Going down for the first time.

[Dark Angel]

I low sided my bike this last Saturday, and I was pretty upset. I was doing about 30 MPH and I shifted my weight into the turn and I looked into the turn. Then I thought, what if I take the turn to fast:confused:. I then looked towards the outside of the turn and then (of course) I proceeded to that direction:eek:. Needless to say, I went off the road at that point. Didn’t brake really, but I started to come off the throttle(engine braking!) and rode into the ground the whole way:p. Luckily, I went down in the dirt, with all my gear on, so no real damage. My bike just got a couple of scratches. Mostly I was just urked that I wrecked, but afterwards I was kind of nervous to get back on my motorcycle. So yesterday, I took him for a ride on 285 . I felt better after that:D.

[Dodsfall]

I'm sorry to hear about your mishap, but I'm glad you are ok. That's the important part.

Just keep practicing and it will get a lot easier!

[PassioneDucati]

Yikes! That must have been scary.

My dad told me a similar story:

He was out on his cruiser (during his college days) as a relatively new rider. He misjudged and overshot a tight corner and had to run the bike into the bushes in someone´s front yard to stop!

I guess the best you can do is consider yourself lucky because you weren´t going very fast.

Good luck!

[pintslayer]

Wow, what a misleading thread title...this is about crashing????

[RebelWithACause]

Wow, what a misleading thread title...this is about crashing????

Perv.... :eek:

Glad to hear you're ok, Dark Angel. Sounds like you started over-thinking things. Like Dods said, keep practicing and it'll become second nature before you know it :)

[Custom85VT]

Why do I hear 70's porn music playing in the back-ground? :p

[Dark Angel]

Perv.... :eek:

Glad to hear you're ok, Dark Angel. Sounds like you started over-thinking things. Like Dods said, keep practicing and it'll become second nature before you know it :)

Hummm. I din't want the heading to be I crashed, so that's what i came up with. Sorry to disapoint anyone...:p Anyway thanks RebelWithACause the only real damage was my front turn singnal on the right side. i took right off. :eek:easy fix though.:D

[pintslayer]

Good deal.

Low sides often snap the collarbone like a breadstick.

Glad you're up and running.

[Maico Shark]

good argument for roll bars. Glad you got off without injury.

[iptg]

Going down is never fun.

[elwood9270]

Angel, my first time on a bike many, and I mean many years ago, I forgot to lean into many curbs. Luckily, I was young and stupid at the time or I would have called it quits a couple of times.

The dumbest thing I did was to take my brother on the back of my old Honda 125 dirt bike jumping hills as a passenger. Believe me, it hurts when things don't go right!!!

[FlyBy]

very true, the fear will go away once you start riding again. I am very very new to riding but it happened to my car. My first ever accident, a guy rear ended me on a freeway and i was scared to death, but i continued to drive and guess what, another guy rear ended me again after around 8 months, but i still drive and now.. i don't have any fear of any kinda accidents :). not that i love accidents :eek:

In both the cases my car was totalled and i was paid by the other guy's insurance company.. but yeah had to go thru that hassle of finding a used car everytime.

[RoadWarriorService]

The most prevalent cause of motorcycle accidents is the failure to negotiate a turn. Though environmental factors may exceed the design of the motorcycle, this type of crash is far more often due to rider inexperience.

The best thing to do is take a rider training course. You'll be better at taking turns as well as judging them. And whether you take the course or not, keep your skills sharp. Practice dragging your pegs in a large empty parking lot.

If you can drag your pegs "on command" at a given speed, then you are fully capable of fully maneuvering at that speed. I can do it from 5mph all the way up to over 60mph, so my main concern is judging the turn and not my skill level.

(No, I don't do 60 in parking lots. I've graduated to interstate exit ramps.)

[PerrySB]

Your honesty is impressive and I’m sure you have learned from that mishap and it could have been much worse. Hi 49 in California claims several bikers the same exact way every year, problem is on many of these corners the riders end up dripping several hundred feet as they leave the roadway, very few live to recount their stories. Glad you are ok.

