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

[Speeddog]

It's good to learn from our shining moments as well !
Tell us about when you really thought you were going to bin it, but didn't, or when you *should* have cased it and didn't.

Be honest with 'What you did right', because filling in "I ride better than Rossi." isn't helpful.  ;:|
Same goes for 'What you did wrong' and 'How could it have been avoided', this stuff is important to help people's riding skills.


Here's a format for posting:

Brief summary of the event

What you did right

What you did wrong

How could it have been avoided

[somegirl]

Brief summary of the event:

Early last year, I was riding home from Zeitgeist with someguy and jammen, basically my first time riding at night.  I got on one slow on-ramp, and they took off on the next bit, which was a much faster two-lane ramp merging with another freeway.

I went in the left lane to pass some slow cars so that I wouldn't be left too far behind, and ended up picking up a bit more speed than I expected.  As the two lanes curved to the right, I then looked to the left to see the merging traffic, and started to target fixate on the guardrail.  The thought passed through my head, I'm about to die in the next few seconds.  I somehow managed not to panic, stayed constant on the throttle, finally looked in the correct direction and made the turn (quite close to the rail).

Then, coming out of the turn, I was probably a bit tense and hit a bump of some sort.  I immediately got major headshake (a near-tankslapper) and for the second time in less than 10 seconds, I thought that I was about to die.  I again didn't panic, just stayed even on the throttle, tried to relax my arms, and managed to ride it out.

I was quite shaky after all this and rode like a granny the rest of the way home.  Jammen had continued on ahead, but someguy waited up for me and somehow I managed to find him for the rest of the ride back. (BTW this was the day we first met too.)

What you did right:

- Didn't panic other than the brief thoughts of imminent demise
- Stayed constant on the throttle
- Managed to break out of target fixation

What you did wrong:

- Riding past a comfortable pace, trying to keep up with others (especially in unfamiliar circumstances i.e. riding at night)
- Concentrating on passing more so than the upcoming corner
- Obviously target fixation, and in a very bad place (had I hit the guardrail, I would have gone flipping over, landing probably a couple of stories below on a different freeway)

How could it have been avoided:

- Riding at a more conservative pace that I would have been comfortable with, and not concern myself with keeping up
- Practicing riding at night beforehand on less busy roads, especially looking through turns in the dark
- Since then I have had my suspension adjusted and added a steering damper (set on the minimum setting)

[somegirl]

Brief summary of the event:

I was riding in a Novice school for my second trackday at Thunderhill.    In the afternoon, I went back out after a quick break. Almost immediately after entering the track, an instructor sniped me (motioned me to follow him).  My brain wasn't quite warmed back up yet, and he was going a bit faster than I was mentally ready for, so coming out of turn 6 I lost concentration and found myself trying some dirt riding for the first time.

Fortunately I didn't panic, managed to stay loose and off the brakes, and kept it upright.  I went parallel to the track for quite a ways until I stopped somewhere about 15 feet out from the track between turns 7 and 8.  I thought about trying to ride it back onto the track, but then decided my dirt skills weren't that good and I waited for someone with longer legs to come and give me a hand.

What you did right:

- Didn't brake!
- Kept upright
- Stayed loose
- Didn't try to ride it out of the dirt myself

What you did wrong:

- Tried to ride faster than my brain was ready for and didn't look through a fast turn

How could it have been avoided:

- I should have stayed at a pace that I was comfortable with until I had warmed up a bit

[the_Journeyman]

#1

Brief summary of the event
Ripping down a backroad, flipped into a left-hander didn't see the pile of grit (enough to have falled from a trailer or truck bed) in the middle of the lane.  Squared it leaned in and under moderate throttle.  Front slid wide, not quite enough to fold, it grabbed traction right as the rear hit the stuff.  Once the rear hit, the bike was twisted out of shape and went into a violent tank slapper

What you did right
Stayed loose, didn't grab the brakes, kept my body position steady, kept looking where I wanted the bike to go & attempting to gently & smoothly coax it back in that general direction.

What you did wrong
A little too much speed, assumed the road was clear

How could it have been avoided
Pre-riding an area before making a hot run, paying more attention to anamolies on the road surface.


#2

Brief summary of the event
Riding a backroad with uneven surface, recent repair work, lots of tight turns.  Came hard into a right hander, sun right in my eyes making the road difficult to see.  Hit some fine gravel scattered from the chip-seal repair work done along the edge of the pavement.  Moving fast, hard lean got in the gravel, front and rear slid, moving my entire line and bike wide in the turn.  I *knew* I was going to lowside but saved it

What you did right
Stayed loose, didn't grab the brakes.  This next part is questionable as being "right" as I'm lucky I didn't twist a knee or break a leg.  I regressed back to my dirt bike skills, put my foot down, toes pulled up so my hill would hopefully slide.  It did for a split second, but hit a bump kicking my knee into the tank (got a small dent from the knee hitting the tank) but the force of putting my foot down & the kniee hitting my tank raised me up enough to control the slide and not lowside. 

