Learning experiences

[trailblazer87]

I feel we can all learn from each other, which sometimes is better than the hard way. Post some of the hard learned lessons here so that they don't get repeated.

Lesson 1: Soon after I bought the bike (not my first) I was feeling impatient at a traffic light at a busy intersection. The moment the light turned green I had the greatest hole shot ever, I was across the intersection before anybody else could enter it. I looked in the mirror to check for a lane change and saw a red light runner cross behind me. Ever since then I check both ways before entering the intersection. I did every thing legally and still came close to becoming street pizza.

Lesson 2: I was tailgating a big truck in the slow lane because my exit was a little ways up ahead. For some reason the truck smashed his brakes, causing me to brake hard. Fortunately I checked my mirrors and saw a car coming up rapidly behind me. There was a car in the fast lane so I had nowhere to go but the shoulder. Thankfully I was on my dual sport at the time and just rode the gravel out. After stopping I looked back to see that the car had rear ended the truck badly. Gladly no me flavored sandwich was made that day.
Now I back off and ride so that I give the guy behind a stopping cushion.

Anybody else got some close calls to learn from?

 

[steveindenmark]

1991- I was on the main road with the priority. I was travelling at about 40mph and slowing down for a 30 sign. A car came out from a side road right in front of me and I thought "****, that was close" Then a second car followed him and I did not even have time to brake...Smash...and right over the top.

I snapped both my arms...on my wing mirrors I think..and broke my right leg.

The 2 guys in the cars were teenagers and had been racing each other. The police arrived at the scene in about 30 seconds. They had been tipped off by someone who had passed the teenagers going in the opposite direction who had seen them driving like lunatics.

The only thing you can learn from my story is that **** happens but also that you can do a lot of damage to yourself even at low speeds.

Steve

 

[ecurb]

Blocked Vision

So I'm riding down a divided road with 2 lanes in each direction at about 35 mph on a beautiful afternoon. There's a big motor home stopped in the right lane with his turn signal on to turn right. Just as I'm passing him on his left, a minivan pulls out right right in front of me and I hit him broadside before I even knew what happened. One second I'm riding along feeling great, and the next I'm sitting in the middle of the road staring at my crumpled bike and this minivan with the side caved in. I never even hit the brakes. There was no time to do anything. Thank God for full faced helmets, or I wouldn't have a face anymore.

Afterwards, I got the whole story. The motor home didn't have room to turn because he had to swing wide and the minivan was in the way. So the motor home driver waves the minivan out so he can turn. The minivan can't see me coming because I'm behind the motor home and he trusts the motor home driver thinking that the road is clear. The bottom line is that the guy who was really at fault (the motor home driver) wasn't even involved in the accident and just drives away like nothing happened.

The moral here is to WATCH OUT for large trucks that are stopped, waiting to make a turn. If I have to pass one, I do it with my horn blaring. It took me 10 years to get back on a bike after that.

 

[Hellgate]

I was riding from Jackson Hole Wyoming to Denver 600 miles or so, in one day with a buddy. We stopped in Steamboat Springs Co for dinner and got back on the road about 8:30 pm. We were riding over Rabbit Ears pass, a wonderful twisty road, and your truly fell asleep in the middle of a 50 mph corner. I remember watching the sparks come off my buddy's bike as he rounded the corner and I simply zoned out. I had my bike leaned over and all of a sudden I was sliding watch the sparks from my bike shower over me as we slid. I had a sore butt and elbow and the bike only had the handle bar bend straigt down. We had to ride for another 50 miles or so before found a place to sleep. We should have done that much earlier.

 

[HavBlue]

I learned this and it keeps me alive: When I leave my property every driver, every rider and every pebble in the road is there to kill me. If the vehicle attempting to turn across my path moves he is trying to kill me. If the vehicle behind me is too close he is trying to kill me. If the car coming out of the parking lot even rolls its wheels he is trying to kill me. If soccer mom is one her cell phone she is out to kill me. They're all out to kill me so I must stay focused and alert 110% of the time. It's worked for 44 years......

 

[OneTrack]

1991- I was on the main road with the priority. I was travelling at about 40mph and slowing down for a 30 sign. A car came out from a side road right in front of me and I thought "****, that was close" Then a second car followed him and I did not even have time to brake...Smash...and right over the top.

There's a BIG message there. I did exactly the same thing many moons ago...congratulated myself on not hitting the car that pulled out in front of me, and was busy shaking my fist at them when I slammed into the second car that followed the first one out.

 

[AJ Babaganoosh]

Oct 07 - Came around a corner to find a deer standing in the middle of my lane and ran off the road trying to avoid it. Since then I have read several books and found out I did absolutely everything wrong.
1. going 55 in a 45 at dusk when it is prime time for deer. I knew better than this.
2. swerved to miss the deer. In David Hough's book Proficient Motorcycling, he recommends not swerving for deer because they are so unpredictable. They are just as likely to right or left and perhaps less likely to remain standing where they are.
3. chopped the throttle (Keith Code's survival reaction #1 to avoid)
4. tightened up on the bars (survival reaction #2) producing #6 among other things.
5. fixated on the white line (survival reaction #4) and consequently went right to it.
6. ineffective steering (survival reaction #6). Not trusting the bike and just turning sharper.
7. braking error - failing to get on the front brake hard enough once I had decided (wrongly) than I couldn't make the turn and straightened up (survival reaction #7).

