Modern Vespa

Hey guys. I'm really bummed out today.. I was at a BBQ less than a mile from my home in a private lake community with terrible rds.

I made a mistake of not locking my helmet down as I thought I was in very good company. I set my helmet down a few feet away from where I was seated, 25minutes later I go to say goodbye and thank the hosts. Go to get my Helmet and it was gone.. I had my comm unit on it and everything.. looked for it for about an hr and a half and it was really late..

Made the dumbest, most illresponsible mistake ever.. got angry and said we will take it up in the morning and got on the bike with just my gloves and went off to ride home...

Halfway home I hit a blind pothole, the bars hit hard left went over and the left side of my face took all the force of my fat self and the bike smearing down the road.. the bike slide and rolled a bit more..

I came to and the first thing I tried to do was crawl to the bike and try to it up and the bike up.. well my brain was telling my arms and legs to move but they wouldn't..

After a few more minutes I full came to and one of the great neighbors in the community were also coming home and stopped and helped me get the bike up, looked and me and was horrified at my lnjuries As I kept saying "I'm fine" not realizing how bad my face slammed and smeared the road..

The neighbors wife drove down the street to get my wife and again I thought I was fine at the time.. a little shock perhaps? The nighbhors said the bike is safe don't worry just get to the hospital.

Er #1.. mri just some broken nasal bones in the head, no concussion thank god but my eyelid was split.
ER#2 94 miles away, 12hrs later a specialist and a resident came to repair my eyelid. Your eyelid is 3 very special layers, this took 3 different stitches to put it back together correctly.

Another 6-8hrs and we were finally on the way home. Due to the current opiod crisis and drug addicts I was prescribed ZERO pain meds. Isn't it funny how drug addicts seem to be able to get all they want and more with no psychical trauma yet when half your face is ripped off, your eyelid ripped in half, pain all over (muscle spasms in leg,neck back, broken nasal bones in the skull, a nice tasty non stop bloody drip going down the back of the throat)and just have to suffer like a dog? I look worse than "Sloth" from Goonies over here..

My bike had been sitting at the side of the street on its stand with a busted off clutch lever and the keys in it for around 24hrs with the neighbors keeping an eye on it, another awesome neighbor was able to run down push start the bike in 3rd and get it the 3/4 mile home. Thank god..


So I have been here in extreme pain for the past 2 days, an hr to get out of bed, etc..

Today I was able to make it downstairs to the garage to access the damage..

Covered in blood,
Left cowl is toast
New plastic legshield trim I just added did it's job but still have a bend in it near the top, small bends and scrapes down the rest.
Broken off clutch lever
Right side cowl not as bad as the left but small dents, scrapes.
Front fender is tacoed.
New cluster trim and glass I just replaced is cracked.
Wheel handlebar alignment way out.

And that's as far I I could see via a minute of looking it over with 1 eye.


We all know these bikes aren't worth a million dollars.. My wife keeps saying stop worrying about the bike, etc but I had just got it cleaned up looking and running so well.. it was one of the bikes I have always wanted. After riding all sorts of motorcycles and atc's my entire life I never had anything close to a wreck like this eating terrible road with my face.

I think I have only a few options here to get it back into the shape it was.

#1 have insurance most likely total it and have no idea what they would offer. (Ideally a total out and buy back would probably be best just deducting the buy back from the total) but it seems like many insurance companies these days won't do that sort of thing..

#2 part it out. It runs amazing still apparently and has many good parts. This is a slow shipping intensive, etc

#3 fix it. I would need to buy 1 new left cowl, new Fender and find a decent body man and all that jazz. That would probably end up costing the most and what do I get in the end? A crashed and fixed Stella that I would have 3 stellas cost wise into.

#4 half ass it and run it as some garbage looking rat bike.. no thanks.

I love the bike and shifty scooters so much more than my 15' GTS but I'm starting to think that with the roads in such terrible disrepair in my area/community and the hilly mountainous area that perhaps a 10" or even 12" wheeled scoot just isn't feasible or safe around here.. I would love to get into a P200 for the extra hill power as im a big guy but just thinking how it had I been on a bigger adventure/dual sport style bike like a Honda Africa twin or a Moto Guzzi v85 it would of soaked up that pothole like nothing, however much out of budget and the fact that I just couldn't seem to have fun on some same old cheap cookie cutter XR or KDX style bike not to mention those bikes seem to be designed for very lanky tall fellas where is I'm only 5'9.

