Kevinp4966 Posted September 8, 2014 Posted September 8, 2014 Ok I need a new pair of pants... Let me set the scene.... I was on a ride with the family, heading back from the ship Inn... Travelling at about 55mph through a national speed limmit and heading to a corner (didn't know the road so went in nice and gentle.... At least that's what I thought) Well to cut a long story short, the corner tightened rapidly and I found myself doing off roading on the grass verge after having failed to get the bike leant over, gently on the back break, took a tree branch down (which fuddy hurt) somehow stayed on the bike and recovered... Stopped and checked the bike and no damage done...... Just my pride and pants..... Never have I thought S*** that's it!!! With alarms going off in my head screaming this is not going to end well... I have decided I'm off to church sundays as miracles do happen.... Note to self don't ride like a tool.
blackhat250 Posted September 8, 2014 Posted September 8, 2014 Phew kev " you ran wide then , lucky nowt was coming other way,,
obriens65 Posted September 8, 2014 Posted September 8, 2014 I think you need to buy a lottery ticket. With luck like that you could be a millionaire. Glad it was only your pride and your underwear that was damaged.
Noise Posted September 9, 2014 Posted September 9, 2014 Was that the Ship Inn down here in devon over in East Stour? I know there are millions of Ship inn pubs but this one too has a bend like you describe and at night has also taken my mate off too. Glad that you and the bike are fine, now best thing to do is go and hunt the corner down again and show it whos boss
Kevinp4966 Posted September 9, 2014 Author Posted September 9, 2014 Nah it's near kings Lynn... Just shows if you ride like a tool especially on a road you don't know it's going to hurt.
Preload Posted September 9, 2014 Posted September 9, 2014 At lest you are OK Kev its just a learning curve. You'll be as slow as me soon wondering what around every corner. LOL.
Kevinp4966 Posted September 9, 2014 Author Posted September 9, 2014 I'm glad my bike wasn't damaged!! Never mind myself lol... NHS pays for me to be fixed I have to pay the first 2 grand to get my baby fixed!!! Lol.... I think 30 sounds like a nice speed right now
KirriePete Posted September 9, 2014 Posted September 9, 2014 Glad you're ok, but some questions: 1. Were you scraping pegs just before you went grasstracking? If not, why not? b. Did you actually think "Oh shit, here we go!" then tense up instead of relaxing and leaning more? iii. Before the bend, were you looking ahead for any clues as to where it really went - tree/hedge line, telephone poles, that sort of thing? To expand on Ttaskmaster - every event like this is a chance to learn more, so be analytical about the events leading up to the incident and see if you could have done anything differently to either avoid it in the first place, or recover without the need to hit the grass. Then the next time ....... you'll screw up in a completely different way, don't ask me how I know this!
Kevinp4966 Posted September 9, 2014 Author Posted September 9, 2014 Nope I wasn't scraping my pegs lol, brand new bike still breaking it in so have been taking it easy...... Well sort of anyway! Yeah I thought Ohh shit here we go this is going to hurt, tensed up shut the throttle, dropped a gear and gently rode the back brake trying to scrub some speed. Yes I was looking at the hedge line... Well tree and pilon line.... Looked like a gentle sweeper.... Turned out it wasn't. In hind sight don't play whacky racers on l plates on a road you don't know, pick your lines wisely and last but not least relax and stamp on the pegs if it starts to look like you over cooked if lol. In the heat of the moment I'll admit I was fixed on the tree branch I took out.... The upside is I saved the local council a job cutting it down.... 2
AndyBuk Posted September 9, 2014 Posted September 9, 2014 In the heat of the moment I'll admit I was fixed on the tree branch I took out.... The upside is I saved the local council a job cutting it down.... I know I shouldn't laugh... but I did, sorry :-)
Kevinp4966 Posted September 9, 2014 Author Posted September 9, 2014 It's cool it hurt like a bitch but I have to look at it and laugh... Bruise on my shoulder is truly amazing! Bought my lottery ticket haha if I win I'll buy everyone a drink lol.
