In hindsight, how could you have avoided your first crash?

[Ditzian]

My only real crash was around 1969. I made it out to the left coast to do my hippie thing on a Honda CL350, picked up another biker at a rock festival, and followed him home to Seattle. In the rain, on the interstate, doing 55+, I rounded a curve to discover cars stopped from a fender-bender. A glance in the mirror revealed a cage passing me. I grabbed both brakes, and immediately left the bike and slid on my a##. No injuries to me; the bike lost a clutch lever and bent the handlebars a little. I rode that bike to the other guy's home after returning from the hospital with a band aid on my knee. I took up religion.

This was before discussion forums and MSF classes, both of which go a long way to spreading real knowledge. I took my first MSF course last year.

The proper answer to this situation was to have cut my speed as soon as it began to rain, and then to reduce it even more as I approached a blind curve. I am certain that there was no immediate action that I could have taken to avoid the crash.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That is also why I stuck with the religion.

[colorado58]

Me,it was being young and dumb,thought i was invincible.
riding too fast at night with a dim headlight. it was Thump ,fall and slide with lotsa road rash.

[isnowbrd]

This is not my first crash, but it is one that I remember well. It was many years ago when I was 15 or 16 years old. I had a Vespa motorscooter that I put a lot of miles on...
...so in a moment of panic I pulled the front brake handle instead of the clutch. The scooter took a nose-dive and I went over the handlebars.

On the plus side, I won't be running along side any other two-wheelers that I own. And hopefully I will always remember the authority with which the front brake engages.
JR

This past week I've had my Dad's 1981 Vespa P200e because he's driving one of my cars that I am trying to sell. I'm too scared to ride the thing in traffic just because of that front brake. You start to squeeze it and nothing happens, then all of a sudden, it’s full on.
Otherwise that Vespa is a blast to ride.

Back on topic. I don't have a crash to talk about because I've been pretty careful (lucky). The close calls that I've had were because of people turning in front of me and my own stupidity entering a corner too fast while target fixating on the edge of the road. In all situations, my training and riding education got me through with the shiny side still up.

[Venarius]

The easiest way I could have avoided my first crash was





DUN DUN DUN!






























Not speed.

[flynrider]

I could've avoided my first crash if I'd learned to ride first. It was 10 min. into my first ride on my first bike. I was making a right turn in a residential neighborhood and felt I should slow down a bit, so I hit the front brake. Never forgot that lesson, but had to crash many more times over the next few years before all of the lesson learning was done.

[Sculelos]

I could of avoided my first and second crashes if I had braking and throttle down good.

Both crashes where on a buell blast

1) at an 4 way, I stoped then was gonna go left so I rolled on the throttle, only problem was I was still using front brake, that landed me on my side.

2) Going down road at night at 55mph, see the light change from green to yellow to red in like 1 second, panicked and grabed my brakes, that locked up my front wheel and I lowsieded,

Both my crashes could of been avoided with better braking and throttle.

[CajunBass]

I must have clicked on the poll, but never replied.

I apparently don't really remember my first, and I pray my last crash. I remember that I was going downhill, when revisiting the scene tells me I had to have been going uphill. There are other differences than what I remember. All I'm really clear on is that suddenly there was a car stopped in front of me, and I knew I was going to hit it. I clamped down on both brakes, locked the rear wheel and went down. At least I didn't hit the car, or get hurt seriously, but did scratch my bike up a bit.

Going back over the scene the only conclusion I can come to is that I dozed off for a few seconds. I was working the midnight to 8 am shift, and was heading home to meet my wife for lunch when she got finished with her physical therapy. (bad back)

I have an almost two hour commute, so I was pushing myself to get home in time. I don't remember being particularly tired that morning, but it's the only explanation that fits the end results.

So, how could I have avoided it? Quite easily. By not riding when I was tired. I learned a lesson. Now I will STOP and get off the bike. I leave earlier to give myself an extra cushion of time. I take short stops to break the monotony of the trip. I even take a 10 min power nap if necessary. Whereever I'm going will be there when I get there.

Driving while sleepy is BAD. Riding a motorcycle is worse.

[Kaiser Soze]

My only crash was probably 16 years ago (when I was 16), grabbed too much front brake around a right hand turn going about 50km/hr, lowsided the bike and slid on my butt. It was only dad's '82 Nighthawk 750. I thought he was going to kill me. Definitely my own stupidity because I hardly had any riding time under my belt at all (well, roadbike time), though some goes to my dad for letting me out on it with no experience too.

Actually I rode my '06 GSX-R750 with him this summer, he's still got that damn Nighthawk. It looks almost as good as my bike! (they friggin' last forever)

Anyway, I'll just say that you have to pay attention ALL THE TIME. I've been getting cut off almost daily for the last little while, and came really close to biting it yesterday. Following a van, and I took the offramp to the right. I had this feeling the van may try and take the ramp at the last second too for some reason, so I hung back for a few seconds more than normal... nope, they're going straight... so I take the ramp and accelerate a little bit and WHOA here comes the van swerving hard to make the ramp. I had to swerve hard to get into the shoulder or they would have knocked me silly.

That overplayed saying about pretending you're invisible out there? Well, it's SO true. People won't see you and they will cut you off. Be ready for it!

[badfish89]

for me it is option 2 and stupidity. i was lucky to come out of it alive.

[whip]

Well I could have avoided my crash if I would have stopped doing wheelies...


Went over backwards didn't get hurt bad but did 1k in damage to the bike.