[schlyme]

my first time down was on a really tight hairpin turn on a mountain side going up hill so i was really slow, saw some rocks on the outside of the turn and thought i didn't want to hit them, yet i never took my eye's of them so guess where i ended up. with a small ditch before the side of the hill, i hit my breaks hard and was almost stopped when i hit the ditch so i kinda just tipped over alittle. but it still cost me $150 for a new front fender when i got home. the second time i just forgot my side stand and ended up with the bike on my leg when i got off and it fell over on me.

[Hawkeye]

the second time i just forgot my side stand and ended up with the bike on my leg when i got off and it fell over on me.

I have had a time or two when the stand is not all the way down, but it looks like it so the bike falls. Luckily I ride SS so they are not too heavy!

I did this same thing (without the crash) and came about 2 inches from the curb. I just kept looking at it and thinking to myself... I don't want to hit that, why aren't I turning faster! Haha! I beat my head against the wall a few times after I sat down and thought about it for a second.

[CBR600]

Sorry to that, but glad to know you are alright and still riding.

[89 kawi zx7]

wow thats crazy

[solitude]

Lots of practice. Good advice from warrior. Check out courses like brc, erc, total control, in That order. Never stop learning or practicing and don't ignore slow speed manuevers. It transfers into better understanding of the machines limitations. Glad your ok as it could have been worse.

[jwjw777]

Sorry to hear you fell.

My friend just fell of his r6 b/c he slipped on gravel.

End result was half his face was bloody and bruised due to no helmet...

Hes selling the bike to cover medical expenses now.

[jwjw777]

Oh forgot to mention he never took msf course and he didnt have his liscence.

[Frank_W]

He's lucky that he didn't get hurt much worse than he did.

[barkerdrmmr182]

I remember my first time I went down. I am a volunteer fire fighter for my town and the tones hit. STRUCTURE FIRE. and down the road I went. We have a Y that comes off our highway in town and I sped up to beat a truck commin over the railroad tracks. I was doin approx. 30MPH and as I made the turn (sharply) I heard a siren...looked over the little hill to see a light bar. I attempted to make the turn not so sharp hit a bit of loose gravel and thats all she wrote. I just lifted my leg up so I wouldnt get drug by it and let go. I slide through the intersection the Brush truck came over the hill saw me I waved them on pick up my bike and continued the rest of the way to the station. There I put on my bunker gear jumped in a truck and fought the structure fire. once the adrinelin wore off my knee hurt alot and couldnt bend it for like 3 days but only had a small amount of road rash. One of my buddies had saw the whole thing and I asked him "did I look stupid or did I look like a bad ass" his reply was "dude you looked like a bad ass" so I felt better about it j/p

[gkim4107]

haha, atleast it looked good. Glad everyone's okay

[surfales]

I low sided my bike this last Saturday, and I was pretty upset. I was doing about 30 MPH and I shifted my weight into the turn and I looked into the turn. Then I thought, what if I take the turn to fast:confused:. I then looked towards the outside of the turn and then (of course) I proceeded to that direction:eek:. Needless to say, I went off the road at that point. Didn’t brake really, but I started to come off the throttle(engine braking!) and rode into the ground the whole way:p. Luckily, I went down in the dirt, with all my gear on, so no real damage. My bike just got a couple of scratches. Mostly I was just urked that I wrecked, but afterwards I was kind of nervous to get back on my motorcycle. So yesterday, I took him for a ride on 285 . I felt better after that:D.


This is why I disgree when people say counter-steering is instinctive. If a rider is losiing it in a corner (feels like he won't make the turn) it's unnatural to push the handle bars in the opposite direction of the turn. But if you understand the principle of counter steering you keep on pushing to save your ass and lean that baby over even if your knees scrape.

[gkim4107]

My instructor in the MSF

[gkim4107]

wow... okay let me start again


My instructor in the MSF course, before handing out the completion cards sat us all down in the classroom, and asked us a question. He said " say your in a turn, and you realize your going too fast, what are you going to do?" everyone in the class knew we had just been taught not to brake with either brake, or use engine breaking, so we sat quiet waiting for him to answer.
his answer was this.

