This is a great question because I think that all too often people crash and just sort of blow it off as something that just "happens." I've had so many conversations with people where they say, "ya, I crashed, no buggy." but when I ask them what happened or what they did wrong they have NO IDEA.
I think it's important to take a good look at each crash, or even almost crash and figure out what you as the rider did to contribute to it happening and then figure out what you can do differently so that it doesn't happen again.
I remember high siding a few times in my early days of racing and not having a CLUE as to why I crashed. It wasn't until I took CSS as a student that I learned that I was chopping the throttle when the rear end was sliding and that was the cause of me going airborne all the time. After riding the slide bike and learning more about how to control rear end slides I was able to prevent them from happening again (most of the time).
I clearly remember the first time I was able to save myself from a high side because of the fact that I knew what to do if the rear end slid. I was at Laguna Seca in my early days of coaching with CSS and I was chasing a really fast student. He had been riding for about 10 mins and his tires were warm where as I had just pulled onto the track, bone cold tires, and took off trying to catch him. on the exit of turn 5 I gave it a bit too much gas and the rear went completely sideways and I remember saying to myself, "don't chop the gas, don't chop the gas!!" and I rolled held it steady and slightly rolled off until the slide subsided and I kept going. I was so excited that I had just SAVED myself from a nasty crash because of my fairly new understanding of what a high side actually was :dance cool:
Anyone else have any stories about utilizing a skill (learned from a previous crash) to prevent another one
Cheers,
Misti