Terra Crash

Went to run a quick errand on the bike week ago last wednesday. Took me 10 days I guess to figure out how to write about it. I made it 6 or 7 miles from my place intending to make it to friends place utilizing gravel as much as possible.
Had just made it around a series of curves in the road and was heading straight, 40 - 45 mph when the front end just "went away" for lack of a better term. It felt like when you try and corner too fast on a dirt bike and the front tire loses traction. I had time to think "this is bad" and then I was off the bike, in a shallow road ditch face down with grass, mud and gravel rushing past my helmet visor.
I do remember my next thought was that I may not be hurt bad.Crawled over to the bike and shut it off. My foot hurt (2 broken toes are my only injury) and I'm wondering what the hell just happened.
Then I spot the front tire, it's flat and the bead is broken completely from the rim.
Later I find the culprit.




Tiny pc. of wire/nail not guitar pic.
My theory is that when the bead broke loose from the rim that was when all hell broke loose. The stock tube is paper thin, I thought it was a bicycle tube. I'll put an ultra heavy duty tube back in.

Just as I was dusting myself off along comes "Dewey" a local character from town. Dewey hoists my bike up on a sling and deposits me back at home.



Notice the mud all over the bike, the road ditch had a generous helping in it which served as a lubricant for a fat man sliding at 40mph.

Back home in the garage






Once I cleaned it up and surveyed damage it became evident that I needed to use the insurance I pay for (AmFam is performing very well) so I carted the whole mess up to Jamey at Donnells.
Big ticket items speedo cluster and ign. switch are a grand. Lots of other stuff, the headlight housing is scratched or abraded rather, to the point of not letting much light through. Blinkers, handlebars of course things add up.
Forks are not bent but one is scratched as is the brake rotor.
Here is where I have mixed feelings. I ride dirt bikes and the thought of "cosmetic" damage does not really compute with me. A lot of the stuff wrong with the bike is stuff I expect to eventually just "happen".
But..........this is not really a dirt bike and it is brand new and I pay Am Fam a whole lot of money...........so screw it, I'm getting my bike fixed. $3400 damage.

Now the rub. Parts availability. Not sure when all parts will be in, could be months. The upside is that with a new tube and handlebars, some innovative zip tie and duct tape work, the bike is rideable. The plan is to patch it up bets as we can, ride it then put it back together when the parts come in.

I will update the post to let everyone know whats happening with parts.

As a side note, the wolfman bags held up great as did the racks.

Glad you are OK Dirty! How'd the radiator hold up? Maybe a more agressive tire up front will help with traction? I found the bike much more preictable with different tires (MT21's). Hope your toes heal quickly! Keep us informed on the parts quest.

Always great when you walk away relatively unscathed from a major road crash. That nail looks pretty small for a catastrophic failure. In a tubeless tire that would be a slow leak. Do you think you picked it up some time ago and missed the tire going soft, or do you think you picked it up and it shredded the tube? This thread is why I am not thrilled with tubes for street riding.

Glad you're OK! Bikes and parts are replaceable, lives are not. The parts will get there eventually.

The tubes they put on stock are a joke. Heavy Duty tubes are $25-$30 bucks. I have a Tubliss on my TE449's rear end that has been working great. I think now I will get one for the front. The inner tube of a Tubliss would never let the bead break like a tube.
Hope you get everything all fixed up and healed up soon.

Dirty,
Glad that you are ok, walking away from a crash is great.....since I've had my Terra gravity has gotten me twice and both times was on soft forgiving enviorns....With the damages you received and costs I think I'll be calling my local State Farm guy up Monday and upping the coverages on mine....good luck with the repairs...kinda nice to have friends with industrial strength tools around....take care
Rod

Wow, glad your ok. Sorry bout the bike but that stuff you can bolt back on.

My brother dual sports a LOT in W Va and won't even make the errand run without full gear.

