Lowsided

[Old Lemon]

This happened back in October but I will still tell the tale.

The night before I went over to my friends house so that he can help me put on my new woodcraft clip ons. Neither of us have really done it so it took a couple hours to get everything right. Well the next day I was determined to go test them out on some twisties. It had rained a few hours earlier and the pavement was like half dry half wet sort of.


So im off, get about 10 minutes into the ride and i feel like my tires are warm enough to do some leaning so i hit up the twisties. I get to this one road and from the direction i was coming from i was going up the hill (it has like an 18% grade and warning signs for everyone to use low gears and what not). After the first hill there is a decreasing radius left hander which i took slower than usual maybe like 35 or 40 (which i can take around 45 to 50) since it is still a little wet. I had no problems what so ever, no wobbles, no sliding or anything. So i figured if i can make that turn with no problems, the next one shouldnt be a problem either.


After a very small straight there is a right hander that starts the grade up the next hill mid turn. Normally i would shift into 4th and be able to WOT near the exit but i stayed in 3rd and judging by my gear and rpms i was going about 45 - 50 as i entered. Everything is going great, no cagers, no squirrels, no debris, Looking through the turn to an open road when suddently....my handle bars lock to the right.


I remember clearly that as soon as that happened i was like.....sh!t. As I became closer to the road my knee dragged a bit (woot i finally drug a knee) and after that I was draggin my whole bod. Instantly I was sliding on my back and was turned the other direction away from where I was going.


So Im just sliding along the road, not a thought in my mind. I was just there for the ride until I was able to stop. My weight started shifting to my left shoulder and there was nothing I could to do stop it. After a few seconds of sliding my left shoulder caught the road and I tumbled once. During this tumble when I was face to face with the ground, only my knees, fingers, and toes were touching the ground and I had zero weight on them if that gives any indication on how fast I was going at that point.


As I tumbled is when I got my first thought back into my head which was; Don't hit your head on the road, I do not want to buy a new helmet. Lol, that was my only thought during my crash. I did try to not hit my head by lifting it but did end up hitting it very lightly. After that I turned and faced the other direction for a couple more seconds until I finally came to a stop.


There was one person around, some guy walking along the opposite shoulder going up the hill, I passed him seconds before I crashed. So as I stop and looked to my left, the guy is still just casually walking as he had before (which made me kind of laugh). Then I looked to my right and saw my baby in the middle of the oncoming lane (I was also in the middle of the oncoming lane) about 20 feet up the road. So I go over and pick up my bike but the fun doesnt stop there!


My only thought at that time was to get to the shoulder so I didnt block traffic. A couple cars were there by now waiting for me to gtfo. As I begin to roll my bike down the hill (remember the very steep grade) I reached for the front brake and to my surprise, I grabbed a handful of air. So now I am trying to slow the bike by releasing the clutch slowly but end up releasing it fully and pulling it back in cause I wasnt prepared to have no front brake lever.


So after almost dropping my bike again I was able to keep it up and asked the fellow who had been walking up the street if he could hold onto the tail of the bike and pull towards him so it wouldnt get out of control going down the hill. He does and when I go to say thank you he says, "no problem and its kind of slick out here man" and goes on his way.


This makes me laugh every time I think about it. This guy saw a motorcyclist crash and didnt care in the least. Not saying that everyone should care but man, not even a "are you ok?". So I call some people and they start helping me out, one called a tow truck and a couple riders came and hung out with me until it came.


While they were looking at my bike they pointed out my left fairing and my nose section. They asked if I hit the guard rail and I said no. (thinking my bike did not either) Upon further inspection the lower side of my left fairing was also damaged as well as the plastic right below my headlight (it was like hanging off). And after looking at the guard rail there was indeed some green paint on it.


Now you may be wondering, this noob had a video of him tucking the front, where is this video? Well another little story will solve that. A few weeks prior I dropped my camera directly perpendicular to the ground which mashed my start / stop record button into the camera. So by shaking it I could start or stop recording. One button mode fixes this MOSTLY. Sometimes it gets itself into the menu and starts cycling through it. Well this is what happened about a mile into my ride . It would have made such a better video than my other one.


Well that is my story and I hope you enjoyed it. Things that I learned; Don't go through the twisties when it is wet when you do not have to. Adjust your riding according to road conditions. (I was going slower than normal, but obviously not enough)


TL;DR I dont care if you think it is too long, if you want to know what happens, read it.


That white line in the guardrail picture, that was caused by my rear brake pedal. So the only marking on this street is a white line that starts in the center of that turn, goes straight across the road and then back into the road again. Lemon, leavin his mark

[alex.s]

i love your TL;DR.

[alex.s]

also it sounds like your crash was caused because you couldn't apply enough gas because you were in too low of a gear.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Old Lemon

.........After a very small straight there is a right hander that starts the grade up the next hill mid turn. .............Looking through the turn to an open road when suddently....my handle bars lock to the right...........This happened back in October but I will still tell the tale.

Why now?

Sorry that that and all the other things happened to you

[NevadaWolf]

I think I am going to steal your TL;DR for a sig line.

Sucks about the wreck but glad all is ok. So between the guy walking and the cars waiting, no one helped? Damn! Glad you had buds come out and hang while waiting to get your baby home.

[Old Lemon]

@alex.s Quite possibly, and my front tire was on its last legs and i know for a fact that was a contributor.

@Motofool idk i just felt like sharing today

@NevadaWolf The cars got there as i was lifting my bike up so they didnt really have anything to help with, but that guy just had no interest lol

[RedPepper64]

Glad it wasn't worse and that you were ok!