"I Saved It!" Analysis - Learning from our successes

[darwin]

This was a while ago, it had me scratching my head when it happened:

Brief summary of the event: My morning commute to work, riding down Lake Shore Drive with very little traffic (I was really late to work.) LSD is pretty terrible road to be riding on, lots of bumps, potholes, etc... There was a vehicle in the left lane most passing lane which wasn't moving so I decided to overtake it on the right. This was into a slight right bank, and over a slight hump in the road due it being a bridge. I accelerated, moved to the right lane, pass the car, then moved back into the left lane. As I did this, I hit a slight bump in the road like I do every day, except this time, the bike went into a full on tank-slapper, right in front of the car I just passed.

What I did wrong: I accelerated hard while in a slight turn which reduced traction on my front tire by virtue of the shifting weight to the rear (no wheelie or anything.) I hit a slight bump in the road which caused the front wheel turn at an extreme angle due to there being very little resistance on the front. As the full force of the bike came down on the now turned front wheel, it caused the bike to try to compensate by flinging the wheel over in the opposite direction. This lead to a full on tank-slapper that was starting to get out of control causing the rear to start drifting as well. All with the only other car on the road right behind me.

What I did right: I don't know why, but my instinct was to grab on tight and just stay on the throttle and ride it out. The bike corrected itself after a few seconds. This is most likely what saved me, had I used my front bake in a panic, I would have gone down immediately. After further research, I have read that actually getting on the gas hard again to get the weight off the front tire would get out of this situation since it gives you a chance to re-align without the bike shaking wildly under you.

How could it have been avoided: By not accelerating hard, into a slight bank, on an unsafe stretch of road, and then hitting a bump. I don't overtake vehicles if I can't see where I will be afterwards anymore.

[Dirty Duc]

No shit, there I was:  My father (on his monster) was leading me out of the gas station to continue along HWY 550... it turns out somebody decided to install a median....

I watched as he pulled out, and took the sidewalk to a normal intersection... well, the 5-0 saw me riding down the sidewalk (2-up) and pulled around to hassle me.  I kicked my sister off and doffed my helmet before he got turned around.  I had a reasonable story, and he bought it with a verbal warning.

Look slow, ride fast.

same ride... gravel has been in the center of the road (each lane)... keep it cool.  tires only slip so much, and dedicated tires slip more when you don't want them too...

[Skybarney]

This story is 20 years old but a good one.

Friend and I were riding for four days in California. Soft luggage on both bikes (CBR600f2)  We were up on Highway 9 in the Santa Cruz mountains with me in the lead.  I was not real familiar with the road but was only riding 75mph or so when I setup a pass on two cars.  Just as I downshifted and was about to move the giant Bronco two vehicles in front signaled a left turn. 
  It was then I saw a bush covered driveway and realized that passing at that moment might be a poor choice so I grabbed a bit of break dropped back in behind the cars when all of a sudden I get hit from the rear hard and find my bags flying over my head, my bike is flying through the air a little sideways.  I relaxed as best I could due to the tank slapper on landing and somehow got the bike stopped on the shoulder.

My buddy nearly got himself (and me killed) He saw me setting up for the pass and ramped up to 75mph anticipating that he would be right behind me as I passed,  When I dropped out he hit my left rear; blowing my bags and my entire left side plastics off the bike.  His right side plastics were gone.  It made such a tremendous noise that the driver of the Bronco slammed his breaks right as my buddy went by his front bumper still doing 70mph.  Had it not been for that huge noise and the stellar reactions of the Bronco driver my buddy would have broadsided the Bronco completely out of control.

Lessons learned?  Pick your riding buddies carefully, make no assumptions and ride in your own head.  To this day I am not sure if it was my skills that saved the bike or it it was so sudden, that I did nothing and the bike saved itself. 

[JPlip]

Reading through some of these, I thought I would share my two close calls.  Both of these happened years ago, but still taught me lessons that are burned into my brain.

Incident #1- I was a relatively new rider, with about 3 years under my belt, riding a Kawi 600 on my way to classes.  I was running late, as usual. It was a suburban residential road I had traveled hundreds of times, so I was quite familiar with it.  Approaching an intersection, the light turned yellow and I made the decision to go for it.  A car was waiting to cross the intersection from my right, on the cross street.  I was going about 5 mph above the limit when I hit the throttle.  I had more than enough time to clear the intersection, but I glanced over and saw the front wheels on the car start to move.  She jumped the light!  As I crossed the intersection, I swerved left, and got on the throttle hard.  The lady in the car came  into the intersection, saw me, and hit her brakes.  My jeans brushed against her front plate as I passed by.  I pulled over to take a deep breath, and proceeded to class.

What I did wrong: I was rushing to class, and made a poor decision.  Increasing my speed through the light.

What I did right: Besides wearing correct gear, I remembered to look at the front wheels of the car and not at the car itself.  It gave me that split second to be able to start swerving left.

