How 'Often' Have You Crashed?

[Francis]

It's kind of a distasteful topic, but it's been on my mind for a while. I'm not really asking you guys what I should do since I already know what I want to do, but am still thinking about it. Although, I still wouldn't mind hearing some of your thoughts/experience.

I'm a new rider. I've crashed 3 times so far.

March: High side. Still not sure what happened. I lost traction in a corner (due to dirt/oil/whatever), felt it and panicked and used the front brakes. No injuries, aside from cosmetics, I just needed to replace shift lever and turn signal.

August: Low side. Lost traction on a corner from too much leaning. No injuries aside from black eye and bruising of cheek. Bike was written off.

2 days ago (second bike): Low side. I was on my way to get the bike blessed at the church as per father. Raining. Car in front of me braked, I do the same. I felt fine till a split second later, car tries to change line onto me and the first thing that popped in my head was "brake" so I did... and down I went. Only cosmetic damage. Picked up the bike, checked if anything could be wrong, it looked fine (felt fine) and off I go. Crash -> riding away took almost less than 2 minutes. I'm pretty sore now, body aches, but I'm fine. I've ridden in the rain before, but I've been off a bike for a month, so maybe I'm rusty. Or maybe I just didn't have the skills. Probably the latter.

3 crashes in the same year. That's not right.... All single vehicle. Two of them in a corner, and one in traffic. I've thought about giving up street riding for a while, but I was sure I would still be on a bike (track?). Obviously, that didn't pan out since I'm back on one.

I've heard of someone do something similar; 2 crashes on their first year.. but now they're still riding after 5 years. I was curious if anyone else has been on a similar situation. Like I said, 3 crashes on the same year isn't right. Bad luck? Maybe. Rider error? Yes.

edit: I have taken the MSF.

[Alex]

Have you taken the MSF?

[Francis]

Originally Posted by Alex

Have you taken the MSF?

I have.

[Boom King]

Sounds like you might need to practice your emergency braking. Are you grabbing a hand full of front brake? Try to avoid riding in the rain if you can. I know being in Vancouver, that's not always easy. The car that tried to change lanes on you, were you in their blind spot?

[Alex]

I think you've had a bad run of luck, but there are some consistencies in what you have shared here. They all relate to losing traction and putting the bike on the ground. The first few are by misjudging either corner entry speed, or what speed was available to you and the bike once in a corner. There's no magic to it, but you need to be sure that your bike is at the proper speed prior to turning in, and to take into account for any surface problems that are still out of sight. Once in a corner, hopping on the brake (either front or rear) after seeing something that surprises you, will often put you on the ground rather than help you avoid it.

I also agree with the poster above. Practicing quick braking all the time (each and every time you ride), will help you get a good feel for how much braking pressure is appropriate front/rear at different speeds and in different conditions. You don't want to find these things out the instant you truly need them, you want to be comfortable and stress-free about these situations ahead of time.

Good luck!

/moving thread to Riding Skills area, I think it fits better there

[ninja250]

Yeah I was thinking something with traction loss on the first two that isn't going right.

[Brittas]

I am 40+ and I have been riding since I was sixteen. I have come off various bikes 20+ times. Most were at 16-17 on 50CC and 125CC machines wet roads usually.
I have had cars pull out on me resulting in bike smashing in to a car 3 times.
I have come off x2 trial bikes pulling off hard at junction back wheel sliding out coming back in and highsideing me off.
I have come off once with mate on the back years ago going too fast in the wet on a trail bike.
I came off a RD350 taking a sharp bend at silly speeds which broke my wrist (20yrs old)
I have come off in snow-ice 4 or five times.
I have flipped bikes wheelying 3 times..mostly in my teens.
Recently I have only dropped my bike in the snow at low speed and come up behind another bike and hit black ice sliding off and hitting other bike.
My ninja which I have had 5 months has been fine..I have had no scary moments.
Nearly all of my spills were under 40MPH.

[ninja250]

Some folks just don't know when to walk away lol (j/k)

[ninja250]

Street bike #1) Once, dropped 99 GSXR on my leg in 2005 from pants getting stuck on pegs.
Fell at stop sign, bike landed on leg, required cager help to right myself. Embarrassing, dumb noobie stuff. Bike wouldn't start, needed call mommy for ride home. Gas was all over me and the street, coulda started fire from that one stupid pants/peg mistake.
Also dropped the 99 in 2005 in my garage.
Never at speed, but almost when I learned about tank slappers. lol

Never dropped my R6 (street bike #2)

Dropped my Ninjette 3 times. (street bike #3)
Once trying to go around a speedbump in the dirt, coming back on to the asphalt I caught the edge of the asphalt to the tire edge and tipped.
Once at 50mph into a guard rail.
Once dragging knees at 3mph. (kinda on purpose, simple tip, no damage, caught myself)

Dropped my GSXR Alstare once, in the driveway. Broke a tail light and cracked a fairing. $700 to replace with new JDM fairing and tail light. (street bike #4)
Also dropped it in the garage once, denting the Alstare tank slightly. Old jixxers are heavy.

