Wanted a change. Bought a KTM Superduke. Then crashed it...

[750hp]

I've had the bike for a few months now, and everything that people said about it's sweet little 1000cc V-twin motor, slick gearbox and top shelf suspension and chassis design was spot-on. I have put a few thousand k's on the bike, and love it more and more each time.

After a 200km ride through some beautiful mountains that included super-slow hairpins and wide open straights, rainforest and farmland, I was feeling like the bike and me were really working well together. I had been following a 748SPS Ducati for the 30ks beforehand, then it happened...

Coming out of a corner pretty low in the revs in 3rd, I saw the road opened into a nice downhill straight so I rolled on the throttle then shifted into 4th. A second later, there was a noise that sounded like the chain had snapped, and was flapping around and banging on anything it could reach. As quickly as I could, I grabbed for the clutch lever just as the rear tyre locked up. In the blink of an eye, the back had stepped out past the point of no return, and I exited stage left. The bike ended up probably 50 metres down the road in a puddle of coolant due to the punctured radiator. I started off by sliding backwards and chest down. While feeling the skin coming off my knees ( and wondering why I STILL hadn't made time to get to the bike shop and buy some leather pants), I tried to get onto my back and let the leather jacket take the brunt of the damage. Nice in theory, but trying to turn over just started off a chain of tumbling cartwheels with arms and legs flailing around like a rag doll.

Anyway, WTF happened?????? The chain is still on the bike in one piece. The engine still cranks over. The clutch lever is still attached. The gear lever was broken, so the bike is stuck in 4th gear, but pulling in the clutch lever allows the bike to be moved around. Did the gearbox seize up? It's the only reason I can think of for the rear tyre to lock solid and leave a 7 or 8 metre long skid mark down the road... What if it's not the gearbox?

I had someone following behind me, and he was dumbfounded as to what happened. No brake lights, no indication of a problem. One minute I'm upright, then a split second later he's deciding whether to aim for the tumbling rider, or the spinning Superduke...