Box Hill to Camber rideout... or not - bloody ice!

On my way to the rideout this morning, decided to take the A25 "scenic route" instead of the M25. Came over a hill with the sun on my back and as I closed the throttle coming down the hill, the back tyre (OE D220) let go and the back started overtaking the front, it went over and chucked me off. I'm sliding down the hill thinking "wtf?", put my hand down to slow myself (doing about 20mph when it happened) and hand shot away. "Bloody ice!" I think. Look over my shoulder and bike is gracefully spinning down the hill, bumping into the kerb and then back out to the centre of the road before stopping.
No injuries, got the bike upright but it wouldn't start, just turned over. BMW pulls up and the guy gives me a hand and checks it over with me - assumed he was a biker. He said he'd been freaked out by the tyres letting go on the BMW too.

Damage (all right hand side):
chamfered front brake lever (but still fine and won't need replacing), smashed front indicator
lightly scuffed exhaust
badly bent (still useable, yet in need of replacing) rear brake lever
heavily chamfered Motrax DHM (I wasn't sure how good these would be but it did the job and doesn't seem to have bent)

So I have another go at starting the bike and it starts with no warning lights, there are no leaks, odd bumps from the wheels, etc. so I decide to keep on going to the rideout anyway.
I must have been about 10 miles away from Box Hill when a van flashes me and tells me my numberplate is hanging off... stop and have a look and it's wrecked. I don't recall it hanging off after the slide, but I guess it must have been cracked then and come off afterwards.
I had a go at taking bits of it off neatly, but in the end I had to cut the wires and stuff the plate inside my jacket.

So now got no plate, no front indicator and minor scuffs and it's 1015. I take that as my cue to go home before anything else happens to me.
Surprised that nobody pointed out I had no plate. Only came across one polcie car when filtering and I tucked in behind him. No matter how good my excuse was, he'd have had little choice but to stop me and do something... plus isn't riding without a plate (for any reason) something they can do you for?

Glad to be back home in the warm now... hope everyone else had a safer rideout!The main thing I've learnt is that when there's ice about, don't take the scenic route if you can avoid it. I don't think anything (apart from choosing another route) could have got me out of that slide. Going down an ice-covered hill on a motorbike is always going to end badly!

Sounds nasty mate......

At least you are ok ( and only minor/ish damage to the bike )

[21QUEST]

Glad you are okay. Lucky no other vehicles close to you.

Cheers
Ben

Glad to hear you ok and hopefully shouldn't take long to get you back on the road legally.

Nasty when that happens, so far (fingers crossed) hasn't happened to me on the bike, it was bad enough in the car!

Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.. m8ty .. SOz to hear about the damage. But always keep in mind it could have been alot worse. but dosent seem that way when you go out to look apon ya damaged bike..

chin up ..

glad your ok i crested the brow of an hill last week to find black ice across the road,coasted the bike down into alston with no throttle as the road was that bad,cumbrian gritters

****, but too easily done.

I decided to can the ride today for precisely this reason. I'm glad you're not hurt, you can do a fair amount of damage to yourself at 20mph!!! 20 sounds slow but 20 mph is 4 and a half yards a second, and that doesn't sound slow when you're going down an icy hill on your backside.

Even as I write this at 1pm there's loads of ice around in the shadows, by 2pm it'll start getting colder I guess. Shame, I was looking forward to it. So - wife's plan B is - I have to take a few bits to the recycling facility and tidy up the garden. Happy Sunday!!!

Really sorry to hear this, glad you're okay and sorry about the bike, hopefully it's nothing too serious mechanically. Shakes you up a bit doesn't it?

Relating this to another thread, this is one of those accidents that fall into my 5% of unavoidables (though technically it could have been avoided if you'd stayed in bed ).

Bummer.


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Glad you're OK
Sorry about the bike, but it could have been a lot worse, at least you stayed on the road and didn't bump into any roadsigns
I have to say I'm not a fan of the A25 to the east of Reigate - the surface is very bad on that stretch - much better heading west

Hope you aren't too bruised tomorrow