[silent_R1]

i'm posting this b/c of the thread chinga posted about the newbies going down and rather than hijack his thread, Spike asked me a question so I'm answering it here.

I started out on an EX250 2003 bought it brand new and rode the piss out of it. my skills improved with seat time (as was to be expected) but not quick enough to save my ass later when I truly needed it.

My bike was rear-ended while I was sitting at a stop light waiting for it to turn and was subsequently totalled out after being run over by an SUV (yeah yeah, i know, sounds stupid, first rearended then run over...what are the odds?) but anyway, while I was waiting on my insurance to pay out, I was jonesing to ride bad. It was my 30th birthday the day before and my bf knew I was wanting to play. So he asked me if I thought I could ride his R1. I'm like I dunno, I could try it and see. Now keep in mind, I was scared of it as a passenger so I was initally, I doubted I could ride it. But I was game to see so I headed out to his place. He had already lowered the front for me by like 6 or so mm b/c I was scared it would wheelie all the time. So, I was jazzed by the time I got there. I took it out and was like hell yeah, I can do this. So we headed out for the nights festivities. AFter riding for a while with everyone else, a smaller group of us split off. my bf had a passenger on his GSXR1K, there were like 6 other bikes and myself on the R1. Very much a n00b, i thought i could keep up, unfortunately, i hit a rolled curb doing about 60+ jumped into a grass filled median, tried to motorcross it off the other side and hit a concrete collection device located in the center of the median. The pics show what happened to my bike. Me? I broke my collar bone and realized a few things.

1) I thought my bf was going to kill me.
2) He didn't...he is a very special man and still loves me
3) DO NOT ride above your abilites.
4) DO NOT jump to an R1 after a mere 2 months of riding. You will hurt yourself.
5) Jumping to a bigger bike will hurt your learning curve...drastically
6) I'm not Valentino Rossi and never will be. Boy, I learned that fast.
7) While I was jonesing to ride, I now had 5 more weeks to be jonesing. But, I had 5 more weeks to learn about my bike that I had just bought.
8) I bought the bike.


Do I think jumping from a small bike to a big bike hurt me? hell yeah. Would I have done it differenlty if i could've? prolly. Don't regret it now, no time for it. But I've learned on the 1, I've learned well and I'm going to start racing this year.

I've now been on it for almost 3 years and I've survived despite my best efforts. Graduate from one to the next. It is the best thing anyone can tell you.
Now for the pics. the first one is fairingless, taken about two weeks before I wrecked. the second is the front end completely ripped off. the third is of the taco'ed rotors. i broke the spokes compeltly out of the rim and ripped both triples apart. the next to the last one is of the dent i put in the tank with my pelvis. it is still there. i did save the pipe though.

No flames please, let's keep this civil. I'm just offereing up my story and how come I don't usually offer up what bike I started with.


questions? comments?