What did you have on your feet? And how bout a review and pics of the helmet?
In the end it sounds like you had the right stuff on, cause if we knew when we were going to get off we wouldn't go!

Heal quick...

Very glad you are ok

As for parts availability you should be able to get what you need quickly. I had to order a few pieces and all but one came in within a few days. The piece I had to wait on was a the little square that goes on the guards to keep the brake lines in check. All the best with the repairs, both your foot and the bike

Thanks for kind words
Stuff I left out and questions
The Sahara front tire seems ok for traction to me on gravel and pavement but I was surprised by how flimsy the sidewall is. My thinking is that a stiffer tire and a ultra hd tube would at least keep the tire on the rim long enough to come to a stop.

I was wearing hjc modular helmet, dainese gloves, fieldshear vented jacket. All these performed well. No riding pants, just jeans. Saved by the mud. Biggest mistake was footwear. I almost never get on the bike without my garne boots but this time I did. Lesson learned. Even though the injury to my foot appears to be a crush type and the Balance boots might not have prevented it I won't be riding without again.
Rads came through fine.

Glad you and most of your toes made out good DOM. I feel your pain and your parts worry is understandable. We are still waiting for a swing arm for my first Terra, and it is not rideable. We've been waiting since November. It's great that you can still ride yours. Funny how Dewey just happened along at exactly the right moment. The world needs more "Dewey's". You must be living right DirtyOldMan.

Hope you heal quickly Dirty. Thanks for posting.

Good to hear you made it through a crash alive and well. It's always that "one time" without ATGATT that bites us in the ass. I feel guilty not wearing gloves riding 1/2 mile to the gas station. It's experiences like this we all can learn from. Like the weak factory inner tubes. I will order heavy duty tubes for sure. Thanks for sharing, it's not easy to do. Keep us posted on your recovery, parts/service process, and your insurance companies' handling of the situation.

Wow, I'm really glad you're ok. Your experience really hit home with me as I had a very similar experience today but was fortunate enough to be moving at a slow speed and was able to keep it upright. I was heading to the grocery which is about 3 miles from my house. I was turning left onto a state road from a stop on a side road. As I was accelerating to enter traffic ahead of a vehicle approaching from my rear, the rear end slid sideways. It felt like accelerating on slick asphalt so I backed off and straightened it up. I got back on the throttle and had the rear end come out again. I'm sure the car behind me was wondering what the heck I was doing dirt tracking down the middle of the highway. I backed off again and was able to pull through the grass on the side of the road and stop. Luckily, very luckily, I was about a half mile from the dealer where I happened to purchase the bike just this morning. I called them up and being the great guys they are (Big D's in Woodland Park, CO), they brought air to me, got the tire inflated and followed me to the shop. They replaced the tube while I waited. I had picked up a staple somewhere in my 95 mile journey today. If I had seen this post before this happened I would have asked for a heavy duty tube if they had one. I will now be buying hd tubes for front and rear. Absolutely love the bike though.

Reading back through this I realize I left out a detail or two. The bike is a Terra. The bead broke. The staple punctured the tube.

The rack that came through unscathed is sort of yours as I copied your design so thanks.
If the parts issue doesn't get resolved we may all have to get creative.
I'm curious how it came to be that you need a swingarm. Crash?
I've seen pics of your shop and your work, are you tempted to make one?

Would adding rim locks have helped? I presume it is just a matter of drilling a couple of holes and rebalancing.

Your welcome on the racks, but Ken Webb gets credit too on the design. Credit goes to you also for a quality build and for crash testing them for us.
The Terra you saw me build was my second. Ms. Fab and I were in an accident on the first Terra. It was totaled, we were both fine, but I bought it back and sold it to a friend while I ordered a new one. The story is here in a thread called "Pikes Peak or Bust...ed Terra". We did consider making a new swing arm but we were promised a new one from the California office a couple months ago. My dealer bugs them all the time and they keep saying two weeks. It is time I call Husky myself.