Jesse case fell off on Golden Gate Bridge
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:28 pm
Was touring around northern California and Oregon for a few weeks this month, and when we were coming off the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco, one of the Jesse cases on my 1150R spontaneously fell off! I didn't see it but other drivers said that a Mercedes hit it and dragged it along for a few yards. I got it back, but boy, was it mashed beyond all recognition. Luckily the bag inside was sturdy and I recovered almost all my belongings. It's also very lucky that my laptop was in the other side case that did not fall off.
Had to ride home to LA County with one side case, and all my other stuff bungeed onto the back of the bike. It definitely makes you learn an interesting riding technique in a hurry. You don't feel the difference that much unless it's windy, and then the bike steers like a pig. When we got into some serious cross winds, I found that countersteering toward the absent side case was not enough - I had to hang way off the bike in order to steer it into the wind, especially in turns. Glad I took a track course a few years ago so I knew how to hang off. I have now gotten used to it and it's acually kind of fun once you get the hang of it. Okay, possibly I am getting to be a hooligan in my old age....
Trying to reconstruct the events, I think what must have happened was that when I was riding down Rt. 1 in the twisties, I must have scraped the side case one too many times, and it popped it off its rack, so that later on the bridge it finally fell off, maybe from the wind. The case had been locked on properly so that wasn't the problem. The Jesse cases sit very low on this bike so it's easy to scrape them when cornering.
I loved the Jesse cases; they are so great and they hold so much stuff, but I am now going to get BMW System Cases. On the 1150R, the Jesse cases just don't have enough ground clearance, and I don't want to lose another one. But I am really going to miss them!
Had to ride home to LA County with one side case, and all my other stuff bungeed onto the back of the bike. It definitely makes you learn an interesting riding technique in a hurry. You don't feel the difference that much unless it's windy, and then the bike steers like a pig. When we got into some serious cross winds, I found that countersteering toward the absent side case was not enough - I had to hang way off the bike in order to steer it into the wind, especially in turns. Glad I took a track course a few years ago so I knew how to hang off. I have now gotten used to it and it's acually kind of fun once you get the hang of it. Okay, possibly I am getting to be a hooligan in my old age....
Trying to reconstruct the events, I think what must have happened was that when I was riding down Rt. 1 in the twisties, I must have scraped the side case one too many times, and it popped it off its rack, so that later on the bridge it finally fell off, maybe from the wind. The case had been locked on properly so that wasn't the problem. The Jesse cases sit very low on this bike so it's easy to scrape them when cornering.
I loved the Jesse cases; they are so great and they hold so much stuff, but I am now going to get BMW System Cases. On the 1150R, the Jesse cases just don't have enough ground clearance, and I don't want to lose another one. But I am really going to miss them!