Worst case sceneario

[strippedFJ]

No wonder you tits think that your XS11's are fast, and handle.

Go ahead TC ban me, we'll race to see who can remove my profile first OK?

[strom]

Dunno if I wrote this b4... prolly did.
Anyway, I will do it again just to spam a bit

I had my brand new (to me) 1984 Moto Guzzi V35 Imola for about a week. Offcourse not paid for yet.

I was riding in town, just managed my way between cars to be in front at the traffic light. Lights changed, I pulled off and after bout 100m of straight the road makes a mild S bend. It was one way so I didnt think much of it, I just didnt like the cars being parked (illegally) on the sidewalk on my right.

Well, I braked a bit for the turns, since the road was quite slippery there, leaned into the corner a bit and an older gentleman (khm..) comes from behind one of those cars on the right on a bicycle.

I was thinking:
WTF, this bike is LOUD, is he deaf or just stupid!?

He saw me when he was alredy in the middle of the road, attempting to cross and STOPPED his devils contraption (i dont like bicycles).

I braked hard and offcourse forgot about guzzi having linked brakes. Both wheels let go at the same time and me, being alredy leaning, went down.

Wheels didnt have much intention of turning the bike, neither did my jeans or leather jacket, so we slid in front of him towards the curb.

While I was still falling I remember checking twice for the cars behind me, so I dont get run over, twice where this guy went so I can punch him in the face and once where my poor poor bike is heading.

I wasnt going fast so I didnt even hit my (helmeted) head on the pavement, I just sorta slid to a halt bout 1m from the curb and tore my jeans in the process. The guy on the bike stopped about 10m onwards next to the curb, behind me now. Bike hit the curb with both tires at once, so no major damage from that impact.

Anyway, I ran to the idiot and as doing so, something clicked in my head, that kicking the **** out of elderly gentlemen in the center of town prolly isnt a good idea and my mum always taught me to respect our elders etc... so I just yelled a lot.

Anyway, we picked up the bike and I surveyed the damage. Handlebars were in a weird position to the front wheel, a turn signal was broken somewhere inside and was pointing down, right footpeg was bent, along with the brake transmission.

I took the details of that idiot and told him I would call him if repairs cost more than 20$.

I hopped on the footpeg a bit to straighten it and I managed to brake off the brake linkage. Rode a while without rear and one front disc. Gave a guy a beer to weld the transmission back and stuck some newspaper in the blinker. I stuck the front wheel into a metal fence and straightened the handlebars/triple trees/forks a bit and that was bout it as far as damage goes. I didnt call the guy, since I forgot bout my torn jeans.

My injuries... mostly pride and my shoulder hurt for about a week. More luck than brains.

Anyway, this was about 9 years ago... my worst motorcycle crash (knocks on wood).
I laid down the XS once on the gravel (the worst kind), once someone managed to push it over with a motor home while I was sipping coffee at a gas station... and thats bout it as far as it goes. but hey, im still young

[trbig]

Hmmm...

StrippedFJ, it's been a few hours now and I can still see your profile??

I don't personally believe you gone far enough to be banned, but I don't make the choices. You are more than welcome to quit at any time. Hopefully you will come back later though, with a slightly better attitude towards others.

I noticed in your profile that one of your interests is philosophy... Life is ironic sometimes isn't it?


Tod

[mro]

Last word....Tod

My ole lady was like that


mro

[mstic2000]

Re: Lay down a bike?

Originally posted by Toolmaker Tim
My niece's significant other has taken the ABATE training class. What he was taught has been the source of a couple heated discusions.The subject is "laying the bike down." I contend that doing that is comitting to an accident, once you have done that you have given away any other option. He says riding without a helmet is perfectly sane, if you take a head blow you are going to be seriously injured anyway, so why bother.

I beg to differ with this one! If you read my earlier post to this thread. I was not wearing a helmet. There were no helmet laws at the time in Texas. I don't know if there is now. We do have helmet laws here in Michigan. But in my situation down there in Texas if I was wearing a helmet I could have saved myself a severed temporal artery and a few pints of blood! I was just REAL lucky that the first person to stop was an off duty nurse who knew what to do immediatley. I am a firm beliver in helmets now, even if they take away the law I will still wear one. nuff said!

[planedick]

Fighter pilots

Fighter pilot friend of mine said, "When you see you're going to crash, the best pilots always fly the plane all the way to impact". I have come to the conclusion that there is two different kinds of riders. One type freezes when they see an accident coming and the other type tries to maintain some sort of control at least to impact. ABS allows the later to steer while braking, but they are no help to the "freeze in fear" types.

[mstic2000]

Re: Fighter pilots

...........

[mro]

I figure as long as you can keep tires on the ground, you can still scrub speed off till the last second.

I agree with that, (untill cicumstances deem other wise )

Went around a 90 degree sorta blind corner at night.
At 45 mph need the whole road to make it. Once commited a large patch of leaves appeared in the head light. To fast to lean any more and a solid concrete wall on the right. Straightened up, braked and thought OH $HIT as the 80G slide out from under me.
Did not let go, chest bounced off the tank, left foot under bike, left wrist smacked between pavement and handle bars. Bike slid to the curb and bucked me off, bike went up and landed on the sidewalk. Had been drinking so wasted no time righting the bike. Didn't want to start and just before battery went dead it fired up. Rode it home, four dangling turn signals, bent handle bars, crash bars pushed into the timing cover, mirrors FUBARed...

