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

[BartmanS4rs]

Hello my name is Scott and I'm a cycleholic.

Brief summary of the event: A number of years back I was riding on a straight piece of nondescript road in Denver. I was just starting to accelerate and over take a slower car when I looked in my rearview and saw an ambulance RIGHT behind me lights-a-flashin'. I was so surprised that I immediately moved over into the right hand lane. Well the car that I was overtaking was now stopped  and I was all but on top of it. I went for the escape route to the right which was a vertical curb and a dirt trail running perpendicular to the road. I hit the curb at a 45 degree angle, eased myself onto the trail and using a lot more rear brake than I normally would came to a not really that safe stop.

What I did wrong(First; because that's why it happened in the first place):
Did not have situational awareness.
Let surprise turn into a very bad mistake.

What I did right:
Once I made the mistake I was decisive. I decided I did not have enough braking distance and instead of trying to shoot a gap between the car and the curb I took the curb on full force. I allowed the bike the mount the curb before trying to change my path. I didn't lock up the front tire in the dirt.

How could it have been avoided:
What I should have done and to this day I am still kicking myself for is blip the throttle get and in front of the slowing car and then pull over. Easy as that. I let something surprise me that should never have and when it did I did the wrong thing. The good thing is I came out unscathed and smarter for the experience.

[redxblack]

Cold tires, cold pavement, cold air.

Today I went for a short ride to the BMV to renew my plates. I geared up, charged the battery and rode down the parking lot to the road. Light traffic. I had an open stretch and gave it some throttle. The hard rubber failed to grip and the wheel spun the bike sideways under me. It was a lowside coming fast. I let off the throttle and pinched the bars out of the slide, then gave it some throttle. I saved it. The bike popped back up, I popped out of the seat and landed with my nuts on the tank. Other than my testicles feeling like they were in my throat, it was a nice save.

It was a bush league mistake, but the save made me happy.

[DucofWestwood]

yesterday on the commute home, ended up riding next to a guy on a harley.  stopped at a red light at a particularly tricky intersection in west hollywood - santa monica and la cienega.  the issues are (a) it's a big wide-open intersection that takes a long time to cross, and (b) my light turns green very quickly after the perpendicular light turns red, which means it's high risk from the standpoint of people running reds.

i was at the light with the harley guy to my right.  light turns green.  i do my visual head check in both directions to see if anyone is running the red.  sure enough, some yokel comes drifting thru the intersection from our left, oblivious to anyone but himself.  i never use my horn, b/c i hate how wimpy it sounds (yes i know i could upgrade to one of those truck horns).  i always use my throttle as a horn.  so i blipped the throttle pretty hard to get the attention of the people behind me (so they don't rear-end me) and the biker next to me.  harley guy didn't do the visual check.  he just started to go once the light turned green.  at the last second he caught the noise from my throttle, looked left, and stopped, about a tenth of a second before the guy running the red light would have jack-knifed him. 

at the next stop light the harley guy thanked me profusely for "saving his ass". 

lesson: always do that visual check before crossing an intersection.

[Heath]

Brief summary of the event
I was lane splitting on the freeway in rush hour.  Going between the carpool lane and the regular lanes. Everything was normal and cool until a Honda civic decided to ride the line so I could not get past.  A spot opened up in the lane next to him.  I switched lanes to get past him and look at the driver.  Next thing I know the lane I am in stops.  I grabbed brakes, forgot to grab clutch.  Rear end started hopping, grabbed clutch, down shifted, rear locked up, rear started to slide out, eased off the rear brake, got my speed down and bike under control.  I had it under control and could stop in the lane but decided to get the hell out of there.  Enough of a gap opened up and I kept lane splitting.  I wasn't sure if the person behind me was paying attention. I didn't want to find out if they weren't.

What you did right
Calmed myself down in the moment.  At first I was like oh shit oh shit.  Then I remember thinking YOU CAN RIDE.  That is when I got the bike under control, looked for an out and kept going.  Just put it past me and got focused again.