"When you are going too fast into a turn, and the moment you realize it you say OH ****.... thats when your mind will come back to right now." he went on to say. " YOU may not be able to make if through that turn, but that bike will. If you touch a brake, your probably going to go down, but the bike is made to be ridden in an extreme lean, so grit your teeth, squeeze the quarter, and keep the throttle right where its at, and your ass will 99 percent of the time come through it. the moment you let off the throttle or touch the brake, you have taken away the motorcycles ability to make it through the turn, now you just screwed yourself, and the motorcycle."

If there is one thing I learned in the class, that statement has stuck with me

[Archangel]

Glad you are ok and the damage is very slight.
Those turns can sneak up on you so be careful out there.

[rwhitesr]

my first time down was 2 minutes off the trailer with a brand new bike. i stopped counting after that. either it was down to miss a car that cut me off or miss another rider due to miscommunication and i am sure i will go down again. the one thing i have learned is how to put her down soft and slow

[Jay550]

gkim4107's instructor knows what he is talking about. Last week I came into a situation just like that. I clentched my teeth and road the turn all the way through. It felt like I was going down, my left elbow couldn't have been more than 2' from the ground, jut keep your eyes on the target, keep off the brake, and pray. And it happens exactly like that, soon as I realized I was going to fast, oh **** was the first, second, and probably third thing that came to my mind. It happened because it was cold, the bike was cold, and I was still riding full choke, so at idle in 2nd gear I was moving pretty well.

[Archangel]

Glad you are ok I know first hand going down is not fun.
I went down last week for the 2nd time.
My throttle stuck coming out of the drive way making the turn.
My bike all most died so I bliped the throttle to keep it from dying and the throttle stuck allmost full open.
Pulled a wheelie and hit the clutch and brakes and all most layed it on the van across the street so I pulled hard away from the van and as the bike was coming back up my glove slipped off the clutch and the rear wheel grabbed and spun around and hit the step board on the van and bent it, lucky my neighbor was cool about it he said it is to old to worry about it.

Broke the right mirror off scrapped the tack plate and the back scraped the new brake master cylinder cap & side back end of the pipes, man that sucks bruised and scraped my knee it still hurts like crap o well guess that is life.
Ya and my new armored textile pants came in the next day.

yep that's my luck.

[GSXR600K2_925]

I lowed sided once avoiding a car... Made a super newb mistake (molested my front brake) and my bike just went down I landed on it then fell on the ground and was asking myself "Why am I look at my head light?" O_o? Then slide on my butt for a little bit jumped up and picked up my baby... Broke my shifter lever... But still managed to ride it home!

[Archangel]

It all ways sucks to crash, even when you can ride away,
but if I have the choice, I want to be able to ride away no doubt.

[GSXR600K2_925]

Yeah I was mad... But I did live with minor minor bruise and sratches on my bike... They are a reminder... No molesting front brake!

[Archangel]

So far I have not went down from using to much front brake, but I have over used it a few times, just managed to keep it on the rubber side.
I sure hope my luck gets better I had not healed from my missing a turn and laying the bike down. ( my fault) Then the throttle stuck pulling out of the drive way, ( from a small pc of wood wedging under it from my wife's wood project) If my wife's wood working is don't kill me some day my driving might if I am not more carefull. :D

[GSXR600K2_925]

haha thats funny... what did your wife say?

[Archangel]

What could she say. She said Sorry...! :o I guess It must have blew under there when I was blowing off the wood chips and scraps the saw table blew every were.

[GSXR600K2_925]

Do you have life insurance??? =D

[Archangel]

Ya but not enough to make her wealthy in any way.
It will bury me and pay off the house that's all.

I am not that stupid!

[almostlegaljnl]

Im still waiting for that day.Its always in the back of my head that my time is coming one day.

[GSXR600K2_925]

Yeah I hate that thought. It makes me not want to ride. I can just picture getting hit and what it will sound like... that sound is just so evil! You know when bike hits car sound.

[minemich]

Wow, what a misleading thread title...this is about crashing????