Moderator drewpy Posted September 9, 2014 Moderator Posted September 9, 2014 good learning curve there I'm sure with practice you can get round that bend a lot faster. I know what you mean though, scary stuff when it all goes pear shaped!
dt502001 Posted September 11, 2014 Posted September 11, 2014 Good you came out ok ..but rule #1 don't look where you don't want to go or you will end up there,had you changed you focuse point you could have probably made it round the bend. Always look where you want to go 1/2 the time you will get there even if you come in to hot for your own comfort and a low side crash hurts less than trees,poles and armco barriers.
jimmy Posted September 11, 2014 Posted September 11, 2014 Glad you're ok mate, and as others have said, its important to read the road ahead. Not just tree lines, and poles but the road furniture. Was it solid white lines or broken lines very close together, were there arrows painted on the road, countdown markers....All these things help you to read an unfamiliar road. Of course there may have been none of the above, but it may help in the future
meatloaf Posted September 11, 2014 Posted September 11, 2014 Glad your OK kev,I did something similar many years ago when I was new to bikes, I was in a very posh area in Surrey and ended up putting a big skid mark in somebody's manicured front lawn as well as my pants. Learned from that mistake and to be honest I'm still learning now. Stay safe mate.
Kevinp4966 Posted September 11, 2014 Author Posted September 11, 2014 I don't remember any signs, was an unmarked back road all I had to go by was the tree and shrub line.. should have slowed down really but hind sights a lovely thing! I'll put the watching the branch get closer down as target fixation. Will learn from it though. Ride was going well until then! I'm still amazed that it clung to the grass as well as it did the road!! Haha meatloaf I bet the owners were pleased with The brand new free of charge flowerbed Got Sunday off so I might try that corner again more sensibly if I can remember how to find it.... Though I do speak 2 octaves higher now than I did before riding that toad of a road... I'd call them dips in the road but they felt more like canyons...
mcferreira100 Posted September 11, 2014 Posted September 11, 2014 Had similar experience on my GPZ550 back in 81. Corner tightened up horribly on me..this in the middle of the night and with coupla pints in me. There was pavements both sides and I actually mounted the pavement with the bike still at an angle. Must have been at just the right angle as the front wheel stayed in line and I made it over. Result was two bent rims and a mild heart failure. Learnt a lesson that nite..it never happened again.
Oldfjman Posted September 21, 2014 Posted September 21, 2014 Kevin, if you're going to beat the corner, before you do it again you need to know what you did wrong. There's been some decent advice here already, but IMO the most important bit has been missed. If a corner tightens up on you unexpectedly, it doesn't necessarily mean that you were going too fast for the corner - it more likely means that your entry to the corner and line through it, was wrong (on the right approach and line, your speed might still have been safe). This is the biggest mistake that riders (even those who've been riding for 20 years and more) make and I see it all the time, especially on you-tube videos. The cause is generally the result of either 1) going into a right hander too close to the centre line, or 2) going into a left hander too close to kerb. Many riders think that taking a tight line, or the inside line, is the best/fastest way around a corner - not true. Can I ask - did you enter this corner, out to the left, beside the kerb, turning in when you could see around the corner ? Or, did you enter it (and do you normally go into rightanders) between the middle of your lane and the white line ? There's a very well known saying amongst racing instructors "tight in, wide out - wide in, tight out". The fastest and safest is the second - wide in, tight out - the way most "untrained" riders ride is - tight in, wide out and that's why they keep running out of road/track. Your description of your incident is the classic description of a "tight in, wide out", approach - you come in tight to the centre line, don't have the best visibility through the corner, the corner tightens up on you "unexpectedly", you run wide (and target fixation takes over), off the road and into the grass. Coming in wide and looking through the corner minimises the risk of getting caught out like you did. There's also something Eddie Lawson used to teach - look as far along the track/road surface as you can see and as you ride, if the furthest point you can see (the vanishing point) is getting closer to you, then slow down. If the vanishing point is getting further away from you, you can accelerate (because your visibility distance is increasing). This also helps to get your speed right when cornering, reducing the risk of going in too fast. There's a lot more to this whole philosophy that's too much to write about here - but I'd be interested if this either 1) sounds like teaching granny to suck eggs, or 2) is remotely accurate and helpful. If it's 2), I'd be happy to point you some other sources of advice.
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