Unadilla MX & Norge crash damage after...

[brider]

Rode my Beauty Norge up to watch the Unadilla MX race last Sat, gorgeous ride up 17 & 8 in NY, some of the most pretty farm country around, and on a gorgeous day, too.

Track conditions were perfect:




Probably 400 or so bikes there, 70% ADV, 20% Harley, 10% "other", and (1) Guzzi, me:




Here's an original version of my very first "dirt bike", a '72 Yammie AT-2 with elec start:





Would've been a perfect day except on the way back down rt 8 on a sweeping right curve, a quad-cab pickup pulled off the side of the road right in front of me trying to turn into the oncoming lane. I was able to haul it down and veer to the right just enough to smack the side of the bed and grind along the side while staying upright and pulling off the right shoulder. My bike and the truck right after the collision:








You can see from the truck damage how I scraped along the side of the bed and collected mud off the rear tire. The bike's plastic bodywork is all damaged on the left side, plus the left rotor is warped and the wheel itself doesn't sit true between the forks, is biased to the right fork leg, and the right rotor drags on the caliper.

I had bruises on my left fingers where they smashed the truck, and a scrape on my knee where it impacted the wheel/fender arch. I couldn't believe I came to a stop still upright and breathing, with no broken bones. If the truck had waited a second more before pulling out, I wouldn't have had time to react, and may have T-boned.

I saw the truck well before I got there, with it's wheels turned as if it was going to turn across me into the oncoming lane. So I backed off the throttle a little, kept looking at it thinking "no, no, no.....NO!", and then sure enough they pulled out.

This was in the middle of NOWHERE, and after wondering how to get home, what to do with the bike, what to tell the wife, I took off the left caliper and zip-tied it to the sad remnants of fairing and rode the 200 mi home very slowly with the right caliper dragging:




There is no denying that I've gone over this near-death experience in my mind a million times and wonder how I should process it, but the immediate concern is what will happen to the bike. Filed a claim yesterday and gave my ins co the police report and my statement, but the Norge's are so de-valued that I think at best it will be determined a total loss with the cost of the fairing, wheel, maybe forks, etc, and then what? The $$ payout might be a pittance, and so the end of the story may be that I have a bike that's not rideable with a salvaged title and a little $$ in my pocket. But I guess I'm still alive, there's that.

[MGrego]

Oh Man,  so glad you walked away from that...

[cliffrod]

A wrecked bike is not cool but glad that you’re ok & this isn’t a condolences/in memoriam thread posted by someone else about you.  That’s really all that matters.

[guzzi ride]

WOW! Glad you walked/rode away after that. You never know what these drivers might do.

[guzzisteve]

Bad ending to a great day, let the bike go & get another, plenty out there. Watching wheels saved your butt, they turn before the vehicle will. Glad your safe.

[twowings]

Mercy! Save the engine at the very least...one of the best MG ever made! Sorry to see such a gorgeous bike ruined by moronic behavior...

WHY do people buy such huge vehicles when they have little or no spatial awareness or driving skill??

[Huzo]

Yeah glad you’re ok and all…
But what I REALLY wanna’ know is..
How come the scum sucking moron didn’t offer to get your bike home in the back of the land barge ? It would have given you the opportunity to punch him in the side of his head when you got to your front gate. I’d be devastated if my Norge suffered like that for a similar reason.
As for the guy “pulling out…?” It’s lamentable that his father didn’t, all those years back…

[Buckturgidson]

Great job. No matter how hairy things get try to stay upright on two wheels and ride it out.

[Vagrant]

You walked/drove away. That's all that matters.
As Steve said, always watch the very top of the other guys front tire. You will see it start to turn long before you notice the vehicle moving.

[Tkelly]

Glad you are still here.Having difficulty understanding what happened.Were you behind the truck when he made a u turn?Or did he pull out in front of you from the side of the road making a u turn?Could you have done anything differently?Thanks for telling your story,it is a help to all of us.

