MYTHOS went down hard

Not to gross anyone out but if anyone finds themself in this situation, here's what to expect. The first pic shows my knee 7 days after the crash. I was doing my best to allow scabs to form but with application of a petroleum jelly based ointment and the drainage that was still going on, the scabs dissolved and hardened up again, then dissolved a second time. The whitish membrane of skin was all that was left after a shower. I decided at that point a moist healing was the only way to go. The large hard scabs were pretty painful and they kept cracking. I was in to urgent care for a cleaning and debriding the next day and the staff said everything was healing with no infection. It was Neopsporin and gauze after that. I even started that routine with the thumb a few days ago and it's closing up. I have a small wound on the bump of my ankle bone and that has not been closing so I went with ointment and gauze on that too. I suppose my shoe rubs that area and prevents it from healing.
View attachment 1637901

Here's how the knees look at day 19, After doing a moist healing, they are entirely covered in smooth, pink skin. I have started going without the gauze unless I'm outside. Someone told me they will scar if exposed to the sun too soon. The knee to the left has a tiny blood blister that looks to have drained a bit. I think that was caused by me kneeling to start my little BBQ grill yesterday. It's skin but not tough enough for heavy duty work yet.
View attachment 1637903
The side shin wound is almost skinned over. That side calf wound to the right in the picture is large and taking more time but it's coming along.

I'm wrapping those pink knees and going on my walk! :) sure could use a set of flip-flops for that ankle wound but I'd rather not hazard a foot injury right now out on the trail.
I'll wager you'll be wearing full gear the next time you ride......

Going through that definitely does not look enjoyable...
 
@Bumblebee , oh hell YAH! Full gear or I'm not riding. I still am not planning to ride at all unless it's a gentle cruise around town but I'll be geared up if I do. It's too dangerous around here with all the deer. I can't afford to wreck my other bike and I sure don't count on getting as lucky as I did in this crash if I go down on the street again someday. I have a friend prodding me to get on my busa and ride but I plan to take my time and finish off the work I started last winter. I'm glad I enjoy that --maybe more than I do riding. LOL there will be plenty of work to do on the 14! A forum buddy has offered to donate his extra ZX-14 parts. Of course I'm paying him what I can but he's willing to give it all away. A new instrument cluster is $1100. He will give me his and it only has 1500 miles less on it than the original which will probably be closer to accurate with the gearing setup I have.

I checked the steering neck and lower clamps yesterday and all look ok. That friggin ZX-14 is built like a tank! Amazingly, the forks are not leaking at all but I will need to remove them to check for straightness and have a closer look at the upper and lower clamps. The steering locks have an impression from heavy impacts. I've been advised that the upper and lower clamps should be replaced and the guy said something about replacing upper and lower race too. It was high time to replace bearings at 50,000 miles anyway.

There is a heavy bracket from the steering neck that supports the upper fairing stay and the instrument cluster. The tabs where the cluster bolts on broke right off. I have an aftermarket one sitting here so that's taken care of.

The front engine mounts look fine. I had frame sliders attached there and one broke right off but the boss is still bolted down to the engine mount. The bolt held and so did the threads.

One handlebar bent and the threads stretched but that is all handlebar damage. I was going to replace those with CF bars anyway and eliminate the control pods to narrow up the bars.

Both clutch and brake levers damaged but the clutch lever was busted like it pulled forward farthet han it is supposed to go. The MCs look ok except for the reservoirs, bth of which busted off and the brackets are bent. LOL I just received my smoked reservoirs from Webike a few days ago! I planed to mount them on the MC clamps anyway. Eliminate those heavy brackets and move the reservoirs back to open up the view of the instrument cluster.

The Vortex rearsets seem to have taken the brunt of the slide. The muffler tab is not even bent where it attaches to the muffler hanger! The muffler does appear to have a slight flat spot hammered on it though and of course, bad scrapes.

The swing arm does not appear to have touched. The axle sliders I had look new front and rear. The swing arm has a few ticks in it on the right but nothing even close to a scrape.

