My run of 32 crash-free years has ended

[CaliGrrl]

Thanks. I've never tried one on and I was curious.

[DannoXYZ]

Mind the tether!

[backinthesaddleagain]

Hey been away from the forum awhile. Sorry to hear about your crash. A friend broke his collar bone racing mx back in the 1980's. Then none of us wore seat belts. He was sitting in a friend's van riding home from the track. Now the van had captains chairs up front and a home made bench seat behind them. he was sitting in the middle of the bench. Driver hit the brakes he went flying forward and caught each shoulder on the edge of the captains chairs ahead of him. What a double whammy of a day.

[adouglas]

Originally Posted by backinthesaddleagain

Hey been away from the forum awhile. Sorry to hear about your crash. A friend broke his collar bone racing mx back in the 1980's. Then none of us wore seat belts. He was sitting in a friend's van riding home from the track. Now the van had captains chairs up front and a home made bench seat behind them. he was sitting in the middle of the bench. Driver hit the brakes he went flying forward and caught each shoulder on the edge of the captains chairs ahead of him. What a double whammy of a day.

Yikes. That happened to one of the Doolittle Raiders back in WWII. After the raid on Tokyo they had to ditch the aircraft. One of the navigators was behind the pilot and copilot and the exact same thing happened to him. It was depicted in the movie they made about the raid.

[csmith12]

Originally Posted by adouglas

My answer is to slow more up front so I don't need to trail brake as deep or hard. That gives me more margin even if the overall time through the corner is the same.

At your newfound level of riding... You need to understand the full meaning of BALANCE. I don't mean only to keep the bike in balance, but balance your skillset as well.

So, lemme try to perceive things from afar.

1. Your'e getting more comfortable with higher entry speeds
2. You're getting more comfortable with trailing deeper into the corner
3. You're getting more comfortable with carrying more speed through the corner

You can't up the skillset of three or four other skills and leave others lagging behind. When the bike starts giving you signals that something is up... this is a clue where BALANCE of skills may come into the play. Here is an example;

Rider starts to get faster
Rider starts to run near the very, very edge of the tire
Rider starts to complain the bike slips traction at apex/post apex
Rider hardly gets off the seat
Going slower will prevent the slip ups, but what else does said rider need to do that will help the rider reach their goal and AKA balance out their skills vs the goal faster pace?

So your next outing you plan to move your brake marker so you don't need to trail as much or as hard. Ok, that is cool but you're ignoring the skill improvement you needed to avoid the crash all together. Any clue what it was? I will give you a hint, you were choppy with a transition.

Resetting a bit is a good thing. Get yourself back to 100% control where you were before the off. Cool... But avoiding the issue will not help you out when you are ready to starting carrying more speed, trailing deeper into corners again, ect. ect... Now you are right back where you started.

Again, what you are missing is this; "what skill do you work on to allow you to trail deeper and carry more speed?" BALANCE! Feel me?

[choneofakind]

Originally Posted by csmith12

1. Your'e getting more comfortable with higher entry speeds
2. You're getting more comfortable with trailing deeper into the corner
3. You're getting more comfortable with carrying more speed through the corner

You can't up the skillset of three or four other skills and leave others lagging behind. When the bike starts giving you signals that something is up... this is a clue where BALANCE of skills may come into the play.

Quoting this for truth in all sporting things with wheels.

[adouglas]

Aftermath update:

I got the rod removed from my shoulder a week ago. Now I've got this nifty souvenir shish kabob skewer!

Still feel a little stiffness but it's going to be fine. I even went to the international motorcycle show the day after the procedure, with @Ducati999. Saw some cool stuff (Alex Rins's MotoGP bike from this year, and Marquez's from his rookie season in MotoGP). Got inspired to get back down in the shop. Been awhile, given that riding ended for me four months ago.

[Bigballsofpaint]

I was looking for you for a bit, too bad we missed each other. Glad your doing better pal, hopefully we can meet up this year. I know Todd and I are doing the Jersey dates for sure (i think he was saying he would do an NJMP event)

[CaliGrrl]

I'm glad you're doing better!

[BAZININJA]

Originally Posted by CaliGrrl

I had a rider comment about my leather jacket this past weekend, too. I assured him it breathes nicely and is actually quite comfortable.

People can tease you all they like- you don't have to care about their opinion. It's your skin, and you're protecting it. Another of our riders commented the leather is your second, replaceable skin to protect your real one. I like that.

I like that, too!