[PJPR01]

Good for you on the assumption that the guy was going to do something stupid...that sounds like the key to success here.

There are other Norges out there...while the damage seems to be cosmetic on the plastics, I'd be more worried about either a bent fork which would be a pain to replace, but there was a guy selling forks here for years that never sold.

But for $4K you could probably find a good used 2008/2009 Norge in great shape, relatively low miles anyway...maybe then just part out some of the other items and recover some if the insurance totals it and you get it back.  Some of the other items sold as parts could help recoup the cost of acquiring another Norge and leave room to install some 12 inch Truck Horns as well!

Glad you are alive...that's the best part...Norges can be replaced!

[Moparnut72]

Glad you are OK. I would buy it back from the insurance company if you can get it cheap.
kk

[brider]

Along Huzo's line of thinking, At the first opportunity I looked at the driver (with my heart still racing) and yelled at them "Do you know how close you came to killing me?!", but the driver was a woman, with a bewildered expression on her face, and I soon learned that she and her other 4 passengers didn't speak a word of English. She knew I was mad, though.

Now, I am NOT going to take the tack that her not speaking english had any bearing on what happened and why it happened. It just made it VERY difficult to talk to her. She soon busted out her Google translator and told me how sorry she was and how glad she was that I wasn't hurt. I was still mad but whaddya going to do? I'm sure if it was a dude I'd have had a few more choice words for him, but as irrational as it was, all I could think about then was my poor Norge.

To clarify: She was in a dirt lot on the right side of the road as I was coming toward her, her wheels were turned in my direction, and she pulled out in front of me, crossing my path, when it was too late to avoid contact.

About 15 mi down the road, after I pulled the left caliper off and zip-tied it out of the way (with a piece of wood between the pads), I stopped to get gas and put the bike on the center stand to try to wipe the mud off the front tire sidewalls. It was then I learned that the right caliper was dragging, and the wheel didn't spin freely. Rotor was hot, but the wheel hub and caliper itself were not, so I figured there was no damage to the axle and the caliper wouldn't overheat, BUT.....a guy who saw me inspecting everything pointed out that my wheel looked "funny", and when I stepped back and looked at it, you could see the right rotor much closer to the slider than the left one that was warped...tried to show it in these pics; this is the left:





This is the right:




I thought, how can the wheel be skewed in the forks like that and still spin without lunching a bearing? And then it dawned on me that both fork tubes must be swayed (bent) to the right with the axle still straight between them.

It just sucks but I gotta be glad it ain't worse. I'll update when I learn what the insurance co says. Turns out we BOTH have the same insurance co, and the agent I gave my statement to didn't have a reassuring manner about them that they were going to fight very hard for me only to end up paying out of their own pockets.

[chuck peterson]

Good to hear you’re okay Ted

[Stretch]

You are a VERY lucky guy! 

And you anticipated her move JUST in time.

You know, there's a point in time when you're riding along,
where if somebody else does the exact wrong thing at the exact wrong time,
a collision is inevitable. You anticipated such a move - probably because you've
been riding a long time - and were able to do JUST enough to avoid disaster.

Too bad about the bike, but WELL DONE! 

Now you have the raw material for a custom bike project!   

                                           -Stretch

[moto]

Congratulations on doing enough to avoid complete disaster!

While my son is embarrassed when he's riding with me in the car I am a big advocate of using the horn in these situations. My T3 has two sets (including hidden air horns) that can be sounded together with my super-bright driving lights. Sounding a warning is the only legal use of horns in my state, I recall. It works.

EDIT: To clarify, I will honk before I see movement if the front tire looks suspect and there is a driver behind the wheel. Then I make sure to wave an apology as I go by.

You did well, especially keeping upright by actively wrestling the bike instead of letting go. Good luck.

[Alfetta]

glad to see that you are ok..