I will be removing the fuel tank to inspect the frame below soon. Looks like the 14 could ride again and with a Gen2 1440 engine when I find one! They actually do sell brand new factory engines for the Gen1 but I always planned to put a Gen2 engine in that bike anyway.
 
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@Bumblebee , oh hell YAH! Full gear or I'm not riding. I still am not planning to ride at all unless it's a gentle cruise around town but I'll be geared up if I do. It's too dangerous around here with all the deer. I can't afford to wreck my other bike and I sure don't count on getting as lucky as I did in this crash if I go down on the street again someday. I have a friend prodding me to get on my busa and ride but I plan to take my time and finish off the work I started last winter. I'm glad I enjoy that --maybe more than I do riding. LOL there will be plenty of work to do on the 14! A forum buddy has offered to donate his extra ZX-14 parts. Of course I'm paying him what I can but he's willing to give it all away. A new instrument cluster is $1100. He will give me his and it only has 1500 miles less on it than the original which will probably be closer to accurate with the gearing setup I have.

I checked the steering neck and lower clamps yesterday and all look ok. That friggin ZX-14 is built like a tank! Amazingly, the forks are not leaking at all but I will need to remove them to check for straightness and have a closer look at the upper and lower clamps. The steering locks have an impression from heavy impacts. I've been advised that the upper and lower clamps should be replaced and the guy said something about replacing upper and lower race too. It was high time to replace bearings at 50,000 miles anyway.

There is a heavy bracket from the steering neck that supports the upper fairing stay and the instrument cluster. The tabs where the cluster bolts on broke right off. I have an aftermarket one sitting here so that's taken care of.

The front engine mounts look fine. I had frame sliders attached there and one broke right off but the boss is still bolted down to the engine mount. The bolt held and so did the threads.

One handlebar bent and the threads stretched but that is all handlebar damage. I was going to replace those with CF bars anyway and eliminate the control pods to narrow up the bars.

Both clutch and brake levers damaged but the clutch lever was busted like it pulled forward farthet han it is supposed to go. The MCs look ok except for the reservoirs, bth of which busted off and the brackets are bent. LOL I just received my smoked reservoirs from Webike a few days ago! I planed to mount them on the MC clamps anyway. Eliminate those heavy brackets and move the reservoirs back to open up the view of the instrument cluster.

The Vortex rearsets seem to have taken the brunt of the slide. The muffler tab is not even bent where it attaches to the muffler hanger! The muffler does appear to have a slight flat spot hammered on it though and of course, bad scrapes.

The swing arm does not appear to have touched. The axle sliders I had look new front and rear. The swing arm has a few ticks in it on the right but nothing even close to a scrape.

I will be removing the fuel tank to inspect the frame below soon. Looks like the 14 could ride again and with a Gen2 1440 engine when I find one! They actually do sell brand new factory engines for the Gen1 but I always planned to put a Gen2 engine in that bike anyway.
Great therapy for you to be working on the bike...

Your experience is a good eye-opener for the rest of us...I wince each time I see someone riding around in a tee shirt and shorts....I saw a guy riding his Concours in such attire along with sandals and a piss-pot helmet...all I could think about is how much pain he'd be in even if he had a very slow fall over....
 
I met the guy who was there at the crash site when I woke up. He was with his son at the grocery store yesterday. The guy said his son and son's buddy were with him when they found me. I was moving. They did not see the deer. According to them, I was laying in the ditch with the bike so it seems pretty likely I did tumble a bit before waking up. Apparently, I didn't hit anything too hard. I sort of remember crawling away from the bike I think maybe. All I know is there definitely was a small puddle of blood on the road so I assume I laid there for a at least a few minutes. I remember hearing the boy say my name. I remember seeing one of them but not the other (they actually look a bit alike). I know them from school. I remember seeing the guy. I remeber the guy saying, "you're in shock." I remember a vehicle stopped and I pretty much ignored it being fixated on my wounds and my bike and the fact I just survived this crash. The rest, I believe is pretty clear. I sure wish I could have gotten video of the crash. The guy said my instrument cluster was way down the road where the crash must have happened. I bet that deer came through the top fairing and knocked everything off right away.

