2000 Ducati 748 - Oops again!
Well, on Saturday May 27th, a friend and I were out for a nice early morning
ride. After doing San Felipe, Metcalf, Bailey, Uvas, and Watsonville Roads,
we headed west on Hecker Pass toward Watsonville. Unfortunately, we got turned
around a little past the summit because of what appeared to be a (car?) fire of
some sort. On the way back down toward 101 on Hecker Pass, disaster struck.
Coming through a right hander, there was a nice thick layer of gravel strewn
across the road. The concentration was mostly in the middle of the lane, with
a bunch on the outermost portions of the lane also. Basically, cars had
mostly cleared two strips through the mess, with the rest being loose. You can
see just how much crap there was on the road in the pictures. Add to that the
fact that lighting was tricky (going from blinding sun to shaded areas), and
you can see where things are going.
In a nutshell,while negotiating the right hander, both tires slipped, giving me no
time to recover. I ended up lowsiding on the right hand side, came away from
the bike, and back-surfed a ways. The bike ended up in oncoming traffic, and
just barely slid into a car which had come to a stop in the other lane. That
explains the scratches on the left side of the tank (got caught under the
license plate of the car). I stayed in my lane like a good asphalt surfer.
Damage is mostly cosmetic, although the gauges are out, the clutch fluid
reservoir fell off, and the clipons are tweaked. I did manage to ride it back
to San Jose, however.
Thanks yet again to the Erbo leathers, Held gloves and back protector, and
Daytona boots, I walked away without so much as a scratch. I'll have to drop
them by Helimot to have them checked out, but I think the damage there is
again cosmetic.
It's been a bad couple of months for the motorcycles in the household... :-/
Last modified: Wednesday, 31-May-2000 05:16:19 PDT
Questions/Comments/Problems: Paul H. Yoshimune
