Secure your bodywork, yo!

[spideyrdr]

During one of the practice sessions on Saturday at Pueblo, someone's lower apparently exploded off their bike going down the straight. Several of us behind had to dodge the mess. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azBw2X-7tC8

I tried using the youtube annotation tools and a pause to highlight the offending lower... not the best edit job, but I tried.

Sh!t happens, I know, but I was really amazed the rider didn't pull off. If you lose an entire part of your bodywork, who knows if it ripped out a hose or something critical. The rest of us pulled up and rode at a cool down pace, I would have thought the rider whose bike had exploded would have at least done that but I never caught up to them.

[Snowman]

That had to be a wonderful feeling hitting 120mph and having you bike explode...

[Zach929rr]

Why are you assuming he knew his lower had fallen off on the straight at 100+ mph?

[dragos13]

Yeah I'm guessing he had no idea it came off. Since it was during practice there would be no reason to try and continue riding.

Nice line through ten, btw..

[spideyrdr]

The way it blew off, up, and over, I can't imagine the rider didn't know, but I suppose it's possible. It's really hard to see in the youtube upload, but the panel that ended up in the track was probably 20 feet up in the air at one point. Right as my fairing stay "crosses" the drag board in the video you can spot it out in the distance.

Anyway, I am glad nothing bad happened to anyone. The rider to my right did a great job of swerving to avoid what appeared to be an impromptu Ducati-branded speed bump.

[Graphite675]

Guess the down side of having your lower off for tech is that not everyone remembers to secure it back on? :)


.

[spideyrdr]

Nice line through ten, btw..

Not sure if it was a nice line or not, it was scaring the bejeezus out of me since it was so squirmy coming around. :)

I'll post up the whole MW End race tonight. Really the only exciting lap was the first one where I accidentally banged down one too many gears in turn 2 and then about off-roaded out of turn 8. The rest of the laps I tried in vain to catch up to the faster guys and ended up 7th.

[CaneZach]

Spidey, I was right behind you when I saw the lower on the track. At first, I didn't quite recognize what it was. I thought it was a banner or something that had blown onto the track.