I wear Motoport gear. https://www.motoport.com/
It saved my hide (along with my Arai FF) when I high-sided and totaled my N1K Both the jacket and pants were repairable; but I had enough insurance money for gear that I opted to get a second pair of pants made because I wear them so much. I'm a RiderCoach so I wear them teaching class as well. Actually, that's one of the reasons I ended up investing in it: you can't find women's riding pants with cargo pockets. I can't wear men's pants and look halfway decent. Motoport pants have a cargo pocket option. SOLD! Well, there's a little more to it than that. I've been wanting to get to a street school for years, and I wanted to make sure I had suitable gear so I wouldn't have to rent anything. I had heard of Motoport on the N1K forum, so I checked them out. After reading about the quality, I decided my 50-something body was worth it.

Sometime before the high-side, a friend and I were riding on a two-lane straight stretch. I was doing a very responsible 62mph on my N1K (I had just looked). A fawn ran out from the left. I performed an instructor-perfected quick stop. My friend locked up the front and went down. Then the blasted thing came back from the right ditch, tagged my rear wheel and knocked me down I ended up with a sprained knee; my friend didn't fare so well since she was only wearing a long-sleeved shirt and jeans on her body (along with a FF and boots). She ended up getting an ambulance ride. After she had gone and I was making sure her bike got towed (mine was rideable), the volunteer paramedic who was still on the scene asked me how I could stand wearing all that gear (It was about 90*, humid, typical Ozarks summer day). I looked at him incredulously and said, "Look what I just walked away from."

[Fixit]

I bought my first motorcycle in 1980, a Yamaha 50 shaft drive, and I wrecked it pretty good possibly 6 months later by hitting a rock that must have been nearly 2 feet in diameter in the center of the riding trail. This being hard core desert with read sage brush that is hard as a rock there wasn't much of a chance of leaving the trail it this point, I locked up both brakes and slid into this rock, might have been doing 15mph when I hit and flipped over the rock. I slid for probably 20 feet on my stomach. Walked around as a giant scab for at least a month. Since then I've wrecked/fallen over/crashed many times, but most of these were in the soft fluffy sand at Pismo Beach zero harm done to self or bike. One crash while riding whoops at the King Of The Hammers in Barstow Ca in front of a crowd left me sideways under a dirt bike and only injured my pride, I got up and bowed to the crowd.

My only crashes on the street involved a bicycle and broken arm and decades later an electric scooter and two severely sprained wrists.

Glad you're ok.

[MrAtom]

Originally Posted by adouglas

Been awhile, given that riding ended for me four months ago.

Not permanently ended, right? :-)

[adouglas]

Originally Posted by MrAtom

Not permanently ended, right? :-)

Certainly not! Resolution for 2020:

More brap, less crap!!

[DannoXYZ]

Where does that pin go? and how was it installed?

Did they drill hole through all bone-pieces and slid them together on that pin like shish-kabob???

Glad to hear you're coming back!

[adouglas]

It went in just behind the tip of my shoulder and ran through the middle of the clavicle.... yeah, it held the bone pieces together like a shish kabob. Since bones aren't actually solid there was no need to drill. It got inserted into the marrow. The bent end was so the doc could grab hold if it to pull it out when the time came.

At this point I'm pretty much back to normal. I can still feel that something was done but no loss of strength or mobility and no pain. By riding season it'll be like nothing ever happened aside from a little bump in my clavicle where the bone callus formed during healing.

[MrAtom]

Lucky guy!

[CaliGrrl]

Motoport, huh? I'll take a look. I'm looking for good cargo pants.

"Look what I walked away from" - no kidding! I would think paramedics would understand.

Originally Posted by BAZININJA

I wear Motoport gear. https://www.motoport.com/
It saved my hide (along with my Arai FF) when I high-sided and totaled my N1K Both the jacket and pants were repairable; but I had enough insurance money for gear that I opted to get a second pair of pants made because I wear them so much. I'm a RiderCoach so I wear them teaching class as well. Actually, that's one of the reasons I ended up investing in it: you can't find women's riding pants with cargo pockets. I can't wear men's pants and look halfway decent. Motoport pants have a cargo pocket option. SOLD! Well, there's a little more to it than that. I've been wanting to get to a street school for years, and I wanted to make sure I had suitable gear so I wouldn't have to rent anything. I had heard of Motoport on the N1K forum, so I checked them out. After reading about the quality, I decided my 50-something body was worth it.

::snip::

the volunteer paramedic who was still on the scene asked me how I could stand wearing all that gear (It was about 90*, humid, typical Ozarks summer day). I looked at him incredulously and said, "Look what I just walked away from."