Great therapy for you to be working on the bike...

Your experience is a good eye-opener for the rest of us...I wince each time I see someone riding around in a tee shirt and shorts....I saw a guy riding his Concours in such attire along with sandals and a piss-pot helmet...all I could think about is how much pain he'd be in even if he had a very slow fall over....
You said it. People going a lot slower have been hurt a lot worse than I was. I just got really lucky....I just don't know how.
 
I met the guy who was there at the crash site when I woke up. He was with his son at the grocery store yesterday. The guy said his son and son's buddy were with him when they found me. I was moving. They did not see the deer. According to them, I was laying in the ditch with the bike so it seems pretty likely I did tumble a bit before waking up. Apparently, I didn't hit anything too hard. I sort of remember crawling away from the bike I think maybe. All I know is there definitely was a small puddle of blood on the road so I assume I laid there for a at least a few minutes. I remember hearing the boy say my name. I remember seeing one of them but not the other (they actually look a bit alike). I know them from school. I remember seeing the guy. I remeber the guy saying, "you're in shock." I remember a vehicle stopped and I pretty much ignored it being fixated on my wounds and my bike and the fact I just survived this crash. The rest, I believe is pretty clear. I sure wish I could have gotten video of the crash. The guy said my instrument cluster was way down the road where the crash must have happened. I bet that deer came through the top fairing and knocked everything off right away.


You said it. People going a lot slower have been hurt a lot worse than I was. I just got really lucky....I just don't know how.
I went off the track in a corner (my front end got wiped out by a bike sliding) and slid for what seemed like a long time....I got up, checked out the RG250 race bike I was borrowing from Suzuki and it wouldn't start..

There is a good and bad from this....the bad is I was in 3rd position over-taking the 2nd place rider on the last lap when he fell taking me out....

The good is we both didn't know it at the time is there was a red flag and the race was called giving us the points...

I didn't get a scratch on me nor did the other rider...proper gear works....
 
You're probably right Bumblebee. This experience has got me to thinking about fate though. Changing one little thing could have drastic consequences sort of like it does in stories about time travel. Those changes wouldn't necessarily need to start a chain of events that take thousands of years to alter history. History could have been altered within seconds for better or worse had a had my leathers on. ...unless there is a plan for history that can't be altered no matter what choices we make.

BUT if I knew in advance I was going to have that crash, you can bet I would have opted for the leathers.
And a airbag :)
 
New ones from Alpine star are like 650 US. Not bad for keeping ya alive and not broken.
Not bad at all when you consider that can be the price of a really good helmet. ...or a leather suit for that matter. If you avoid a trip to the hospital, that airbag will pay for itself several times over right away. Better ones are over a thousand but I do see one A** airbag for about $699. These are only vests. What I would really like to see in an airbag is one that encases the whole body. I saw a video animation of one, I don't know if those are actually available yet.
 
Just add a helmet
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Sorry to hear about the deer collision. It reminds us all how quickly an uncontrolled environment can change our collective lives. My deer collision was 30 years ago... it was painful but not the level of abrasions you had. However... my knees were a close second.

Take good care of yourself and if something doesn't seem right with you get it checked out.
It seems you were fortunate to not have been hurt worse than you were.
All the best to you from here on out.
 
Not bad at all when you consider that can be the price of a really good helmet. ...or a leather suit for that matter. If you avoid a trip to the hospital, that airbag will pay for itself several times over right away. Better ones are over a thousand but I do see one A** airbag for about $699. These are only vests. What I would really like to see in an airbag is one that encases the whole body. I saw a video animation of one, I don't know if those are actually available yet.
That be awesome. I don't see why they don't make full leathers with the this tech. I would like to protect all of myself, not just my upper body.
 
While out for a ride yesterday, 99% of the motorcyclists I came across were not wearing any protective gear other than a helmet, and any cruiser riders only had their salad bowl helmets as protective gear (and some had their leather vests)....

I even came across a guy who had a small toddler riding in front of him and the toddler was wearing only a diaper....
 
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