Sue her out of house and home, for damages: to property and mental. If an idiot has ruined something you love, they pay.

Then go get an 848/1098(S)(R?)/F4 312R, and go play on some track.

I guess I'll chime in...We all know that riding is a calculated risk.  We can take certain steps to mitigate disaster by wearing protective gear and riding defensively.  At the end of the day, you'll have to ask yourself whether the benefits of riding outweigh the risks and only you can answer that question. One of my closes friends recently low sided resulting in bruised ribs and a broken collar bone.  He's a father with two young sons.  Despite his heavy passion for riding (roughly 12,000 miles in 9 months), his passion for living to see his kids grow up took priority so he hung up his helmet.  

For me, the love of riding is still there, despite the retarded bay area drivers.  I rode through the Oakland hills on Friday and found a Suburban going reverse in my lane after a blind right-hander.  Later down the road, I was going around a blind left turn and found an old lady in a Lincoln Town Car attempting to U-turn over a double-yellow in the middle of the corner.  Her car was effectively blocking the road in both directions in the middle of a blind curve.  Still later, I Fawn was standing in the middle of my lane.  There's sections of that road that I normally blast through, but earlier in the day, I read "The Pace" post in the Riding Techniques" forum.  I was trying to apply some of what I learned from that post and was focusing on slowing down a little bit and riding smoother.  In all three of the above situations, I feel that a crash was prevented as a result of this.  Anyway, I'm rambling...

Quote from: Remy on July 18, 2008, 01:56:15 PM
eesnas, I've considered this kind of situation before. I figure that if I ever get too scared to ride city street anymore I'll sell my bike, buy a track-specific bike and only do track days. On the track it's a controlled environment with ZERO chances to be rolled on top of by an SUV.

Have you considered staying in motorcycling by only riding on the track?

I actually have considered this but I do not think it would do for me what I try to get out of the sport. I ride to escape, not crush lap times... I am very cautious on the bike, I ride fast and lean far but I am not looking to take the relaxation out of things. I think the track would be fun, but somedays I would still want that smooth ride though the hills to just admire the scenery. Being on the bike makes me enjoy the world around me more, it lets me really take in the moment, I think the track would be fun to ride but it's not the best place for relaxing and trying to calm down.

Again, this is what pissed me off about getting hit. I am out there just trying to relax after a long week of working my @$$ off, then some retard knocks me off the bike and ruins my chance to have a moment to myself.  Still mad about it when I think about it, the whole damn situation sucks and the only way it could be worse would be if I was more hurt or dead. As far as the worst accident situation possible, I think a woman falling asleep at the red light and hitting you from behind takes the number 1 spot, I just got lucky I am not more severly hurt. IMHO she should have been arrested on the scene, in NJ they have a law where if you fall asleep and hit someone you can be charged with attempted murder. While she was plowing into me and I saw the oncomming traffic it sure felt like someone was trying to murder me...

which is why i say sue.

Quote from: eesnas on July 20, 2008, 09:01:18 AM
I actually have considered this but I do not think it would do for me what I try to get out of the sport. I ride to escape, not crush lap times... I am very cautious on the bike, I ride fast and lean far but I am not looking to take the relaxation out of things. I think the track would be fun, but somedays I would still want that smooth ride though the hills to just admire the scenery. Being on the bike makes me enjoy the world around me more, it lets me really take in the moment, I think the track would be fun to ride but it's not the best place for relaxing and trying to calm down.

Again, this is what pissed me off about getting hit. I am out there just trying to relax after a long week of working my @$$ off, then some retard knocks me off the bike and ruins my chance to have a moment to myself.  Still mad about it when I think about it, the whole damn situation sucks and the only way it could be worse would be if I was more hurt or dead. As far as the worst accident situation possible, I think a woman falling asleep at the red light and hitting you from behind takes the number 1 spot, I just got lucky I am not more severly hurt. IMHO she should have been arrested on the scene, in NJ they have a law where if you fall asleep and hit someone you can be charged with attempted murder. While she was plowing into me and I saw the oncomming traffic it sure felt like someone was trying to murder me...

So Essnas.. have you sued the lady? What will come out of this? I sure hope that you will try to sue at least.. I know I would find a way to make her pay for attempting to murder you!!!!

I feel you man... It sucks when someone else's stupidity affects your ability to have a good time. Unfortunately, my OWN stupidity is preventing me from being able to get out there, + have fun and ride. (http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=6913.0) I'm just tryng to chalk it up to a lesson learned, but at the same time it makes ME feel like one of the idiots!!    I could've very easily taken out a motorcyclist or pedestrian. I am SOOO thankful I was the only one involved, but it was still stupid on my part, no doubt about it. Hopefully I can turn a bad situation into a good one by making better decisions in the future as a result of this.

When he moved up to 500's from 250's, Valentino Rossi once said something to the effect of: "The 500's are much more diffcult to ride safe, so is more possibility I crash. But what can I do, stay inside all day so I am safe?? No, I contiue to ride fast as possible."

In other words, there is an inherent risk in most things we do. The intangibles + "unforseeables" (like a lady plowing you from behind after siting there for two minutes) are always going to be present when we take risks, and all we can do is try and minimize the frequency of them occurring. If we quit something every time we get knocked down doing it, it would make for a pretty boring life IMHO...