HAHAHA! Good one.

I guess everyone will have a similar mishap at one point or another.

[Archangel]

Yeah I hate that thought. It makes me not want to ride. I can just picture getting hit and what it will sound like... that sound is just so evil! You know when bike hits car sound.

I have been in 6 car wrecks in my life so far only 1 was my fault the others were other people hit me. 2 times I was rear ended. the Idea of being rear ended on my bike is all ways in the back of my mind. Guess that is why I did not get rear ended a few weeks back I was watching and managed to pull up beside the car in front of me just before the car behind me could hit me, kind of make you rethink to bike thing but so far I am still riding.

[GSXR600K2_925]

Dude I have almost been rear ended several times by #$@)I@)($ cagers... Mostly getting of the freeway going from 70 to the posted 35 in ample time for everyone around me to slow down and when ever i look in my mirror there is a car hauling metal and they have to swerve to miss me... kinda makes me mad

[SOG]

Sorry to hear about that, but I am glad your didn't injure yourself... Anyway, turns take experiences, If unsure, just go slow, and once you got the experience and have your confident built up, you can go alot faster

[91kx250]

Good thing you are ok

[greyboyfan]

I can think of 2 times that, (if I hadn't had a buncha luck on my side), I shoulda /coulda been mangled. Both times, there was no one else on the road at the time.
I just rode on, loudly cussing myself and vowing to NEVER do that again, NEVER. That was years ago, but I can Stilll see both instances vividly (if I want to).

[willcarr]

Yeah, very soon after I got my bike I was driving on a curve and dcided to check my speed. As soon as I looked at the speedometer I unconciously straightened my front wheel and went right into the median. With the grace of God I somehow managed to ease back on the gas enough to slow down and slink back onto the pavement, narrowly missing a curb. I consider it part luck, part skill. But I almost crapped myself and if I hadn't been on my way to work I might have just gone home and parked the bike for a couple weeks.
It's all a learning experience. I was told years ago that there are two kinds of bikers, those who have gone down and those who are about to.
Oh, and the median was full of trees, and my wife still hasn't heard this story. I like when she rides with me, so she'll probably never know!:rolleyes:

[Grungydan]

Aside from the time (and a half) that I just flat dropped my bike on its side at a standstill (right after I got the thing, trying to move it around in the driveway), the only time I've lost it was just a couple of weeks ago.

My dumb ass thought that riding to class in 13 degree (F) weather was a good idea. My tires were hard as rocks and nowhere near warmed up at all, and I was coaxing it around this horribly badly build curve just away from my house (it banks out and is downhill in that direction...sucks) when the front tire slipped just a smidge. When I tried to get that under control, the back tire let go and down we went (gf was with me). Yeah...that hurt the pride more than anything, although my back was sore for a couple of days.

Minor damage to the bike and us, but felt like an idiot ('cause I was). So I learned that 13 degrees is "too cold". :)

[jmark]

Why do I hear 70's porn music playing in the back-ground? :p


I didn't actually know there was such a thing as 70's porn music. If it's anything like 70's porn, ya can keep it.... :)

Anyway, I wanted to jump in here to make a comment:

I don't think we should ever be speaking in terms of "the first time going down." The whole concept seems to assume that, one way or another, yer gonna go down...and yer gonna go down more than once. That's just the wrong way to think, imho.

I want to think in terms of NEVER going down. Of course, there are many things beyond my control, and I may go down (again), but I sure as hell am not going to think in terms of expecting to do so. When I get on my bike, I'm damn certain I am NOT going down. Ever. And that's the way I ride. My dad (a motorcycle rider before ANY of you were ever born :) ) always said, "Ride aggressively defensive." I like the concept.

I've been riding for well over 40 years. I've gone down in a serious way twice. Once when I was only 15, riding illegally on the street on a Honda 160 with worn out tires in the rain. It was very bad. I nearly died. My full coverage helment saved my life (and boy did it look bad). I was in the hospital for a long time and in traction for nearly a year. My father gave so much blood it almost killed him (he and I share a rare blood type). I got over it. The other time was in 1993, on my BMW K75, when some jerk ran a stop sign in New Jersey and I slammed into the side of her car. My full coverage helment saved my life (again).

