Ken had a spill in Seattle. Here's what he says:

[As many people know, this is slightly odd, as I (Ted) had a vehicle change lanes into me when my DL650 was brand-new. It totalled the bike and sent me to the emergency room. Ken's situation was very similar. -ted]

I had to lay 'er down ... but I still made it to Hyder!

Thursday going through Seattle's wonderful rush hour traffic, my new V-Strom and I found ourselves sliding down I-5 at 50 MPH. It was very wet and raining hard, and I'd almost made it through the Seattleopolis traffic. I had been in the fast lane, and moved over one lane right to a big hole that opened up. Unfortunatly, a semi decided to do the same from two lanes over. He never saw me in the spray I'm sure, but that didn't help me any! With visions of Ted's recent accident in my mind, I did what I thought prudnet and started slowing rapidly. I remember grabbing the brakes and starting to slow, then the next thing I remember is sliding down the freeway on my back, watching the new bike sliding in front of me with pieces coming off. "Damn, that's going to be expensive," was my first thought folowed by "Keep your arms and legs up, you're sliding on your back. So ths is what those racers feel like."

I stopped sliding, grabbed my magnetic tank bag, which had stayed with me, and made a bee-line for the left shoulder. All the cars stopped, without running over me or the bike. Someone stopped, and asked me how I was. "I'm OK, just a little bruised." He asked if he could do anything. "Get my bike out of the road!"

A few people got it over to the right, and I crossed over to it. The tail box broke the tabs off and got pretty beat up, but didn't open. Both left turn signals were broke, the left peg missing, the toe part of the shifter missing, and a bunch of road rash. I waited for an officer to show up, while a nice lady kept asking me if I was OK.

The officer declined to file a report as there was no contact. The truck driver had actually stopped and came up and checked on me. I decided the bike was ridable, and rode it off the freeway, then up to Lynnwood Cycle Barn. They were able to drill a hole in the shifter, and use a bolt and piece of fuel hose to give me a toe piece. A Kawasaki peg fit almost perfectly. Bungees hold my top box on. I'm sore with a couple big bruises, bit other than that OK. It's warm and sunny in Hyder this [Friday] evening, and beer is flowing.

[Later, Ken said the following. -ted]

I've thought about this a lot. The bottom line is I lost traction and fell down and went boom. :) What went wrong:

1) I was riding too aggressively for conditions. In hindsight, I should have stayed in the HOV lane and not been passing on the right. I was also wet under my gear, as I'd waited too long to change gloves. I'd stopped at the rest stop in Auburn to dry out, but my electric vest and coat liner had wicked a lot of water, and I was wet.

2) I applied too much brake. Lets face it, I'm not used to a bike with strong front brakes, and I'm pretty sure I overbraked. I was wearing AeroStich lobster claws over my regular gloves, and that may have contributed.

3) I had Ted's crash in the front of my mind, leading to 2. What I should have done is braked less aggressively and moved LEFT towards the HOV lane and the car there. Most likely there would have been room to lane split and/or he would have moved further left for me.

4) Accelerating was not really an option, as I was toward the back of the truck and he was coming over pretty fast.

I don't remember falling at all. One minute I was braking, increasing pressure slowly, and the next I was sliding on my back on the pavement, so I can't really say for sure what happened. I can't even tell you if I started using the rear brakes.

My gear fared pretty well. My pants have a couple of abrasions, there is a small ~1/4 tear in my jacket, and my AeroStich raincovers have a few small holes and tears in them. My left boot is scuffed up. My helmet never touched the ground as far as I can tell.

Ken