Baja Adv Ride 2023………Almost

I was riding along……….and then I wasn’t!  Had a planned trip in March with a group of buddies, some of whom had never been down to Baja. Three of us were out on a shake down ride when I tipped over at low speed on my KLR 650.  It is also known as Mad Max because of the set up and appearance, that is another story!

David, Gunner and #33 were out Adventure riding and while moving along at a leisurely pace on a rocky 2 track jeep type road I heard the very loud “Clang” of a rock hitting my aluminum skid plate.   Just about the time I heard that clang my body and helmet hit the ground!  I have never crashed so fast at low speed in my life! Unbelievable that a KLR could even move that fast! I would have bet against it.  It happened so quick and I was caught completely off guard so my foot was under the bike, my shoulder and head both hit the ground before I knew I had crashed.

David and Gunner were a bit ahead and saw me on the ground. When they returned I had not even begun to stand up, the pain in the foot and the shoulder were too high on the pain scale. I was waiting for it to subside and to do a little self-evaluation before moving. They were nice enough to lift the bike while I continued to sit and wait until I felt the need to stand and check the bike over. Amazing enough nothing was damaged on the bike, I was expecting bent handlebars at the least from the impact I had taken. Once I collected myself and we got ourselves back on the trail to finish the ride and head for lunch I had the feeling something was wrong with my foot and not too sure about the shoulder. The impact to the helmet had left a couple of good gashes from the rocks and had rung my bell pretty good. So from experience, I am sad to say, I was fairly sure I had a mild concussion. Also I self-diagnosed my right foot as ‘sufficiently bruised’. The shoulder I told myself since I could hold the handle bars and work the front brake and throttle it was probably just bruised.  My self-diagnosis worked perfectly because we continued on, explored a while longer before we stopped for lunch.  Then we rode home.

 

Everything began to stiffen up so of course I went in for X-Rays.  The foot was a no brainer, even I could read that x-ray and see the single broken bone.  The shoulder was not as easy since I have broken the collar bones a couple of times the x-rays of my shoulders quite often scare the x-ray technicians until they speak to me. They are not sure if their equipment is screwed up, I am in need of immediate life support or if I really function everyday with what they see on the film. Lol.   I think the young man started to panic for a minute until I started laughing and he relaxed! He asked me if I had a full range of motion with it and I showed him I functioned just fine for a geezer.

The next week or two will be spent on doctor appointments and CT scans to see if any surgery will be required for anything.  Hopefully I am lucky enough for them to tell me to just sit down and shut up on the couch for a couple of weeks.  I can hardly wait to find out.   Happy Birthday to me!

#33

‘A brook would lose its song if you took away the rocks’