Over coming fear

[surfblue]

Hello everyone. I purchased a Honda Shadow 750 about 2 months ago. Havent ridden a bike for a few years. Had 10 miles on the bike and my peg caught a curb and I was thrown over the handle bars and landed about thrity feet. I was pretty banged up. Contusion on arm and elbow, cracked rbs and a broken big toe. Well I settled with insurance and bought another bike exactly like the first. The problem I have is that when I ride in curves I start freezing up and have a full blown anxiety attack to the point that I have to stop. I am taking the Motorcycle Safety course next weekend and am hoping that it will help but if any one has any suggestions I would apprieciate them. I live in the Blue Ridge mountains so curvy roads and mountains are something I am going to have to deal with will riding. I know the that Im suppose to psh and pull but Im afraid that the motorcycle in going to lean to far and Im going to crash.PLEASE HELP

[jstark47]

I'd hazard a guess fear is making you look down. Keep your eyes UP. Look where you want to go - and I mean where you want to go a ways down the road. A great deal of the rest of the technique flows from good eye discipline. It's the quickest way I know to break the fear - freeze cycle.

[Flipper]

surfblue,

Taking the MSF is a good idea, you may have picked up some bad habits that you aren't aware of.

As far as getting your courage back,
Post crash jitters are to be expected.
I think the best thing is if you can talk to someone you trust about all the feelings you have related to crashing.
Not what happened during the crash, but how you feel about it.
Someone you can really open up to.
Don't try to stuff those feelings and move on.

I crashed 6 months ago and separated my shoulder.
Being able to express all my vulnerable feelings somehow made me feel stronger emotionally.
I got back on the bike as soon as my shoulder healed.
The first ride I took was over the crash site.
That was 6 months ago. I ride all the time now.

Take your time and good luck with the MSF.

[Nibblet99]

I kinda know what you mean. Don't think I've mentioned this before, but a year ago I bought a new bike, which came with some arse tyres on it (cheap avons).

Riding all weather on a bike where you can easily get the back end stepping out in the dry is bad enough, in the wet, it was lethal (even light throttle and it lost traction). I'm pretty sure I glazed my brakes too trying to baby it everywhere. That and spending most of my life filtering through traffic, means I kinda got into the habit of keeping the bike upright.
When I finally changed the tyres at the start of winter (money was an issue at the time) old habits kinda stuck, and I carried on babying it everywhere, until a few weeks ago.
In the end I had to find a disused carpark, make sure there was no gravel, and got stuck in, pushing my mental limits and confidence more and more. Now I'm carrying that onto the road (when suitable) pushing the bike closer to what I know its capable of but my mind won't let me do yet. I'm getting there though chicken strips are getting thinner and close to scraping pegs when doing roundabouts now.

My advice from these recent experiences, is get yourself to an empty carpark, where there's no traffic, curbs are miles away, and you're free to turn as wide or narrow as you choose. If you need someone else to take your bike there for you, do it. Just give yourself some sandbox time where you can push your mental confidence in the bike, without all the other worries on the road. The MSF is a probably a good place to start in this respect.

Hope this helps
Andy

[Brackstone]

Taking the MSF course is a great idea.

Also flipper is right you've got to open up to someone. When you really talk about how you feel sometimes it helps you rationalize the whole situation and you can look at things more logically.

[Lion_Lady]

Hello everyone. I purchased a Honda Shadow 750 about 2 months ago. Havent ridden a bike for a few years. Had 10 miles on the bike and my peg caught a curb and I was thrown over the handle bars and landed about thrity feet. I was pretty banged up. Contusion on arm and elbow, cracked rbs and a broken big toe. Well I settled with insurance and bought another bike exactly like the first. The problem I have is that when I ride in curves I start freezing up and have a full blown anxiety attack to the point that I have to stop. I am taking the Motorcycle Safety course next weekend and am hoping that it will help but if any one has any suggestions I would apprieciate them. I live in the Blue Ridge mountains so curvy roads and mountains are something I am going to have to deal with will riding. I know the that Im suppose to psh and pull but Im afraid that the motorcycle in going to lean to far and Im going to crash.PLEASE HELP

How fast were you going to get thrown 30 feet? WOW. Can you describe how the crash unfolded? I crashed, but good, about 4 years ago. Was off the bike and in a cast for 4 months. I knew what I'd done wrong that contributed to the wreck, so there were no real fears about riding again. Knowing what happened is the best way to get over the fear. Then you know what to do differently if the same scenario unfolds.

Taking the MSF course is a good idea. You might even look around and try to find a smaller bike to get your "wheels" back, on. (If you can afford $1500 or so, you can certainly find something in a decent, small displacemnt, used bike).

Where in the Blue Ridge are you? I'm in MD, but Winchester, etc isn't beyond my reach, if you want someone to chaperone you for a ride or two.

P