Went out for a blast with my mate on his Fut on Sunday.
Beautiful weather, fantastic roads up past Kielder reservoir towards the borders, loads of bikes out.
I was in front then noticed my mate was missing.
Went back and he was in the process of picking his bike up on the far verge.
Anxious to help, I quickly looked over my shoulder and commenced a U turn.
At this point three supermotos came haring round the bend behind me about 50 yards away and motoring.
A reflex dab on the front brake along with full lock and feet up sent the Falco diving to its right and quickly beyond any hope of saving it.
I tried to drop it as softly as possible and stepped off as it settled on its offside.
I noticed the motor cut out immediately so the tilt sensor works ok.
The lads on the other bikes stopped and we quickly had it upright.
I was expecting all sorts of carnage but there was hardly a scratch.
It had sat on the exhaust can, footbrake end, bar end and the matt lower rad cover.
It started up no problem so I left it and went to my mate who had fared worse.
The Fut had snapped its left mirror and pulled the top mounting tab off the rad, holing it and making it a recovery job. Otherwise the bike (and he) was ok.
He had come into the tightening right hander from full sunlight into shadow. He had his internal sun visor down and by the time his sight adjusted he was heading for the verge.
All could have been worse of course, especially as the first supermoto skimmed past me as I fell over in front of him like a dork.
Back home and you can’t tell the bikes been over – and as a bonus, the ride back was glorious!
Testing the tilt sensor for real
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Yeah, could have been worse – couple of lessons learned as well.
Bob didn’t have his RAC recovery number in his phone and we couldn’t get a signal anyway, being out in the sticks. Always a shock when technology lets you down!
I told Bob to hop on the back of the Falco to head back into town but then realised I had the cowl on instead of my seat. We ended up with him sitting on his gloves carrying the cowl under his arm.
When we got to a payphone (remember them?) I had to read out his wife's mobile number off his phone as he didn’t have his glasses - so all in all he wasn’t that prepared for the unexpected.
I’m still surprised I got away with so little damage – especially when you hear of bikes being financial write offs falling off the stand.
Bob didn’t have his RAC recovery number in his phone and we couldn’t get a signal anyway, being out in the sticks. Always a shock when technology lets you down!
I told Bob to hop on the back of the Falco to head back into town but then realised I had the cowl on instead of my seat. We ended up with him sitting on his gloves carrying the cowl under his arm.
When we got to a payphone (remember them?) I had to read out his wife's mobile number off his phone as he didn’t have his glasses - so all in all he wasn’t that prepared for the unexpected.
I’m still surprised I got away with so little damage – especially when you hear of bikes being financial write offs falling off the stand.