The whole story

So on day 3 I posted about Kyle Sr. hitting a rock and breaking his bike.

While that is factual, it’s not the whole story.  We knew that my wife and my mom were following the blog.  They were already concerned about our safety and we didn’t want them to worry so details were withheld.

The full disclosure:

On our 3rd day  (Kyle Sr’s 2nd day), about 30 miles from the hotel, we had our “YouTube Moment”, or at least Kyle Sr. did.

In the Custer National Forest (just east of the Black Hills), Kyle Sr. blew a corner.  A fundamental, motorcycling 101 breakdown.

He missed on a right handed decreasing radius corner, crossing the center line.  Instead of asking more of the bike (Given his speed we’re all pretty sure it had more to give), he stood it up, when across the road (just missing a head on with a pickup) and over an embankment.

(hitting a big rock and breaking his forks so that part was factual).

The bike down in the ditch.  The photo doesn’t really show it, but that was about 8-10 feet off the roadway.  We had already moved the bike to make sure it would still run, and see if we could get it out and continue on.

The skid marks from the truck that almost hit him…  He was coming around this corner.  The ditch is to the right.

Kyle Sr. getting checked out.

At least he kept his sense of humor.

He was not ticketed, it was just dumb rider error.  Nothing more nothing less.

In all seriousness, this could have been tragic.  Kyle Sr. was bruised up a bit, but he was wearing gear, and a helmet and he walked away.  Plastic and metal can be replaced (though Insurance is usually a good thing).

Now, that being said, the same thing can happen in a car, and actually did happen to a motor home the very next day on a straight piece of road even. 

Our trip was still great but we would have loved for Kyle Sr. to have been able to finish it with us.

So there ya have it.  The rest of the story about lucking into finding someone to bring the bike home is true.