What happened

[Guest]

Hello again,
I've been off the forum for a while, but when ever I have a question for the collective brain I come here.
To re-introduce myself, I've been riding for a number of years, a friend had an old bike he wanted out of his garage and I became a GS850 rider.
I had the opportunity to buy a '87 GL1200A in 2011 and the GS went to my son, the garage wasn't big enough for those two girls.
This year I became employed by the Commonwealth of Pa in Harrisburg and started commuting 70 miles a day to work on the GL. This is what happened next:
Wed morning Sept, 4 2013 I was commuting to work on my ’87 GL1200A. As I crested an overpass I saw that traffic slowed ahead of me. We were doing about 45 mph in a 55 zone. I was the left hand lane on a dual lane limited access hwy. I apply my brakes, felt the bike nose dive a little as it is want to do, down shifted, heard the sound of tires squealing from locked brakes and thought “I’m going down.” Next thing I’m real sure of is I’m sitting in the middle of the Hwy and the bike is on the right hand shoulder. I have some road rash on the left side of my face and both knees, several fractured; ribs, clavicle and scapula on my right side.
The bike has very little damage. I believe it remained upright and rolled off the road and lay over in the grass. I remember a witness saying they would go shut it off, old girl was still willing to go!
The police report indicates the cause of the accident was me hitting the brakes too hard and that I threw my self off the bike.
I think someone rear ended me.
Has anyone else ever had something similar happen to them, or know of anyone that has?
Thanks in advance for any helpful comments, I'd especially be interested in anything to do with being rear-ended and or bike driving themselves to freedom!

[Gregory]

spooky ! Glad you are alive to tell about it. I have no experience coming off a bike while it is still upright, this sounds very strange. If someone rear ended you, they are morally deficient not to come to your rescue and apologize profusely. I would think that if someone did rear end you, you would definitely feel it.

Is there a chance that your rear brakes locked up or transmission locked up? Have you ridden the bike since to see if mechanically it is working as it should?

[Brendan W]

Frightening experience - glad you lived to tell the tale.
I am assuming that your overpass is what I would call a humpyback bridge. What I do know is that going over a crest at any kind of speed the bike keeps going up and the wheels go down and may or may not remain in contact with the road. Until the full weight is back on the springs there is a 'twilight zone' some distance beyond the apex of the crest in which the available grip will be significantly reduced. It will be a lot easier to lock up in this zone.
I was removed from an upright bike by the branch of an apple tree , having chickened out of a corner. The bike carried on remaining more or less upright in the mud.

[officerbill]

spooky ! Glad you are alive to tell about it. I have no experience coming off a bike while it is still upright, this sounds very strange. If someone rear ended you, they are morally deficient not to come to your rescue and apologize profusely. I would think that if someone did rear end you, you would definitely feel it.

Is there a chance that your rear brakes locked up or transmission locked up? Have you ridden the bike since to see if mechanically it is working as it should?

Broken bones are keeping me from walking too far let alone getting back in the saddle.

[officerbill]

Frightening experience - glad you lived to tell the tale.
I am assuming that your overpass is what I would call a humpyback bridge. What I do know is that going over a crest at any kind of speed the bike keeps going up and the wheels go down and may or may not remain in contact with the road. Until the full weight is back on the springs there is a 'twilight zone' some distance beyond the apex of the crest in which the available grip will be significantly reduced. It will be a lot easier to lock up in this zone.
I was removed from an upright bike by the branch of an apple tree , having chickened out of a corner. The bike carried on remaining more or less upright in the mud.

This particular bit of highway is much like most super slabs, interstate quality road w/ too many commuters. My speed was with traffic, I was attempted to maintain a safe following distance, but in rush hour if you give and inch someone in a mini van will attempt to fill it. It is the idea I could hear tires sliding, and they weren't mine, that gives me the notion someone slid into me. The speeds were descending from about 35 mph, my guess. I just seem to think that it was the punch from behind that launched me off and allowed the bike to drive to safety! I also believe that the person that hit me may still not know they did. In all it seems to be a freak occurrence that I will not repeat in the future. No more commuting on the bike. My finances are in such a state at this point the Wing is on the block to afford a car for my daughter. This has been a family decision, someday soon I'll replace the bike and not ride in traffic.

[Sci85]

Definitely weird. Once you are able to see the bike, I think it will be obvious what happened. If someone slid or hit you, even just a bit, there will be tell tale signs on the back of the bike. I would also have either the police or an attorney check the site of the crash for skids marks. The width of the skids will tell you if it was car or motorcycle. Good luck!

[officerbill]

Definitely weird. Once you are able to see the bike, I think it will be obvious what happened. If someone slid or hit you, even just a bit, there will be tell tale signs on the back of the bike. I would also have either the police or an attorney check the site of the crash for skids marks. The width of the skids will tell you if it was car or motorcycle. Good luck!

Thanks, Cop took pix at the scene, not sure about his level of exp though. My atty will be on him about soon, until then I sit here like a big pile of hurt.

[nejeff]

Was there witnesses? Seems like there would have had to been. Medical event on your part maybe?

[Nessism]

Wow, scary story. Glad you are relatively okay. Scrapes on the face? No helmet? If so, you dodged a major bullet this time.

When the event occurred were you hard on the brakes? A motorcycle can stop much faster than a car so maybe the guy behind couldn't react as fast as necessary? If someone locked up their brakes there would be skid marks on the road, and typically the police take note of such things. Do you have a copy of the police report?

Hope you heal up and the financial matter is resolved in your favor. Crashing sucks. I don't like driving in traffic because of events like described. Motorcycles are just to dangerous when a lot of cars are around.

Good luck

[tkent02]

A motorcycle can stop much faster than a car so maybe the guy behind couldn't react as fast as necessary?

This is not true.

[Nessism]

This is not true.

Okay, agreed. I said it wrong. Should have said that a motorcycle can stop quite quickly, and maybe the car driver didn't have time to react and/or maybe they didn't use their brakes as aggressively as they should have. When you include reaction time the bike will be at risk of getting hit from behind.

[Flaggo60]

You don't mention whether there was damage to the rear of your bike. I googled up an '87GL1200A and found the attached pic. Note that anywhere a car could hit it at the rear there are plastic taillights and panniers. If you were rear ended hard enough to knock you over there would have to be some damage I would think....

[tkent02]

The police report indicates the cause of the accident was me hitting the brakes too hard and that I threw my self off the bike.

A little bit of a highside would look like this to someone who didn't know what they were seeing. Skid the rear out to the side a little, let the brake off and you are thrown. Whether the bike threw you or you threw yourself would be hard to tell for a non rider.

That would explain the injuries, too, there can be a lot of impact from even a small easy highside.

The ribs must be hurting by now, I hope you get better soon.

[officerbill]

Was there witnesses? Seems like there would have had to been. Medical event on your part maybe?

there were witnesses, and an expensive ambulance ride, and the accompanying hospital stay.
Witness said I just went down, no one's vehicle contacted me. The pic of the 87 GL1200A is like mine, I don't see much damage to it. Conjecture is I was tapped enough to come off the bike and not all the witnesses witnessed the same thing. I still find it odd that the bike remained upright, drove off the road and settled into the grass on the shoulder. Anyone that wished to see the police blotter can find it at Upper Allen Township Police Dept. Mechanicsburg, Pa. for Sept 4 2013.