I mentioned in an earlier post this year that I managed to fall down at the end of March at Laguna Seca riding my BMW GS on track. That was a non-event.
In June I was up at The Ridge on my BMW S1000RR and on an out lap I was over-confident and greedy with throttle and managed to low-side my bike on the entry into T7. It was totally on me, I was coming out of T6 and didn’t feel like I was going fast enough so I gave the bike just a bit more throttle and between the tires not being fully warmed up and the front getting a little light, I lost it and the bike slid out at around 85 mph. I got a couple of bruises and the bike’s fairings took some damage but after cleaning it up, I was able to ride in the afternoon. Ken led me for a few laps to help me rebuild my confidence and that helped a bunch. The next day I did a PB on the track and managed to hit 151.4 mph on the front straight (~8 mph shy of the MotoAmerica super bikes).
Before riding July 15th at Laguna Seca, I flushed the coolant on my BMW and *thought* I had followed the correct procedure. I had a very specific set of items I planned to work on for that day and was excited to try out a new master cylinder and play with engine braking settings on the BMW. About 3 or 4 laps into my first session on it, the rear very dramatically spun up out of turn 5 and the bike spit me off onto my back. My airbag deployed and I managed to suffer a break in my left foot, likely due to a twisting motion of the highside and most of my weight on the inside peg. I’ve reviewed the data and footage along with others who are well-versed and my technique was fine but the fact that it spun up so quickly leads us to believe that it was likely a sudden loss of rear traction. Ken made a good point that normal tire slippage on exit should be caught by the bike’s electronics, particularly since this wasn’t a very fast pace for me yet.
When my bike was on its side, I did notice a good amount of steam coming from it (not smoke) so I thought maybe I destroyed the radiator. When we recovered the bike, there was a lot of coolant in the belly pan and knowing that I’d recently flushed the coolant, that was a question in the back of my mind.
After taking the fairings off to inspect things, I noticed something curious. Notice anything odd about the lower red radiator hose?
I did remove this host to drain the old coolant and I’ve never forgotten to reinstall a hose clamp before but it would appear that I did. I’ve slapped myself a few times now for this grave mistake that could have had far worse consequences than it did.
As of this writing, it’s been 2 days since I was launched off the bike. I met with my doctor and had X-rays taken of my foot the day after. I have a small bone fragment pulled off by ligament, it’s called an avulsion fracture. My doctor confirmed with podiatry for a second opinion and treatment will be a removable boot for ~6 weeks. I’ve had broken arms, wrists, and scaphoid in years past but I’d never broken anything around my legs before. The injury still hurts and getting around is really difficult and slow and super frustrating. I have always considered myself independent and depending on others is not in my nature so this is a big adjustment. I feel guilty about getting hurt and inconveniencing others. I’m angry with myself because I crashed, particularly since it was so easily preventable. It will be expensive to repair the bike and time for my foot to heal. It provides lots of time for self-doubt and regret.
I love this sport and my deliberate focus has improved my life in so many other ways outside of it. The sport has helped me through some incredibly difficult times emotionally when my family lost so many important people by providing me a focus mechanism. I’ve made the most amazing friends I would have ever imagined. I’ve been exposed to some of the best professionals and coaching. The sport has caused me to improve my physical fitness and diet (I take pride in the fact that after my doctor had comprehensive blood work done he said ‘you’re one of my most boring patients, medically that is.’ Motorcycling in general has been in my blood for over 4 decades and the past 7 years of track riding has resulted in some of the best friendships I could have ever imagined. I’ve heard from so many of my riding friends in the past couple of days and have received some of the nicest compliments. While the self-doubt is high, I need to remember all of the life improvements that have come from it. No one wants to get hurt but I will learn from all of this and be better as a result of it.
It's a bummer. Crashes happen--kind of the nature of the sport. The money loss (ugh!!!!). It's a lot. Shocked the missing hose clamp wasn't seen at tech. You'll be back out before you know it.