Total Motorcycle Community Forums

NorthernPete wrote:well they say the bestest thing to do is get back on that horse again!

True. \
When I was into offroad MX, I destroyed plenty of bikes, landed on quads after coming off a double, and about a dozen high speed unions with trees.

Keep ridin' and stay away from minivans.

I have to admire your willingness to share your experience to the benefit of both yourself and others. There are a lot of loudmouths who aren't big enough to admit an error in hopes someone else will learn from it.

Old-N-Slow is dead on about leaving a cushion. It's always best to leave space in case you need to bail out from someone bearing down on you, or as in your case, a sudden stop.

Glad to hear you're ok!

Glad you're ok! And again, just practice panic stops, until you can do it without locking the brakes without thinking. I had to panic stop today, and was very happy when I realized I stopped in plenty of time, and hadn't panicked and locked the brakes.

Glad to hear your ok. I had an accident about 6 weeks ago a little more serious than yours. I had locked up the breaks too. As soon as I let go of the breaks I ate the pavement hard. All happened within 2 seconds.

From reading your description it sounds like you locked up the rear brake. In that situation you are supposed to stay on the rear break until you stop. At least thats what they said in the MSF class. Its all relative tho I suppose. If you stayed on the break you mite have in the mini van.

And remember to keep track of road surfaces!

Riding home from work yesterday I was cruising along a surface street and a light turned yellow ahead of me... I checked behind me (nobody) so I decided to stop... I just started to ease on the brakes when I started hearing a high pitched whistle sound (very strange sound, not "sliding tire" at all)... the rear wheel was starting to lock up... when the rear end started to slide side to side I wound up straightening out, releasing the brakes, and going through the yellow light.

The pavement had just been resurfaced. It was all shiney black fresh asphalt.

I found myself some not-so-shiney road and stoped far more agressively no problem.

I'm not saying that was the problem on this corner, but I think all of us should have a little mental database of "road surface looks like this... I brake this way" we use as we're riding. I know I need to build up that database in my brain.