Where The Rubber Hits the Road : Behind the scenes post-crash photo shoot from 2019

This marks the 5 year anniversary of 2 hit and runs that left me with a life long neck injury. Compression fracture on vertebrae C5. True to my life story, which is typically epic and ironic...this all went down as I was launching Raven Rova with crowdfunding. 

Flash back to Aug. 28, 2019. The hustle was on. The Raven crowdfunding campaign had been live 3 days.

I'd been working 2 jobs, I was up early; 8 AM riding my Kawasaki supermoto to the Oakland YMCA for a morning swim AND to work my shift. Then, I was going to take 2 hours to work on my crowdfunding campaign, then work the rest of my shift at the Y. 

That's not how that day went. Around 11 AM I walked out the Kaiser Oakland ER with a neck brace on. 

That morning, my ex hubs and I sat across from each other...adjusting our motorcycle gear. Putting the knee armor in just the right place, cleaning our Arai Signet X visors. We were both commuting on Supermotos back then (I got mine first, 2015!)

Back in mid-July, I had been rear ended by a teenager driving his mom's Mercedes sedan. Not another car on the road, 2 lanes clear all sides at a red light. My Kawi and I were barely 400 lbs sopping wet, that Merc walloped me. That's what did most of the neck damage, all the docs agreed. A couple weeks later I flew to my sister's wedding in Wisconsin. My neck looks jacked in her wedding photos. I did NOT go to the ER that day in July. That wasn't a smart choice. I was stressed.

Shit wasn't great with the marriage, when my ex hubs got home he was really mad at me - not kind or affectionate. I'm not ashamed to write this. It threw me, and I did NOT know how to handle that. 

It wasn't until the day later I ran into my buddies who run Steady Rolling Motorcycles that I felt like someone gave a shit. These two sweet guys surrounded me in hugs, "How scary! I'm so happy you're OK!" One of them had a scary crash a couple years earlier, it was the spark for me to go #ATGATT (all the gear, all the time) and start Raven Rova. 

Later that day, more friends did the same. Why didn't my spouse do that ? We talked about it, we got things temporarily OK again. We made an action plan for how to deal with moto/car accidents in the future. (We were into motor sports -it's not an "if" it's a "when")

So, on Aug. 28, 2019 ... a truck hit me, I low sided and slide a few car lengths. I had been avoiding that route since July and I don't know why I took that busy route again. I was target fixating on the light, splitting the lanes. I was only going about 15 mph, promise I was not speeding.

I was hell bent on my day going to plan. 

It did not.

I'm also going to emphasize that not a single person stayed at the scene to help me. They got my insurance info for their car scrapes and left. That's fucked up! 

I wasn't bleeding, I was covered head to toe in gear. Everyone left me on the curb, hurt, alone, white as a ghost, in shock. I took a video and I was clearly not OK. I muscled the bike out of the fire hydrant zone where some people had put it. My legs and core were doing all the work, my upper body was screaming at me. 

I took a Lyft to the YMCA where my friends and co-workers helped me. We were all first aid trained, my work friend drove me to the ER.

Yeah, this is uncomfortable to write and read. Stick with me please. 

A couple weeks later...after the bruises healed...I got back on the metaphorical horse. The Raven Rova crowdfunding campaign needed to keep going, I had a powerful new way to connect. We turned lemons into lemonade, my good friend and I conceptualized this photo shoot. 

At the time, my ex hubs and I still *mostly* got along doing creative things. We rolled out the rat style FXR and shot this in our Oakland driveway.

"We don't need roads."

These images cut through the noise, the crowdfunding campaign had a second wind bigger than the first and Raven Rova got off the ground. Here's the REAL story of this epic shoot. 

The day started OK, I busted out my MUA skills and fishnets, grabbed a boom box and was ready to channel challenge into art! Aw, there's my former turbo Subie in the back too. 

Creative differences. I had a clear vision; grit + chrome = edgey art/fashion. My ex hubs wanted to show the torn apart, f'd up Kawi I crashed on. You know this Wisconsin girl was rolling out the HD in style. More about the FXR later. 

Tell me how you really feel. I wasn't amused. Ex hubs said some messed up stuff to me too. I was hurt, but I was not "helpless." 

