How I crashed my bike on July the 8th

Toronto got a record breaking 126 mm of rain on July 8th, 2013.

I rode to work that day, as I usually do when the forecast is under 50% chance of 1mm rain.

I was sitting at my desk when I looked outside and saw dark skies. I can't remember seeing skies that dark before. My first thought was that I am going to get wet, again. I don't mind riding in rain. I did it many times and I am sure I will still do it. That day though, I told myself I am going to spend an extra hour or two at the office, waiting for the skies to clear.

That sounded like a good plan until I got a phone call from home: "we have water in the basement, the baby is extremely cranky and fussy, you need to get home”.

That triggered the father/husband switch and I was in the saddle in no time, heading home. I noticed the traffic started to be somewhat chaotic, but I stuck with the usual route. It was raining hard. I could barely see where I was going, the visor on my half helmet was drenched so I decided to lift it and cope with the rain drops stinging my eyes.

At some point, after a right turn I noticed there was water on the road, lots of it. Turning around meant losing half an hour so I jumped on the sidewalk thinking it was a few good inches higher than the road. It was. I was in first gear, reving the engine as much as possible to keep the water out of the pipes. The water got deeper and deeper, maybe 8 to 10 inches, I was having a hard time planting my feet to my cruiser's floorboards.

The rain was coming down hard and I was displacing a significant amount of water around me, I felt like I was inside a geyser. As I was listening to the engine to make sure I kept the revs up I saw this huge piece of wood floating in front of me, sideways, leaving me no room to maneuver.

I thought ‟I am going down”. And, I did as soon as I hit the thing. I went down on my right side, took a few sips of dirty, muddy water but I was glad I was wearing the proper gear. Even though I have a mesh jacket for summer, it has the proper padding and that saved my right elbow which hit the ground first. I was so glad I had a very clear thinking moment before I left work and I put my wallet and cell phone in my waterproof lunch bag.

I stood up and, after a brief limbs check, I lifted the bike. I still don't know how I did it, it's a 650 pounds (cca 300kg) cruiser.

I pushed the starter button and to my surprise the engine started like nothing happened. After jumping on it, I rode (through water) for a few dozen meters and the engine died… I guess some water did make it inside.

‟OK, time to start pushing,” I told myself.

As soon as I started pushing the bike I turned around and I saw a 2 door blue BMW floating in the middle of the road, making me realize the guy is in an even more nasty situation than I was.

I parked the bike on the sidewalk, in front of a condo building and went back to join the group that started pushing the BMW out of the water.

Of course, calling the CAA at that time may have not been the best idea, I spent about 40 minutes on hold only to be told they were swamped. Who would have guessed?

My biggest concern was the possibility of the engine being hydro-locked as it didn't even turn.

But, after an hour or so wait, I turned the key and… surprise again! I could hear the nice deep rumble coming out of my now bent pipes. I got home after an exhausting 4 hour trip through a dark, powerless city.

Damage report:

Bike:

crash bars - the right side took most of the impact saving the tank, the engine, and probably my right leg

right turn signal broken - super-glued back on now

right side handle bar grip, mirror, floorboard, saddlebag and lower pipe - scuffs and dents

Myself:

just a sprained right shoulder as the force of the impact radiated up from the elbow to the shoulder

Basement:

All good now, I didn't get much water

Lesson learned. If you think the idea you're having may be a bad one… it surely is!

I am glad it wasn't much worse.

ATGAATT and keep the rubber side down!