The host of the bbq said they would look again for my helmet that evaporated but he never responded so it's almost safe to stay it was definitely stolen.. people can be such scumbags, especially when you were just talking and enjoying everyone's time together..



As they say. Shit happens right?
Sorry for the long rambling post I'm just starting to get all my marbles back here and a lot of thoughts running through my head right now. Everyone always laughs, "full face helmet? Ha! It's a scooter ". "It's less than a quarter mile from the house!" I never left the driveway without my helmet and the one time I did I laid the price.. always put that lid on.

That REALLY sucks. Hope you get better soon.

Oh man this is terrible news. I know you don't want to hear it and everyone's probably telling you it, but don't even worry about the scoot right now. It's a miracle you survived this and not something more permanent and life altering. Hope you recover and have no lasting results of this other than maybe a few surface scars and maybe some well deserved fear of lack of protection. Karma for that person will come back to them.

I've definitely had some close calls recently with similar road conditions on SI. Some major pot holes and huge camel humps on the roads hit going too fast. Caught air on a few of them and luckily kept the wheels under control probably cause it was daylight and I saw them at the last second and prepared as much as one could for it. I try to memorize the hazards on my regular routes during the day so that I can plan for them at night, unfortunately those few close calls were on roads I don't normally travel.

The scoot can be replaced, and I hope you don't shy away from them if you love them so much.

Jeez man! Sorry to hear about your face. Glad youre still here to tell the tale.

Any way you can post pictures of the scoot? You listed the damage pretty well. The only thing that I'm worried about is the front fork/ front end. You said the fender was taco'd but hopefully the fork/ front end isn't bent back into the scooter.

The rest of it can be bent back into shape and replaced if you so desire. Or, you can keep it ugly but still have it reliable and safe.

Hey man thanks ya, I'm not too far from ya there in SI, I'm down In sort of you neck of the woods frequently, from PA to all over North Jersey, Jersey city , Paterson, Fort less, Edgewater, etc just driving in the car I'm HORRIFIED at seeing some of the holes, dips etc you have to try to navigate at high speed. Be safe down there man. But ever slower speeds can get you too. We are in a lake community with a rogue criminal board of directors with tarred&chipped roads which have not been maintained in over 10years, even if you ride the same road everyday more open up the next day.. you end up dodging 5 and nailing another new one that just appeared. I have been saying it for a long time that someone is seriously going to get hurt on a bike and in fortunatly it was me.

This happened on the eve of my sons 11th birthday and we were supposed to be leaving that morning to cape cod for 2 days to go on a whale watching tour. Luckily the hotel and arrangements were able to be pushed back to leave now tomorrow so I'm going to do whatever I can to get my ass up and moving and make it up to him.


Things will get better and hopefully it will lead to a better bike like a p200, or some sort of adv bike and another scooter down the road.. I just found another Stella and I made the mistake of showing my wife a little while ago.. she almost finished the job in killing me.. bad timing when my face is 4 times the size on 1 side and swollen shut eye with looks like wood glue pouring out of it and drying and can't get it if this chair for 3 days lol.

I guess it's trite to say that it's good that it wasn't worse*, especially w/ no lid. But it's true even though you are feeling pretty unlucky right now. No fun taking a triple hit - your helmet, your bike and then your face.

Wish I lived nearby so I could offer a helping hand w/ #3 and my scruffy backup helmet.

*considering your screenname, that's probably already occurred to you

From what I was able to tell in this condition is it looks like the front tire hit the edge of the pothole and grabbed throwing the bike to its left side up and over throwing my face onto the road smearing, bike came around and down, clutch lever, legshield 360 slide and over on the other side. Once I get better I can measure but it looks like it just tweaked it out of alignment at hard lock then went over.

Lol!I hear ya on that! I have been trying to keep the entire incident jovial as I can, I have a sick sense of humor to say the least. I was telling my wife we need to pickup a Halloween mask I can wear so it looks better than my real face.. it's like the walking dead.. I have a spare bell rogue helmet but no way I'm ever riding without a premium full face after this mess.

In the photos the bike dosent even look that bad to be honest but in person
Oof!

Cowl

3/4

More blood on mirror

Damn. bloody headset. I also find that our odometers reading almost exactly the same right now (maybe 3-5 miles off) a bit disconcerting given almost seizing my engine at 68 mph over jetting mistakes yesterday.