I highly recommend the following books:
Proficient Motorcycling by David Hough. This should be included with all motorcycles sold to new riders. If you are a new rider and haven't read it, get it. The rest of the books are geared more toward the track but you can get a lot of good info from all of them that will make you a safer rider and improve your technique.
Twist of the Wrist II by Keith Code. (Volume I seemed to be geared almost exclusively to racing and track performance. I didn't get much out of it).
Total Control by Lee Parks
Sport Riding Techniques by Nick Ienatsch
Riding the Pridmore Way (or something like that) by Reg Pridmore.

 

[sportrider]

always check your tires

I made the mistake about 10 years ago that just because my tires were fine the day before they are still fine. I used to have a ZX9 (I sold it, not crashed it) I had been riding the day before and had checked the tires then. so the next day I decided to go for a spirited ride up a local twisty street with out even squeezing the tires. I mad it to the first tight left hander only to have my front end get really heavy and start to wobble. luckily i had dove in to the corner because I used every bit of the road and 3 feet of the shoulder to exit it. after I got through the corner I pulled over to find my front tire was nearly flat. how I didn't feel it before then I don't know but if I had checked it I wouldn't have almost ran off the road.

 

[nimzotech]

I anticipated that this would happen and it did. Always realize the situation ahead and expect the unexpected.

Good point. We must not only think for ourselves on the road, but for others as well.

 

[Sportfighter]

Be very careful when you change your oil!

I dropped my 06 fz6 right in front of my house after changing the oil and I forgot to whipe the excess oil that dripped onto the headers, so when I cruised through the first corner by my house I felt the whole back end just slip right out and down I went...sure enough you can see the oil patch where I lost contact.


I was shocked because I never would've thought I'd "go down" based on a mechanical error, as opposed to rider error or traffic accident.

 

[christod1]

I learned this and it keeps me alive: When I leave my property every driver, every rider and every pebble in the road is there to kill me. If the vehicle attempting to turn across my path moves he is trying to kill me. If the vehicle behind me is too close he is trying to kill me. If the car coming out of the parking lot even rolls its wheels he is trying to kill me. If soccer mom is one her cell phone she is out to kill me. They're all out to kill me so I must stay focused and alert 110% of the time. It's worked for 44 years......

I feel exactly the same way....

 

[Tailgate]

I'm the FZ7 and first one waiting for green on rural (but busy time) two-lane highway. There's a long queue (20+ vehicles) across the intersection traveling in the opposite direction waiting also. I love to pull the trigger the instant the light turns green...but not before making sure/positive there's not going to be a red runner. Green light. I must have been in 2nd or 3rd when, SHOCK: one of the motorists still waiting to get his turn to start moving on the green light in the opposite direction had stopped short of the vehicle in front of him and left enough room for a vehicle trying to exit and turn left from a store/shop and enter the highway going in my direction. The driver of this vehicle--you could tell---was blind and had no way of seeing traffic coming in the opposite direction (ME) and was just barely poking his front-end into my lane. This was an extremely dangerous situation created by both the other motorists: the one for thinking that he's doing a "favor" and the other for taking up---or beginning to---the "offer" and not just waiting until vehicles resume and clear out. By the time I realized this I was already well under way. LUCKILY, at least the motorist had enough sense (or was it not enough time?) to not enter my lane. I was shocked that I had put myself at the mercy of the luck of the draw. I hope that the other motorists, afterwards, realize that this was probably a 90% sure recipe for an accident. I was very, very lucky. Upon reflection, I imagine that this "favor" that the motorist created may have caused him and many of the drivers to miss the green light because here was this other vehicle with the front end sticking out sideways in the lane unable to enter the highway on the other side since there had been many vehicles behind me now at near cruising speed.

 

[HavBlue]

I'm the FZ7 and first one waiting for green on rural (but busy time) two-lane highway. There's a long queue (20+ vehicles) across the intersection traveling in the opposite direction waiting also. I love to pull the trigger the instant the light turns green...but not before making sure/positive there's not going to be a red runner. Green light.

About 30 years ago I knew a guy that had this same thought and he is now dead. As it turns out it was in your state although southern as opposed to northern California. In hind site he was right in his basic thought but this one time that got him he missed a cage gutter shooting the stopping traffic from the left. He never had a chance. That was enough to cure me......

 

[re-pete]

Very true!!! When I first started riding street bikes a good friend of mine gave me one word of advice.. "every thing on the road is out to kill you, keep it in the back of your head at all times" It's worked for twenty years.