What I learned:  I ALWAYS look at the front wheels of any vehicles preparing to enter a roadway.  Its much easier to see the slightest movement there than the car in general.  I don't remember who taught me that, but it really works!


Incident #2- Fast forward 5 years, and I'm on a modified ZX-9R (160 or so wheel hp).  This one is pretty simple.  I was out with friends having a few drinks.  One of my friends and I decide to go up to his house to meet a few girls (always makes the judgement side of the brain go blahhhh), which is on a very twisty, uphill road.  I felt fine, had a water, and we took off.  Second turn was a decreasing radius uphill left hander, one I was very familiar with.  Outside of the turn is a natural berm with about 3 ft worth of sandy shoulder.  Posted limit was 40 mph, turn warning was 30 mph, and I was doing about 45.  Well, I took the turn too fast and the turn tightening caught me completely off guard.  I tried to correct it, but the rear wheel started to slide out.  I straightened her up and headed for the shoulder at a shallow angle, braking hard and letting off the front as I entered the sand.  The rear wheel locked and slid sideways, but I managed to keep her upright and stop.  My friend was riding just behind me and managed to avoid the whole thing, but he was giving me the "wtf is wrong with you" look. 

What I did wrong:  The obvious-DRINKING before getting on the bike!  Taking the turn too fast for my condition.

What I did right:  Very little, but I did have gear on and I didn't panic when the rear wheel broke loose.  I reverted to my dirtbike days (which I think helps quite a bit when things start moving around) and let off the front brake, using the rear to help shave off speed and keep the bikes direction parallel to the road.

What I learned:  Drinking before getting on a bike is a very bad idea, no matter how you think you feel.  Even a 1/10th of a second reduction in reaction time can have disastrous consequences, as it almost did for me.  I haven't had a drink before getting on a bike since that incident.  In addition, the two girls who showed up looked like Chris Farley and David Spade....

[Barney]

cruising home from hoboken, nj today - down the pulaski skyway, for those who're familiar.  they're doing construction now so the whole things even worse of a mess than it normally is.  coming down the ramp onto 1-9, I was moving about 60 mph in the left lane, a jeep in front of me, and a car at my 3 oclock and one in each lane behind me.  I was cruising, maybe slightly too close to the car in front of me, but by no means tailgating.  I was paying what I thought was sufficient attention to what was happening around me, right hand on the throttle, left on my thigh, when I either hit a pothole or something in the road that made the front wheel shoot into a not so mini tank slapper. it was over faster than it started.

what I did right: the whole thing happened quicker faster than I could really even react to, but I didn't chop the throttle or hit the front brake, and I do remember grabbing the tank with my knees.  before I knew it, i was cruising along again like nothing happened. 

what I did wrong: I've always said that if I ever wind up on the ground or in an accident on this machine, it will have been 100% my fault, regardless of who's technically at fault.  even though I was not being reckless, I was not processing as much of the information available to me as I could have been.  I could've been further back, and paid more attention to the condition of the roadway. it was a scary reminder that things can go wrong on these machines very quickly, but thankfully that's all it was. 

[dukeofbne]

Brief summary of the event:

I was out riding a small inner city mountain road with a mate, we were done for the day and pulled into a car-park to say goodbye. The bike was facing a wooden barrier 10 - 15m in front of me when I started revving the bike hard for shits and giggles and to hear its awesome sound when my fingers slipped off the clutch. The bike launched forward into a wheelie and headed straight for the barrier really fast. I managed to bring the bike down and stop it moving with only about a cm left before the large log barrier which would have for sure destroyed the bike and might have killed me. I did however still hurt myself in the process. When I brought the bike down and kept it balanced, my left foot missed the peg and hit the ground which gripped for a second, i was still stopping the bike at that point, pulling hard on the brakes but the blunt corner of the gear shifter hit the back of my leg just below my calf and ripped a large jagged hole in my skin through my jeans. As it all happened in a flash i didn't notice the pain or weakness in my leg until the bike had stopped but I couldn't get off the bike to look to see what was hurting until I'd put the side stand out. In a crazy Hulk strength moment I managed to use my essentially limp injured leg to extremely painfully kick out the stand. I then fell off the bike and pulled up my jeans only to see all the blood and muscle/fat tissue coming out of my calf. My mate then called an ambulance and 8 stitches later + 2 weeks on crutches life goes on.

So I saved the bike entirely but hurt myself pretty bad.


What you did right:

- Reacted Quickly
- Kept Calm
- Brought the bike down and kept it balanced
- Used proper braking techniques to stop the bike as quickly as possible


What you did wrong:

- Had too loose a grip on the clutch
- Let my feet come off the pegs
- Prioritised the bikes safety over my own, if i'd just jumped off the back of it i would have had a few scratches maybe a bruise


How could it have been avoided:

- Not been a dickhead revving up the bike in the first place
- Put it in neutral before playing around
- I was wearing riding shoes that came up just past the ankle, if they were proper height boots instead I wouldn't have been injured