Passed my MSF class this week, interesting incident...
Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:46 am
Well, this tuesday and wednesday I took the MSF course here in Kansas City, MO. I'm happy I took it and I think it was a great learning experience. I feel a lot more confident about quick stops and slow speed manuevers now, can't wait to practice on my own bike. I passed with 100% on the written test and 99% on the riding test.
Anyways, the interesting part: About midway through the second morning, while we were practicing for the riding test, we were doing the double u-turn box and then straight into a right swerve. Well, I messed up the u-turn box a little bit and was still thinking about what I did wrong as I went towards the swerve box. Being distracted, I was a little too weak on my swerve and as the bike was leaned over to the right I hit one of the little cones with my front tire. At this point it happed so quick that I'm not 100% sure what happened, but what I believe happened is that the front tire hit the cone and then slid sideways to the left, then when it got back on pavement it caught and I basically experienced a high side fall. As the bike fell over to the left, my left foot caught the pavement and twisted backwards, so when i landed my left leg was under the bike pointed towards the rear tire. This also spun the right side of my body towards the pavement. So I ended up with 2 hair-line fractures in my right hand and 1 in my left foot. I did get back up on the bike and finish though. The 1 point I missed on the riding test was for going to slow on the cornering exercise, because it's very hard to shift into 2nd gear with a fracture on a bone on the top of the left foot, lol.
It was still fun and the instructors were very supportive. One of them even gave me a ride home after the class, because I couldn't drive my truck (it's a stick and the 4 hours since the crash my foot had swollen and my wrist had gotten tighter). And that instructor also called just a few minutes ago to check how I was doing.
So, no riding for me for a while, unfortunately. But I can't wait till I get to ride again. Just figured this was an interesting story to relate, hehe.
Anyways, the interesting part: About midway through the second morning, while we were practicing for the riding test, we were doing the double u-turn box and then straight into a right swerve. Well, I messed up the u-turn box a little bit and was still thinking about what I did wrong as I went towards the swerve box. Being distracted, I was a little too weak on my swerve and as the bike was leaned over to the right I hit one of the little cones with my front tire. At this point it happed so quick that I'm not 100% sure what happened, but what I believe happened is that the front tire hit the cone and then slid sideways to the left, then when it got back on pavement it caught and I basically experienced a high side fall. As the bike fell over to the left, my left foot caught the pavement and twisted backwards, so when i landed my left leg was under the bike pointed towards the rear tire. This also spun the right side of my body towards the pavement. So I ended up with 2 hair-line fractures in my right hand and 1 in my left foot. I did get back up on the bike and finish though. The 1 point I missed on the riding test was for going to slow on the cornering exercise, because it's very hard to shift into 2nd gear with a fracture on a bone on the top of the left foot, lol.
It was still fun and the instructors were very supportive. One of them even gave me a ride home after the class, because I couldn't drive my truck (it's a stick and the 4 hours since the crash my foot had swollen and my wrist had gotten tighter). And that instructor also called just a few minutes ago to check how I was doing.
So, no riding for me for a while, unfortunately. But I can't wait till I get to ride again. Just figured this was an interesting story to relate, hehe.