Three times the charm!!!

[auknight]

Well, with the exception of my intro post, this will be my first official post. And what better way to say hi than tell of my story of dropping my bike...three times...all on the left side.

The first time was within a month of buying my bike. I was practicing slow speed maneuvers with a buddy on the roof of a parking structure. I attempted a slow tight turn around a cone, when I focused on the nearby wall mid turn. I psyched myself out, pulled the clutch in a bit, and lost power. The bike dropped into the left, and as hard as I tried to hold her up, I fell with it. It was a gentle drop. There were some scratches on the tip of the left turn indicator, and the clutch lever. And of course, the shift lever bent in. But other than that, you wouldn't know I dropped it.

This was a pivotal moment for me, cause up till this point, I was fully confident, and eager to learn. This drop, although minor, shattered my confidence with leaning the bike, and slow speed maneuvering. And so I've had to work past that fear since then. I still have problems with U-turns, and end up going wide a lot. But I'll eventually get it.

The second drop was on the side of a highway on my way to work. I witnessed a bad accident involving four young girls in a Jeep Wrangler. I first noticed it flipping along the side of the highway coming around a curve. I stopped to render aid, but stopped fast, and on a left camber, so my left foot was not touching anything as I tried to dismount. I basically helped the bike lean over to the left, and it started to fall over. My mind put priority on helping the girls, so I let the bike drop. I didn't even kill the engine.

This one caused more damage. The left turn signal housing got cracked, shift lever bent in again, and I have a good scratch running along the lower fairing. Later, I found out that the turn indicator arm actually punched through the fairing, making a circular crack that recessed about a quarter inch.

Last but not least, my third drop was pretty recent. After 2 months of zero incidents, zero rookie mistakes. I was stopped at a red light. It was about 108 degrees out. I was trying out my new bohm airtex armor, thinking it would be cooler to wear that under a tshirt vs wearing my mesh jacket. It was actually much hotter, as my skin was in more direct contact with the heat. I traveled only 3 miles down the road, and started overheating as the armor pieces accumulated all the heat against me body. I got a little lightheaded, and my mind stared to wander as I sat there at the light. My right hand came off the bar, then the left hand...while in gear. So the bike lurched forward, died, i lost balance, and fell over...on the left side again. Bent my shift lever again. This time, the tip of my clutch lever broke off. I did this with cars all around me. I wouldn't be surprised if I find myself on youtube.

So those are my dropping stories. Not too bad in the grand scheme, but I learned a bunch from each incident, much more than when everything is going perfect.

[csmith12]

I am not sure the roof is the best place to learn to ride a bike. Just saying.....

[auknight]

Lol, I agree totally...but I didnt pick the location.

[ducducgooseit]

Crash
Willing to get back at it

[Pete22x]

Sorry to hear, glad you're okay. I'm still waiting for my first crash post. Been lucky so far.

[rusninja]

sorry to hear about the drops but hey your a great guy you were ready to sacrifice your bike for people you dont know thats big + you should be proud. :]

[auknight]

Originally Posted by rusninja

sorry to hear about the drops but hey your a great guy you were ready to sacrifice your bike for people you dont know thats big + you should be proud. :]

Thanks, I appreciate that.

[LoD575]

Sorry to hear about the drops. I am glad you stopped and rendered aid, a lot of people these days are wrapped in their own little world and care little about others.

[Gurk]

+1 about being great guy to help others and sacrificing bike.

But be careful man! You seem like me. I lose attention very easily. I actually have to put a strong effort in staying alert and focused. Driving a car made me a bit lazy too. I'm working on constantly keeping my brain alert while riding now. Highway amnesia might be ok in a car but it's deadly on a bike. Thankfully, all of your stories were pretty slow speeds.

I actually have a small exercise routine now. I start my bike up and during the time it takes to warm up, I work on "emptying my head." I think racers do this too. Whatever worries, stresses, thoughts you have, you gotta shut them off. Your job for the next 15 mins, 45 mins, 1 hour (whatever) is to ride a motorcycle. That's who you are. All you care on earth is your motorcycle and the traffic around you.

I believe it helps me focus. Maybe it will help you too!

Keep safe.

[auknight]

Originally Posted by Gurk

+1 about being great guy to help others and sacrificing bike.

But be careful man! You seem like me. I lose attention very easily. I actually have to put a strong effort in staying alert and focused. Driving a car made me a bit lazy too. I'm working on constantly keeping my brain alert while riding now. Highway amnesia might be ok in a car but it's deadly on a bike. Thankfully, all of your stories were pretty slow speeds.

