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Cruiser
Posts: 117
South of Houston Tx | Well, since I got my 08 Midnight Cherry custom tourer back in June I have struggled to come up with a fitting name for her. Now I bought this bike after not being on one in over ten years because I thought it was a beautiful machine from the first time I saw one one the Discovery's channel while watching the episode of "How It's Made". (Thats the first time I ever heard of Victory Motorcycles I might add)My wife must of liked it too, because she had been the leading voice in making me think I was too old for riding anymore, but she was quick to tell me that we might as well go get one after about a week of looking at them on the internet. From the first time I sat on her at the dealership I just knew that I would be riding her with my wife behind me for a long time to come. Now my wife has always been to chicken to ride herself, she loves to hop on the back but would never think of trying to control a motorcycle from anywhere but the backseat. At least until a couple weeks after I got the Vision home that is, then suddenly she decides she wants to get a motorcycle of her own (I really thought that back seat was more comfortable than that!!!!!). Well to make a long story short we hunted and she hee-hawed around about what size bike to get for about a month, then the local Kawasaki dealer got in a new 09 500 LTD we looked at it and she liked it but thought it was a bit heavy. After another week of making the dealership "get right" with the price and interest rate we picked up her new 500 LTD and between the bouts of rain this week she has really worked hard on learning to ride it. She still thinks its heavy and has started to call it "The beast" so I think I've finally decided on a name for my Vision, if hers is the beast mine must be Beauty so now we have Beauty and the Beast, but whenever we tell folks that and they look at the 2 sitting side by side they laugh and tell me that the vision looks like a beast up against the little 500, but thats what we are calling them! |
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Cruiser
Posts: 143
Sparta, WI | I bet she will be riding on the Beauty more than on the Beast. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 117
South of Houston Tx | well, she wont be riding on anything for a week or two. As I was writing the above she was pestering me to hurry and finish so we could go ride and as soon as I hit submit we were out the door. we rode around town for a while, her on the beast practicing her stops and turns,with me behind her on beauty. We went over to her parents house and visited for an hour or so then got back on the streets and I guess she decided she was bored with the in town stuff and headed out on the county roads. after going a few miles out we stopped along the rode and I got some voice mails about jobs and I needed to get back to the house so I could set them up. on the way back to town she was getting brave and got the beast all the way up to 40 MPH, I remember thinking "I sure wish she would speed up I'm about to get run over". About half way back to town there was a small "S" curve, not enough of a curve to even have a posted speed limit below the 50 MPH limit of the road, but enough of a curve to to make my wife nervous. I really am not sure what happened with her other than she panicked and didn't make the curve, she got into the ditch and planted her foot which naturally just threw her from the bike. All I am sure of is it wasn't any fun watching my wife of 25 years flying through the air and rolling to a motionless stop face down inches from the roadway. I got off the road just a few yards in front of her, it seemed liked time was slowed to a crawl, and I couldn't move fast enough as I was trying to put the stand down on the Vision in the grass because the road had no shoulder. The ditch was to steep and I couldn't get off without the bike going over on the right side, and in what seemed like took way to long for me to figure out, but really only took seconds, I remember thinking "the tip overs you idiot" and pulled the stand back up and laid her over on the tipovers. when I got to my wife she was still unconscious but came too with me calling her name a couple times, the people in front of us and behind us both stopped and directed traffic, and one of them called the ambulance. When she lifted her head up she asked, "where are we" and didn't remember that she even had a motorcycle, when I told her she did and she just had an accident on it she said "is this a dream" but in the short time time it took for the ambulance to get there and strap her on the backboard she regained her memory and was able to tell the EMT's what kind of bike she had. They took her to the local emergency room were the did X-rays and a cat scan and then after reading the scans they transported her up to Houston to Herman Memorial because some of the bones that make up the orbital socket of her left eye are broken. She is still there, and as soon as I get finished posting this I am out the door heading back up, as she is supposed to have surgery this morning to have a plate put in on her upper cheek bone. She's determined, I asked her if she was ready to go riding again, and she said "as soon as my face feels a bit better". |
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The Poconos | I'm glad she will be OK and hope she heals fast and well. Take her to an abandoned parking lot for practice. The streets, as you found out, can be unforgiving.
Baby steps my friend.....baby steps.