I don't plan to ever go down again.

Please, you guys are young. Plan NOT to go down. Ever.

Mark

[Dodsfall]

I like your thinking Mark. Along that line of thought, we should always be planning what to do to keep from falling. Always be planning an escape route. Always be looking for the other vehicles that aren't looking for us. Always looking for the road hazards around the next curve.

Identifying the dangers well in advance is the best protection you can have. It's the things you don't notice that will get you.

[Grungydan]

I can understand that outlook, but I just consider it a fact of riding that at some point either through a moment of poor judgment or through something that's out of control, I'm going to fall off.

I certainly (with a recent dumbass exception ;)) ride with every intent of not crashing, but I personally think it's just wishful thinking to say I'm never going to fall. I feel like I ride safer knowing that I could have an accident than I would if I took the more aggressive "I'm not going to wreck" mentality.

It may just be semantics, but hey. :)

[letsgofast]

good insight guys. i'd just like to jump in if ya dont mind. i just bought a bike. i took a safety course (required in the military now a days). i've been riding nearly every day that's not sub-freezing temps. i always keep in the back of my mind that fear of taking a fall, but i took from the course to always constantly be scanning for the dangers of other drivers, wildlife, or perhaps the most dangerous, over-confidence.

[Archangel]

I still am reluctant on turns after I missed that 1 turn I Was messing with the choke It caused me to run off the road and lay the bike down at 30mph all I can say is it sucked

I still Have to deal with the fear I hope I get over it soon but if not I will still ride just reluctantly.

[Slim Johnson]

Im still waiting for that day.Its always in the back of my head that my time is coming one day.

and there aint nothin any of us can do about it... no one gets out alive!!:eek:

[jfudgeelder]

I've never laid my bike down so far but I've gotten in some hairy situations. A few weeks ago I was going up to a T intersection and I was going to turn right on to a bridge. This is a steep bridge that you can't see incoming traffic over so you don't see anything until it's too late.
I stopped at the stop sign and got ready to go but killed the bike. I start again, give it a little gas and realize that my clutch isn't all the way engaged so I go zipping out in front of a car that's coming down the bridge. No way I can stop, no way they can stop. I panic and freeze with the throttle rolled on and go across the oncoming lanes to the far gutter. Now I'm going against traffic in the gutter going up the bridge. I dunno if I was more scared or the other people were. Anyways, I ducked back across the lanes to the right side of the road as soon as I had a chance. I don't think I have ever been more scared in my life.
The closest second to that in my short experience was scraping my pegs when I made a fast hard turn. I didn't know what happened at first and I thought I was gonna die. That actually happened going on the bridge that I mentioned earlier. Maybe I should stop riding there.

[roflol]

DarkAngel, I am glad you ended up fairly all right, and glad you are back in the saddle again. Gkim, I didn't know that and will try to remember the information you passed on from your instructor... counterintuitive in my head, but that's normal!

I did this same thing (without the crash) and came about 2 inches from the curb. I just kept looking at it and thinking to myself... I don't want to hit that, why aren't I turning faster! Haha! I beat my head against the wall a few times after I sat down and thought about it for a second.

I'd been reading about this ever since I passed my BRC and had gotten on the internet, reading stories of people doing this very thing, the target fixation... and vowed I wouldn't do it... and I did some 6-7 months later; from a stop I turned left and had a stare-down with a sloped curb, apparently subconsciously willing it out of my way. I rolled right into it, up into a yard. Duck-walked very undignified-liked out of this position and continued home. So very glad nobody was looking.

