Hey Friends,
This will be quite a long post, and I hope it will be useful for some. Maybe to learn something from my mistake perhaps? Let's begin!
Took my bike for a first service yesterday. Got it done early morning, and then went around town a little bit. I was sitting in Panera eating a blueberry bagel, when the father at the table next to me started talking about his foray into motorcycling as a young man. He was telling son about experiences he had on his bike. I wasn't sure if he was very truthful though, or rode very long because he said he had a "ninja," followed by making chopper type sounds to represent what it sounded like. He proceeded on to saying about how his wrists and forearms would ache pretty badly so he gave up riding (poor posture? maybe just repeating what he heard somewhere else?). He then started on the whole "motorcycles are dangerous" speech, and "I was confident in my own abilities, but not the cars around me, so much that I gave up riding." The very last bit I can kind of agree with, but not giving up, just needing to be extra careful. Oh well, I finished my bagel and rode home.
After taking a little break at home, I decided it was too nice to stay indoors, and left to hit Waggoner's Gap road, a twisty road over one of the "mountains" here in Central Pennsylvania (the banner image on this site was shot from that road!). It started off well...on the uphill section I hit the first tight sweeper with good throttle control. I got my entry speed, looked up and around the bend, flicked the bike over to the right, and then rolled on the throttle. Perfect! Then I hit the next corner, an uphill hairpin to the left. Slowed, looked, leaned, and throttled up..no issues there. I went around the blind sweeper at the crest of the hill, and then proceeded to the downhill section, where I soon ran into an issue.
I was coming down the hill at about 55 MPH (45 MPH speed limit), and began to see signs for the downhill left hairpin. I took this a few times before on my 250R, and while not really an issue then, was still a little nerve racking. I started slowing down, but overestimated my proper entry speed. I was still going about 25-30mph for the 15mph curve. Sure, a more confident rider would have no problem going 30, but I am not quite there yet, not on a downhill curve anyways!!
In the next second, I had a few survival reactions, SR's, as termed by Keith Code (watch Twist of the Wrist 2). I will break them down so you can get a feel for what was going through my head at the time.
Coming down the hill I was starting to lean the bike over when I realized I was going too fast for my comfort level. I had SR #4, visual panic, when the combination of speed and road surface kicked in. I saw that my speed was a bit too much, and there was gravel on the side of the road. Instead of focusing on the turn, and looking down the hill, I let my attention to elsewhere and this kicked off the massive error.
Then there was SR #5, target lock. I noticed heavy gravel on the side of the road, not even on the actual road surface, and it freaked me out. All I could do was pay attention to the gravel. I lost sight of what I should have been doing, and in the second I had to initiate my turn, I lost the opportunity.
This caused the resultant SR #1, chopping the throttle, and SR #6, steering towards my attention. When I noticed I wasn't going to make it, instead of renewed commitment to the turn, I let off the throttle, stood the bike up, and steered straight off the road. Had I been going faster, this could have resulted in great injury, or possibly death (the side of the road dropped down a cliff).
Finally came SR#7, frozen on the bars, and SR #8, jumping on the brakes. I didn't commit to the turn, and "froze" on the bars. I decided quickly to bring the bike up, and squeezed on the brakes. I scrubbed off enough speed on the road surface so when I entered the gravel, I was going just a few MPH. I managed to remember to go easier on the front brake when I felt it diving downwards into the rocky surface, and apply more rear brake. I stopped a few feet into the zone, and managed to keep the bike upright. I was about 10-15 feet away from the guardrail (and the cliff beyond it). I got off the bike and cleared my head, thought about what I did wrong, and also noticed that the guardrail had been hit before, possibly by a car as it was pretty beat up and had red paint all over it.
There are two other SR's that I didn't mention here. SR #2, counterleaning against bike, and SR #3 tightening grip on bars. I didn't counterlean, rather just stopped leaning in, and as I was gripping hard with my knees, I did manage to stay loose on the bars. At least I didn't check off all the SR boxes on the list!
When I had calmed my nerves, I then had to figure out how to get the bike out of the gravel (which was lower than the road surface). I could not push the bike backwards as it was too heavy for me, so then I tried to push it forwards. I couldn't get the bike up to the lip of the road going forwards either, so finally I turned the bike on and carefully applied a little throttle to move it along. This was while I was walking beside it, praying that I didn't send it flying down the road without an operator. It took me 10 long minutes to get my bike out of the gravel and back onto the road, but the whole time I was very much relieved that I did not destroy my beloved new bike, and more so, that I didn't die!
Back on the road, I tried my best not to focus on the mistake I just made and instead focus on the present time. I wanted to beat myself up, and had to constantly tell myself to stop focusing on the mistake, because that could cause another mishap. All was well until later, I was entering a little town and a pickup driver was creeping out making a left turn. At first I thought he was trying to creep out and finish his turn after I passed, but then I had to swerve around him when he was halfway into my lane, right next to me!! I have a feeling he didn't even see me at all. Oh man, I did not need this as well, my brain was already on the verge of exploding from trying to process everything. In retrospect, as soon as I saw him creeping out, I should have slowed even more than I did.
After this, I headed straight home, which still was some 30-40 miles away. I was thoroughly disappointed in myself and still am today. I need to find a parking lot to practice my turning skills, big time. It's supposed to snow tonight into tomorrow, so I have the bike covered up. Maybe this weekend, I'll find somewhere to practice. Have you guys had any mistakes like this? Did you recover in time, or did you crash? If so, have you figured out how to improve? Feel free to comment!
- Pandabear
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