What you did wrong
I have a bad habit of looking at the person that won't let me lane split.  A bad idea that I really need to break.  Since I did that I didn't notice the lane I was in stopping.

How could it have been avoided
Kicking his door in...   kidding kidding.  I should of just switched lanes, sped up to get past him before the lane I was in had a chance to stop.  I still don't get why he was riding the line so hard.

[CDawg]

...rear locked up, rear started to slide out, eased off the rear brake, got my speed down and bike under control...

Lucky that you didn't high side when the rear wheel hooked up again!  You typically don't want to release the rear brake if the rear is locked-up....the bike could kick like a mule.

[Destructobot]

Brief summary of the event:

I came into a corner too hot and had to stand it up and cross the far lane.  It was an uphill blind turn to the right (I know, I'm dumb).  It may have even been a tad off camber.  I started leaning in and realized I was about 5-10mph too fast.  I might have been able to stay with it but I didn't trust the road to hold me.  I stood it up and got on the brakes hard.  I came to a stop on the far shoulder just before a 4' deep ditch.  If a car would have been coming the other direction, I would have been toast.  Scary, and lucky.

What you did right:

Didn't lay it down, looked ahead enough to notice the ditch and angle myself enough parallel to it to not fall in.


What you did wrong:

Pushed too hard in a non-track situation, didn't trust my bike to hold the turn.  Add didn't replace my tires soon enough to that, as it contributed to my lack of faith in the bike.


How could it have been avoided:

SLOW DOWN!  Save the heavy throttle for on camber turns with good visibility.

[Zulu]

 I almost went underneath a 18 wheeler. I'm going to try to potrait the scenario to the the best I can remeber , would appreciate some input .

Three lane road I was on far left , two  semi on far right. Speed was around 40 mph. There was some other cars in center lane .. Space opens up on center lane ,one of the truck changes lane and gets into center lane. As he picks up his speed and creates some space, I decided to change lane and go to center lane, than saw the other semi from far right signallin to get in to center lane from right lane. I let him in and followed him to center lane.

What happened next was real quick . As the truck was right infront of me . I couldn't see the traffic light or anything. As the big white truck hit is brakes. I hit both the brakes, most likely a little harder on the rear brakes. I pulled in the clutch and lowered the gear ( If I felt I was definately gonna hit the truck, I was gonna let go of the clutch and hope engine braking would slow me down. not sure if that is the right thing to do ) . Good thing I was on the left edge of the lane, coz I noticed a little space between the car on the left lane and the truck in center lane( which i was right behind). I swerved in between them and came to complete stop two car ahead in between the semi and car.

While was trying to get inside the gap , I heard my rear tire go screeeeeeeeetcccchhh. and felt the rear tire dancing on its own , I let go of both breaks for a second and pulled them gently to come to complete stop. Cant remeber exactly but i might have gone in between the truck and car little sideways like some kind of stunt.


Things I did right : didnt have target fixation altho All my view was block by rear of white truck , and saw the little gap and got in it.

things I did wrong: Please add in , so i know better next time. I was definately following too close, especially knowing I couldnt see much while i am behind a semi.

My question , did the rear tire went dancing and screaming coz i hit the rear braketoo hard?. Also could it have been that since i pulled the clutch it aided on rear tire going all over the place?

[CDawg]

My question , did the rear tire went dancing and screaming coz i hit the rear braketoo hard?. Also could it have been that since i pulled the clutch it aided on rear tire going all over the place?

I'll let more knowledgeable people answer the should emergency braking be done with clutch in or out.
However, since your rear wheel was locked, then you applied too much rear brake.  You were lucky than you didn't high-side when you locked the rears and then released the rear brake.  I did that once and the bike flung me like a horse as the rear wheel regained traction.

In general, once you locked the rear wheel up, continue to keep it locked until you stop.  Same does NOT apply to the front wheel.

Glad you are okay!

[talljoker]

Second day out riding on the streets

Experience - 4 weeks of riding

Afternoon, light traffic two lanes each direction.

