West Coast Hawk Rally 2004

Inverness, CA

7/30 - 8/01 2004

Havin' a beer and chit-chattin' on Fri. night.

 

The Bikes

The bikes	Gray's custom painted Monster	John Ruiz's yellow Hawk	Dave Riffle's Hawk with USD gixxer forks	Rod Holland's RVF 400	Mike Kubr's Kawi Z1
Moises Barajas's unique Hawk	Very unique exhaust	Moises's custom light/fly screen creation	Bernie Ayling's very clean Hawk

 

Getting Ready for the Big Ride

Todd Aument (left) and Dave Riffle

Dave Moynes, John Ruiz and Mike Kubr

Bernie A and Rick H

Hwy 1

Rod's first break-down.  Lost shifter pivot screw	Stewart's Pt. on Hwy 1 (turn-off to Skaggs Spring Rd.)	Beginning of Skaggs
	Watching over us	Rod's second break-down.  Stinkin' Honda charging systems	Rod's perplexed
One big happy bunch: Moises Barajas, Dave Riffle, Mike Kubr, Roy Hanks, John Ruiz, Dave Moynes, Gray Holland (kneeling), Rick Holtzman, Mike Slater, Todd Aument, Rod Holland, Bernie Ayling, Sorry, I can't remember your name.

Skaggs and the Fateful Crash
(Photos courtesy of Mike Kubr)

Look at all the attention I'm getting.	Mike, this put a fat smile on my face.  Thanks.		I guess that's the skid mark leading into the guardrail in the lower right.
Here's Rick H pointing it out.	Notice the cock-eyed wooden spacers and dinged reflector.	I think my bike did most of this.

What Happened?

Good question.  No, actually I have a pretty good idea of what happened.  I've been practicing my hanging off and even began scraping pegs (stock rear sets), while hanging off on Skaggs.  Skaggs Spring-Stewart Point Rd. has an amazing collection of sweepers that really allow you to let loose, and well, I sort of got carried away.  I had just passed a car and was coming out of a right hander when I saw I didn't have much time to setup for this sweeping decreasing radius left.  I guess I felt I was going in too hot, so I pulled the typical rookie move and hit the front brakes.  This straightened the bike up and sent me into the guardrail at an angle.  I'm convinced that if I had just dug in I would have cleared the turn with no problems.  I'm pretty disappointed in myself for pulling such a novice move since I have been riding for over three years, have clocked well over 20k miles on four bikes, including several 1,500 mile road trips, and even a track day.  In any case, the bike sideswiped the guardrail which threw me off the bike and onto the guardrail.  It happened so fast I don't remember exactly what happened after that.  If fact, my next recollection was of me standing up and trying to breath.  I must have hit hard on the guardrail, because I had the wind knocked out of me.  I began to see stars and sat on the guardrail, still struggling to bring air into my lungs.  I saw Mike Kubr and Dave Moynes, ride up and park their bikes.  It wasn't until they came up to me and told me to lie down that I noticed I was bleeding profusely from a large tear/cut in my jacket located in my armpit area.  "Oh, shit."  I thought.  It wasn't until I realized I was badly hurt that I began to feel the pain from the laceration.  We eased my jacket off and saw that my shirt was soaked with blood.  Someone helped me lie down and Dave Moynes took a peak at the wound.  When he saw how deep it was he gently pushed some of the loose shirt into the wound and told me to cross my arm over my stomach to apply pressure.  After 40 min. the paramedics came, strapped me to a board and loaded me into an ambulance which took me up to the helicopter that was waiting for me just up the road.  The rest can be told another day.

I ended up with a shattered Trapezium bone in my hand, a 5 to 6" laceration beginning from the base of my shoulder (in front) to the rear of my armpit.  The cut partially severed my right bicep muscle and came within 3mm of my artery and nerve.  I have permanent loss of feeling on the skin (surface nerves were severed) along most of the inside of my bicep, and finally my right bicep will always look slightly deformed since fatty tissue was removed when cleaning the wound.  Fatty tissue offers contour to the body, so if some is missing it will look different.  I'm assuming when I fell onto the guardrail my right arm went over and my weight and speed allowed the edge of the guardrail to cut up into my arm.  Later, when I visited my Chiropractor he said I was showing signs of having had a mild concussion.  This would explain the stars I saw after I stood up, but I'm still not sure if I lost consciousness.  I have no recollection from the time I ran into the guardrail to when I stood up, though it did all happen so quickly.

A Wounded Hawk

That bar-end made some serious contact

<Sniff>

Looks really tweaked, but I think it's just the fairing.  Fender still looks straight.

This was just the beginning of my fateful adventure as a guardrail victim.  My experience in the hospitals is a whole other story.  Maybe when I have use of my right arm again I'll write something.

A HUGE thanks to all the rally guys who gave up the rest of their day/weekend to help me out.  I'm so lucky to have you all as friends.  And a final note, for now.  We all take risks, but after this experience I now have a greater appreciation for the fragility of the human body.  It's just no match for stationary objects, even fully geared and armored.  I think it may be time to take my more aggressive riding to the track.

Kenzo Baxter
-WCHR Scribe, on the road to recovery!

Back to Tripe Reports