FastFreddy
New Member
I'd recommend 5 years of driving a car to observe the patterns in traffic before even thinking about riding a bike.
There are two types of riders...
- Thread starter RooKie
- Start date
Captain_Kev
New Member
Been down 3 times since the 3 years I've been riding, 1 bad, 2 not-so-bad.
1) A few months following the purchase of my first bike (2008 Ninja 650) I decided to go on a ride following an extremely emotional day to relieve some stress wearing nothing but jeans, a t-shirt, and a helmet (derp de DUMBASS). Rode up a nearby canyon and hit the twisties...a little too hard. Didn't notice a sign for a brutal decreasing radius turn and hit it going 50mph. Couldn't lean over far enough, peg caught the pavement, rear tire lost traction, and down I went.
As I was sliding into the oncoming lane a car came round the bend... he somehow managed to swerve halfway off the road before he ran over my rear swing arm. His tire was less than a foot away from running over my left leg. Got up and checked out my (totaled) bike, not noticing the severe lack of skin on my right arm/hand and the fact that my knee now displayed bone. At least the ambulance ride came with complementary Fentanyl, an opiate 100 times more potent than morphine.
Even if I did have proper riding technique back then, there was no way I could have successfully hit that turn at that speed on that bike. The fact that the oncoming driver was alert saved me from what could have been a far worse outcome than road rash. I could have ended up like my buddy after a similar situation with a Jeep Sahara: titanium rods in my leg/foot and a limp for the rest of my life. Instead, I just had to endure extremely painful showers for a month and buy a new bike... the FZ6R sure looked nice (w00t!).
Since the accident I have never again ridden emotionally compromised, without gear, or beyond my known limits.
2) Early spring canyon rides in Colorado = gravel. Saw a big ol' patch of the stuff in the middle of my upcoming turn going down a relatively steep grade. Freaked out, braked hard, and hit it going ~5mph. Bike slid out from under me and into a small shoulder next to the road. My baby suffered only cosmetic damage, and since I now wore gear, no injury to me
Lesson learned: ALWAYS watch for gravel and avoid spirited canyon riding in the early spring.
3) This one was a WTF? moment. First off, this was a hot summer day, and the clouds had just blocked the sun as I hopped on my bike. Took a right turn from my neighborhood onto a major road and began to accelerate to ~15mph right as the light still a good distance in front of me turned yellow. So I braked. Nothing. So I braked harder. Still nothing. When my bike began sliding sideways (my rear tire was now drastically to the left of my front) I realized I wasn't going to stop, so I released both brakes to try to straighten the bike out then re-applied with a bit of success.
Just as I was approaching the crosswalk in front of the intersection going ~5mph my front tire re-gained traction. Back wheel popped off the ground (first stoppie!) and I was tossed off the bike (stoppie fail...), which suffered some more cosmetic damage. When I got up I nearly slipped and fell...this was when I realized what had happened. The sun had emerged, and I looked back to see that my ENTIRE lane was coated in slippery, shiny fluid, concentrated right in front of a heavily-trafficked bus stop. After further investigation (driving along the bus routes and following the trail of shiny stuff), I found that some busted bus had been leaking some kind of super-slick fluid for over 5 miles before going in for maintenance. Shennanigans I say!
Lesson learned: don't...uh...ride in the same lane as buses?
TL;DR
1) A few months following the purchase of my first bike (2008 Ninja 650) I decided to go on a ride following an extremely emotional day to relieve some stress wearing nothing but jeans, a t-shirt, and a helmet (derp de DUMBASS). Rode up a nearby canyon and hit the twisties...a little too hard. Didn't notice a sign for a brutal decreasing radius turn and hit it going 50mph. Couldn't lean over far enough, peg caught the pavement, rear tire lost traction, and down I went.
As I was sliding into the oncoming lane a car came round the bend... he somehow managed to swerve halfway off the road before he ran over my rear swing arm. His tire was less than a foot away from running over my left leg. Got up and checked out my (totaled) bike, not noticing the severe lack of skin on my right arm/hand and the fact that my knee now displayed bone. At least the ambulance ride came with complementary Fentanyl, an opiate 100 times more potent than morphine.
Even if I did have proper riding technique back then, there was no way I could have successfully hit that turn at that speed on that bike. The fact that the oncoming driver was alert saved me from what could have been a far worse outcome than road rash. I could have ended up like my buddy after a similar situation with a Jeep Sahara: titanium rods in my leg/foot and a limp for the rest of my life. Instead, I just had to endure extremely painful showers for a month and buy a new bike... the FZ6R sure looked nice (w00t!).