I think I'll take this omen as a suggestion to take it easy for a while.

Hope to see your bike make a comeback in the future!

EDIT: those pics don't look so bad like you said. left cowl sure replace it. front fender you can bend it back not too hard. the paint on it is another story. I'd be fine dealing with it but you sound like you want it repaired. From the photos it seems like the only major concern with the bike is if the front fork is warped and handlebars messed up. If they total it and give it to you, i'd suggest using the money to replace those cosmetic things, but more importantly get the front fork checked out.

Picture makes it look much better than it is, my son took the pics..

The swelling is going down a bit. Yummy! Who wants some sour cream for thier taco!

I'm with you 100% it really doesn't look all TOO bad. I think the headset might be cracked too I will have to check when I get a bit better, the thing that really irks me is the top corner of the legshield being bent and creased hard to see in the photos. that would take a good bodyman to straighten out and $$$

This is a stella, not a px right? If it's a Stella there was some guy posting a bunch of Stella frame parts on scoot.net and Facebook recently. Multiple cowls and other parts. You will be able to find affordable replacements. The question is how much to get the paint job and leg shield done. Hopefully the fork is fine.

Btw that injury is brutal. Can't imagine what it feels like without pain killers. That's ridiculous they won't give even a small prescription with no refills.

Zero pain meds given at all, brutal! Good thing I'm Mass bound tomorrow..
and yea I'm a big jerk like that and rebadged it as a PX, and not even correctly with the arcobaleno cowl badge.. this is what I get for that I guess ha.

I can kinda see the legshield bent slightly above the glovebox. The front fender, front fork are what worry me mostly. When you get back from your sons trip get a 13mm socket and loosen the headset securing bolt. Get the handlebars and front tire back in alignment and then secure the bolt down.

Spin the bars back and forth and see if you feel any issues. The front fender might rub since its bent but bend it back into shape and see if you feel anything else. Put the bars straight in line and walk in front of the scoot. Look at the tire. Is it leaning to either side? If you push the scooter do you hear any rubbing down on the disc/ wheel. Have your son hold the rear end of the scoot but then you grab the tire and push it front to back. Any movement at the fork where it goes into the frame? Lastly i'd get a measuring tape and measure the distance between the tires. Hopefully someone can get you a similar measurement and tell you if anything's bent in/ out.

Oh OW! that looks painful as well as ugly. On the plus side I noticed that you don't yet have an avatar picture. This goes rather nicely w/ your screenname, no?



Get well soon and keep your chin up(unless that's too painful).

Hahah! I'm going to try it's hard to move my head into normal upright position with out the entire neck going into spasm but my friend Jack Daniels is helping me with that right now. You might be right about that avatar thing!

Thanks again everyone for all your insight and concerns. I'm sorry again if I came across as rambling and or whining at all . I made my own bed and took the medicine for it (or lack there of) I just wouldn't want it to happen to anyone else and as always if you don't have a lid park it until you do.. rhaving all the experience in the world sometimes doesn't mean shit.

We will be back and better than ever.

So very sorry to hear about this. Going down on any bike for any reason is never good news. I'm glad you survived, and with some time and rest I hope you get back to good as new and riding again - with a full face Goodspeed and get well.

Jack can be a good friend at times like these.
And you owned what you did so we got your back too.

Holy guacamole DH! This totally bites! I'm so sorry to hear all this. I'm sending some good vibes your way, and hopefully you'll heal up quickly.

I didn't even know it was your face for a few seconds - then I did an involuntary gag reflex. Dooohhhh! Sorry man, not funny at all. I won't be riding unless I have my full face helmet on after hearing and seeing your story...

Take it easy man. Hang in there.

Another shot of part of the mess.. I think this was when I came to and was in a bit of shock trying to upright the bike but my arms and legs wouldn't work..

DUDE...GNA-HUH-ARLY pics!!!

There's been times where i've crashed, and I've wished that I've taken all the damage instead of my scooter (there's also been times that I'm glad the scooter took all the damage. Looking back, but it's always better when the scooter takes the brunt of the blow)...but it looks like both of you came out almost dead even on this one.