I say if you love riding eesenas, don't give it up all together. Sure that lady was clueless, but who knows. If you keep riding, you may have many many years of joy on the bike, but you'll never know if you just stop. 


-just my .02, take it for what it's worth...   

eesnas, I have to agree with you that your accident is by far the worst situation! It's completely out of your hands and there's really nothing you could have done. As a matter of fact the only time that I've ever been freaked out on my bike was when I was in DC stopped at a stop sign and a cabbie came to a screeching halt within cm's of my rear tire. By the time I even knew what was happening it was done. If he hadn't seen me in the last second, I WOULD have been done. By the way, hands-down the worst drivers I've ever seen in any developed country are the drivers in the DC area! All of them, DC, Northern VA, and Northern MD! Must be that DC self-righteous, entitled, attitude that's emanated from 1600 Penn Ave. I lived there for 2 years, after being in Boston for over 15, and every time I got on the bike (no exaggeration) I had a near-death experience. I rode almost everyday, so that gives you some numbers to work with.

I feel your pain man... I can't say what I would do had it happened to me, but I can tell you that no matter what decision you make I'm sure that everyone here will understand.

Quote from: ato memphis on July 20, 2008, 09:05:19 AM
which is why i say sue.

I agree ...... SUE her

People used to be able to have fistfights (thunderbox if you will) to get over their problems. You can't really do that anymore (so people use lawsuits) and since she has ruined something you loved, this is what those types of lawsuits are there for.

Heaven forbid she's having tea and crumpets with her cronies and mentions how she got the pants sued off of her because she was a terrible driver and hit a motorcyclist, injuring him and ruining the hobby for him. Then her cronies also know that if they are boneheads, they too will lose big time.

There should be one of two minimums in getting a driver's license. Either they ride a motorcycle, or they take a HARD driving test with a probationary period.

If everyone rode motorcycles, there would be a lot less crappy driving, imo. We are all like robartlum in that when we drive cages, we're pretty darn careful and aware of motorcycles.

Let me add to "BMW/mercedes benz" thing.

This is the worst one yet, Im in h te middle of a 3 lane avenue appraoching a redlight, this pimped out Mercedes snaps a hard left into my lane when im already by his rear wheel. I break and steer, even with my HID high beams on his whole rear window, and me blairing my Stebel nautlius horn, he CONTINEUS into my lane even harder, and when i  finanly stop with my foot 2 feet from his door, i start screaming at the window (which has been tintied completely) and after 20 seconds, he rolls down his window and laughs and says, i didnt see you man chill  Holy crap. If this was a lawless world, id sucker punch him and ride off.

So with taht said. SUE HER. People in america are too relaxed with everything. Driving while not paying attention is probably the leading cause of accidents that are user related. +1 to jclin They need to make it much harder to get a license. Im so sick of this shit.

Quote from: He Man on July 21, 2008, 12:29:43 PM
Let me add to "BMW/mercedes benz" thing.

This is the worst one yet, Im in h te middle of a 3 lane avenue appraoching a redlight, this pimped out Mercedes snaps a hard left into my lane when im already by his rear wheel. I break and steer, even with my HID high beams on his whole rear window, and me blairing my Stebel nautlius horn, he CONTINEUS into my lane even harder, and when i  finanly stop with my foot 2 feet from his door, i start screaming at the window (which has been tintied completely) and after 20 seconds, he rolls down his window and laughs and says, i didnt see you man chill  Holy crap. If this was a lawless world, id sucker punch him and ride off.

So with taht said. SUE HER. People in america are too relaxed with everything. Driving while not paying attention is probably the leading cause of accidents that are user related. +1 to jclin They need to make it much harder to get a license. Im so sick of this shit.

So what would have happened if you kick and dent his door? he would probably try to run you over.. unless you are skilled and fast enough to get away...but then.. you may risk getting into a serious accident by TRYING to get away. It sucks.. I know.. If you had a modular helmet you could have spit on his face at least!! 

Quote from: julianista on July 21, 2008, 01:08:03 PM
If you had a modular helmet you could have spit on his face at least!! 

If you spit on my face I am far more likely to hunt you down and kill you for it than if you kick in my door.  Mostly because I will hunt you down and kill you for spitting in my face.

he had one of those AMG mercedes, to my knowledge, he could probably hang with me unless i WOT'ed it.

This is why i love traffic. you kick peoples doors in and just lane split away. I didnt mention the other day where a driver was so busy yelling at me becasue i was about 1 foot from the lane divider on a 4 lane st, he forgot to break and ended up panic breaking 2 inches from the rear end of someone else. and he continued to scream at me saying how it was my fault if i hit that car. I gave him the middle finger and it looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

Seriously man, RIDE in NYC for a month or two and you will develop every skill you need to survive the streets. minus drive by shootings.

Quote from: He Man on July 21, 2008, 10:20:46 PM
he had one of those AMG mercedes, to my knowledge, he could probably hang with me unless i WOT'ed it.

This is why i love traffic. you kick peoples doors in and just lane split away. I didnt mention the other day where a driver was so busy yelling at me becasue i was about 1 foot from the lane divider on a 4 lane st, he forgot to break and ended up panic breaking 2 inches from the rear end of someone else. and he continued to scream at me saying how it was my fault if i hit that car. I gave him the middle finger and it looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

Seriously man, RIDE in NYC for a month or two and you will develop every skill you need to survive the streets. minus drive by shootings.

come to Memphis.