But at least you got to watch an epic battel between Chase/Hunter, Kitchen/Deegan !  both swapping moto wins...
I would love to get out to Unadilla, it's one of the iconic tracks that still remans on the pro series.

not sure i could pull off the 1,300 mile journey on my V7...   

[SemperVee]

 That you stayed up is a testament to your skill.  I got high anxiety just reading your few seconds of terror envisioned.  You walked away (RODE AWAY) is amazing and I think I would have gotten a Uhaul or back of PU truck to haul me back but I am sure you were in a state of shock and not thinking exactly correctly (safely)...  Not your time brother.  Might be worth more in parts selling off than rebuilding or keeping for spare parts if you get another Norge.   Best Wishes ....

[bigbikerrick]

Im glad you are OK ,BRider. I also felt anxiety, reading your description of events. scary!  Deffinitely the good outcome is a testament to your riding skills.
Rick.

[Moparnut72]

Now that I have seen the pictures I am guessing the forks are bent. I think it would now depend on how cheap you could buy it back would determine whether it would be smart to do so. It definitely going to be totaled. I know of one for sale for not much money but it is in Nevada.
kk

[brider]

But at least you got to watch an epic battel between Chase/Hunter, Kitchen/Deegan !  both swapping moto wins...
I would love to get out to Unadilla, it's one of the iconic tracks that still remans on the pro series.

Glad someone finally asked about the race! I root for Sexton & Plessinger in the 450's, Plessinger had a big fan contingent there and he had the holeshot & lead in the 1st moto. I was not familiar with Jo Shimodo in the 250s, but he caught my eye in the 1st moto as having the most fluid riding style, and he was chasing @ 2nd in the 2nd moto until he crashed somewhere. The 450s are definitely faster, but the 250s sounded like 2-strokes so I liked them better. YEARS ago I saw Travis Pastrana race there on a 125 2-stroke, there is NOTHING like watching a guy like that rip a track like that on a 2-stroke. I also got Pastrana & Roger DeCoster's autograph on a little baby onesie I bought trackside for my newborn son at that time. The Unadilla track is about as European as you can get, and conditions last Sat were epic.

That you stayed up is a testament to your skill.  I think I would have gotten a Uhaul or back of PU truck to haul me back

Thanks for the kudos, but yes, I believe the 50 yrs of riding paid off in this case. Didn't panic but I sure as hell wish I'd thought to hit the horn button! When I began thinking clearly, I asked the local guy who was there (more on him later) in the dirt lot where a tow service was, and he said there was nothing anywhere for miles. I called my son in CT and asked him to drive up and get me (3 hrs 1-way) and he balked, actually tried to get an Uber to drive me home but the Uber message was "no service in your area". So here's the part I left out:

The dirt lot where the truck started out and where I ended up was actually a stone quarry (in the middle of nowhere, remember) where a big guy was moving big blocks of stone with a front-end loader into/out of a metal shed where a giant circular blade was spinning on a gantry cutting stone blocks. He paid no attention to the hubbub until I waved him down and asked if I could hide my bike behind his shed and start hitchiking (did a lot of that in my youth, I still remember how...). He pointed to his house down/across the road and said I could park it there while I figured out what to do with it. So I limped it down/across the road to his house, and did a big turn in his driveway to park near a woodshed to be out of the way, and planted the front wheel in a deep mud patch that looked exactly like the rest of the gravel drive. Wheel washed out and bike and I fell down on the right side. Both wheels stuck in mud. I trudged up/across the road again and waited for a good time to get his attention again and told him this city-boy fell over in his driveway and needed help to lift the bike back up. I felt like such a fool. He said to walk back and wait for him (basically to get me the hell out of his way so he didn't have to worry about running me over), and when I got back to my pathetic bike laying on it's right side in the mud with the warped left-side rotor staring up at me, it then struck me that I could just remove the caliper, tie it up, and be on my way! So that's what I did. 200 miles home with the right rotor dragging, 55-60 mph max, night with a mesh jacket on, freezing my _ss off, home @ 1 am. But home, alive!