[Bob KellyIII]

Wow you were really flying low then the bike goes down !
that's just not fair ! LOL
that took place about as fast as when my 1100 honda went out from under me
so fast you are on the ground before you realise your falling !
I'm glad your OK and not more hurt than you were, but that's still gott'a be some major pain !
Actually I am glad it's you and not me, "I'm not like most people , pain Hurts me ! " ( Daffy duck) LOL
get well soon and don't let one screwup slow ya down do what you love
and to be doing that at 60yrs....you gott'a love it ! <GRIN>
I'm 68 so I have a few on ya, but I don't Ride like that... you got some big brass ones to do that !
hang in there !
Bob.......

[accogma]

Have you ever experienced a motorcycle crash, and if so, how did it impact your riding perspective and habits?

[Bob KellyIII]

Yeah! I've crashed a few times on a bike.... and I'm not proud of it. but it is a fact... the worst was driving down jones valley road on my 1100cc honda shadow doing 50~60mph through the twisties and all of a sudden the bike just lays over and I am sliding on the ground. it happened so fast I didn't even tighten my grip on the handle bars...one second I'm carving corners the next I am down seperated from the bike and sliding on the pavement... then I started rolling... and as I turned at that speed my hands were slamming into the pavement real hard so I pulled in my arms to my chest and put my legs together and my knees were being hit as well closed my eyes and though this is going to hurt ! my spin spun up and then I tumbled end over end and by now I am stiff as a board.... on the last endo I could tell I was almost stopped
and regained the rolling aspect and then sliding head first i slid into the ditch on the right side of the road and came to rest.... and I opened my eyes
i laid there for a second or two doing a self evaluation and the only thing suspect were my hands they hurt real bad but I think I am fine. so I started looking for my bike..... which was not anywhere to be found, not on the road
not beside the road, then I saw it next to a big pine tree...still running so I got up ran over to it through the hole in the fence it had made and turned the key off. at this point I knew if I didn't get the bike standing upright with all this adrinilin I wouldn't get it upright at all.... so I grabbed it and got it upright with no small effort it's a 800lb machine and it was discombuberated pirty bad....LOL... the roll bar was bent back and in the way handle bars bend way down toward the tank but not bent ! I was suprised !
i think the clutch lever was broken but not sure...just bent if memory serves me well. so there I am under a big pine tree with a 3' base and it's mound at the roots holding this heavy bike trying to find something solid enough to put the kick stand down on.... no luck.... so I wrassel the big pig forward toward level ground and found a rock and set the kickstand down on it and it
stayed... doing all this I was how would you say distracted ? and I hear a woman screaming are you ok ? I look up and some gal is parked in the middle of the road on a blind curve out of her car yelling at me... I opened up my modular helmet and hollered back I'm OK.... and then the pain really hit me.... I had to sit down my hands really hurt.... she hollers an ambulance is coming I said I don't need any help ! but I got it anyway ! soon a ambulance was turned away a california highway patrol showed up and started asking a jillion questions and all I want to do is get out of there.
talking to the cop we figured out what happened.previously the day before I had made some beefy floor boards for the bike..... the right side folded but the left side didn't.... I didn't like that but that was all I could come up with at the time painted them black to match the bike and that was that...
on the road there was a 2' long scratch in the pavement and a scratch mark on the floor board..... I HAD DRUG THE FLOORBOARD ! it didn't fold so the bike just fell over at 50mph ! .....I never hurd the thing scrapeing at all...
the next day after getting home by riding it back to the road and headding home... shifting was a bitch ! but I managed... I fixed the left floor board to fold like I should have....in the first place ! I thought at the time there is no way I'll ever lean the bike that far..... turns out I lean the bike that far routinely ! ...go figure ! that's why my Ninja has frame sliders on it !
I had sore hands for a week and brused knee caps torn pants chewed up wallet and scuffed up leather jacket and gloves.... but I walked away from it
.....all because I made a stupid mistake and welded the floor bord solid to the bike instead of making it fold able..... lesson learned you lean more than you think you do !
.....
did it change me ? not a bit, I still make stupid mistakes and i still ride !
but I will never do a floor board like that again ! LOL
....
I admit it took 3 or 4 rides to take those corners like I always have been
it did slow me down for a few days ! and it made me realise that that bike was just too big.. too big, too heavy, and too fast....so I sold it.
....
Bob......

Now lets hear about your crashes or close calls ! no one is perfect except maybe Gordon ! LOL