An Early Morning Start     

Every situation is different. A breakdown is not even a problem if you have 50000$ in a bank somewhere, but if you only have enough bankroll to pay for food and gas, a breakdown becomes a real adventure. You all know about my breakdown in Ft Stockton. I've had 2 other serious non-rideable breakdowns 100 mile AAA tow range of my friend,Steve, who lives in Westmoreland Ca (think El Centro).

On this breakdown, I'd planned to ride with James McCracken to Alpine which started this morning (in 2015) at 5am sharp. Jim and I rolled out on the button of 5am. I was pulling my trailer with the DR350 on it. We made a couple hundred miles and 2 fuel stops as Jim's V45 Honda is fuel challenged. Well, let's cut to the chase..... We are out in the farmland on the Ca side of the Co river about 20 miles south before getting to Blythe. Out there farmers pull way over and off the road before they make a right hand turn. This has happened several time already this morning, and I was thinking how smart these hill country people.....even if there are no hills.
So here's another white sedan pulled over to the right, and I'm looking for the road he's going to turn on. I'm following Jim and he's looking to see what is happening as well. Pretty damn quick, I see I'm still doing 45 or 50 not realizing that Jim has slowed down to 20 or 25 (just a guestimate) to look also. I'm right behind him closing fast...Crap, there's going to be a collision.
I was able to make a quick left countersteer to get the bike leaned right so I can pass him on the right....but that was very quick, and I think It threw the trailer into a brody. When the tires caught again the trailer pulled my bike sideways, and I went down on the shoulder of the road at 40ish.

'Earth, sky' repeated itself a few times and then I slid to a stop on the shoulder. The DR had broken free from the trailer and was laying on the ground. One trailer swing arm was bent up (but it still rolled on that wheel, but the alignment was at least 20* off in a couple directions. And My Sabre had all the headlights and instruments knocked off and broken. Looking everything over showed that I wasn't hurt bad and the DR and Sabre would both run, and actually, ride somewhere if I had to.

There were 5 military coreman That stopped to help out. They wanted to put gauze and an ace bandage on my elbow where I'd broken the skin down to the bone. They also picked the bikes up (strong young helpful guys).
My wife had just canceled the AAA Premier membership that I had, under my instruction. I don't need that shit.....what's going to happen to me? Yeah, right. But luckily the cancelation wouldn't take effect till the 10th of April. So I was able to call AAA and get everything towed, first to Blythe, and then to my friend's house 100 miles away near El Centro. That would get everything halfway from home compared to being in Blythe where I don't know anyone. The CHP showed up and I told them AAA was on their way, so that satisfied them, and they went away.
Jim hung with me till I was in the tow yard and had a good plan on how to get to Steve's place, and then he continued on, miraculously, his bike wasn't hardly damaged....only a little wire basket that caught something as I almost went by.

Later that day Steve and I were having a couple beers at 6:15pm, and deciding just how is the best way to get three pieces of equipment back to Oceanside a 120 miles away. There isn't any part of this accident that wasn't completely my fault. I guess this is why they call it adventure riding. LOL
So the next morning Steve called a friend of his that has a mobile repair rig. There's a lot of work for these guys in the field repairing broken equipment. He came over and with a chain, floor jack, and a oxy-accet torch he had that wheel 95% straight in about 20 minutes. He charged me 40 bucks and the trailer was fit to be pulled home.

Now I had to Duct tape all the broken headlight and instruments back to where I could ride home. It looked a mess.

I got home alright the next day. Now it was time to fix the broken parts. I bought an instrument pod off Ebay that works but had the lenses broken off. I was able to salvage the lenses off of my broken instruments and marry the 2 together.

Now to work on the headlight bucket. It hadn't broken the glass lense.

After a day's work with Black ABS plumbers glue, I had the bucket ready to go.

I had another windscreen in storage that was serviceable. And a friend down in San Diego had a good used steering triple clamp set that would replace the bent one on the bike. A few well placed blows to the front axle with a good sized brass hammer straightened it almost perfectly. I was good to go for another ride.....but a little more careful next time.