If it makes you feel any better C, I got nailed the first month out on the road here. 
Although not at fault, I felt that I could have avoided it all together had I been a bit more mindful of the conditions here.
Glad your ok buddy!
Wow, major bummer! 
Glad to hear it wasnāt worse, of courseā¦
Time to consider an armored jacket?
What brand was that flip-up helmet, Zeus?
Iāve been pretty pissed off about the slipperiness of the stuff they use to paint those lines too. I ended up sliding a bit on one just the other day, but since I had already slowed down to about 30, I was able to slam a foot down to keep from wiping out. Nearly clipped a car, though.
Couldnāt they just add some grit? 
I wonder whether we shouldnāt start making some noise about it ā writing letters complaining, or a lawsuit?
[quote=āzerosumā]If it makes you feel any better C, I got nailed the first month out on the road here.
Although not at fault, I felt that I could have avoided it all together had I been a bit more mindful of the conditions here.
Glad your ok buddy![/quote]My first crash was with a rental scooter, 50cc Yamaha Jog. I went head first into a Taxi. Bashed the taxi side panel and door and the scooter pretty good. Bruised some ribs. I had been here about 12 days at the time. So no. It doesnāt make me feel better. Makes me feel WORSE! 
DB,
My helmet is indeed a Zeus flip up model. Not the best helmet, but it sure saved me today. A jacket would have been nice. I stiffening up already, I think hockey paddings would have been even better, but it would look funny.
Iām going to let that one āslide.ā Next time, though, Iām suing!
Light rain after a long dry spell is the worstā¦Glad you are ok.
Iām very glad you are OK, Bobepine. Donāt let it put you off - each accident makes you a more cautious rider.
I dropped my bike the other day while riding in the centre of the road. There was heavy traffic and I was going in between the cars when I hit a long stream of oil. I couldnāt brake and just kept rolling but the front wheel hit dry tarmac and the rear wheel slid round slightly. I was going really slow anyway and I managed to stand up but the bike fell on itās side in a kind of controlled drop.
There was petroleum everywhere - probably after an accident but it hadnāt been treated.
I saw a passing police car (who says there never there when you need them?) and I told him about the oil on the road.
āNever mindā he said āitās not a problem.ā
I ended up putting dirt and dust on the oil myself from a nearby gutter much to the amusement (and annoyance) to other drivers who were obviously wondering what that de-ranged foreigner was doing putting dust on a patch of water.
Stupid fuck heads.
[quote=āDangermouseā]Iām very glad you are OK, Bobepine. Donāt let it put you off - each accident makes you a more cautious rider.
I dropped my bike the other day while riding in the centre of the road. There was heavy traffic and I was going in between the cars when I hit a long stream of oil. I couldnāt brake and just kept rolling but the front wheel hit dry tarmac and the rear wheel slid round slightly. I was going really slow anyway and I managed to stand up but the bike fell on itās side in a kind of controlled drop.
There was petroleum everywhere - probably after an accident but it hadnāt been treated.
I saw a passing police car (who says there never there when you need them?) and I told him about the oil on the road.
āNever mindā he said āitās not a problem.ā
I ended up putting dirt and dust on the oil myself from a nearby gutter much to the amusement (and annoyance) to other drivers who were obviously wondering what that de-ranged foreigner was doing putting dust on a patch of water.
Stupid fuck heads.[/quote]
Yep, same thing happened to me. I didnāt drop the bikeā¦but there was some kind of gas/oil all over the road at an intersection. There were some police parked at the intersection and I told them to call someone to lay something down. They of course laughed at me :fume: . I then said āI keep hearing how useless the police here areā¦and I wanted to see for myself. Real police in Canada or America would care about the oil making bikes crash. But you arenāt real policeā¦so Iām just wasting my time talking with you.ā I said it fairly loud as I was with a riding group at the timeā¦they found it rather amusing. 
Yeah, the only significant accident I ever had was when I hit a patch of oil on an onramp and my pickup slid just far enough onto the highway to get clipped by an oil rig going full speed. Glad I wasnāt on a bikeā¦
Thatās really dificult to say.
