Well, The odds and my own love of riding caught up to me. The boss ask me to go on-site, it was the first time in months, I have traveled on business. But, I was given short notice (6.5 hours) which I ended up spending too much of the time in meetings (Who?, What?, When?, Where?) and got my flight booked very late. I called my wife from my cell phone and asked her to call the shuttle, before I hoped on my FZ and went home to pack.

When I get home, my wife tells me that the shuttle said that they wouldn't get there in time for my flight. I looked at my Jeep Cherokee and knew I would face the same problem as the shuttle , rush hour traffic (it's about 4:00). I then looked at my FZ, "Hmmm, probably just make it". This was my mistake. I had never been gotten by a cager up to this point so I was a bit naive about the dangers of a cager. I've had a few close calls but nothing I couldn't see coming and dodge in time.

I pack the tank bag up with 2 days of clothing and head out. Get down the 118 in great time. I then got to the 405 (heading to LAX). Everything was going smooth traffic-wise until I reached the 101/405 intersection. Everything went from bad to worse then. Traffic was nuts. Was cut off more times than I had count. I had left the HOV lane because of a jam up in it, and was in the #1 lane. I had a good cushion in front of me and was doing about 25 mph when a cager on a cell phone cut me off and slams on his brakes.

Doing my best to avoid something serious in the tight confines, I braked hard. Then I noticed I still wasn't going to prevent from hitting him. I decided to try and swerve towards the carpool lane, which was actually illegal because it was a double yellow. My front tire skimmed the back bumper on the driverside. This forced the bike into the carpool lane. I was just recovering stability when I got rear-ended by a cager.

I was thrown from the from the bike about 10', looked kind of like a dive. As I was in the air, I could see my just completed FZ-1 Street Fighter sliding along the tarmac. All I could think was "My Bike". I then landed and rolled up to my feet . . just to inspect the damage. Never mind that the impact of the car cracked the third bone in my foot and the impact with the ground bruised my ribs and hip. The adrenaline made it all feel, just like a moderately twisted ankle. I've had plenty of those playing basketball, knew how to "walk" it off. This one, just wouldn't quite "walk off" like the others, but I was walking . . thank God.

Damage to the bike included a cracked frame, bent rear rim, bent swingarm, seared off passenger footpeg, seared off rider footpegs & shifter, rashed fairing, rashed tail, rashed exhuast, bent clip-on, broken mirror and ONE BADLY WORE ENGINE GUARD. The engine guard I thought had saved the day because most of the damage looked mostly cosmetic, but I didn't know the frame had gotten cracked when this happened. $6,627 worth of damage, so the insurace company totalled it.

I had on some decent gear. I could have had on riding pants (instead of jeans). I, also could have had on some riding boots with additional ankle support. This may have prevented me from getting that cracked bone. But, that was the only damage that could have possibly been prevented by having better gear. I've since bought some Frank Thomas Aqua Fore boots.

BTW, The cager in the car in front of me was charged with the accident for "making an unsafe lane change".

I've since bought a '98 Honda VTR1000F (aka Super Hawk, aka Firestorm), that I affectionaly call, VicToRia. My friend, Brent, recommended I start naming my bikes from now on for good luck.