Happy birthday

We had a 100 year Guzzi celebration ride here in Tassie. Lunch in the pub at Ross. Ross is in the middle of Tassie, so a convenient location for riders coming from any direction. I took my LM1, despite having broken its windscreen the day before (dropped it while getting it off the bike lift - I hate that). But the day didn't quite go as planned.

Coming over the crest of a hill about half way to the destination, there was a Guzzi 1100 Sport lying on the side of the road. I recognised the bike straight away. It belonged to Phil, an old mate from the Italian Motorcycle club. He was flat on his back in a ditch nearby. A few people had gathered and Phil was looking a little worse for wear and in some pain, so someone called an ambulance and told him to stay put. The ditch was as good a place as any for a lie down. Although he was more concerned about the bike than himself. We reassured him that the damage wasn't too bad and easily fixable (the usual gravel rash, busted indicators, etc.).

He said he'd come over the crest of the hill at about 80 kph and there was a car stopped in the middle of the road. He hit the anchors, grabbing the front brake a little too hard. The front wheel locked and the bike went down on its left side. No ABS on those old Guzzis.

I asked Phil if he wanted me to go and get my bike trailer and rescue his Guzzi, and he said yes. So I abandoned the pub lunch and took off home. It was about 45 mins to get home, 15 mins to put the bike away, get out of my bike gear, get the car and trailer organised, and another 50 mins back to the crash scene (car not as quick as the bike). So getting on for 2 hours before I got back there. I was worried that someone might have nicked the bike in the meantime, but when I got back, there were 3 other Guzzi guys who had stayed there the whole time to guard Phil's bike, which was very nice of them because they didn't know Phil. They helped me load the bike up and I headed off and delivered it back to Phil's garage.

Talking to Phil on the phone later (after he had been prodded and poked at by medical people, and had various scans in hospital) he said he had 5 broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder and dislocated knee. They kept him in the hospital overnight. I'll get in touch later today to see how he's doing.

All in all an interesting day, although I never got to the Guzzi lunch. Nor did the guys who stayed to keep an eye on the bike. So there were 5 of us (including Phil) who didn't get there. I reckon Phil owes us all a pub lunch!
 
Tourist taking a pic, apparently its pretty common. It happens on bike rides when the map comes out or a piss stop happens
 
The utter stupidity of some road users just stuns me. Oh, I'll just prop here for a while while I ... Hope they're insured and Phil can hit them for everything they can find on his Guzzi.

You're the good samaritan, Cam! It was fortunate you were on the same road. A Guz came down in the Curdie vale run as well.
 
Well worth a watch, particularly if you speak Italian.
One big mistake brought on by enthusiasm no doubt. Moto Guzzi isn't Europe's oldest surviving motorcycle manufacturer. That is Gilera.


Paul
 
AJ said:
Were the jaspers that caused the accident still there?
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I dunno. I didn't actually see him go down. I was travelling with a mate and we arrived a minute or so after the crash. There were a couple of cars there with people already tending to Phil, but I don't know whether one of them was the vehicle that he nearly ran up the arse of (I didn't ask). I would assume it probably was, only because I wouldn't like to think anyone would piss off and leave him lying there.

I don't know why they would have slowed down or stopped. I don't even know whether they came to a complete stop. Perhaps they had a perfectly good reason for doing so. There were a lot of slow vehicles about on the day including caravans and double horse floats (there was some local horsey event happening on the day). It was a pretty steep hill that they would have been crawling up in a low gear. Maybe there was a traffic jam behind one of those.

piranha-bro2 said:
The utter stupidity of some road users just stuns me. Oh, I'll just prop here for a while while I ... Hope they're insured and Phil can hit them for everything they can find on his Guzzi.
Click to expand...
I'm not making any assumptions as to why the car got in the way. But whatever the reason, I very much doubt that Phil would have a claim that would hold up in court. The obvious counter argument is that he shouldn't have been travelling at such a speed over a blind crest that he couldn't stop safely if there was something on the road. Anything can happen on country roads, like escaped livestock wandering about, a kangaroo, a fallen tree across the road (ask Woody about that) or some numpty towing a caravan with a Nissan Micra. I expect Phil would be covered by his own insurance.

Anyway, Phil immediately acknowledged that it was his own fault because he grabbed too much front brake. I'm only speculating (for whatever that's worth) but I presume he could have stopped with room to spare if he hadn't locked up the front wheel. Otherwise, the bike would more than likely have continued on after spitting Phil off, and speared into the arse of the car by itself. Bikes tend to stop better on their tyres than sliding on their side.

Actually, the title of the thread has some personal relevance. It was my birthday yesterday when all this happened. 🎂 :)
 
Thanks guys, but just to get back to the thread subject ... Two fine examples of the breed. A couple of 1976 LeMans 850's

Hey Marty, the photo was taken at John's place where we had lunch on your Laverda Tassie trip. You did your oil change on that bit of concrete.
The bike in the foreground is John's, the one behind it is mine.

John's bike has a bit more grunt than mine because it has the Gilardoni 950cc big bore kit.
 

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