1st time you dump!

[rvgal]

Well have had the bike a total of two weeks and I dumped it today. Not to worry no damage to the bike and just a few scrapes for me.
Now just a word of advice, when they tell you in the safety course to look where you want to go on a turn DO IT! Do not look anyplace else, if you do you will go there. I went to turn left out of a parking lot and instead of looking where I wanted to end up I looked at the curb about 1/2 way in the turn.
It will happen, you will dump sooner or later. Mine was sooner than I wanted. Went right to a big parking lot and practiced for a while after.

[Lion_Lady]

Yup. What you did is called "target fixation" - probably THE most common newbie mistake. Looking at that thing you don't want to hit.

Some of us "experienced" riders do it on occasion, too. We simply have the experience (from mistakes like yours) to wrench our eyes away in time to avoid it.

P

[MZ33]

Glad to hear you & your bike are both okay!

It is counter-intuitive, isn't it, to look away from possible danger? It seems so reasonable to study a problem in order to find a solution. On a motorcycle, however, we don't have the luxury of time to admire the problem, so we have to focus on the solution. Right now. (I can sigh and mop my brow later.)

Happened to me the other day. Turning right onto a familiar street (with a brand new front tire), I realized there was a 1-foot square hole directly in the center of the street I was turning onto. I was partially puzzling over why it was there, how long it had been there, and what would happen if my tire hit it before I finally got around to "OMG, look up and around it, look to where you want to be, 'cuz you surely don't want to be there!"

It's very hard to know there's a potential disaster right next to me and not look!!

[ofblong]

2 years today and I havent dropped yet. With that said I have done what you did and target fixated but "hey I gotta look away" comes immediatly to mind.

[Shorts]

Ohhh - the golf ball size rock in the road...'don't look...don't look....don't look" Often its "oh look, a rock...clunk"

[ofblong]

Ohhh - the golf ball size rock in the road...'don't look...don't look....don't look" Often its "oh look, a rock...clunk"

I tend to fixate on the motorcycle on one of the corners I turn onto coming home from work. Usually I am able to save myself and keep going lol.

[Grey Thumper]

It will happen, you will dump sooner or later. Mine was sooner than I wanted. Went right to a big parking lot and practiced for a while after.

Well, at least you're okay, and more importantly, you learned from it, which will hopefully prevent something more expensive and/or more painful from happening further down the line (at least, this is the logic I use to excuse MY dump).

[Tower18CHI]

I dropped my first bike within 30 seconds of taking ownership, lol, does that count? (I took it off the center stand without being ON it, and wasn't prepared for the weight)

[dean owens]

i almost had that happen when i first started riding. i honestly don't know what kept me from hitting the curb. i just barely missed it. i still think back to that and wonder. glad you're alright. i'm not sure i would have been at my speed and what was around me.

but, i too have learned to look where you want to go by dropping my bike. not fun at all.

[shane-o]

target fixation is a disease i do battle with every day when the babes are out in their tight titty tops n short skirts