Perhaps after happy hour, yethā¦
For Dangermouse itās always Happy Hour.
*Iām unaware of your drinking habitsā¦it was an innocent joke.
Eh? I donāt drink.
And Iām usually very bitter.
[quote=āsandmanā]āThe road was not even that wet, it had just started to rain.ā
Worst. Road. Condition. Ever. [/quote]
Indeed. The oil in the bitumen seems to bubble out of the tarmac and then mix with the water when the rain starts. A good downpour washes all that crap away. When I first started riding here I was astonished at how slippery it is when it begins to rain, but I guess at home itās always bloody raining, and the tarmac never gets that hot.
Well, Geezā¦ I might as well use this thread as a ācrash log.ā :s
I went down pretty hard again today. Someone had a an oil leak or something, and there was a trail of oil going for about two miles. (I followed the trail of oil after I got over the shock)
I was taking a left turn at an intersection(Thatāll teach me for doing an illegal left turn) and I came across a line of fresh oil about 5 inches wide. The scooter slid for about 3 feet and when it regained traction I was catapulted and BAM! Bashed elbow, hip, shoulder and some cuts and scrapes on one leg. I was pretty sore, and I laid there for a few minutesā¦ Cars and scooters were swerving around me once again by the dozen this time until a kind soul offered to pick up my scooter and helped me out of the traffic.
I called the police to show them the oil spill, but nothing was done about it. They asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital, and that was it. The road was left oily. Iām sure someone else slipped on this today; there was so much oil there that my clothes were all wrecked and soaked with it. As I followed the spill, I spotted a huge puddle at a traffic light about two miles down from where I crashed myself. It looked as if someone lost the drain plug on the engine of a decent size truck judging from the amount of oil spilled over such a long distance.
Anyways, the road was pretty busy when I crashed, and I count my blessing that once again Iām coming out of it able to type about it, here, on Forumosa.
5 and countingā¦ :s
So far Iāve come off only twice in three and a half years. Once at 2kph, trying to turn a corner into a parking space on tiles outside 7-11. Turns out theyād just washed the tiles.
Once during my ābad periodā, playing a stupid game where we tried to make it from the street down into our B3 parking spaces without using the throttle (and hence only minimally the brakes). Pushed my shitty scooter a little too hard on the last turn, it came out from under me and went sliding into a car without serious damage to anything except my right thumb, which to this day hurts like a bitch if I slap my hand against something hard. Bone fragment in there somewhere I guess.
I figure Iām long overdue for a real spill, and am saving for a better helmet accordingly (my helmet now is full-face but cheap and poorly fitting. I have a feeling it would decapitate me rather than protect me).
Thereās a teacher at my school who bought a scooter, got cut off in the first ten minutes, crashed, ended up in hospital, ditched the scooter and bought a car. Probably a wiser man than all of us. Though um, not much of a rider.
Bloody hell, bobepine, please look after yourself. Thereās the dogs to consider for one, and I still havenāt found out where the leys are to your mini-workshop.
HG
Sorry to hear that dudeā¦ busted ligaments tend to grow back fairly well from my experience, so you should be up and fine in no time. 
[quote]am saving for a better helmet accordingly (my helmet now is full-face but cheap and poorly fitting. I have a feeling it would decapitate me rather than protect me). [/quote]I have two helmets. One is a more expensive kind(HJC-Sy-Max) but Iāve brought it here from Canada and I had it for years. Itās falling apart and the visors are 40 US$ a pop. They have the fog resistant coating, too, so they only last about a month or two. Thatās what I was wearing yesterday, and as my face hit the ground pretty hard, the thing got its last blow; the flip up chin part snapped on the one side so now itās only held down from the left side when the chin part is lowered.
My other helmet is an older Zeus flip up chin model but the screws are stripped, the chin part doesnāt stay up, and due to stripped screws I ended up using crazy glue except the visor can not be replaced anymore so I retired it and went back to using my HJC helmet for a while.
