I've been a member here for a while and been meaning to post something, but unfortunately it's in a post like this.

I was riding home today from work, following a guy doing MAYBE 25 mph when all of a sudden he slams on his brakes and stops for a guy who hasn't even stepped into a crosswalk yet. First reaction I have - hit my brakes hard. Locked them both up, left a mark on the ground about 10 feet or so and then had to lay the bike down to make sure I didn't hit the back end of his van. Luckily, I was down to a slow enough speed that I managed to get my foot on the ground and not land with the bike.
I managed to get right up, no wounds on me (Thank God), but the poor bike took some scratches and the end of my brake lever broke off. All the guy did was open his door, yell to me if I was okay; once he saw me walking around my bike he drove off. Some nice woman on the side of the road helped me get my bike off the road and helped me relax a little from it at least.
Made the rest of the ride home okay, doing about 5 under the speed limit the whole time - I didn't mind :p

Now to bring the bike to a shop to have it looked at tomorrow to make sure I didn't damage anything else...

scary....it's a good thing you weren't going fast, and were not hurt, and that you were able to ride home....thankfully the only close call i had, was the first day i started learning...didn't really know how to turn...all that i am seeing is this car parked on the side of the road, and how i don't know how i am going to turn into such a tight space (left hand turn)...of course fixating on the car, i start heading for it, i panicked and straightened up, deciding that the sidewalk would be better than the car, if i'm going to hit something...in my panicked state, i grabbed too much throttle, hopped the curb and almost hit a heavy metal gate....thankfully as i grabbed the brake, i happened to let go of the clutch and stalled right before i hit......i was so shook up, and just immediately started cracking up, more of a nervous laugh, and looked around to make sure no one saw...after i gathered my nerves, i started the bike, and was riding down the sidewalk, trying to find a way off...this is where my boyfriend finds me...he had turned around to see what happened to me...my first thought was that he must be wondering what the hell i'm doing on the sidewalk...which made me start laughing so hard, my nerves were telling me that i didn't even want to try and ride this thing home, but figured if didn't get back on now...i may not get back on at all....at least i learned about target fixation early :lol: :lol:

Glad your okay - sorry about the damage to the bike. Unfortunately, it is part of the game - anytime you walk away, you win.

what the heck is going on recently, i'm hearing more and more bike accidents! Every morning on my way to work (in my car) i listen to the radio and seems to me there is a motorcyclist incident somewhere. is it because its summer and there are more bikers out?

i'm glad you're ok.

Glad you walked away nearly unscathed. Its kinda crazy the amount of things we as bikers have to predict and observe just to keep ourselves safe, cause some people just aren't thinking sometimes.

I'm glad you're okay. Fix the bike up and try to learn from the situation.

Crashing is no fun. The only thing that is less fun is having no bike at all.

what the heck is going on recently, i'm hearing more and more bike accidents! Every morning on my way to work (in my car) i listen to the radio and seems to me there is a motorcyclist incident somewhere. is it because its summer and there are more bikers out?

i'm glad you're ok.

Short term trend is yeah, this is peak riding season so more riders out there. Long term trend is more people getting on bikes for the first time, spurred apparently by the spike in gas prices a few years back. So, more riders, and a far higher percentage of them are of the newly minted variety that's more likely to crash.

Some of the news stories may be driven by the high profile crashes like Phoenix, as well as the Motorcycle Awareness rallies a couple months back.