Catenary Curve
Since my last posting in
September 2017, several things have happened. On the afternoon of
October 24th. in anticipation of going on a much longer
ride the next day, I decided to ride my S1000RR to a service station
not far away and to fuel up for the next day's ride. I had been
going on mid week rides to ride the various mountain passes that
would soon be closed for the season. There is a lot of construction
going on down the road from my house, and the road was closed so I
headed North on a country lane that then turns East, crosses the
Jordan River and then at the next major intersection allows me to go
North or South. I noticed a fair amount of oncoming traffic so I did
not increase my speed after crossing the bridge over the Jordan
river. There were a fair amount of vehicles turning into a charter
school. I got about 25 feet before the driveway to the charter school
and a woman suddenly turned in front of me in a big SUV and I had
neither time or distance to stop. Luckily, I did not go over the
hood of her SUV and instead went to the side and was almost
immediately up. My bike had hit between her front fender and the
quarter panel near the passenger door. I knew nothing was broken and
that I would be very sore the next day. After checking that she was
okay, I asked an onlooker to call the Police and sat down on the
curb. I had a cut on my right hand, and got up and grabbed the small
medical kit I carry in my tail bag. I also took off my helmet,
knowing that my neck was fine. The police came and also the
Paramedics. They took my blood pressure, listened to my heart and
offered to take me to a hospital. I told them there was no need that
I could see. A tow truck had been called for both my bike and her
SUV. Insurance information was exchanged and I called my insurance
company to report the accident and notified my family of the accident
and that I was okay. A kind woman at the school, the headmistress I
was later told, offered to drive me back to my house which was less
than two miles away.
I later went online and
found out that the other driver had been cited for failure to yield.
At first I was not sure how bad the bike had been damaged, but it
didn't take long for the insurance company to total it. They did let
me remove the after market exhaust and heated seat. That first night
I really started to hurt all over and got a little worried that I
might be bleeding internally, so the next morning I ended up going to
the Emergency room of a major area hospital. I was black and blue
everywhere and that continued for the next couple of weeks, but there
was no internal damage or bleeding.
At first I thought that I
would wait to replace the bike till next spring, that I would
consider buying my bike and having the repairs done by someone
qualified or that I would immediately replace the bike with another
S1000RR. The dealer were going to make me a very attractive offer on
a brand new 17 model because they were just starting to receive the
18 models and there were no major changes. There will be major
changes with the 2019 model. After several weeks I decided to test
ride a couple of other models at the BMW dealer and even thought
about buying a used MV Augusta that I saw at a repair shop. The
S1000RR is an incredible bike, but after putting on 22,000 Miles and
having replaced one chain and had an expensive 18,000 mile check up,
I realized that I didn't need and never really used all that power
and the insurance premium on the bike was incredible. I ended up
purchasing a 2016 R1200RS with a little over a thousand miles on it,
that someone had traded in after owning it and never really riding it
. While it is not quite as fast at the RR, it handles very well and
really is a beautiful and well appointed bike with all the bells and
whistles. I have put over a thousand miles on it since I got it in
Mid November and will be taking my first trip in the next couple of
weeks. It came with hard bags and I have added a nice Tank Bag and it
came with a factory mounted GPS. While it will not do 0 to 180 in
eighteen seconds like the RR, it will certainly do zero to 140 or
fifty in a respectable amount of time should I choose to do that. It
also has ESA suspension , clutch less shifting and cruise control and
key less ignition.
The insurance is a lot less
and I took the savings on the insurance and purchased a Helite Air
Bag Vest.
It has a lanyard that hooks
on to the vest and the bike and if I were to go off the bike , the
vest would inflate and protect my head , neck and backbone from
damage. A friend of mine from the BMW club was in an accident about a
month after mine, and ended up dying a month later. He had been
President of the BMW club and it was a blow to everyone who knew him.
My sister who lives in
Fresno and who I rode down to visit on the 1000RR in September flew
up for the weekend to visit me and her two sisters who live in Salt
Lake. At dinner on that Saturday day night in response to a
conversation regarding a niece's current job, my sister divulged a
remembrance from childhood that I did not know. . She is about eight
years older than me. My father Bob until about mid 1957 had been a
power line contractor and built transmission lines all over the
Western United States. Kathy recalled road trips during this period
when Bob would comment that on this or that power line that we were
driving by they either had or had not got the Catenary Curve or the
dangle of the line correct. Being much younger I did not remember
this. I do remember playing at the yard where his neat equipment was
kept, he had half-tracks and big trucks and the symbol on his trucks
was a bolt of lightning . Bob died almost 44 years ago and yes we
grew up calling our father by his first name he insisted on it and
most of my childhood friends have told me that my father was the
first adult they called by name.
