My Best Crash in years and I missed it!

[2DTrail]

I should know better, but I just had to ride. Had just changed fork seals and a stator and wanted to give er a go. Gorgeous day, snow melting, so off to the desert on my WR450. Taking it easy (cause I was by myself). I've done this so many times in my 42 years of riding and never had any problem, resigned to tooling around and doing some easy exploring. A spirited romp every now and then, but overall, riding very conservatively. Had just followed a stream thru a cow pasture up a canyon to a spring flowing out of the ground. Turned around, headed back down then leveled out on a section of flat, sandy road at about 30mph (basically a 1 on a scale of 10 in the difficulty level). Next thing I know, I can't see anything thru the dirt & dust cloud around me, can't breath and am facing the opposite direction and lying on the ground with my bike on top of me, wheels on my body, handlebars away from me. No Idea what happened or how I got in that position. Wind knocked out of me, telling myself "breathe, breathe". After a minute or so, pushed the bike off of me, turned off the gas (was leaking on the ground), then got to my feet and turned off the ignition. Took inventory, nothing broken, no blood, spitting a bit of dirt and dirt in the eyes. Took a shot to the ribs, messed up my shoulder, huge bruise on the inside of the thigh but nothing broken. Thank goodness for gearing up! Bike looked OK too, although it had about 10 lbs of dirt and up on the motor (like someone tried to bury it!)

Took a long break then, fired up the bike, and off again but admittedly a bit shaken. I noticed a steady drip from the left side radiator after a couple minutes so 10 miles back to the rig and called it a day. Haven't gotten into the radiator damage yet, too sore to work on it! I do consider myself lucky as there were many really Rocky Trails I was riding that a similar situation could have been Really Ugly.

Not sure if this is my best crash in years or my dumbest idea (solo in the desert). ?

Any other recent dirt crashes?

[yzMan34]

out of no where!! what a bummer! glad your ok!

[grayracer513]

Clearly, you were struck by a Martian sand meteor.

This is one of my favorite crash photos:

[Eliems]

It is always on the way back and feeling relaxed, not paying too much attention when it gets you!

I remember suddenly hitting a melon sized rock throwing me to the right. This caused my body to fling back which made me grip hard twisting the throttle wide open!

Next thing I knew I was heading for the dirt hoping like anything that nothing would get seriously damaged as I was way back in Glacier country. Turned out OK that time!

[cubby]

so I don't get it what did you hit to cause this crash

[2DTrail]

Great picture, now picture me in the middle and that's exactly what I saw! I have no idea what I hit, all I can think is that I washed out the front wheel, there was NOTHING there that should have made me crash & burn. Except for the loose surface, a 2 year old on a big wheel could have ridden the stretch where I crashed! I don't remember a thing 1 minute I was riding, next I was in the middle of a dust cloud spitting dirt and trying to breathe! Very wierd when stuff like that happens. Shakes the confidence a bit. Never did trust those Martians!

[Fullbore4]

I see your 52 yrs old......at least your still ridin.....I've done about the same over the years......I'm 50.......happy trails!

[2DTrail]

Yeah, 52 and still loving 2 wheels. My goal is to trail ride on my 70'th birthday. Nothing puts me in a better mood than taking a ride, either dirt or street. Clears the mind and soothes the soul!