I actually have a small exercise routine now. I start my bike up and during the time it takes to warm up, I work on "emptying my head." I think racers do this too. Whatever worries, stresses, thoughts you have, you gotta shut them off. Your job for the next 15 mins, 45 mins, 1 hour (whatever) is to ride a motorcycle. That's who you are. All you care on earth is your motorcycle and the traffic around you.

I believe it helps me focus. Maybe it will help you too!

Keep safe.

Hey, thanks for compliments and advice. You make very good points, and I am glad to hear someone is taking the effort to stay alert.

However, in assessing myself, I realize my trouble comes not from inattentiveness, but rather inexperience (on a bike). With this inexperience comes a certain level of fear or uneasiness that is ever present, whether conscious or subconscious. Specifically, I have that natural n00b fear of the bike falling over that I have not yet overcome through repeated exercises, and so my confidence level isn't up to par...yet, but way better now than when I first dropped my bike. This natural fear, combined with the fact that I was heading towards a short wall leading to a 5 story drop, and the fact that I was on a brand new, just hit 120 mile bike, with a whopping 1 month experience on a motorcycle (mostly straightaways), made it easy for my mind to become overwhelmed. I made rookie mistakes, a survival action took over. I pulled the clutch, and the bike dropped. I was pretty focused all the way to the ground .

Yeah, I guess you are right in that the second and third incidents can be partially blamed on inattentiveness to controls and during...emergency dismounting? lol. However, I explained the circumstances, and they have nothing to do with my attention to riding in general. They are isolated incidents under specific conditions.

Before my Ninja, I've driven cars exclusively for 11 years now. No accidents, under varying conditions, over multiple states, against different styles. I'm doing something right. It's not cockiness talking, but confidence I've honed over time, and through multiple experiences. I transfer a lot of this experience over to riding motorcycles, vs the other way around that it is for most people lol.

The exercise you are referring to is basically, "Getting in the Zone." This concept is exercised by athletes, professional drivers, and police/military tactical units alike when it's game time. It puts you in the right frame of mind to carry out your task with unhindered focus.

With that said, I combine my driving experience with elements of "Zoning in" into my riding. And so while my skills and confidence with slow speed maneuvering is lacking, my street riding in general is exceptional...but I guess you'll just have to take my word for it cause I know everyone thinks they are an excellent driver on the road lol.

Gurk, if I may make some suggestions to YOU now.

I don't know your driving/riding experience, so I'm only going off of the two paragraphs that I know of you LOL. Basically, focus means nothing by itself. Professional racers don't just focus and win the race. They know the dynamics of racing, how to handle the bike, and so zoning in allows them to react instinctively within the situation until the end even while strategizing for the win.

Zoning in is under the pretense that you have a good foundation in whatever you are doing. In driving/riding, if you are extremely focused, and someone cuts you off, what would you do? How would you respond physically, and mentally? If you simply obsere, decide, and act appropriately, than you are good. If you panic, slam/grab the brakes, or swerve into the guardrail, or simply freeze and do nothing, then all the focus in the world is no good cause you did not know the appropriate action for the situation in the first place.

My point is, there is no need to zone in to the degree of racers and athletes. Driving/riding the relatively straight highways vs the high-octane-adrenaline-inducing-triple-digit speeds of the track are two different things. You will wear yourself out really fast from over focusing on the road from lack of stimuli. You have to think of other things to keep yourself alert, and stay zoned in versus getting zoned out. The goal is to not think of things that elicit an emotional response, or takes you completely off focus. You can play what if scenarios in your head. Not only will it help prepare you mentally for different situations, but it keeps your brain active, which in turn helps keep you alert ...and it's still about motorcycles lol.

I guess the simple solution is to go triple digit speeds down the highway all the time! J/K

Anyway, so much for keeping it brief. But I hope I convey my thoughts effectively.

[Gurk]

Yeah for sure it helps to know all the technique. But I mentioned focus cause it felt like your mistakes were coming from losing attention. Like thinking about how hot it is and jumping/stalling bike and dropping it sort of thing. I'm not the most focused person in real life too. I'll start day dreaming which f's up my performance, regardless of what i'm doing. Technique comes with good practice I'm pretty sure. But any rider can lose attention and crash regardless of their experience. That's why I try to "empty" my head. Especially cause I have tons of work to do nowadays and if I start running those through my head, it'll take away a whole lot from my investigating for hazards etc.

Anyway. We're pretty much on the same page. I agree with all you said too. It's always good to improve in every area of riding I guess. Which is what I'll aim to do!

[Slono]

Good to hear that you have not hurt yourself with any of these drops! I almost dropped by bike once because I forgot to put my kickstand down after parking my bike... luckily I had enough muscle to save the near drop. Knock on wood that doesn't happen to me again. It was embarrassing since I was with 3 other friends at that time.