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Well. . . it happened. Damn it! ]

So I'm in a parking lot practicing and I'm shifting from 1st to 2nd on a straight away and when I go to downshift back to 1st to enter the turn, DOWN I GO!

There was a three foot skid mark, but I have no recollection of ever touching the rear brake. Well, long story short is I went down hard. Good news I only bent the rear brake pedal a bit and there is a small scratch on one of my pipes. The right side mirror came loose, but was tightened and is undamaged. As for me, I got a scrape on my elbow and wrist - it was as painless as it could have been, truthfully. I am very lucky. If I was not wearing a jacket my right arm would be a mess.

How did I react? I jumped up, picked my bike up, assessed the damage, got back on and went right back to it. My rider coach was scared. He saw me go down and said it looked bad.

The really lousy thing is I was tooling around shifting nicely and felt really comfortable this practice session, except for that damn low side. Everything else went really well. The crash occured halfway through the session, so the first half was good and the last half was good. The middle? Not so good.

Well, I wish I could say I learned a lesson, but I can't really say what happened. Based on the skid mark, I guess I went too hard on the rear brake and locked up the wheel.

Anyway, my rider coach wants to get me out on some quiet streets. Despite today's low side, he thinks I'm doing a good enough job turning at low speeds and controlling the bike. He believes the hardest stuff is at low speeds in terms of figure 8's, starting on a hill, and manuevering in tight spots - all of which I'm doing pretty well at.

Anyway, that's my progress thus far. I laid the bike down once on a hill start last weekend, but that was a basic lay down - no damage to me or the bike.

Everytime I get on the bike I feel a little more confident, but I'm always careful to not think I've got it mastered - because I don't. I'm also being told by everyone that even "good" riders low side and lay their bikes down from time to time. As for today, I got a bruised elbow and an even more bruised ego.

glad your ok! and heres to easily repairable bike boo boos!

Just for next time, there really is no need to shift back into first when entering a turn. The throttle is a lot smoother in 2nd than in 1st gear. Sorry to hear you dropped the bike, but realize almost everybody drops their bike atleast once.

Chris8187 wrote:Just for next time, there really is need to shift back into first when entering a turn. The throttle is a lot smoother in 2nd than in 1st gear. Sorry to hear you dropped the bike, but realize almost everybody drops their bike atleast once.

Ya, just work the clutch with your left hand. It's a wet clutch so no worries about burning it up. You only need to be in first when starting from a complete stop. Heck, I've even started from a stop in 2nd when I forgot to shift down with no problem at all. You probably let the clutch out too fast and spun the back wheel.

it sounds like the engine braking from downshifting was enough to throw you off, were you leaned over as you downshifted? first is a rough gear, and very difficult to smooth out unless you have good clutch control

Same here, last weekend we were doing sharp corners from both sides in a staggered pattern (left, right, left) and I was coming in from the left turn side to go back up the middle when I saw another rider coming from the right turn side right at me. Somehow our stagger got out of sync and I panicked, hit the front brake looking right at the oncoming bike and went down. Pretty slow speed, was in second gear. Learned my lesson.

Glad you are OK. I want to get out on the roads and open it up a bit, but just staying in the neighborhood now, 25-35mph still getting comfortable with the bike.

Glad to hear that both you and the bike are okay. And that your jacket held up well.

It's probably been covered already, but it sounds like you just let the clutch out to fast and the sudden change in speed broke traction for the back tire and away you went.

Just a little smoother on the clutch and you'll be fine.

Sounds like engine braking and such locked up the wheel when you downshifted.

2 solutions

1) If you decide to downshift like that make sure you let the clutch "feel" its way out, don't just let the clutch out or you could get rear wheel chatter like it sounds you did.

2) Don't downshift! If I'm on my VTX in 3rd and taking a turn and don't feel like shifting, I just hold the clutch in a little bit and release power to the wheel gradually so as not to lug the engine.

Yup. One of the things I have had a problem with is letting the clutch pop out too fast when going from 1st to 2nd and back to down to 1st again. I have yet to get the bike up to third gear. Just haven't worked up to that speed yet.

Also, I wasn't downshifting for the purpose of making the turn, I was just practicing shifting up and down in a parking lot and a turn was coming so I got nervous and wanted to shift back down before I went into the turn. Won't do that again! You are saying the engine will not lug in 2nd at low speeds?

The other thing I was having trouble with was rolling off the throttle during shifting. I had it in my head that the bike would need to sustain speed during the shift, and so I would keep a slight throttle throughout the shift. BAD! The engine sounds awful when this is done. Now I trust the momentum will carry the bike for the brief time it takes to shift up and so I completely ease off the throttle, pull in the clutch, shift up, then roll on throttle again.

My instructor says at higher speeds, say going from 3rd to 4th and 4th to 5th the clutch should be released much faster than when going from 1st to 2nd or 2nd to 3rd. Is it true that at lower speeds you want to "ease" the clutch out versus releasing it faster at higher speeds?

clutch in
let go of throttle
press down on the shift level
blip throttle
clutch out SLOWLY


All you need to know. Now, actually coordinating it... that can be a different story.