakland near Lake Merritt and NEVER ride down in Berkeley on San Pablo or University. Total cluster f**$ most days, and always fender benders happening.

Sorry to hear about it...chin up.

Cheers,
AK

[desmo796]

The oil slicked intersections are the worst, glad you're okay. Hearing that you had on gear is one of the best parts of this.

no smiley's with a lid . . .

(:-)

[-ftp-]

good to hear you are ok, shit happens. Not much you can do about it sometimes, live and learn.

I have stock hand guards if your interested lol.