Culprit - Woman in a minivan on the phone

I was traveling around town getting used to my bike. It was a light saturday morning riding with my girl as she was on her cbr and was behind me, to be overwatch. We are going down a fairly calm road and I was in the right hand lane and there was a minivan that we were coming up to. I had all my PPE on and everything was checked out, gotta to love the BRC.

As I was coming up, I was checking all my outs. No traffic/signals ahead, curb to the right, minivan to the left and a turn into a subdivision to the right. Was riding along in 3rd gear at 45...then I saw it.

The minivan did the not look and oops let me cut across to get to the turn without signalling. I saw it happen and time slowed down I was watching her passenger door come towards me. I shifted down, swerved, and gunned it to get ahead, since it was my exit path. I did the look back and shake the head b/c she didn't even notice me...cagers...

What I did right - Knew my exit path, saw the threats, and the actions that I would have to take. Expected the minivan to do something stupid because it was a minivan.

What I did wrong - Given the fact I was not in the blind zone and I could looked over at her idk on this. Could have minimized my time next to her but I was in the middle of passing her.

I think I have to thank my instructor for saying tto remember everything and plan for hte worst and know your way out.

[EvilSteve]

My question , did the rear tire went dancing and screaming coz i hit the rear braketoo hard?. Also could it have been that since i pulled the clutch it aided on rear tire going all over the place?

Depending on which bike you have, you could experience the same behavior from over application of the brake or changing down too quickly/roughly. With an APTC clutch which many more recent Ducatis have, the chance that the rear would lock up is lower but still there. The net result is the same, the rear tire rotates slower than bike speed and locks up.

As to whether you should just pull the clutch or not, that really depends on what's going on but you'll generally want to be in a position to move once you come to a stop. If you just pull the clutch, you could find yourself in a higher gear needing to get yourself away from some other vehicle. The ideal is to slow the bike with the brakes and keep the gears in sync with your speed so that you have the best chance to get away from whatever comes next and have the most control possible. If you're downshifting at the same time, it might not be so bad but you have to watch your revs. If you drop the clutch in 1st when you're still doing 30mph, you may end up locking the rear up anyway. As CDawg said, if you lock your rear in future, don't let off the brake. If you lock your front (and you have a chance to, you probably won't) you can let the pressure off a little but I wouldn't just let go completely.

From your description, it sounds as though the basic problem was not looking far enough ahead and then not allowing yourself enough space to stop safely in the event of something happening (that you'd have seen if you were looking further ahead). You should also remember that trucks tend to do similar things and in fact, depending on the road, you may have seen that behavior if you'd been more aware of your surroundings and who was on the road and what they were doing. Scanning ahead is super important on a bike, your ability to watch for impending danger and potential danger as well is up there in terms of riding skills that you need to apply on any ride. For me, that means scanning at far, mid and close range, as well as behind me. Not only for people doing something directly threatening, but also people on their phones, driving inattentively, swerving, aggressive driving, goofing off with someone else, etc. etc. You're looking for stuff that doesn't fit into the picture.

I am by no means saying that I or anyone else couldn't make this mistake (I once rode through a red light in NYC because I wasn't paying attention and almost hit the side of a cab) and it seemed like you picked a viable out and executed well which is great but scanning is something that should be a top priority any time you get on your bike.

[stickbow]

Since I had three today I figure I should post up and see if I can get some opinions.

First, this morning riding down a backroad right by my place doing about 65 deer leaps from the left and crosses in front of me. I grabbed the front brake hard (no back brake, apparently the forced week off the bike has weakened my emergency braking response), which led to my first stoppie. I think maybe I grabbed brake more than squeezed, but I didnt lock the front and the deer was damn close even with braking...

Second was on a quick joyride just now at lunch, had a tight righthanded turn, at maybe 40. Leaned over, then kept leaning to keep in my lane and trusted the road/tires. Only issue is it took me a little too long to get straightened up and i ended up headed toward the right shoulder more than I should have. I think think maybe I let the throttle off some (didnt chop) which decreased my turning radius, instead of getting on it and straightening the bike back up.


