Monday, September 29, 2008

Crashing

So, I get to type this post one-handed. Saturday afternoon was a lovely day for a ride, a little hot for the jacket I was wearing but not too bad. I decided to take a road I'd never been on, just to see if it went where I thought it did. Mistake number one. Almost immediately, the road started into what looked like a nice sweeping turn. Once I got about halfway through, I realized it was tightening down. Here is where I made the second mistake. Just days after I had been talking about discovering just how much looking all the way through the turn helps with stability and cornering, I look at the edge of the road in front of me. While I look in the wrong direction, I panicked about not being able to make the curve. Enter third mistake, I locked up my rear brake. The back tire started to slide out and I went straight off the road toward a slope down into a field. As soon as the tires hit the grass, they slide the other way, dumping me down into the ground elbow first.

I can't say enough about the kindness of strangers. By the time I stood up and gathered my wits, a bicyclist and the lady driving behind me had stopped and the biker was starting to pick up my motorcycle. Three motorcyclists also stopped when they saw me and called the EMTs for me, since I couldn't move my arm to get to my phone.

Basically, one broken front fairing, smashed turn signal, a few bruises, and one dislocated shoulder later, I learned a few things I would like to share and hopefully help some one else avoid my mistakes. First, sometimes riding the speed limit is too fast, especially when you're on unfamiliar ground. Second, look where you want to go. Had I looked through the turn, I would have reacted better to conditions. Third, and this goes with the second, lean more in the turn. I had plenty of lean angle left, I just didn't trust my tires and bike like I should have. Besides, if I had been further leaned over, I wouldn't have had as far to fall. ;)

No comments: