I know, it's not pretty. But first

The Accident

First of all, I'm great. The photo above is of my bike before she crashed into a guardrail. As a result of hydraulic fluid that was spilled down the entire lane, I lowsided at approximately 40-45mph (same speed as the curve I was headed into) and the bike took most of it.

The good news is I got up without a scratch. And no, I was not stuck under the guardrail. I actually stopped right on the spotty white painted line on my stomach. As you can see, my gear took all of it (head never touched the ground). And that's why I typically wear leather, even in the summer:

(gear clockwise from top left: Racer High End Gloves (sliders work!), Revit Galactic Jacket, Revit Gear 2 Leather Pants, Sidi Vertigo Lei Boots). My head never touched the ground, so no helmet replacement needed. I did replace my gear with another Galactic jacket, Gear Pants, and this time some Alpinestars SMX-6 Boots. The only reason I went with these is because my feet are smaller than when I got these, so I needed a 36. Sadly the Vertigos are only available in 37. These actually fit me very well, so we'll see how they do. I've spent ~500 miles in them so far and they're very comfortable (wider too).

My body did walk away with bruises. Which I'm *very* happy to have, instead of broken bones, road rash or surgery. No ambulance was needed, just a quick visit to the Dr that night to make sure nothing was broken.

(bruise pics clockwise from top left: day of the accident, 3 days after, 1 week after, 1 month after)

The only real injury I sustained was a tiny fracture on the underside of my metatarsal bone. It's hardly visible on the x-ray. Here's a pic of my foot 2 weeks later:

I can't imagine what my foot would have been like had I not been wearing those Sidi Boots. Unfortunately my bike didn't have any frame sliders or engine guards, so the full weight of the bike was on my foot. Although my boots prevented my ankles or rest of my foot from being crushed, one tiny little bone under my foot suffered. It's now been almost 8 weeks since the accident and although my foot is much better than before (back to wearing cute shoes!) I still have trouble walking for awhile in hard-soled shoes. I'm guessing a few more weeks and it'll be gone for good. Wearing my new riding boots isn't a problem!

In case you're wondering about the bike at this point, Yes, the bike was totaled! Beyond totaled. But the good news is as soon as I called my local dealer to let them know my bike would be dropped off the next morning for an estimate, he told me that the exact same bike came in on consignment! Goldie 2.0 was born. Without hesitation, I knew I wanted the same bike.

Just my luck that the exact same year, make and model showed up when I needed her. Actually, this bike was in better shape than the previous version with a little over 3,000 miles on it and no dings or scratches. Whereas previous Goldie had 5,000 miles , dropped on both sides and had some imperfections.