The rehabilitation of Sir Gustave Sebastian & the Supertanker

He looks like that in all the photos I've seen where he's not actually riding...

That's the sort of comment I usually have to put up with. If riding like this was easy, you could do it, too.

Thanks for all your well wishes guys.

you'll keep

How are you doing now Nutso? I woke up today feeling not too bad then I sneezed
had a chance to look at Gus?

Quackders gave me until Friday off, with more Xrays & checks then.
I went back to work yesterday (probably too soon) because no one was doing my job, & things were starting to turn to custard.
Didn't take my pills early enough this afternoon, so I've come home feeling like shit.
I thought I'd suddenly put on weight until I realised that my left side is swollen.

So FINE

Ignoring Gus until I can bend.

Feel for you, buddy. Just recovered from a cracked rib myself - sleeping (or trying to) was the worst! Maybe I can get back on the road by the time you do...

You know what's funny - sleeping on my cracked rib side is fine - if I sleep on the other side I'm in a world of pain. I've had to carry on working & feel pretty buggered by the avo. Healing takes a lot out of you I reckon.

Hah!. I'm sleeping on my back at present. Can't roll. But actually starting to be able to move better today, once the drugs kick in. And breathing deeply is starting to become something I can contemplate (but not actually do fully yet). New bruises are starting to come out. Got some new nice black ones round my side that I didn't know were there. No wonder it was swollen. And the earlier ones are starting to itch, which I take to be a good sign.

Any one else want to join in the pity party??

I see we now have a Touratech NZ dealer. Initially I was very much disgruntled by this because the pricing seemed well out of wack & I suspected an Aussie distributor reaching into the NZ market to price gouge. For instance I see Gus's tank is retailing at NZD 2150. Ouch.

I am still considering the solo seat & rear rack. It is still more expensive than buying directly from Germany, but I guess the support is here. And I see a few more goodies at what I consider expensive but still okay pricing that I will be very interested in.

I can commiserate with Steve. After bouncing down the Newell Highway (that`s in Australia, BTW) I`m slowly coming good after over three months. These things take time as we get older.

Gidday David. Your bike is looking good. When are you going to be able get out & about on it? And most importantly will it fit properly this time?

if you want me too i can come round and look at Gus. You can sit nearby and give me instructions.

Nah, not necessary, but thanks for the offer. It's all mostly cosmetic. The majority if the damage to me was because of where /how I landed. Gus is really designed to cope with what happened. I'm not.

I've been OK to ride for a few weeks now. Had a sit on it today and as expected the seat is too low; I need a relaxed hip/knee angle due to falling off too many trucks in Wellington rail yards in my younger days. More padding, and delete the rear lip and it should be OK. Couple of things still need doing, so hopefully in two weeks or so it will be finished.

I will have to keep standing on the pegs to a minimum as The bar risers aren`t as high as I would like and due to a whiplash injury I can`t tilt my head back for long. If I was a horse............

PS: Have a look at the last page of my thread; one of Rays creations from a few years ago.

Get some Rox Risers. They come in a couple of lengths. I've found them excellent for being able to set the riding position. the limitation is in cable lengths, but even those can be custom made...

Saw the special earlier

I had Rox Risers on my Xchallenge and liked them. The bar risers on the bike now are as high as they can go without making new cables, so I`ll try things out for size first. With all my injuries and arthritis I will probably be happier sitting down mostly anyway.

The cleaning fairies came today & washed Gus, which made it practical to start assessing damage from the Odlins Rd 'wall of death' excursion.

The headlight frame seems to have taken the majority of damage. The round ring is now well out of shape (oval rather than round), is bowed on the left lower side, & is fairly garked on the top side. The adjuster knob doesn't sit flat because the rubber isolator is pulled to one side. But it is still useable. I’ll demount it at some stage to see if it can be repaired. Otherwise its USD 95 + freight to replace.



The handlebars / Rox Risers just needed to be loosened & reset. The barkbusters did their job. I have merely filed off the worst of the graze & refitted them.



The choke lever is scratched up, but can be sanded & repainted. The clutch /left switch perch broke internally. Fortunately I have another. The grip will be replaced.



The right hardhead guard took a pounding. I haven’t looked to see if this can be straightened yet. There is a big chip out of the right valve cover. It looks like the central right valve cover stud is bent. I think there is a good chance the value cover would have holed on the right side without the guard in place.



The left side is scratched, & there is some deepish gouges in the rocker cover



The left rear indicator mount has twisted. I have done a bit of panelbeating, & this is now back in place.



My body is healing. Fridays Xrays confirmed the fluid / blood in the lung is still there. The major damage is internal. My breathing & ability to move semi-normally is getting better every day. The rib bruising came out fairly quickly, & is now fading. The blacker bruising on the belt line only came out yesterday.

So did you zoom up the slope, ride/hit the wall on the RHS & fall off the LHS onto Marks bike? Forks twisted?

Pretty much. No forks were /are fine. No damage to the exhaust or tank either.

This picture shows where I came. The crest of the hill is behind & to the right of the parked bikes. The mark on the wall where it dug in. Use the grass clump as a continuity mark between pictures...



Where we ended up

Very good assessment of the damage, glad to hear you're getting better and the damage is not that bad.

My bike is now on the dealer, as I couldn't figure out what was wrong .