What you did wrong
A too much speed for the conditions, riding fatigued (last leg of a nearly 300 mile day).

How could it have been avoided
Pre-riding an area before making a hot run, understanding that a freshly worked on road may have debris in the wrong places

JM

[Slide Panda]

Summary of the event
I was 3rd of 4 bikes returning from a larger group ride, via a number of 2 lane, fun roads that are a bit off the beaten path. 

The bikes were strung out in 2 pairs, I was leader of the 2nd pair as we were slower than the 1st pair.

We come to a right with poor visibility due to an over grown berm.  I enter the turn and commit to my lean only to find that there is large section of the tarmac that had turned to pea-gravel in the middle of my line. 

Both wheels hit the gravel and the bike slid a bit towards the outside before regaining traction.  When it regained, it stood up and also picked up a head shake


What you did right
Opened the throttle and settle the shake before trying any other control inputs on the bike
Had read up on my riding theory and knew how to counter the head shake
Was actually cogent enough to apply the above readings.

What you did wrong
A delayed/late apex entry to the turn might well have provided me with a visual warning of the danger or created a line that might have avoided it  - I didn't use that technique
I did have to cross the double yellow as a result... good thing there were no cars for miles.

How could it have been avoided
Using the delayed/late apex method would have given me a greater margin of error by providing a better sight line

[Popeye the Sailor]

Was the second rider in your pair ok?

[Slide Panda]

Yeah - he was enough behind me and on slightly different line so he 99 missed the gravel 

[triangleforge]

Brief summary of the event:
Headed south in the express lanes of I-270 just north of the Washington DC Beltway. It's a whole bunch of lanes through there, with express lanes divided from the local lanes by a jersey barrier. Traffic generally runs 70 mph plus through there, and I was moving probably 75ish. Saw the exit sign for Falls Road and at the last minute remembered a semi-fun section of curves (at least more fun than the interstate) along there I could catch on the way home. I ducked onto the off ramp (from express to local) at the last second and started to merge right. That's when I noticed that the pavement beneath me was grooved & chewed up and that the local lanes to my right had just been resurfaced & were on the other side of a very abrupt 4" edge of the new pavement. Basically, I was riding way fast in a rapidly narrowing angle formed by the jersey barrier & a lip of new pavement. I came to an emergency stop with a couple of feet to spare & traffic blowing past my elbow, eased my way over the curb at the end point (in the gutter), then accelerated that little M600 motor for all it was worth to get up to merging speed when I saw a little gap in traffic.

What you did right:
Didn't attempt to cross the pavement edge, then managed a controlled emergency stop despite pea gravel & chewed up pavement underneath me.

What you did wrong:
Going too fast to be making last-second route changes; was thinking several miles up the road instead of being attentive to the pavement right in front of me.

How could it have been avoided:
Stuck with my original route, or at least had a plan and awareness of what changing it meant. Less speed would have given me more time to deal with the situation.

[EvilSteve]

Brief summary of the event
Riding at a spirited pace on a back road that I thoroughly enjoy and know quite well. A friend was behind me hounding me a bit but it wasn't a problem as I wasn't pushing. Came to a difficult right hander, tree on the inside, rock wall on the outside and achieved an appropriate pace for the corner. Unfortunately, there were rocks pulled from the inside of the corner across the road (when cars cut the corner, drop a tire & bring rocks back on). As I was late apexing I managed to run over an unsighted rock, lose the front briefly & then regain.

What you did right
Full gear
Didn't panic
Wasn't pushing over my head

What you did wrong
Too fast for conditions
Unsighted corner
Inappropriate line for the unsighted fast corner

How could it have been avoided
Slow down for this corner - I've added it to my mental list of *very* suspect corners
Follow wheel tracks through corners when their grip is unknown
Ride faster to beat my friend next time... joke  ;:|

[EvilSteve]

Brief summary of the event
Riding back towards NYC on the Palisades Parkway. I was approaching the park information center that lives between the north & south bound lanes. As I approached I could see that people were slowing down in the fast lane due to traffic entering the park info center. The line had extended to probably 4 or 5 cars. The last car was a Boxter so I was pretty sure he was going to pull out with little or no notice. In order to avoid the possibility I accelerated up the hill and around the corner. As I did so, I crossed some rather nasty uneven road that sent my bike into fairly spirited head shake. It really scared me but I remembered that the idea was to let it happen rather than fight it and that's what I did. The head shake cleared after several seconds and I looked for a place to pull over and take some breaths. Unfortunately, there wasn't anywhere.

What you did right
Full gear
Anticipated potential issues & planned an appropriate course of action
Didn't get splatted
Learned about head shake

What you did wrong
Didn't anticipate the combination of factors
Accelerated too hard

How could it have been avoided
Leave more space for traffic
Smoother acceleration
Be prepared for unsighted problems with road surface... hmmm I see a pattern.

