When skin meets asphalt

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kabob983 · #1 Post by **kabob983** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 1:23 pm

Oh the joy! What's the easiest way to take a great day of riding and turn it into pain? A nice low side will do the trick!

We were riding through a fantastic section of sweepers up some mountain with perfectly paved roads and very wide lanes.. All of the sudden we move to an area with terrible roads that is just barely two cars wide with no center line. So, I'm riding with some buddies and take a blind hairpin a little too aggressively (doh!) and realize partway through the turn that there's no way I"m going to make it. There's a very narrow patch of green beside the road and then there's an earthen wall, so I decide if I'm going to go down anywhere it might as well be there. So I begin my lowside (silent curse words running through my brain) on the pavement with the intent of ending up in the green. Eventually I ended up rolling over my bike. I braked before I went down hit so I was probably doing 25-30 mph or so.

Well, thankfully MOST of my body was covered in leather riding gear (boots, gloves, jacket). I'd heard it said that jeans will only last about 2 feet in a 30 mph slide over asphalt, and I can honestly say that this is true. My knee couldn't have touched the asphalt for more than a few feet and I've got some nasty parallel lines cut into it right now. My gear has a few scratches, but overall it came out alright (whew). My favorite pair of jeans now has a hole in the knee (doh!). The bike, while mechanically fine, did not come out as well. The front-left fairing pretty much broke off and both my front turn signals are dead (one ripped off, one just non-responsive). Also, the front fairing bracket is bent.

There's a tiny pinprick in my coolant hose but we manage to makeshift patch it for the ride home. That should be a snap to fix.

The bike started right up without any fuss (at least I know the EX500 is durable!) and with a few quick adjustments (my bud somehow temporarily reconnected my fairing) and we were off. No problems with the bike mechanically, and honestly after he put the fairing back on it doesn't look too bad, but I know that inside she's crying! (I'm so sorry baby! I promise it won't happen again!)

Sooooo...looks like I'll be investing in some armored riding pants (which I've been trying to get for a while). Even mesh would have been fine (thanks to the armor in the knees). I also will probably look around for a new front fairing. It looks a lil' rough ATM.

Morals of the story: One, don't get cocky and try going faster than your pace. The guys I was riding with both have years of experience over me. And two, motorcycle gear can save your skin! I'm sure my knee is going to be sore for a while and I am sure that there will be a scar there when it does heal. Ride smart! I was lucky that I wrecked at a slower speed and that I finally ended up in some grass/weeds. Could have been alot worse!

Ride safe!

VermilionX · #2 Post by **VermilionX** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 1:27 pm

that sucks dood!

glad you're ok though. bikes and egoes can be fixed.

PS. didn't you hava teknic violator suit you got cheap?

kabob983 · #3 Post by **kabob983** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 1:30 pm

The ego is alright, the bike is a lil worse off. I know I'm still a newer rider and I'd rather have learned my lesson there than someplace where it could have been alot worse.

And yeah, I got the violator suit but didn't wear it today (didn't think we were going to be going up there at all, thought it was going to be a shorter ride).

Kinda wish I'd throwin it on nonetheless (even if it'd have been overkill for 99.9% of the ride).

Skel3tor1 · #4 Post by **Skel3tor1** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 1:36 pm

Glad you came out of that alright and good thinking with slowing yourself down as much as possible before you low sided. Good luck with getting your bike squared away in a timely manner

VermilionX · #5 Post by **VermilionX** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 1:38 pm

there's no such thing as being over dressed when riding.

oh wait... maybe the scarf counts as over-dressed.

anyway... how was your analysis or the crash? did you figure out how you could have avoided it?

im confused by this...

kabob983 wrote:So I begin my lowside (silent curse words running through my brain) on the pavement with the intent of ending up in the green. Eventually I ended up rolling over my bike. I braked before I went down hit so I was probably doing 25-30 mph or so.

begin your low-side?

Sev · #6 Post by **Sev** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 2:06 pm

"fudge" dude, that sucks. On the bright side you're still in one piece, and the bike still runs.

I've got scars on my knees too from low siding. I always wear armored pants now, lol... sigh.

kabob983 · #7 Post by **kabob983** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 2:17 pm

Sevulturus wrote:"fudge" dude, that sucks. On the bright side you're still in one piece, and the bike still runs.

I've got scars on my knees too from low siding. I always wear armored pants now, lol... sigh.

Life and learn I guess (must not have lived as much as you have!)

And Verm, yeah, I said start my low side. It all came down to whether I wanted to ride into the earthen wall or low side it and hope to miss it. I was headed off the road one way or another. The optimal choice would have been to lean more but at the pace I was going I couldn't do that in time. Amazing how quickly the mind works when choosing the lesser of two perils!

VermilionX · #8 Post by **VermilionX** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 2:24 pm

kabob983 wrote:
Life and learn I guess (must not have lived as much as you have!)

And Verm, yeah, I said start my low side. It all came down to whether I wanted to ride into the earthen wall or low side it and hope to miss it. I was headed off the road one way or another. The optimal choice would have been to lean more but at the pace I was going I couldn't do that in time. Amazing how quickly the mind works when choosing the lesser of two perils!

maybe, just maybe, if you had time to think about both perils... you had time to lean more?

or maybe not.

sorry... just trying to sort things out and maybe learn from your experience as well.

kabob983 · #9 Post by **kabob983** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 3:13 pm

I thought about that already. I did lean more, but even with that it wasn't enough. I could either lean until I didn't have enough traction to stay upright or aim for the softest patch of asphalt I could find. Hopefully I made the right choice...

Sev · #10 Post by **Sev** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 3:20 pm

You're going to try to second guess and hate yourself for going out that day for a long time. The key is to ignore that, and just learn from the experience. It's tougher then it sounds, but it's what you have to do... go over it a couple of times, make sure you know what went wrong, and then force yourself to stop thinking about it. Otherwise you're going to beat yourself up forever.

How did the boots work out? They were pretty spiffy looking boots, I wouldn't mind having a pair.