Since the accident I have never again ridden emotionally compromised, without gear, or beyond my known limits.
2) Early spring canyon rides in Colorado = gravel. Saw a big ol' patch of the stuff in the middle of my upcoming turn going down a relatively steep grade. Freaked out, braked hard, and hit it going ~5mph. Bike slid out from under me and into a small shoulder next to the road. My baby suffered only cosmetic damage, and since I now wore gear, no injury to me
Lesson learned: ALWAYS watch for gravel and avoid spirited canyon riding in the early spring.
3) This one was a WTF? moment. First off, this was a hot summer day, and the clouds had just blocked the sun as I hopped on my bike. Took a right turn from my neighborhood onto a major road and began to accelerate to ~15mph right as the light still a good distance in front of me turned yellow. So I braked. Nothing. So I braked harder. Still nothing. When my bike began sliding sideways (my rear tire was now drastically to the left of my front) I realized I wasn't going to stop, so I released both brakes to try to straighten the bike out then re-applied with a bit of success.
Just as I was approaching the crosswalk in front of the intersection going ~5mph my front tire re-gained traction. Back wheel popped off the ground (first stoppie!) and I was tossed off the bike (stoppie fail...), which suffered some more cosmetic damage. When I got up I nearly slipped and fell...this was when I realized what had happened. The sun had emerged, and I looked back to see that my ENTIRE lane was coated in slippery, shiny fluid, concentrated right in front of a heavily-trafficked bus stop. After further investigation (driving along the bus routes and following the trail of shiny stuff), I found that some busted bus had been leaking some kind of super-slick fluid for over 5 miles before going in for maintenance. Shennanigans I say!
Lesson learned: don't...uh...ride in the same lane as buses?
TL;DR
RooKie
New Member
For those who think the saying "There are two types of riders... those who have gone down and those that will" is ignorant, you need to chill. It's an expression used to drive home the point that we need to be prepared for the worse at all times.
Not everything you hear is meant to be taken literally.
Do you guys get upset when you drink red bull and it doesn't give you wings?
Why do I use this phrase?
- It's a good way to encourage new riders to wear their gear and be cautious. Specially coming from riders like us (the ones who have gone down) that didn't think we'd ever fall but ended up in situations where we could have lost our lives when we least expected it.
Is it junk philosophy?
- Think what you want. IMO it's just as valid as "Hope for the best, expect the worst", just more specific to riders. Would you drive cross-country w/o a spare tire or tools? Chances are that you may or may NOT get a flat for thousands of miles, but wouldn't it be nice to be prepared if it DID happen? Just my $0.02.
Not everything you hear is meant to be taken literally.
Do you guys get upset when you drink red bull and it doesn't give you wings?
Why do I use this phrase?
- It's a good way to encourage new riders to wear their gear and be cautious. Specially coming from riders like us (the ones who have gone down) that didn't think we'd ever fall but ended up in situations where we could have lost our lives when we least expected it.
Is it junk philosophy?
- Think what you want. IMO it's just as valid as "Hope for the best, expect the worst", just more specific to riders. Would you drive cross-country w/o a spare tire or tools? Chances are that you may or may NOT get a flat for thousands of miles, but wouldn't it be nice to be prepared if it DID happen? Just my $0.02.
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RooKie
New Member
I wonder if the individual driving the bus or the city could be held to some liability for not cleaning up the spill that caused the last incident...Been down 3 times since the 3 years I've been riding, 1 bad, 2 not-so-bad.
1) A few months following the purchase of my first bike (2008 Ninja 650) I decided to go on a ride following an extremely emotional day to relieve some stress wearing nothing but jeans, a t-shirt, and a helmet (derp de DUMBASS). Rode up a nearby canyon and hit the twisties...a little too hard. Didn't notice a sign for a brutal decreasing radius turn and hit it going 50mph. Couldn't lean over far enough, peg caught the pavement, rear tire lost traction, and down I went.
As I was sliding into the oncoming lane a car came round the bend... he somehow managed to swerve halfway off the road before he ran over my rear swing arm. His tire was less than a foot away from running over my left leg. Got up and checked out my (totaled) bike, not noticing the severe lack of skin on my right arm/hand and the fact that my knee now displayed bone. At least the ambulance ride came with complementary Fentanyl, an opiate 100 times more potent than morphine.
