Wounded Duc...

I went out for a ride with my buddy, B. I met him at his place and we left. Less than a mile out, I looked back and he wasn't behind me. That was odd, I thought. I pulled over, actually off the road because there was no shoulder, into a farmer's field, and called him. It turns out he had low pressure in his tire, so he turned around to reinflate the tire.

"No problem," I said. "I'll just turn around and meet you back at your place."

I started to go forward, paralleling the road, when all of a sudden my wheel caught a rut. The rut turned the wheel sharply to the left and down we went. To make matters worse, I was close enough to the road that,new hen I went down, the bike and I hit the asphalt,narthex than a soft farm field. Dammit!!!

I scratched up the left side, notably the mirror. Crushed on the glass side, scratched on the outside.

 The fairing saw some action as well...

 ...and the tank, which realy went down hard.

I aso managed to bend the shift lever; this is interesting because I learned this is supposed to happen. It bends so the shaft that leads to the transmission does not bend or break. Fortunately, I have a friend R. with a blow torch and some mad skillz... We will see how that turns out.

I also busticated the handguard. Of course, it had to be one with an ingrate turn signal, instead of a simple, cheap, black piece of plastic. We will see what my local body shop can do with this.

And, I snapped the end off the clutch lever, another part that is meant to "give" in a crash.