Was just happy to have gotten home instead of the poky
_____________

think that your XS11's are fast, and handle

Pretty sure most everyone here knows were riding 30 year old tec and can not keep up with the zip splats, BUT the XS is a great bike and a lota bang for the buck.


mro

[prometheus578]

"Hhmmmm...."

(Maybe I'll just let it slide....)

[egsols]

Ouch

(Maybe I'll just let it slide....)

Rolling my eyes......

[Jerry]

Comming in late to this discussion...
I've been riding for 34 years now, with a few years off when the kids were young and SWMBO didn't want me riding. I have had 1 serious road accident, my first year of riding. Large gravel truck ran a stop sign on a rual road and we "met" in the intersection. I was lucky, banged up ankle and burns on left arm from the bike's exhaust pipe. Only cost me about 1 week loss of work. However, the bike was totaled.

I was wearing a full-face helmet, heavy 16" steel-toe boots (was comming home from work) and not much else. Now I wear a helmet, decent shoes, armored riding suit or leather jcaket, and gloves. Always wear gloves, have an aramid-reinforced pair for sumer riding, lined leather for cold rides.

For those of you who have been in multiple accidents...perhaps you have a better perspective, but for me, there was no time to think. I slid. (This was far before ABATE and Rider Safety Courses. In those days you hopped on the bike and learned by experience.) However, one thing I had drilled into me was always look for an escape route. I had a couple seconds; I turned the bike in the direction of the truck's travel and was able to avoid a direct head-on impact. The collision put me in a ditch rather than under the truck's dual rear wheels.

My point: there are 3 components of surviving a crash: 1. Wear gear as if you expect to be in an accident. 2. Do as much as you can to mitigate the force of the collision, i.e. turn, lay the bike down, get on the brakes, etc. 3. If you have the presence of mind to think past #2, which was where my thoughts were, do what you can to pick a slide path that offers the best chance of survival and launch yourself toward it.

As I said, I didn't gets past point #2. Perhaps more experience in crashing would help me get to point #3, I don't know and am unlikly to experiment to find out.

So, it appears to me that when a crash is inevitable, your mind will go down 1 of 2 paths: How to mitigate and reduce the effect of the crash as much as possilble, or on how to get off the bike and survive the subsequent stop by sliding or rolling. You won't have time to do both.

This is my opinion based on my - 1 - accident and talks with other riders who have similar experiences, so I don't present this as if it were expert advice. However, my belief is that anything you can do to soften or lessen the blow by taking action to reduce the impact speed or direction will increase your chances of survival more than trying to decide if you should slide or roll in any given situation, unless you have a *lot* of crash experience and have learned to judge these things within the very limited time you have to react.

Sliding seems to me the better choice only because that is what happened to me, but I can't say I took the time to make a decision about it. I was to busy taking steps to soften the blow.

[psycoreefer]

laying down the bike.....

please, laying down the bike is what "tough" Harley riders say when they don't want to admit they panicked and locked up the back tire. " I had to lay it down" what a crock of poo.

Read this article about "laying it down".

Then check out the rest of the site , they have a ton of articles about braking, cornering, accident avoidence, ect. in the tips section.

[Toolmaker Tim]

Helmets and Tires

Mstic2000, I didn't comment on the helmet thing cause' it's too obvious.The one time I fell my helmet ended up with scars that I was glad weren't in my head. Manhole covers are just oversize cheese graters
Sister's boyfriend hit some sort of spilled liquid at the top of a cloverleaf on morning. Bounced off the guardrail with his XS 650. He was wearing a brand new Bell Tourstar, jeans, and a tee shirt. Helmet had a groove cut into the expanded styrene liner ( think thats what the stuff under the fiberglass shell was) and his shoulder from a protruding bolt. Bolt cut down to his shoulder blade, but he never felt a thing. Picked up the bike and rode home, landload took one look at him and threw him in the car and off to the body and fender shop. If he had no helmet I'm sure the skullbone would have had the groove in it and something important would have leaked out.
mro, as long as the tires are still touching the ground you still have a chance to do SOMETHING. Even if you don't know what yet. The only thing that I have thought thru about crashing is don't skid.
My main concern around here is the deer. I figure if I have the time i will slow things down the best I can and get as low on the tank as I can. Try to lower my center of gravity and reduce the catapult effect. Haven't hit a dog, cat , groundhog or raccoon, but I figure the same approach should work. O yeah, and keep square to the impactee.

[trbig]

" I had to lay it down" what a crock of poo.

LOL.. Another strong opinion from someone who's obviously never had to make that choice. Seeing you aren't going to be able to avoid something and making the conscious effort to slide sideways and lay the bike down to hit with two tires sideways where the impact drives you into the seat as opposed to one while sitting up where you go up and over.

Your reasoning and assumption that there is NEVER a time or place for this seems to me to be the thing in that crock that smells.


Tod

[Toolmaker Tim]

Safety Site

Thanks psycoreefer for the website. You are told in drivers ed to avoid skidding due to loss of control and that slideing has a lower coefficent of drag than the tires gripping the road. What's the point of spending money on premium tires for handling if you don't use thme to your advantage? Isn't braking part of handling?