Even if I did have proper riding technique back then, there was no way I could have successfully hit that turn at that speed on that bike. The fact that the oncoming driver was alert saved me from what could have been a far worse outcome than road rash. I could have ended up like my buddy after a similar situation with a Jeep Sahara: titanium rods in my leg/foot and a limp for the rest of my life. Instead, I just had to endure extremely painful showers for a month and buy a new bike... the FZ6R sure looked nice (w00t!).
Since the accident I have never again ridden emotionally compromised, without gear, or beyond my known limits.
2) Early spring canyon rides in Colorado = gravel. Saw a big ol' patch of the stuff in the middle of my upcoming turn going down a relatively steep grade. Freaked out, braked hard, and hit it going ~5mph. Bike slid out from under me and into a small shoulder next to the road. My baby suffered only cosmetic damage, and since I now wore gear, no injury to me
Lesson learned: ALWAYS watch for gravel and avoid spirited canyon riding in the early spring.
3) This one was a WTF? moment. First off, this was a hot summer day, and the clouds had just blocked the sun as I hopped on my bike. Took a right turn from my neighborhood onto a major road and began to accelerate to ~15mph right as the light still a good distance in front of me turned yellow. So I braked. Nothing. So I braked harder. Still nothing. When my bike began sliding sideways (my rear tire was now drastically to the left of my front) I realized I wasn't going to stop, so I released both brakes to try to straighten the bike out then re-applied with a bit of success.
Just as I was approaching the crosswalk in front of the intersection going ~5mph my front tire re-gained traction. Back wheel popped off the ground (first stoppie!) and I was tossed off the bike (stoppie fail...), which suffered some more cosmetic damage. When I got up I nearly slipped and fell...this was when I realized what had happened. The sun had emerged, and I looked back to see that my ENTIRE lane was coated in slippery, shiny fluid, concentrated right in front of a heavily-trafficked bus stop. After further investigation (driving along the bus routes and following the trail of shiny stuff), I found that some busted bus had been leaking some kind of super-slick fluid for over 5 miles before going in for maintenance. Shennanigans I say!
Lesson learned: don't...uh...ride in the same lane as buses?
TL;DR
Captain_Kev
New Member
I believe the liability would be held by the bus company (RTD), which is privately owned and subsidized by the state. My roommate is actually a driver for them and has been for 3 years, so I asked him if I could possibly contact RTD for compensation (~$500 worth of cosmetic damage). He said no way, they would deny liability to the bitter end since I could not "definitively prove" that it was one of THEIR vehicles that leaked the fluid, and taking them to court would cost more than just repairing it myself. Stupid public transportation...
Your tires were fine, simply too much throttle.What Happened-
New year's lowside on GMR - YouTube
Looking back- took the corner way to hot for a new tire, veryyyy stupid decision by me but the past is the past and now just trying to get back to riding like that but fear of crashing is still getting the best of me...for now at least
You can scrub a tire in about two laps on the track. At GMR, ridden it many time BTW, about 10 miles and your tires are "in."
RooKie
New Member
That's BS... but at least you're alright. I may invest on a go-pro to catch stuff like this on vid if it ever happens. Don't think they can deny liability with vid footage... but then again, with the way I ride, I would more than likely just incriminate myself...
Throttle was closed. Now that after 3000 miles on that tire i know now what they feel like warmed up and sticking and they definatly werent sticking like they do now.
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Gotta toss my opinion into this morass. Two types of riders: Those who will go down and those who haven't... Really? Seriously? Is that like saying those who will get hit by lightning, and those who won't?
No. It's not. It's a question of statistics and time. It's a pretty safe bet that if you've ridden horses for years, you have either been thrown, or you will. Most likely you already have been.
One can not say, positively, that if you ride you will go down. But the law of averages pretty much demands it. There are people who have done dangerous things for many, many years, and not had a single mishap. They are not average.
For the rest of us, it's going to happen. For the rest of us there are indeed two types of riders. One might believe themselves to be in the fortunate few. If I only took my bike out once in a blue moon? The law of averages would favor me. If I had a bike and only rode it on a rare occasion? Sure, every little possibility of a mishap becomes diminished since I'm seldom pushing the probability.
