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Okay, so a case of the blind leading the blind ... a coworker of mine told me that he too took the MSF course and bought a bike. Cool, so we're out riding this past Sunday have a really good time, and then on a pretty empty road doing about 55 there's an 8 foot long 2 by 4 accross the road. He's in front and see's it first. Luckily for me, I see him max braking and so I start mine early enough to actually stop before I hit the 2 by 4, unfortunatly, he doesn't.

Luckily the damage to him and the bike is not severe, and we decide to head back home after of course move the wood off the road and picking up mirrors and turn signal parts.

So, what should he have done differently? Talking about the incident afterwords, we came up with a theory. Perhaps easing off on the brakes just before hitting the 2x4 allowing the shocks time to uncompress, because he felt that he had already bottomed out before hitting.

Oh well. Ride safe everyone, and wear all your gear.

Thomas

To be honest i would have dropped it in a lower gear and gave some gas to get the front wheel off so the impact was on the rear more than the front.

UNEVEN SURFACES AND OBSTACLES
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Watch for uneven surfaces such as bumps, broken pavement, potholes, or small pieces of highway trash.

Try to avoid obstacles by slowing or going around them. If you must go over the obstacle, first, determine if it is possible. Approach it at as close to a 90º angle as possible. Look where you want to go to control your path of travel. If you have to ride over the obstacle, you should:

Slow down as much as possible before contact.
Make sure the motorcycle is straight.
Rise slightly off the seat with your weight on the footpegs to absorb the shock with your knees and elbows, and avoid being thrown off the motorcycle.
Just before contact, roll on the throttle slightly to lighten the front end.
If you ride over an object on the street, pull off the road and check your tires and rims for damage before riding any farther.




This is off the DMV study book for NYS

http://www.nysdmv.com/mcmanual/ride_within.htm

depends on where exactly the board was.

if it was a straight shot i would have tried to roll over it if i couldnt stop.

if it was in a curve where it would have slid out from under me..... i woulda tried to ride over it. and then picked up the turn signals

I wouldn't have tried to stop. I would have simply swung around it if possible.

If not, I would have slowed down and dropped a gear or two, but blipped the throttle as the front wheel went over.

We rode over 2x4s in my MSF class. It's no big deal. You just ride right over em.

The road we were on was a two lane back road and the board was at a slight angle, but pretty much stretched from one side to the other.

I suspect that if we spent more time scanning the road as opposed to pointing out cool scenery, we would have seen the 2x4 earlier.

Thomas

tanitatt wrote:The road we were on was a two lane back road and the board was at a slight angle, but pretty much stretched from one side to the other.

I suspect that if we spent more time scanning the road as opposed to pointing out cool scenery, we would have seen the 2x4 earlier.

Thomas

Was your buddy on the brakes as he hit the 2x4? That would cause him to go down.

What he should have done was slowed down a bit, aimed squarely for the 2x4, and blipped the throttle slightly as his front tire hit it.

You guys should bring a 2x4 to a parking lot somewhere and practice this. I'm surprised you didn't do it in MSF. I did.

tanitatt wrote:I suspect that if we spent more time scanning the road as opposed to pointing out cool scenery, we would have seen the 2x4 earlier.

that probably would have helped sounds like your buddy panicked a bit, a 2X4 isn't that bad to ride over at the angle you describe, you've just got to be ready for it, and then after you've hit the damn thing, pull over and make sure you didn't break something

jonnythan wrote:Was your buddy on the brakes as he hit the 2x4? That would cause him to go down.

What he should have done was slowed down a bit, aimed squarely for the 2x4, and blipped the throttle slightly as his front tire hit it.

You guys should bring a 2x4 to a parking lot somewhere and practice this. I'm surprised you didn't do it in MSF. I did.

Yeah I did that in my MSF too.... they also told us to lift our butts off the seat as we did it and use our legs as shock absorbers.

The first one was a little nerve racking, but after that it was fun. I was catching air on the little suzuki 250...

Yeah, we didn't do that in my MSF course. And yeah, he was on full brakes when he went over the 2x4

Thomas