I get by with a little help from my friends! My dear, amazing friends live next door. This is when they walked out, everything changed. 

"Damn girl you look hot AF! Get it!" 

"LOVE everything that's happening here, keep going!" OK, now I was ready! 

All but one of the selects occurred after this moment. My two good buddies renewed my confidence and joy, and we slayed this photo shoot. 

Take a breath. It was hot. This neck brace wasn't comfy, it was the temporary one from the ER. I finally got a better one a few days later from the Kaiser Spinal Clinic. 

Phoenix = Rebirth. I wore this exact red Phoenix jacket when I slid like Super Man. I shared this image during the Aug 2019 crowdfunding campaign. The really gritty ones I saved, I've shared over the last couple weeks. 

This was ALL my idea. "I'm going to throw myself on the ground and show you how I slid. Take photos, I'll be ready to share this one day." 

I caught myself in a chatturanga (yoga push up) and slid like Super Man. 

My head wacked a car door on the left. My Arai Signet X full face helmet was toast after that. You know I bought another one. 

The truck hit my left side tank, I tried to course correct and failed. The bike had a janky work around; cut up bicycle inner tube holding the throttle housing onto the handle bars. (Result of getting talked into a installing a big bore kit that jacked the whole bike up - another lesson, another tale)

My leather glove caught the throttle and the bike jerked forward too much. I ping-ponged off a couple cars. Time was slow and fast. I knew I had lost control of the bike. I pushed her away from me and I went down low. 

I should not have been riding that Kawi, I kept telling my ex hubs it wasn't OK. he kept saying "it's fine, just ride it and get over it" ... hindsight is 20/20. 

Survive and thrive!

It was NOT just gear that kept me safe. 

Swimming, yoga, cycling, weights had me in the best shape of my life. The first week of July I swam 1/4 mile up river, against the current, because I wanted to put my training to the test! I had been training a lot because I miss open water swimming and wanted more. I pulled a 20 lb rusting Dell laptop out of the Shasta-Trinity river too!

I was in good shape, feeling really strong and healthy when the crash occurred. I'm wearing my red Speedo inside out for this shoot!

Reborn in the fire! The shoot ended on a high note.

We went for tasty burgers afterwards. This shoot represents everything that was happening in my life; the marriage was up and down. We worked through it and it was OK for a short time. 

I channeled the challenges into art, creating Raven Rova from the depths of my soul. I'm on a mission to protect women who ride.

If you didn't know what drives me - now you do. 

Thanks for reading! Gear up babes! 

XO, 

Karleen 

Bonus Content: THE BIKE! 

I'm not the kind of girl who says no to 2-up motorcycle ride, my ego doesn't give a F*** a ride is a ride! Growing up, riding with my Dad has a lot to do with it. 

2 days after the neck brace came off...I said "baby give me a ride!" We GEARED UP and rolled over to our insurance agent's office on the FXR. No sissy bar. Surface streets, middle of the day, a couple miles. Our agent had a couple Ducati's.

"Karleen you look great! That's your gear too! I'm so happy to see you!" 

The HD: 1992 FXR-P (bigger tank!)

It was stock purple originally, this is custom paint. 

I worked on this FXR a ton. It was titled in my name and I was the primary insured - bc my ex had gotten too many tickets! He was a very experienced, skilled motorcycle rider. I want to emphasize, I'd never take a ride from someone I do not trust with my life. At least we had that going for us! 

The tickets were from failure to get a CA motorcycle license, he was from Canada. Other cars, and the chopped pipes breaking sound ordinance in SF. ::told ya::

He'd ride us to SF for work and fun. Put a ton of miles on this bike 2-up. These photos show the final iteration of this bike - it was a lot of work to get it here. 

Normally it's the dude trying to keep the bike and the wife trying to sell. It was the opposite for us.  Me, "well it's your bike, sure you can sell it...but I think we should treat it right and spend the money to make it modern and safe! Let's do it." We did. 

So, this bike was very special to me. I was in pain, missing my fam in Wisconsin, feeling really emotional about motorcycles. Riding together was one of the only things that still worked in that marriage.

This Harley-Davidson brought it home for me. That's the good stuff I remember. Wearing my Sauk Prairie HD shirt that I've had since 2004 today as I write this! 

"4 wheels move the body, 2 wheels move the soul"