For some one who rides a good bit, I have to agree with PO. It's gonna happen. The odd thing about this kind of probability exercise is that the person who hardly ever rides their bike is less skilled than the person who rides all the time, thereby increasing the chance of going down.
So, if you ride all the time, you've more a chance to meet something that is simply going to lay you down. If you hardly ever ride, you've more a chance to meet something that is going to be beyond your skills and lay you down.
There are indeed many riders who have ridden for years, with nary a mishap. In this wonderful, internet connected world, they might seem legion. But they are not. One has to realize that they are but a tiny percentage of the total. I have personally known a LOT of riders over the years. I have never known one who could say he/she has never gone down. But they could likely all cite someone on the internet who hasn't.
No. It's not. It's a question of statistics and time. It's a pretty safe bet that if you've ridden horses for years, you have either been thrown, or you will. Most likely you already have been.
One can not say, positively, that if you ride you will go down. But the law of averages pretty much demands it. There are people who have done dangerous things for many, many years, and not had a single mishap. They are not average.
For the rest of us, it's going to happen. For the rest of us there are indeed two types of riders. One might believe themselves to be in the fortunate few. If I only took my bike out once in a blue moon? The law of averages would favor me. If I had a bike and only rode it on a rare occasion? Sure, every little possibility of a mishap becomes diminished since I'm seldom pushing the probability.
For some one who rides a good bit, I have to agree with PO. It's gonna happen. The odd thing about this kind of probability exercise is that the person who hardly ever rides their bike is less skilled than the person who rides all the time, thereby increasing the chance of going down.
So, if you ride all the time, you've more a chance to meet something that is simply going to lay you down. If you hardly ever ride, you've more a chance to meet something that is going to be beyond your skills and lay you down.
There are indeed many riders who have ridden for years, with nary a mishap. In this wonderful, internet connected world, they might seem legion. But they are not. One has to realize that they are but a tiny percentage of the total. I have personally known a LOT of riders over the years. I have never known one who could say he/she has never gone down. But they could likely all cite someone on the internet who hasn't.
Two years ago riding along a county road and oncoming guy turns in front of me (slowly as he explained it to the cop), unfortunately he started his turn when it was too late for me to do anything but lock it up and hope the landing is ok. Not much I could do other than what I have done since and that is replace my front light out for something more conspicuous. Long and short of it was I went over the trunk and slid 100-200ft down the pavement, bike tore off the bumper and basically destroyed the back end of his car before sliding about the same distance down the road in the next lane. As it happened the second car on the scene was a cop who just happened to be traveling by. End result: five stitches in my knee, fractured bone in my foot and I tweaked my shoulder. The bike was a write-off though, twisted the steering column about 33 degrees. The amazing thing was I didn't hit my head (helmet didn't have a scratch and the gear saved me as was none the worse for wear. I wonder if I had armoured pants on if I could have avoided the stitches.
Was I lucky? Hell yeah but two days later I knew I was getting a new bike and even though I had a walking boot on my foot I picked up my KLR 2 weeks later.
Was I lucky? Hell yeah but two days later I knew I was getting a new bike and even though I had a walking boot on my foot I picked up my KLR 2 weeks later.
DiabloValleyFZ6R
New Member
what counts as going down? been riding skateboards, bmx, inlind skating, snowboarding and tons of other adrenaline shit.. ive crashed. hard. i know what the pavement feels like.
however ive never been down on a motorcycle and i never will.
for all you that say your gonna, you will because you dont keep the right state of mind
however ive never been down on a motorcycle and i never will.
for all you that say your gonna, you will because you dont keep the right state of mind
Well even if you keep the right state of mind, God forbid one day another human being out of your control. most liekly a cage-er will do somehting thay may bring you down with no reaction time Ect. you never know.
RooKie
New Member
That's good. I hope you're wearing gear.
You are so cool! And you got it so right! Skateboards and skates are so much like riding a motorcycle. Amazing.
So all the motorcyclists who go down - it's because they thought they would? Damn, all these years I thought my worse downs were because of cagers doing stupid things, and/or mistakes I'd made while riding. What an idiot I must be!
From now on, I shall utilize your philosophy and that shall be my mantra. It's all in my state of mind and has nothing at all to do with the environment about me. Awesome! Thanks!
Just asking: Is your donor card updated?
I sense that might have been sarcastic...
Haha. "Might have been?" Darn, I need to work on my writing skills. I thought it was positively dripping with sarcasm.
Y
Y2too1KK
thank you for sharing!!!