Third was pulling into the parking lot, I was turning around a parked car and a minivan was coming the other way (not really enough room for two full lanes). We both hit the brakes and I locked the rear. Just a reminder to slow the hell down as our packed parking lot is obviously for parking not showing off my clutch feathering/rear braking.

Any non-obvious advice would be appreciated, helps to be able to put this up here and be honest, hard to talk to non-riders like family and explain this stuff without scaring the hell out of them. Thanks

[Slide Panda]

Sounds like you've pretty well analyzed it on your own.

One comment might be to take it easy on that road and ones like it early in the mornings and towards dusk that when you'll probably get the most deer floating around the edge of the road.

[CDawg]

Stickbow:  Glad they were all close calls and no actual damage.  However, 3 in one day is a lot.  Mind if I ask how many miles of moto-riding you have under you?

[Desmostro]

I hit a deer.    Which sucked. Not recommended.

Hwy 1 south of the Racetrack. (Sonoma County California, on the coast. )
Tight right-left hilly twisties with dense flora, out popped the fauna.
The deer darted to the center line from the left at full gallop.
I stood my 848 upright and hit the breaks hard. I had a computer and books in my backpack that was weighing in around 40 pounds. It took everything I had to keep my chin off my tank.

The deer stopped juked, then dove with all of its potential right for my front wheel. (small California deer)

Visions of YouTube cyclists hitting a small wild bore and tumbling into the trees raced through my thoughts. I remember his front wheel buckled to lock left and he went over his handlebars.

I let go of the breaks and locked my arms elbows bent to keep the front wheel straight.
What I would do on a mountain bike if i had to take a hit.
Head down, butt back, weight off the front.

Flight attendants take your positions, BRACE ! BRACE !

THUMP! I hit it squarely and felt the shock ripple through my arms.
It spun around behind me and some of it went under - I kept going minus about 10MPH.
After the shock and wobble I got back into a lean to complete the curve got around the next one as well.

A quick look back saw cars coming in both directions. There was nothing I could do for the deer.  I pulled over in PR Stn. and got my adrenaline down. Examining the bike it looks like the tires took the entire blow.
 No damage at all, though I can't say the same for that deer. Bummer.

What I did right:
1. Full leathers - backpack very secure, tightened up no sloshing around.
2. Kept my head and got head down low in case deer was going over the top
3. Got bike upright - then hit the brakes
4. Did NOT swerve - Time tested - You CANNOT out maneuver animals. They will get you off the road or into traffic.
5. Let go of brakes before impact - Locked wheel with object under it means you are very likely going skidding down.
6. Pushed handlebars OUT evenly with palms, not down, to keep front wheel straight through impact. Weight as far back as possible. Hands slightly open. This allows harsh vibrations without ripping bars out of your hands, at the same time, not allowing the bars to turn significantly.
7. Was not chewing gum. That would have been one too many things ha ha ha. & I would have swallowed it.
8. Kept moving until safe to stop, then stopped and checked bike diligently. Got adrenalin down.
9. Changed shorts.

Then  

 

[chipripper]

Just a minute ago. First really perfect riding day in a while so I geared up and went out to the garage to start  my warm  up procedure. The bike had been sitting for a few weeks so I checked it over completely. Saddled up and went for a slow cruise around the neighborhood to warm up the bike. Once it got up to temp I headed for the freeway on-ramp. As I leaned over into the right and accelerated out of the turn I heard a tick tick tick coming from the rear of the bike. Just as I thought to stop and check it it stopped. Gravel? nope.. an nail had sunk in and blown back out. I slowed out of my acceleration just as the rear wheel blew out. I pulled over safely and made up some new curse words before pushing my bike back to the house.

Not sure if I did any thing wrong. I inspected the tires well before riding off and there was no nail. What I did right? I was aware of my bike and noticed a new sound which was barely audible over the clutch / exhaust. I rolled off of the throttle slowly and was already pulling over when the tire blew. If I had been less aware it could have been a high speed blowout?

So the moral is to stay aware and use all of your senses to stay alive. Now I need to go replace a brand new tire