Homie's Med update

[Ken Holme]

Hey Guys,
I put this on the list...here you go for the forum guys.

After eight days at Harborview, I'm still re-cooping from broken ribs (4 thru 6 in the back and 4 thru 10 on the side), a broken collarbone, broken shoulder blade, a swollen right knee and I'm a bit winded from the punctured lung. But the knee, It's all on the left side.
I just got back from PT today and I'm pretty sure I blew out my rotator cuff due to the fact that I have almost no range of motion of my left arm under my own power. That rotator cuff problem bums me out the most.....I'll need surgery and the healing / recovery time is slow....can you say bye bye to the '07 season?
I would really like to thank all the corner workers and anyone who came to my aid that race day and I'm very glad we had Medic One on duty over the weekend.
So here's what happened....I felt really good on my GSXR 750 and there was really no worry or concern at all while doing 30's. I came thru turn one on the white flag lap in top gear and began to brake and shift down for turn two...again, nothing unusual at all.
That's when I clicked into a false neutral and tried to make some quick decisions. Should I click down? Should I shift up? Should I tip it in?
I will say that I've hit a false neutral before.... (Even going into turn 1) and whenever that happened....the sphincter factor was small, eye ball factor was huge but somehow I made it.
Well this time my friends....I didn't pull it off....I scrubbed off as much speed as possible, tipped it in and eventually crashed sliding into the turn
2 tire wall....THEN the bike power rammed me into the tires !
I want everyone to know that I was not out of control out there. I'm very happy to say that I can do a 38 on a F1 hurricane and 30's on a modern GSXR 750. I'm also very glad that my wreck did not affect any other racer.
I have to admit that I'm disappointed in the run off area of turn two and hope that that gets fixed, I mean holy mutha.....I sped up on that hard packed surface where the dirt/sand should have been.
I want to give a huge thanks to my fiancé who stood by my side every day and night at the hospital.
I want to give a huge thanks to all the folks who helped packed my stuff and got Beth safely to the hospital.
And finally, I want to give a huge thanks to ALL who sent cards, phoned in and provided food...........Man........I never knew I could be so loved by so many at WMRRA...
Thanks so much
Ken "Homie" Holme #36

[Lizbeth]

Glad to hear that you are on the mend Ken. WMRRA is a pretty amazing group. I'll keep ya in my thoughts and prayers. You may not be racing but it is a pretty safe bet we'll still see ya at the track.;)

[vxtaper]

Good to see your on the up an up!

[justintime2]

I hope your recovery is a speedy and thorough one. I'm with you on the turn 2 run off and tire wall, it's not safe and needs to be addressed. Thought about coming down to see you in the hospital before you left, but I'm just now becoming mobile myself. I'll keep you guys in my thoughts and let me know if there's anything I can do to help from the north. :)

[Blew-Smoke]

After eight days at Harborview, I'm still re-cooping from broken ribs (4 thru 6 in the back and 4 thru 10 on the side), a broken collarbone, broken shoulder blade, a swollen right knee and I'm a bit winded from the punctured lung. But the knee, It's all on the left side.
But it only hurts when you laugh - right? :confused:

Thanks for the update Ken, I had to take off early on Sunday and had heard bits and pieces afterwards about your get-off. Glad to hear you're on the mend and hopefully the shoulder isn't as damaged as you suspect and you can make it out for a couple of weekends later on in the season . I ended up taking the 750 down to PIR for the NW Endurance yesterday with Renee and we ended up getting 2nd in class 5th overall, weather held off and turned out to be a good day out. Keep doing the PT and hopefully we'll see you out at the track (racing or not) soon.

Cheers - Pete

[Hypnotiq]

Glad to see you're recovering ok Homie. Sorry to hear about your getoff. Let me know if you need anything. :)

-Nico

[John Lippis]

Hi Ken; wishing you a good solid recovery. That false neutral bit danny 3 times this year. I wish I could draw on this site, because I believe it is partly caused by the position of the shift lever when it is about to engage the gear (not in it's static position) I believe that the shift rod and lever on the trans should be positioned so that just as it is trying to engage the downshifted gear (past neutral or the previous gear) the lever and arm will be at their most leveraged position (closest to 90 deg or even slightly more obtuse, coming into it's arc. When they are set to 90 in rest position, the angle is acute when the gear is engaged and the leverage is lost. Of course this will make it less advantaged when engaging an upshift, but in GP mode, pushing down on the lever has some more advantage to make it work.
Hope to see you in Seattle, Ken. :-) John

[Mr Sunshine]

Hi Ken; wishing you a good solid recovery. That false neutral bit danny 3 times this year. I wish I could draw on this site, because I believe it is partly caused by the position of the shift lever when it is about to engage the gear (not in it's static position) I believe that the shift rod and lever on the trans should be positioned so that just as it is trying to engage the downshifted gear (past neutral or the previous gear) the lever and arm will be at their most leveraged position (closest to 90 deg or even slightly more obtuse, coming into it's arc. When they are set to 90 in rest position, the angle is acute when the gear is engaged and the leverage is lost. Of course this will make it less advantaged when engaging an upshift, but in GP mode, pushing down on the lever has some more advantage to make it work.
Hope to see you in Seattle, Ken. :-) John

John, Brent Prindle has some advice in this area and what you just said is what I remember him telling me.

[tophyr]

It could be that I'm just a newb and am too slow around the track to be able to share experience.. but what's so bad about a false neutral? Thinking it through, you'd just lose the compression braking, which (from what I understand) isn't worth much anyway. Couldn't the actual brakes handle it, and then the rider try to recover from the neutral upon exit of the corner?

I realize that if you're already at 99% of your front brakes, then asking them to pick up a bit more might not work, but why not use a little rear brake to simulate the compression braking effect?

[MikeM]

pretty hard to bring a sliding tire (front or back) back into line without using the engine...:wow:

[Hypnotiq]

Yeah, false neutrals not good. :(

[kth5109]

Wow!!! Ken I did not know that you were banged up as well. I wish you the best recovery. It is great to have good women by your side.
Take care.

Kevin Thomas
#150

[bikenut3]

Sorry I misses this...heal up soon - we miss ya.
Dorian
Rene' Pepin
Pete & Meg Ross

[Bad Dog]

It could be that I'm just a newb and am too slow around the track to be able to share experience.. but what's so bad about a false neutral? Thinking it through, you'd just lose the compression braking, which (from what I understand) isn't worth much anyway. Couldn't the actual brakes handle it, and then the rider try to recover from the neutral upon exit of the corner?

I realize that if you're already at 99% of your front brakes, then asking them to pick up a bit more might not work, but why not use a little rear brake to simulate the compression braking effect?

Most of us use engine braking to slow us down, if you are braking or starting to and it pops into neutral, you can't scrub off the speed and well, shit happens.

Hope you heal up soon, racing is still addictive, :confused: