Well, exiting gas station onto busy multilane city road, right turn curb lane open, other lanes busy fast traffic, lot exit slight decline, bumpy, pot holes, see opening, open throttle, feathering clutch, roll forward, start right lean and turn, hit bump, throttle closes... stalls... bike goes down. AAAARRRRGGGHHH! Brand new '25 R3R Storm dropped fully onto its right side onto loose gravelly concrete roadway.
I was devastated seeing my new pride and joy laying there on its side fully laid out in a way it never should be. I've been riding 45 yrs plus, travelled over 200,000 km on two wheels, never dropped a bike while riding, ever.
I righted the bike with help from my riding buddy, tried to make some sense of what just happened, heart racing, looking to see the expected carnage of damage. Looking. Looking. Tank fine. Front fender and fork end fine. Handlebar end fine. Front brake lever fine. Rear fender, foot peg, foot brake lever, exhaust manifold all fine. Turn signals front and back fine. Argh, right mirror arm 1" scrape mark, not bad. Scanning, argh, both exhaust tips, slight scrapes about 1/4" long 1/16" wide, barely visible. Looking... Looking...to my amazement that was it. That was all that was damaged from the fall!?
Slight mark on mirror arm and two very small nicks at lip of exhaust tips. That's it.
Ordering new right mirror tomorrow (though can't see scrape as I covered with small strip of electrical tape), and applied small dots of black sharpie, on exhaust tips, masking the scrapes entirely (unless looking on hands and knees).
I am sooooo lucky!!! As a perfectionist, who always washes and details my bike after every ride, I am ecstatic that my bike was almost completely unscathed from the horrific drop. Here's a pic after the fall. Looking amazing.
Thank you to the powers that be. Thank you!