Lowside? Highside? Dunno but its never good.

[P1NDLESK1N]

Well today was a sunny 49* out, and while getting out of work early I decided to go find one of the only twisty roads on long island. Mill road.

I google mapped it and its pretty close to my house, so I was rather happy about that. It was my first time there so I wasn't trying to drag elbows or anything, just a quick ride through.

The beginning of the road was definitely abused by the winter. Lots of potholes and sand... But it cleared up further down the road. I took a few passes through to judge the turns and what not, and decided to bring up the pace a little. 2nd pass through, I go in a little too hot on a turn and quickly bring it upright and to a stop. Unfortunately that stop was interrupted by the sand on the road and boom, hit the ground quick and hard, and slide about 3 feet. I'm pretty sure it was the front tire sliding out causing me to fall towards the inside of the corner, but it did happen pretty quickly so maybe it was the rear.

Good thing I had my gear on.

I felt my shoulder hit the ground first, definitely got the worst of damage as my jacket's shoulder is shredded down to the armor padding. My shoulders a little achy. Second hit was my head bounceing off the road, thank god for my helmet as my head is perfectly fine. And lastly my knee, which is just a little scuffed and bloody. Pants and boot held up fine though.

Like always it could have been worse, but it always sucks when you damage your bike.

Damage total? No idea but probably not much. Shift lever was bent inward a bit, very minor rash on plastics, mirror bent inward and snapped the fairing a little, the tach is a little loose, bar end and clutch lever scratches. But the worst to me was noticing that either the forks or bars are a little bent or misaligned. Felt sturdy enough to ride though, so I headed back home.

I'll take a closer look at all the damage and post up pics tomorrow.
Stay safe out there!

[HKr1]

Sorry to hear about the spill Glad to hear you OK thou

Never stand it up in corner trying to stop. Best just look into the corner, and try and make it thru....... < It's all in the learning process

[OldGuy]

Glad to hear you are OK. Another testimony for ATGATT.

[Sloppy2nds]

Originally Posted by HKr1

Sorry to hear about the spill Glad to hear you OK thou

Never stand it up in corner trying to stop. Best just look into the corner, and try and make it thru....... < It's all in the learning process

Not necessarily all true. If you have to stop, you have to stop. which means straighten up as much as you can and hit the brakes.

But to the OP......glad to see youre ok and you were wearing gear.

[HKr1]

^ But he mentioned:

I go in a little too hot on a turn

Thats not stopping for something, but fear & fixation. Something you have when your young, and after it happens once...... usally never happens again

[P1NDLESK1N]

The way I see it, I could've either leaned further or tried to bring it up and stop. I chose the latter. I can only hope that it was the best of the two choices.


And I expect to crash again, because I sure don't plan to stop riding for a looooooooooooong time.

[HKr1]

^Lean further next time........... while easy on the front brake < if needed. Theres no way you can stop in the width of a lane when you rippin on your bike. This is one thing you really need to get into your head, it will save a life

[P1NDLESK1N]

I really want to always know that I can just lean further, but in instances like this, I get the feeling that the bike isn't stable enough.

Could it be the road? Tire? Suspension? Or maybe just me wussing out against my will...

[Sloppy2nds]

Originally Posted by HKr1

^ But he mentioned:


Thats not stopping for something, but fear & fixation. Something you have when your young, and after it happens once...... usally never happens again

I knew it was some sort of fixation on the outside and a lil panic, but I was merely commenting on your reply of "Never stand the bike and stop" Which, I said is not all true. I just dont like the word "never" on that one. Some new rider reading this may get the totally wrong idea and when there are brake lights in front of you on a curve with no where to go may get the wrong idea. Regardless.....very good advice above.

[Verus Cidere]

I had the same basic thing happen to me a couple months ago, but in the middle of town. I was turning into a street and thought I saw a car on the side of the road. I was going a bit too fast and figured I didn't have enough space to turn in enough, so I tried to straighten up and stop. Right as I was stopping, my back wheel was moving into a small dip in the road. Either I just hit my rear brake too hard, or I didn't have enough traction because of the dip for braking. Either way, my back tire locked up and I slid and dumped myself on the pavement. Mine was a high-side though. By the time I actually got dumped off, I wasn't even going fast enough for my head to hit the ground. Just a straight shoulder impact that didn't even scuff my jacket. I'm really glad for the armor in it though, because my shoulder was sore for days. I might have broken something without it. It does scare the crap outta you when something like that happens, and it pisses you off more when you find the damage to your bike. Mine wasn't much that wasn't there before (I'm the 3rd owner and 3rd to drop my bike) except for a mirror break (I had spares so not a major problem) and a new crack in a fairing that was already scarred anyway. My front wheel was a little misaligned too. Not a major problem. My friends at my local shop had it fixed so fast they didn't charge me at all! Good to hear that you're back up and riding anyway! I almost didn't but I'm still going! Thanks for the story. Gives me another thing to look out for: "sand on roadway". Make sure to check your bolts to be sure none of them got loosened by the impact.

[djpharoah]

Glad to hear you are ok.

This is a prime example of grabbing too much front brake combined with the pregen ninja's super soft and dive happy front end. When too much weight gets thrown onto the front it slips out from under you.

[Nemy]

Originally Posted by P1NDLESK1N

Could it be the road? Tire? Suspension? Or maybe just me wussing out against my will...

It could be all of the above. But either way it's generally better to try and lean more into a turn and end up low siding than taking a high side.

Low side = bike slides from under you.
High side = you go over the bike.

http://motorcycle-glossary.com/high-side/156

[TrueFaith]

I hope that all this discussion about braking doesn't obscure what led to this accident. Just because you get a nice day for riding after a long winter doesn't mean the road is fit to ride on. I've seen several sportbikes on the road this weekend going way too fast for the road conditions. I've also heard of at least 2 local crashes already caused by sand in the road. We just had a foot of snow a couple of weeks back, yet bikers are out there treating the road like it's the middle of July already. Until a few weeks goes by without sand and salt being used and the DPW has a chance to sweep up a little of what's out there, you won't see me adding my body to the crash tally of cabin-fever suffering sportbikers.

[Apex]

The problem with trying to stop in a turn is that rarely does anyone ever get the bike truly upright before apply the brakes. If brake pressure is applied like the bike were truly upright, you will lowside, no question.

I should know, I accidentally did it in my MSF course (and I was not a newb to riding, I had previously had my class M, just lost it on a move back to TX). I thought I was upright, I was running out of pavement fast, and ended up lowsiding. If I would have leaned into it more, got more pavement, then applied the brakes I would have been ok.