Normally when I drop one it's a low speed thing or in the garage or something dumb at a stop light like not getting my feet out early enough and they got stuck on something.

Been riding street 6 years to accumulate these misshaps. They seem to be getting less and less.
The only one that really stands out is the 50mph guard rail one..

[LazinCajun]

2 drops here in 2 years. One while practicing a U-Turn in a parking lot during my first month of riding, and another doing a U-turn through a sandy left turn lane (the road was almost the same color as the sand -- didn't even see it until after ).

Both sub 10 MPH accidents, but the 2nd one scratched up my left fairing.

[DerTeufel]

I've been riding for 26 years (dirt and street combined). Dirt crashes don't count, because crashing on a dirt bike is expected

I've crashed four times on the street. The first was on my first street bike, a 1989 GS 500. I was coming back to the base after picking up my uniforms and the road surface was wet, as it had just finished raining. I was rounding a rather sharp bend in the road, and the front end lost grip. I low sided, at a pretty low speed. I suffered no injuries, except wounded pride, and the bike suffered a broken headlight.

The second time was shortly after I got a TL1000S. By the time that I got that bike, I had been riding on the street for 12 years. I was coming home from work, and at the time we lived in an apartment complex that did not allow motorcycles of any type on the property, so I had to park my bike on the street. There was a storm drain near where I parked my bike, and there was usually a thin layer of muck in the area of the storm drain. I turned in to pull my bike in perpendicular to the curb, hit the thin layer of muck, and was promptly delivered to the asphalt. Thankfully, all that happened to the bike was a broken rear brake pedal. I was wearing textile gear at the time and didn't suffer any injury.

Crash number three was one of those situations of where I knew better, but I ignored all the warnings. It happened shortly after the 2007 California wild fires. I had decided to go up Palomar mountain to see the aftermath of what had happened up there. I knew that work crews have been on the mountain already and had replaced a great number of guard rails and signs. What I didn't count on was the number of remnants left in the roadway. My ascent of the mountain started at a slow pace, but as I got higher up, my pace began to quicken. I came around a corner and felt the front end slide, then the rear, and now I am on the ground, on my belly, sliding into the dirt (about 20-30 feet). My bike came to a rest about 5 feet away from me, still running. I got up, shut the bike off, and quickly picked the bike up. I looked at where I laid the bike down at, and saw a bunch of nuts and bolts in the roadway. The left side of the fairing got rashed, broke the left mirror, both left turn signals. I got a sprained wrist, a ruined helmet, and ruined gloves.
Before:


After:


Crash #4 involved another vehicle. It was also three weeks after my Palomar crash. I was riding into work, and spotted a Jeep Wrangler coming the opposite direction. I was traveling at the speed limit and had slowed slightly since there was a lot of side roads that emptied into the main, and people liked to dart out. The Jeep, without warning (or turn signals) turned left to go onto one of the side roads in front of me. I grabbed the binders and tried to go around the Jeep. For some inexplicable reason, the driver of the Jeep halted, rather than proceeded forward. Had he done that, I wouldn't have made contact with the Jeep. Trying to avoid further damage to my bike (I had just repaired the crash damage from the Palomar crash), I body checked the Jeep. In doing so, I lost grip on the bike and it fell, damaging the already tweaked radiator. The driver of the Jeep got out, looked at me, and in very broken english said that his turn signal was on. I yelled at him telling him that no, they weren't! I then asked for his information, to which he gave me a sheepish grin and shrugged. This guy didn't have a license or insurance, and there was a high probability of him being an illegal alien as well. I briefly considered calling CHP, but being that I was late to work, I decided against it. I looked at the driver of the Jeep, got on my bike, told him something very derogatory in Spanish, and took off. The only damage to the bike was the radiator, nothing happened to me.

[blink]

I really think you should re-asses your corner speed and the fact that you used your front brakes in a corner, hard enough for a crash.

[eddiekay]

Little crashes in '68 and'69...very bad crash in'74 ( 6 weeks in traction, 4 months in a cast)..high sided thru a fence in'06 but limped away.
All 4 were 100% my fault.

[Lil_Green_Demon]

Got hit by a car back on May 7th. That was my first (and hopefully last) crash ever. I've got road rash from the crash, as well as a pretty ugly looking left fairing on the Ninjette.
What's worse? I bought the bike brand new on April 22nd. Not even a full 3 weeks later, a lady hits me.
Idiot took off, too. I hope she gets what she deserves.

[FrugalNinja250]

Fell over in the driveway when the kickstand found a soft spot in the gravel, that was a first month complacency error. Didn't check the bike on stand was stable before swinging my leg over the saddle.

Pulled off onto the shoulder of an entrance ramp to adjust my luggage, was a narrow shoulder with cars whizzing by so I pulled onto the grass thinking like I was driving a car. Grass is about as traction-promoting as ice with a film of oil over it. That was a 10-15mph lowside with no new damage to bike or gear.

Hit head on by a truck that turned left onto my side of the street where I was stopped at the stop sign. She said the first time she saw me was as I bounced off her hood. Only real way to have avoided that one was to not have ridden that day.