[Alfetta]

Joe has been epic on the Kawasaki and I real thought he would be doing better than he is this year, but he did change to Honda so there will be a learning curve.

I'm a fan of Masterpool in the 250 class, needs some consistency, but when he is on...  he is no...

good thing about track racing is that no quad cabs are going to be pulling out in front of you.

Safe travels.

[Pescatore]

You lived to tell the tale. Bravo.
Presuming you can remedy the front end, you could remove most of the fairing and keep on riding it.
Maybe turn it into a Sport.
Where did you get those cases?

Oh yeah, nice pictures of the race.

[brider]

Presuming you can remedy the front end, you could remove most of the fairing and keep on riding it.
Maybe turn it into a Sport.
Where did you get those cases?

I was looking at it last night and thought I could ride it without the side fairing(s). So maybe just a headlight fairing and straightened/new forks?

The bags are the smaller Tusks, the mounts were an ebay find from a cycle-salvager, someone took Guzzi mounts for a different bike/different bags and welded on adaptations to fit a Breva. After a little research I learned that the Breva & Norge shared the same frame in this area, so I took a chance and yes, the mounts fit and I came up with my own way to mount the Tusks. I have the factory bags but DO NOT like side-loading bags. In this crash, I'm sure my left factory bag would've been damaged. The Tusk just suffered a tire-skid mark.

[brider]

UPDATE:

Ins co for the driver who pulled out in front of me determined liability to be theirs, 100%. Interesting that they determined this WITHOUT an accident report, their party must've told the truth and it meshed with my story. The NY DMV has no record of a crash report, and the State Police told me to submit a FOIL (Freedom of Info...something...), which could take until March 2025 for results. Really _issed me off that I couldn't get my hands on the report, but whatever.

They totaled the bike, no surprise, and minus the salvage value, and with $500 or so in accessories they gave me credit for, I'll get a check for $4k, keep the bike, and have the title stamped SALVAGE until I fix it and get it re-inspected.

I already bought the red bodywork & headlight I need pretty cheap from an e-bay source, and found a good shop to straighten the forks. So assuming the fork INTERNALS are good, and the steering clamps aren't deformed (I doubt it), I see a light at the end of the tunnel. I needed to do fork spring mods anyway.

[Pescatore]

I'm impressed you found body parts.
Long live the Norge!

[brider]

I'm impressed you found body parts.

My search revealed (2) very sad cases of red Norges, just like mine, one with UNDER 4k miles on it, being parted out by salvage shops. One was a re-possession with no key (that's where I got most of the parts, and I had to take a gas tank in the deal with no key to open it), the other was a "crash" that as totaled, like mine, but I saw a vid of the bike @ the salvage shop running and complete with no visible damage, and it's forks were for sale and not bent. Who knows the whole story? I know it's just inanimate parts with $$ value, but I see them as beautiful pieces of art that should be appreciated (ridden) and not so easily dismissed & dismantled.

[blackbuell]

I have a very nice 2007 for sale if you are interested in replacing it. Only $2700, 35,000 miles. Lots of spare parts

[n3303j]

UPDATE:

Ins co for the driver who pulled out in front of me determined liability to be theirs, 100%. Interesting that they determined this WITHOUT an accident report, their party must've told the truth and it meshed with my story. [SNIP]

The fact that you are not filing for bodily injury or rehabilitation services probably made the insurance company glad for a quick settlement. I'm sure part of the deal includes your signature freeing them from any further financial responsibility.

Went through a similar situation when the car driving party pulled out in front of my Ural from a parking lot. Check was quicker and larger than I expected. (Stop was quicker too. TG for protective gear)

[Huzo]

I don’t know what it would take to get me to discard my Norge so readily as some, but I’m sure it would be a LOT more than this…