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[Darrellh]

I layed down my SEEG today.  I am sitting here trying not to beat myself up but that's hard not to do when I don't know what I did wrong or failed to do to avoid the accident.  Maybe someone here can think clearer than I can.  

I was at the end of a day ride in stop & go traffic within a few miles of home.  I was feathering the clutch maintaining a speed of about 10mph with about 2 car lengths distance between myself and the car in front of me.  I was in motion in the left lane of a two lane road that was converging into a single lane. I was coasting and increasing the gap between myself and the car in front to allow a vehicle on my right to merge in.  I can't remember if I had the clutch engaged at the time or if I was just coasting.  After that all I remember is the bike accelerating and the rear of the car in front in my face (not the car that was merging, thankfully I missed him).  I know I hammered on the front brake and threw the bike over just before rear ending the car.  I slid under the rear of the car in front and wedged the bike under it.

I have absolutely no idea what happened here.  I don't know if it was something I did or if the bike had a mind of it's own.  I had the engine light come on several times through the day but it would flash on for a few seconds while accelerating then shut off.  A fellow rider noted that my rear turn signals and tail light would flash intermittently so I know I had some electrical problems at the time nothing that could cause rapid acceleration of the bike on it's own.  I am at a loss, but I need to understand what happened.

By the way, other than a bruised ego and a soon to be empty wallet, I am o.k.  I was leathered up and wasn't carrying a passenger.  The leathers on the other hand don't look much better than the bike.

[mfgreen]

Glad your okay Darrel...sorry about the ego and wallet....your leathers now have character.....clean 'em up a bit and they are ready for a few more adventures.

I will PM you about the mishap

[JCZ]

Glad your okay Darrel...sorry about the ego and wallet....your leathers now have character.....clean 'em up a bit and they are ready for a few more adventures.

I will PM you about the mishap

Very glad that you're alright, Darrell.  You could have ended up like me.  By the way, my locking fairing covers were trashed in my accident (well one was, they couldn't find the second one).

It's all only a guess......but at the end of the day a little fatigue or exhaustion mixed with some complacency.......you may have had it in gear and thinking it was in neautral, gave it some gas to keep it running.  Then, self preservation takes over, the brakes and wham.

Anyway, be easy on yourself.....whatever it was, it could have happened to any of us.....exactly the same way.  The difference was, you were able to walk away from it and I wasn't.

[Darrellh]

Thanks for the reassurance.  I'm sorry to hear about the lockable lowers.  As I understand it you are keeping your bike.  If so I can ask the fabricator if he has any of the metal plates left over from the last go.  Maybe I can put something together for you.  If I can't, when winter sets in here, if he has gotten the price down, and we find 10 interested buyers, I could do it again.

[mr_magoo]

Darrellh with what you say about the sudden acceleration and the tail lights flashing you may have a criuse control issue.  I had a problem with mine if the console switch was on the bike would accelerate to the last speed programed into the cruise control.  Its like the unit had a mind of its own they replaced the cruise module and seems fine now.  Glad to hear you are ok.

[Twolanerider]

The cruise on my recently departed Road King also had its quirks.  Not as you described (which would be more dangerous) but if you used the resume switch to re-set the speed the bike would accelerate to the previously set speed; and then keep right on accelerating.

First time it did it it kind of freaked me out a little.  Just unexpected.  Hit either brake and it kicked right back off so no big deal.  But it would continue accelerating until you ran out of throttle if you let it.  I let it climb on its own up to 110 a couple of times but that's about as fast as that bike would go with the windshield on it.

[Darrellh]

Thanks for the replies.  The first thing I checked when I got the bike upright was the position of the cruise control switch on the dash.  It was in the off position.  I haven't checked the schematics yet but I beieve this switch disables pwr to the cruise control circuit.  I have asked the dealer to check all the fault codes as well.  

The more I think about this the more I think it was my error vs. mechanical failure.  I most likely rolled the throttle while reaching for the front brake lever.  I probably will never know for sure.

[JCZ]

Thanks for the reassurance.