I started riding bikes when I was 11 in 1957, a Zundap that I helped my brother restore. Then in 1959, we took on Honda as a dealership. I put together hundreds of new bikes and helped sell and repair them. We also did a little performance modifying. Later, I did some professional high performance work and a little racing. I rode year round in New England winters. Needless to say, I became a professional rider early. The first large displacement bike I rode was a BMW R60S in 1963. My experience with BMW led me to purchase a R1150RS for a 10-day tour of a few Northwest states. The bike was used gently and serviced by a BMW dealer whose mechanic I bought it from. I checked it out thoroughly, rode it that year and decided to keep it for another year of touring. Now, I do ride fast but smooth and accurately with safety as a main concern which has served me well so that one expert friend claimed I was the best rider in our region. Pretty embarrassing. Well, on the second year ride, I was with a friend touring down a hilly main road and the rear swing arm failed at the pivot bolt for the hub. The swing arm split in two with the top half completely separating. The wheel now turned away directing the bike to the right suddenly and off the road at 60mph. I lived but will never walk again. I am a professional mechanical engineer, but because of medical reasons, by the time I pieced together the cause, it was too late to address the issue further. The aluminum casting supporting the pivot bolts was insufficient to back up the force applied by the wheel and drive torque. Also, the bike was used and 12years old which would have to be addressed by my expert assessment of its condition prior to riding it and the rigid nature of cast aluminum.
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