[Labbedds]

Brief Summary of the Event.
Was riding with three other people at a modest clip in the hills around nicasio road.  Speed limit was about 45 and I was around the speed limit except for the straights, but no racing.  Two guys ahead of me one behind.  Two ahead by 10 sec, one behind by about 4.  F350 with a small sailboat slowing traffic.  He puts on his "right" blinker and gets over on the shoulder.  I assume this is to let me and the other rider CharliesAngel by.  I put on left blinker and start to accelerate and then guy does a uturn with his right blinker still on on a two lane road.  I lock up the rear and keep the bike upright, miss the rear of the trailer by a couple feet. 

What I did right:
full gear
not excessively speeding
didn't panic

What I did wrong:
Can't answer that because I really think I was going by the book

How it could have been avoided:
Keep same speed instead of passing?  I don't know because he was off on the shoulder and didn't have a left signal on or any indication he was going to do a f'ing u turn in front of me.  Stay alert and watch the habits of drivers, was he looking for a place to u-turn?  Dunno.

[johnster]

Yikes, did I ever save it yesterday!!!   

Situation:  I was going to explore some twistys down in South Plymouth, MA, that lead through the state forest down to the Cape Cod Canal. There is one road that it REALLY fun with a lot of switchbacks and chicanes, so I decided to ride it in both directions; one on the way down to the Canal and one on the way back...I actually got my knee down a few times!!   

WELL.....On the way back, I was throttling out of a 180 degree left-hander and the rear wheel COMPLETELY broke loose and started to spin....I'm pretty sure I hit sand but I really didn't see any when I went back to look....

What I did right:  -Full Gear, so if I did highside, I hopefully woulda avoided the ol' ambulance trip...

-When I felt the rear wheel start to step out, I flashed back to my dirtbike riding days and managed to maintain my cool enough to stay ON the throttle long enough to bring it back around and hook up....

-STEER INTO the slide....That way, I kept the rear-end from coming around too far and catapulting me to the Moon....

What I did wrong: -Not much, but I think my throttle roll-on was a little too much too early, and that managed to break it loose...

How it could have been avoided:  -Well, I guess I should have known the possibility of sand in the road, and adjusted my throttle roll-on accordingly....I was looking through the turn, but I think I may have been looking TOO FAR through (ie: looking at the horizon rather than the turn exit...)

-All in all, after checking my pants, I was pretty happy w/my ability to stay on the gas and not chop the throttle, which no doubt would have lead to a massive high-side!!!     Dirtbike experience DEFINITELY helped me out on this one....

[scienceiscool]

Brief summary of the event
Leaving my house to go to work, earlyish on a cool wet morning, the first traffic light I hit after turning out of the driveway is a divided highway where I make a right.  I roll into an angled right turn lane (with a yield sign) and check traffic to my left while moving, then stop if there is oncoming traffic or roll on around the turn if it's clear.  On this occasion, there were oncoming cars, but they were far enough away that  I judged I could make the turn in front of them by using a little extra speed.  I opened the throttle a bit more than usual, and the rear wheel broke loose (only briefly, but enough to wake me the hell up).  I rolled back a little on the throttle and went into a head wobble which thankfully resolved itself without dumping me into speeding highway flow.  It was the first time I'd experienced something like that and it made me respect torque a lot more.

What you did right
I assume I did things mostly right because I recovered rather than crashing.  Honesly, it happened so fast I can't remember making specific decisions.  I didn't chop the throttle suddenly but I did roll back gently, and I straightened up immediately on feeling the wheel slip. And wearing gear as always!

What you did wrong
Riding aggressively on cold tires and cold wet pavement.  Now I know to take it easy right out of the driveway.  Also, riding sloppily when not quite awake.  I find it's better to have coffee, then leave for work, rather than leave earlier and spend my first 15 minutes at work drinking coffee.

How could it have been avoided
By, uh, not doing those wrong things?  But I now understand how it feels to lose traction and stability, so it hopefully won't panic me if it happens in a more demanding situation, like mountain riding.

[CDawg]

Brief summary of the event: Riding on the outer most lane of a 3 lane highway when suddenly I realized they were resurfacing my lane.  It because rough concrete with asphalt debris.  The next lane over was ~3 inches higher.  The resurfacing also caused huge bumps at each concrete expansion joint

What you did right: Didn't try to change lanes with a 3 inch differential.  Slowed my pace and stayed on the rough concrete until it was over (~2-3 miles)

What you did wrong: Early in the season and I was paying full attention to the road surface...I was thinking how nice it was to be out riding this early in the season

How could it have been avoided: I should have been focused on riding and scanning the road for trouble.

[johnster]

What you did right: Didn't try to change lanes with a 3 inch differential.  Slowed my pace and stayed on the rough concrete until it was over (~2-3 miles)

I hate running into this  ....happened to me about a month ago....I found that if you absolutely have to change lanes and the concrete is 2 different levels, sorta "swerving" up onto the other lane seems to work well.... That way it's one quick motion, rather than just gradually moving over and risk your front wheel getting pushed....