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Cruiser
Posts: 102
Northeast Pennsylvania | God bless. I hope for a full and speedy recovery for her. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 171
San Antonio, Texas | I'm sure that after 25 years you all ready know this---but, she's a KEEPER! Hope the healing all goes well and speedily. Prayers sent your way. When ya'll make it San Antonio way, look me up. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 113
East Ohio | So glad she is going to be ok and willing to get back on, couldn't imagine riding w/o my bff, goodluck, and you never know, that accident may be the one thats makes you just a little more aware and saves you from the big one, hope to hear from you soon after your ride together
Go Super Steel |
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Cruiser
Posts: 137
Houston, Texas | RotNRat
Gave her my best wishes for a speedy recovery |
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Cruiser
Posts: 235
Evergreen, CO | RotNRat -
Hope your wife has a very speedy recovery. Once SHE is ready to try the two wheel thing again, do her a favor and sign her up for a motorcycle safety class. They have them for both beginner and experienced riders. The Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) has a great program that is taught all around the country. Here is the link - http://www.msf-usa.org/ . Again, best wishes for your wife's speedy recovery, and I hope this does not dissuade her from trying again at a later date. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 98
Santa Maria CA | Glad to hear she is going to recover and wants to ride again. The first thing is to get her to take a Motorcycle rider safety coarse. It will help her confidence and her riding skills. My wife also rides. But she has rode for over 30 years, she taught me how to ride. she now rides my vision some times but usually ride her GL1800 Golgwing. But you can never get enough training. next mounth we will taking a addvance riding coarse traning. It allways helps. Wish her a speedy recovery.
I call my Vision Marching to Mars. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 143
Sparta, WI | Scary. |
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | Thankfully she'll be able to ride again. Prayers from Central Va. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 63
Corpus Christi Tx. | RotnRat - 2008-08-22 8:54 AM
well, she wont be riding on anything for a week or two. As I was writing the above she was pestering me to hurry and finish so we could go ride and as soon as I hit submit we were out the door. we rode around town for a while, her on the beast practicing her stops and turns,with me behind her on beauty. We went over to her parents house and visited for an hour or so then got back on the streets and I guess she decided she was bored with the in town stuff and headed out on the county roads. after going a few miles out we stopped along the rode and I got some voice mails about jobs and I needed to get back to the house so I could set them up. on the way back to town she was getting brave and got the beast all the way up to 40 MPH, I remember thinking "I sure wish she would speed up I'm about to get run over". About half way back to town there was a small "S" curve, not enough of a curve to even have a posted speed limit below the 50 MPH limit of the road, but enough of a curve to to make my wife nervous. I really am not sure what happened with her other than she panicked and didn't make the curve, she got into the ditch and planted her foot which naturally just threw her from the bike. All I am sure of is it wasn't any fun watching my wife of 25 years flying through the air and rolling to a motionless stop face down inches from the roadway. I got off the road just a few yards in front of her, it seemed liked time was slowed to a crawl, and I couldn't move fast enough as I was trying to put the stand down on the Vision in the grass because the road had no shoulder. The ditch was to steep and I couldn't get off without the bike going over on the right side, and in what seemed like took way to long for me to figure out, but really only took seconds, I remember thinking "the tip overs you idiot" and pulled the stand back up and laid her over on the tipovers. when I got to my wife she was still unconscious but came too with me calling her name a couple times, the people in front of us and behind us both stopped and directed traffic, and one of them called the ambulance. When she lifted her head up she asked, "where are we" and didn't remember that she even had a motorcycle, when I told her she did and she just had an accident on it she said "is this a dream" but in the short time time it took for the ambulance to get there and strap her on the backboard she regained her memory and was able to tell the EMT's what kind of bike she had. They took her to the local emergency room were the did X-rays and a cat scan and then after reading the scans they transported her up to Houston to Herman Memorial because some of the bones that make up the orbital socket of her left eye are broken. She is still there, and as soon as I get finished posting this I am out the door heading back up, as she is supposed to have surgery this morning to have a plate put in on her upper cheek bone. She's determined, I asked her if she was ready to go riding again, and she said "as soon as my face feels a bit better".
Your story is identical to what my brother and sister-in-law went thru. After a week of off and on riding he decided to take her on the street and she panicked on a curve and went into a ditch headfirst. She was transported to the hospital with a broken wrist and slight head injuries...thanks to the helmet. She recovered and quickly sold her new bike.
Here's wishing your wife a speedy recovery.
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Cruiser
Posts: 117
South of Houston Tx | Just an update, when I got to the hospital this morning My wife had just come out of surgery, the Doctors told us that it went well, they set the cheek bone and one in her temple and installed a titanium skid plate to hold it all together. I told one of her co-workers that she was getting a new bionic eye socket and she said " great, she's always been Wonder Woman and now we have to put up with her being the Bionic-Wonder-Woman! All of the doctors and hospital staff were great, I never heard one bad remark about motorcycles and several did all they could to encourage her to continue to pursue her dream of riding. She is a little swollen but is now home and glad to be here. Thank you all for your kind words and prayers.
