I crashed....

[-Holiday]

Is your bike doing a 12 O'clock by itself?

no, thats me doing a 9 o'clock

[Kal]

A big plus one to you getting healed up and back out on the road as soon as possible.

What I will say is if at all possible avoid riding over manhole covers and whitelines - neither offer much traction and increase the chances of your bike losing it even without added braking stress.

As part of your forward scanning I'd recomend you pay more attention to what you are riding over on the road and avoiding trash and other low traction obsticles.

It's a skill that comes with practise, I am still no where where I want to be with it but the skill improves with focused practise.

Between your forward scanning and the two second rule (four in the wet or adverse conditions) most accidents can be avoided, even if they are 'not your fault'

For the record I put my bike down twice in my first 18 months so feel free to tell me to gull darnit.

[onlystring]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I may not have made it clear before, but it definitely was not the cage drivers fault. He was stopping hard, and I wasn't panic stopping, just stopping fairly hard also (maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of total). It's actually something that happens fairly often if you ride in the far right lane for any amount of time (almost all roads out here are 2 or 3 lanes both ways + a turn lane). It wasn't an extreme situation, just an unfortunate combination of a few different things. I agree that more space would have probably helped by maybe giving me time to see the manhole, but that's just not the way people drive during rush-hour. At first I always left a good amount of space, but after a few jerks started cutting me off to merge over I kept closer to the guy in front of me. I know it's not an ideal situation, but what can you do?

I do however feel that there are some things I should do to help prevent this from happening again. I need to get more familiar with losing traction on the front wheel. I've only tested a front wheel lock once before and I figured that would be enough, now I'm thinking maybe it's not. At the msf they had us lock up the rear a few times to get a 'feel' for it and learn how to manage it. I need to learn what it feels like when the front locks so I know what's happening and react accordingly(release and re-apply). I know how dangerous this sounds, but I can't think of any other way to be more prepared if this happens again.

Once again thanks for the replies and concern everyone.

[Kal]

Your braking technique would be right, but you have very, very little time to do it right in. Professional racers mess this up everyday. (Wnat to guess what I've been watching on satallite?)

The honest answer is if its a choice between having enough space in front of you for your ride and having jerks use it to pull into or allowing them to force you to ride too close to the vehicle in front then let them pull in and have the space.

At some point on the ride you will go banging past them as if they are standing still so why let them put you in a position where you may have an accident?

And their Car-ma is that they are stuck in a cage, whereas you on your ride are having the time of your life. It all works out, trust me.

[sv-wolf]

Your braking technique would be right, but you have very, very little time to do it right in. Professional racers mess this up everyday. (Wnat to guess what I've been watching on satallite?)

The honest answer is if its a choice between having enough space in front of you for your ride and having jerks use it to pull into or allowing them to force you to ride too close to the vehicle in front then let them pull in and have the space.

At some point on the ride you will go banging past them as if they are standing still so why let them put you in a position where you may have an accident?

And their Car-ma is that they are stuck in a cage, whereas you on your ride are having the time of your life. It all works out, trust me.

+1 String. Losing your front wheel is much more difficult to deal with than losing your back. The chances are you are going down, whatever! Much more useful is to add your recent experience to your list of 'what if's...' What if the guy in front of me brakes suddenly to turn off? - and ride accordingly.

And sev is right about road rash. It can take a long time to heal. 2 1/2 years it took to heal fully, the last time I had the pleasure of meeting the road (I think that is exceptional, but it makes the point).

Go easy for a while!

[sharpmagna]

If you lock up the front binders during hard braking, immediately get off the front brakes or you WILL go down. I locked up my front brakes during my MSF course on the "Quick Stop" test. I immediately got off the brakes and then back on. I spoke to the instructor right after and he said that was pretty much the only I could have done.

[onlystring]

haha, I may have given the wrong impression. I'm not planning to try to ride down the road with my front tire locked. I ment I need to get better at threshold braking. Get used to "listening" to what the front tire is telling me. I think that maby if I was able to realize that my front locked and react unconciously I *might* have been able to avoid the low-side. Also, I do need to change my scanning tequnikes. I need to watch for man-holes, paint lines, tar snakes, etc alot more than I do now. Even though I dont really feel "at fault" it turns out there's quite a bit I can learn from the whole expirence.

Thank you to everyone for their posts and advice.

[qwerty]

We cannot always avoid slippery spots. I release the front brake as I go over such hazards, then get right back on. I practice with the lines and markings on the road, first at low speeds at stoplights, then at higher speeds at railroad crossings and such. Now, it's second nature. I do it without thinking.