Bad day or lucky day?

Riding Day 29     June 28 and 29 

Tok, AK To Fairbanks, AK

Ride Mileage :  218            Weather condition: very foggy because of wild fire smoke 

Total Mileage :  6330

No motorcycle trip goes without some level of risk, and yesterday on my way to Fairbanks, I went through one of these improbable events that can at best ruins your trip or just kill you if you’re a bit unlucky.

About 40 miles from Fairbanks, on the Alaska highway, an oversized truck transporting a tall house hit a power line that was running above the highway to a transformer pole. The power line got disconnected from the pole and was laying down across the highway. I saw this truck coming in the opposite direction but didn’t see what happened earlier. Two minutes later, I ran over the cable that I couldn’t see at a cruising speed of 60 mph. The rear wheel got entangled with the cable and locked, then I started sliding from the rear. At that point I still didn’t know what was going on, just that I could not control the bike anymore and I was most likely going to crash. After 30 feet sliding the bike turned sharply and I high side on the edge of the road landing on my shoulder. The left shoulder this time…

A big slide before take off…

A guy from the electric company is cutting the cable

Lot of oil came out after standing more than an hour upside down 

The highway was closed for an hour as police was waiting for the electric company to secure the line as it was still potentially hot.

Got a light medical exam where I declined the hospital option as I didn’t want to leave my bike and I felt ok except for the shoulder.

Couple of hours later I was riding my bike to the Honda dealer to get an oil change and see if I they had a windshield replacement (I had to stop at the first gas station after the accident to find some oil and what I found was car oil that’s not good for motorcycle clutch). 

They could squeeze me for an oil change next morning, that was very nice because they are extremely busy at this time of the year. Unfortunately for the windshield I will have to wait until Saturday or next Monday as they don’t carry these parts in stock. While I was waiting at the service department, a customer came to see me and asked if I was the guy who just crashed on the highway showing a picture of my bike on his phone. I acknowledged and he told me that he sold his AfricaTwin couple weeks ago with 2 windshields and he could phone to the buyer to check if he is willing to sell the extra part. Two hours later, David the customer I met at the dealership, brought me a brand new windshield at my hotel for free as the owner didn’t want any money. Can’t really thanks these guys enough!!

So overall bad day or lucky day? I let you decide.

The Sven’s basecamp hostel is a very nice place in Fairbanks that offers tents and cabins for a moderate price. I booked three nights there. This will give me enough time to repair the bike and see what’s the next move.

Today, after a relatively painless night thanks to Advil, I fixed most of the bike issues, oil change and bike cleaning in the morning, new windshield, new setup for the Rotopax, unbending the crash bars, waterproofing the hard cases,…almost brand new bike!