Edited by RotnRat 2008-08-22 11:15 PM
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Visionary
Posts: 1324
So Cal | Glad to hear all is well. Sounds like you got a keeper. Gonna be tough getting her through airport security though. If she gets back on, she's definately a keeper. |
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Tourer
Posts: 404
San Antonio, TX United States | Prayers and best wishes to you both. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 619
Southeast Iowa | Like everyone else I send my prayers for a speedy recovery. If your wife still wants to ride I would also suggest a motorcycle safety course. My wife has been riding for 5 years and has about 50,000 trouble free miles under her belt. She took the course, started on a 250 Rebel, spent hours in a parking lot before we headed out on the highway. 1000 miles on the Rebel she moved up to a 750 Shadow Ace, 10,000 miles later she moved up to a Kingpin. She can now hang with the boys and has ridden in about every situation in almost 20 different states. Good Luck and I hope everything turns out well. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 247
| hope all goes well from here on in. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 117
South of Houston Tx | So far all is going better than I would have ever thought, from what she looked like when it happened , with a hardball sized goose egg above her left eye which was swollen completely shut and the hide gone from her nose. she had several superficial scrapes and cuts on her head and face, and her bottom lip required about 15 stitches. We went back in to see the Doc this morning for a follow up and he was impressed with the speed of her recovery. If it wasn't for the surgery, she would almost be healed. She still has a little black under her eyes and red around them but most of all the scrapes and cuts are healed, she is swollen and black blue and yellow still on her left neck and face where they did the surgery (they went in through her mouth and cut along her gum line). she has been keeping the wounds washed and keeping vasiline on them as the doctor told her too, he said if she would keep them from scabbing over and stay out of the direct sunlight she shouldn't have any scars and it looks like he knew what he was talking about. I took the beast down to the car wash this afternoon and hosed it off so I could better asses the damages. the tank got some good scratches in it (no dents though), the clutch cable broke up at the adjuster by the lever, I had to bend the shifter back down so I didn't have to use my hand to shift anymore, and the headlight assembly is broken on one side. I first thought that the light was just knocked loose from the retaining ring, but the housing is broke where it mounts to the forks. (when did they start making those round headlights out of plastic, lol the last one of these Japanese bikes I had that housing was metal not chromed plastic!). All in all we were fortunate not to have any more damage to her or the bike.
Oh and she wanted me to tell you all Thanks for your thoughts and prayers once more. |
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | RotnRat, this is one of those great life stories of determination. I hope and pray for continuing recovery and hope she is riding soon once again, not for riding sake, but that she has recovered enough to be able to ride. That says a lot about her, and your support of her. Keep us posted. You many be a RotnRat, but what should we call her? Definetly not Beast, or Mrs. RotnRat I'm sure. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 117
South of Houston Tx | Well it's been just over a week since my wife, Pat, got out of the hospital, she has recovered from her injuries remarkably well. we've been watching Gustav out there in the gulf for a couple days and from what they are saying it is going to miss us and head inland in Louisiana maybe as early as tomorrow morning. Even if it misses us we are going to be in for some rain from it next week. When my wife saw this she told me, " I guess if I'm going to get any practice in on riding, i better do it today because the rain is coming". We headed over to the courthouse parking lot, this is actually the lot they use here for the motorcycle safety course, and she practiced for about an hour. She was obviously more afraid of the beast than she was before her tumble, but she did well. before we got started I had her test the shifter That I bent back down but it was still to high for her, so i rode it over to the shop and removed the foot peg so i could pull the shifter off and turn it a couple splines. I also adjusted the rear brake because I'm not sure she could ever have made it apply, it had to be pushed so far. Anyway, when i got back to the house, she was standing there with a ball cap on, I asked her what that was all about, and she said it was to keep the sun out of her eyes. I told her that i figured the helmet would work fine for that, and then she started telling me how heavy, hot , and uncomfortable the helmet was (the same old excuses I have told her time and again over the years) but in the end, when she found out i wasn't giving her the keys until she put it on, she decided to where the helmet.
We have her signed up for the classes, but have to wait tell October for the first available opening. I figure if nothing else it will help build her confidence back up. Until then we will spend a lot more time back at step 1 in the parking lot like we started. |
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | Keep us posted on this great story that is still to be written. Our continued prayers for Pat, and you, for a great recovery. |
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Beauty and the Beast