Once I got to Boerne after an hour and a half of riding, I had a very nice lunch and headed east on highway 46. I took some twisties on my way home, and decided to take Bat Cave Road which, in addition to have several VERY nice houses, is a nice lazy ride through the backcountry. I headed into this turn at about 25-30 mph (not sure how fast).
Once in the turn I noticed the gravel and immediately let off the gas and applied the brakes to try to bleed some speed off. The rear end slipped (I must have been leaning) and I recovered and turned hard left to avoid hitting the sign there in the distance. I then hit that second strip of gravel, the back end slid out again, and all I remember from that point was heading straight toward this ditch on the right side of the picture about 40 feet in front of the bike.
I was only going about 15-20 mph at that point I'm guessing, but as the bike went down the embankment, I clobbered a sign with the left cylinder head and left handlebar. The left cylinder head got it most of the way knocked down so it didn't hit me. The bike hit a culvert, came to a dead stop and I went over the handlebars. The bike ended up like this:
Here's the culvert and the sign. Best I can figure is that the crease at the top of the sign post was caused by the left side of the handlebars.
Some people stopped and help me get the bike off the barbed wire and up onto the road. Here's a few shots of the damage:
BMW Roadside assistance sent a wrecker out and took it to Alamo BMW where I bought her only four months ago. Kermit, one of Alamo BMW's owners, took a look and was shaking his head. He's pretty sure that she's done for. The forks are bent, the triple-clamp is bent, the front wheel came out of the right side of the fork and seized, the gas tank is creased, something tried to poke out from inside the left cylinder head (it's cracked), the right side header pipe is bent, the light, windshield, windshield bracket, and all the rest are a mess.
What worked: Amazingly, I only have a sore left shoulder and a small scratch on my left side, but that's it. My Schuberth C2 took a good whack on the left jaw, but I didn't feel a thing. I also never ride without purpose-designed pants and a mesh jacket with all the armor. I'd probably have a broken left shoulder if it weren't for the jacket. Gloves and boots don't show any signs of damage.
What didn't work: I cannot figure out how I could have avoided this accident, other than entering the turn at 15 mph, but I still would have been trying to make a sharp turn while on gravel. For some reason, laying the bike down didn't occur to me, probably because I thought I had it after I recovered from the first gravel patch. I remember grabbing the brake hard with my right hand, but only hearing engine revving sounds.
So tomorrow the insurance guy will go take a look, but I'm 98% sure it's totaled.
The hugger looked good though, huh?
Man I love that white she was pretty. I always look for gravel in turns. I cannot say what you should have done different, but it sounds like you came out good less a bike. I had a situation where I went into a corner hot, and gravel. I am am not sure if I did the right thing, but I hit the brakes hard and was able to slow it down and ride it out.
Rolling off the gas and application of brakes in the turn probably caused the bike to destabilize and the loss of traction in your situation. 