I'm not much of a pain killer popper myself (I don't have anything against it though). But if you don't, or can't get any, you're going to have to buckle down and just deal with it . The human body is an amazing machine on how it can heal itself. Think of the pain as a way of you body letting you know it's on its way to healing. It WILL subside in a relative short period (if a person lives to 80 years old, then a week or two of pain in that time period isn't too long). Pretty soon you'll be back to 100%. Staying positive is goal #1 right now! Thank you for sharing.

And, sorry about your scooter. Also sorry about your face...and you're right, you do look quite a bit like Sloth! The bright side is that He was the most lovable character in the movie...

Very sorry some jerk stole your helmet, that's where this all began. Damn helmet thief is to blame for the damage to your face and body. And if you had not been upset by having it stolen in a location you felt safe and should have been, you would have probably not had the accident. No advice on the scooter but damn sympathetic about the whole thing. Heal well.

Thanks for taking the time to give a full report (and photos ), I am going to save the post in my favourites to revisit every time I try and convince myself it's ok to use an open face helmet on local runs.

Sincerely hope you heal up and get the Stella back up and running soon.

Sorry to hear this mate, i wish u a speedy recovery and dont think much about the bike, just rest took ur time and try to laugh its the best medicine i know..

Now i really have to tell myself to wear a helmet more often, i often go to a dark road ans cliff without one

Now get some rest and cheer mate

Damn. Every time I get on a bike I remind myself the pavement is harder than any bone in my body.

It may not seem like much consolation at the moment, but you were lucky. It could've been much worse.

Don't stress about the scoot. Like your face, the damage probably looks worse than it is. The panel and fender are pretty easy fixes, the shifter can be replaced. When you're feeling up to it you can start pulling parts off. If you need help with any repairs just give a shout.

In the meantime take it easy and heal up.

Was maybe alcohol involved at this BBQ to make you make the decision to ride without the helmet and/or not see the pothole.

(I'm not being insensitive, I hope you heal well and fast, just asking)

Nah nothing like that fortunately. I'm a lot of things but I don't play that game, seen too many lives destroyed.. It was just a quick pop in, Just really dumb decision to ride without a brain bucket and these roads, perhaps a bit too fast. I will see if I can grab some pics of the roads up here, another dumb decision riding a Vespa on them but I didn't want that to stop me from riding at all.
My wife and son where there too with the car and could of rode home with them if that had been the case.

Good news is the swelling is starting to go down and I'm turning from Sloth from the Goonies to mikhail gorbachev purple birthmark face.

Glad to hear the healing process is kicking in.. Also glad you didn't take my question personally! I probably would have also chosen to make the ride without the helmet.

It's not publicized, but here in NJ there's a state fund for drivers whose vehicle is damaged by a pothole on a state road. Maybe you could look into that in PA? Or even contact an attorney if the roadway should not have been allowed to get that bad? I don't know anyone who'd fight your claim after being shown the photos of your injuries. I'm not one to sue to blame others for things that are my fault, BUT...if the road was the problem.....

I hear ya on that. The bad part is that this occurred in a private lake community with a board of directors in turmoil currently in lots of litigation. They blew the money to maintain the roads, I doubt they even have any type of insurance, last year the residents had to all get together and plow snow with all their own trucks and atvs just In case emergency vehicles needed to get to a home. It's a nightmare. The residents have had it with all the ruined tires and suspension issues etc that they might finally be making some headway to get them out of there so a new board can get a plan together to fix things.. funny part is that I have been saying it for a while now! "Somebody is going to get hurt bad on a bike on these roads" and with just my luck it ended up being me first but I'm sure more will follow.

Almost to the hotel and that hot tub! Can't wait to relax a bit!

Glad you are OK.

That's rough looking, man. Maybe it's time to change your username to try and ward off the bad voodoo.

Oh man, so sorry to hear this.

You'll heal-don't make a rash judgement.
As far as the scooter goes, if the frame isn't tweaked you'd be better off fixing it.

Good luck, sir, and I hope you enjoy the Cape.

Oh my! Thank the universe you are OK. Like many have said, the bike is replaceable, life is a different matter altogether. So glad to see that you are on the mend. Heal well and fast, The universe has a way of helping you find balance.

Man i felt sick as fuck reading that.

Really bad luck but you will bounce back. Hope the person that lifted your lid hears about it and realises what their scummy actions caused.

Chin up brother

This is the second thread today that's made me rethink my open face helmet. I was fine until I got to the pic of your face and then I peed a little.

Hope you're better soon, man.