Soā¦ late yesterday afternoon, I decided to buy a newer version of the Zeus flip up chin. 1800NT which I thought was a pretty good deal.
Mine was cheaper because itās flat black(not painted/no gloss), and it looks and feels really nice. On the down side, itās a tad heavy.
Ouch! Sorry to hear about yer spill. Again.
Good deal on that Zeus ā I thought they ran around $3k+ ?!
BTW, if I were you Iād go ahead and pick up a spare visor or two, and 4 spare screws. You can get the screws easily at helmet shops, usually for free, and Zeus has very good customer service from what I hear so you could probably have written them to ask for spares. Check out the info at webbikeworld on Zeusās service.
And here comes the nag (again ) ā have you bought an armored jacket yet? Iām VERY happy with the ones I got from Brosh. The heavy winter one is a real good value too. Let me know if you want more details. 
[quote=āDragonbonesā]Good deal on that Zeus ā I thought they ran around $3k+ ?![/quote]Thatās what I think I paid last time, too. To my knowledge, the painted ones are 2500. Maybe the price went down in the last couple years, and itās a newer model, too. Itās better than the older model in many respects.
[quote]BTW, if I were you Iād go ahead and pick up a spare visor or two, and 4 spare screws. You can get the screws easily at helmet shops, usually for free, and Zeus has very good customer service from what I hear so you could probably have written them to ask for spares. Check out the info at webbikeworld on Zeusās service.[/quote]These helmets have the nuts mounted onto the helmet, and the screws screw into them to hold the chin part. The nut itself turns into the helmet when I turn the screw. The plastic is damaged in a way that it doesnāt allow the screw to come out but it also doesnāt allow to screw in or out as the nut is stripped into the helmet. I crazy glued the nut onto the helmet, and the screw into the nut a while back, so now itās impossible to remove without just ripping it apart. Spare screws would not help me. The store where I bought the helmet has clear and tinted visors in stock, though.
For those interested, the store in question is a huge helmet store located on the corner of Junghwa Rd, and Jiouru Rd. Just before the tunnel if you are heading towards the city, on the east side of Junghwa.
[quote]And here comes the nag (again ) ā have you bought an armored jacket yet? Iām VERY happy with the ones I got from Brosh. The heavy winter one is a real good value too. Let me know if you want more details. [/quote]Sounds more like a good advice than a nag to me. Most of the damage is to my elbow and shoulder. Still quite sore and swollen todayā¦ Some padding would have saved me a lot of grief.
Again, for those interested, I know a big bike shop in Tzuoying that sells big bikes, riding gear, and really nice imported helmets. They have the HJC helmets, the Shoei flip up chin model, and other well known quality helmets. They start at about 8000NT for the HJC, about 12000 for the Shoei all the way to 26000 for the BMW flip up chin model. Sweet, sweet helmetsā¦ but too expensive!
I have not crashed since April 2007. Since I average one crash per year, I was over-due. I went down again today. :s And once again, for the second time in a row it is because someone spilled some crap onto the pavement. Iām pissed off. The last time was an oil spill. This time the road was covered with pebbles! You know the little tiny stones they use to finish the exterior of some buildings, sidewalks and stuff like that; the little pebbles they apply to concrete. They have different colors and they can make patterns with them. You know the kind? Well, someone spilled a whole lot of it and of course no one did anything about it. I was coming to a stop at a red light and before I knew anything the bike slid out like if I was riding on ball bearings. Zero friction, it was unavoidable. I went down at about 15-20km/hr and I hurt myself more than when I crashed at 80km/hr. Go figureā¦ :s
I hurt my left hand, my right wrist, my right hip, my left knee, my right ankle and I bruised some ribs on the right side again. All of the above are minor abrasions except for the ankle that hurts quite a bit and itās very painful to breathe deep. Coughing is not an option. The scooters needs repairs, too.
6 years, six crashesā¦ and counting. :s
marboulette