I heard there are *three* kinds of riders... those who have gone down, those who will, and those who just don't ride enough... :]

And those of you who read something into the title... let me know when the MITGC officially forms here. lol

[wolfrages]

my frist time going down was out of my drive way...3ed time riding it"98 v-star 650"

i was getting ready to turn left on to a 2 laned street...had the clutch pulled in and was ready to go...gave it to much gas..scared the hell out of me....nothin to what happend next...i droped the clutch...and was turning left...right before i slamed into the curb frist though was "crap" after i slamed into the curb i was froced right off the bike and onto this guys lawn lol...as am laying on the grass looking at my bike on it's side and the gas spilling out...second thought was "****" got up checked my self out and got up and got on the bike...scraped the extaust...dirt on the rear brake nothin big...best part was the owner coming out and saying "are you ok?...well one good thing...at least it's not a harley..i so wanted to punch him lol"

[firedog]

my first road crash was a head on with a car, it sucked and made me rethink the street, so 8 years later I decided on track only

[Patriot]

It could have been worse. Alot worse.

[Cowgirl]

I bet everyone here has had a blooper. So don't feel bad. It's all a part of it. You fall off, you get yourself up and dust off your britches and get on that horse again.
I remember my first bike DOWN. It scared me some, but then I was also worried about the scratches on the paint. But the worst thing was, that the guy that was going out with me, started yelling and shouting...how stupid I was and a whole bunch of other stuff that made me feel really bad.
Anyway, time moves on and we get over it. And there are some great days ahead!

[Archangel]

Cowgirl
that guy was an a** every one makes mistakes and some times they make you go down and some times not.

[Cowgirl]

Yeah, that's right. But we just pickup a go on and everything is okay. I always try to remember that whatever I'm doing, at one point I was new, or a beginner or there for my first time too.
Have a great day!

[Bojangles1983]

Rough story, good to hear your ok.

[aweasel]

First time I went down it took me a month to rebuild it and about 4 months of gathering my nerves to ride it it at least close to what it was made for...that is carving up the back roads.

[black27696]

My MSF teacher told our class how to get through stuff like that. Basically he told us what gkim4107's teacher told them, "the bike can do it". He also told us that when stuff like that happened we would hear his voice in our head telling us what to do and all we needed to do was listen to it.

Well, I found myself going through a corner a little fast and my instinct was to brake but I heard Scott saying "if you touch that brake going through corners I'll duct tape your hand to the grip. Just push down on that bar" so I did, and I made it. :-D

[motorcitystevo]

I've been riding for 10 months and I went down on my birthday 4/6 . I'm not sure what I did wrong, becuase I was knocked out cold. I woke up in the hospital with a fractured eye socket and a cracked rib. The bike was not really hurt too bad and I rode it two weeks after the accident. I was definantly nervous and took it slow. I plan on taking a rider safety course in the near future. I live in TX and not many people wear helmets. Cracking your face makes you reconcider this option. I rode everyday the previous 10 days before the wreck and was having alotta fun. Now I'm a little scared but I'll get over it. Happy Birthday to me. Please be careful out there.

[j2look]

Please do not get me anything for my birthday with what you got for yourself.
Glad you got back on the horse that threw you. Ride safe and good luck

[Archangel]

Ride smart get a helmet and be carefull out there Man.
Glad to here you are ok.

[FOM]

Dark Angel - glad you were okay, I would of had to change my pants for sure!

To the others posting advice on cornering - thanks! As a newbie it is good to have the advice from my MSF course reinforced with "lecturing" from those who have the experience....it is good stuff. There are two tight curves (okay tight for me) I have to take on my way into work - I used the reminders from this thread to help me corner smoother - I have been a little choppy (hard to explain), but this morning I took them a ton smoother and it felt good. I just have to remember the whole counter steering thing and not freaking about leaning the bike. Thanks guys!

FOM

[Archangel]

It takes time but with practice you will be making sharp turns with no problems.
I looked at my tires and was surprised to see the tire ware 1/4" from the chicken strip edge so I must be leaning just fine now and I have been afraid to lean after my low side a while back.
My new tires are great and have gave me back my edge.

[FlyBy]

It takes time but with practice you will be making sharp turns with no problems.
I looked at my tires and was surprised to see the tire ware 1/4" from the chicken strip edge so I must be leaning just fine now and I have been afraid to lean after my low side a while back.
My new tires are great and have gave me back my edge.

Glad to hear that, just keep leaning :D its always fun.