Crashtest Dummies On June 21st the team from RN(S) performed their first roadtest. Robby was going to do some monowheeling on Mr. 7/11's bike because Mr.7/11 isn't capable of doing it himself properly. They went to a deserted industrial area in Amsterdam where Robby did a photoshoot a few months earlier and Mr. 7/11 took his video camera with him for some nice footage on film.

Robby hadn't ridden his bike for eight weeks because his Blades valves needed adjustment, but that didn't keep him from popping the front wheel up in the air and keeping it there for most of the way.
When they arrived at the deserted road Robby took the 7/11 for a ride to get familiar with the bike's power and accelerated down the road.
Mr. 7/11 decided to keep the camera inside the bag for now to keep Showman Robby from getting to anxious and losing concentration.
He immediately felt that he wouldn't need to use the clutch to bring the front up, so when he turned around he pulled a nice controller power-wheelie through the first three gears and thought to himself "Wow, this is easy... I won't have to get anywhere near the balancing point and can use the torque to keep it up".

So the first wheelie felt easy and controlled so he turned around again to do some more of the same.. At the first attempt the bike Robby missed second gear and the bike came back down.
After selecting first gear again he reared the bike up smoothly again, but when he went into second the bike just kept rising... rising... number plate on the ground.
At this point Mr. 7/11 still thought "Hell, he's better than Dave Coates", but when the seat unit started scraping over the ground he got a bit concerned.
Robby tried to hang onto to bars as long as he could but finally had to let go and landed on his butt. The bike continued forwards, gradually topping over on it's back, landing on the tank.
Then it toppled over on it's side and continued to scrape along the road for at least fifty metres with Robby sitting on the road looking dazed.
It seemed like ages minutes before the bike grinded to a halt, Robby stood up and Mr. 7/11 started walking towards the mayhem, both still unable to believe what had happened.

Robby was walking around dazed going "oh, no... unbelievable... it can't be...".
When Mr. 7/11 arrived he knew all too well how Robby must have felt instead of punching him in the stomach tried to cool him down saying it's all right (the hell it was ;-)
Then the attention was back to the bike which lay on it's side on the road in a big puddle of oil.
Mr. 7/11 quickly picked up his baby and started a quick inspection of the damage...
As the bike had been flipped the first damage was at the rear of the seat unit, with big chunks of filler broken from the fibreglass.
Then the tank had taken most of the impact with a big dent, that you can allmost fit your fist into and the breather chamber being pressed into the tank.
The dragbar had been bent and allmost an inch scraped from the left end after the bike continuid on it's side. The handlebar, ignition cover and footrest had taken the most damage.
The brake fluid reservoir had parted from the pump and the bracket had broken leaving the brake lever dangling by the stainless brake lines. The ignition cover had worn completely showing a small hole by which the oil was escaping rapidly.

When Mr. 7/11 asked Robby how they would get home he responded "just ride it", but when Mr. 7/11 pointed at the puddle of oil and the hole in the cover Robby realised that wasn't too good an idea.
Robby called his brother Ruud by mobile phone to pick them up.
In the meantime they wheeled the bike back to where they had parked Robby's bike, collecting pieces of fibreglass on the way.
Mr. 7/11 told Robby not to forget anything because he would have all of it for dinner.

In the meantime Robby had discovered a burning sensation on his bottom, and after some inspection Mr. 7/11 saw his buttocks closely resembled a medium-rare steak, showing trough the remains from his pants.
Mr. 7/11 thought "sodd it!" and told Robby it were only some minor scrape marks, nothing to worry about.
He finally took his camera out and started filming the carnarge, including the trashed bike, the scrape marks on the road and Robby's rear-end.
When Ruud arrived after being guided there by phone he didn't seem surprised at all, and somehow the feeling started to creep into Mr. 7/11's mind that Robby hadn't been telling him everything about his crashing history...

They strapped the bike on the trailer, but before going home Robby was bound to prove he still was the undesputed king of monowheeling and pulled a huge wheelie in front of the camera... what a nerve!

TO THE PICTURES DOWNLOAD 4.73MB MPEG MOVIE