Ever crashed?

[blaine]

Sounds like you had quite a ride.Glad your o.k. :rawk:

[Viirin]

Glad your alright man and hope the bike isn't too messed up

[ArizonaKev]

I echo blaine and viirin's sentiments - glad you're ok cayuse.

And thanks for posting this as yet another testament to the ATGATT philosophy. Sounds like you might have had a little "unwanted makeover" if not for that full face helmet, as well as some other injuries and road rash.


AZ Kev

[DrSpeed]

sorry for the horrible grammar and no the guy didnt stop. and after that was when that kz started to go to hell it never ran right afterwards but remember kids. HELMETS!!!!!!!! and a jacket and gloves at the very least! and remember to keep your gear in good condition!

[Water Warrior 2]

Cayuse you are not supposed to do that. Glad to hear you survived relatively unhurt. Yup, I can relate to twisties and target fixation. I have been successful in avoiding a get off but have had a couple very close encounters of the pain kind. I did purposely look at the side of the road to experiment with target fixation and the results were interesting. Even when you are aware of the fixation and your view it is a bit hard to snap out of it. So always look where you want to go. The bike will take you there. We just unconsciously ride where we look. Any damage to the bike ?
And thankfully you were dressed for the get off. So many riders think they will never have an oops and suffer through a lot of pain and healing when all they should really be doing is getting new undamaged gear. ATGATT. :2tup:

[cayuse]

Thanks, guys. I feel like I got a little slap on the wrist from my guardian angel. Things could have turned out so much worse. I've got a nice little ding in the tank, a bent mirror, a scuffed front fender, and maybe a bent headlight bracket. All in all, a pretty inexpensive learning experience. I'm ready to go back out there and retrace my steps (with a little different attitude) and just see what's going on.

Learning experiences that scare the $hit out of you but leave you pretty much unscathed are the best.

Keep the shiny side up!

[alanmcorcoran]

Originally Posted by cayuse

Put her into the ditch yesterday. Not proud of it, but sharing here to promote wearing good protective gear.

Going downhill in some twisties I got a little too aggressive, didn't pick my line very well and rode off into the gravel shoulder. I think I fixated on it, couldn't steer away from it, but managed to slow down somewhat.

Hate it when that happens. Glad you are okay. Once you get past the shock (and possibly embarassment!) I have a technical suggestion for you to try to incorporate into your riding habits: Most of the time when you blow it on a curve, it's not the (too fast) speed that does you in, but the panic - something Keith Code (a somewhat oddball, but successful racing instructor) calls the Survival Reaction or SR. Typically, most of the things people do naturally to survive, including braking and letting off the gas, tend to stand the bike up and shift the weight from the rear to the front - the first leads you off the road and the second is bad for your traction. Unintuitively, it is often better to stay ON the gas and steer!!!. I have been focusing on this one thing for about six weeks now, whenever I am in the curves (even when riding two up.) I still have some backsliding, and some days I am better than others, but generally, I rarely brake anymore going through curves and I am constantly telling myself "keep steering, Keep steering, steer, steer - no matter what." I am trying to replace my natural SR with one that is to ALWAYS KEEP STEERING!!! A few times, when my attention wandered, I found myself going a little faster than I intended into a sharp curve and I surprised myself by just cranking the bar a tad more rather than panicking and letting off the gas or hitting the brake. In each case, I was able to complete the curve without decelerating (and, of course, was quite pleased with myself!) It's hard for me to do this consistently, but practicing gives me one more thing to work on when out enjoying the scenery.

[Water Warrior 2]

Excellant advice. I experienced this first hand with a younger newbie on a 600 sport bike. He could pull away from my Vstrom easily on the straight or up a hill but I always caught up. His survival reaction slowed him and I would just pass him usually in the first curve and lead him a merry chase. I could get far enough ahead that he would just barely pass me heading for the next curves and we would start over again. Not proud to say our speeds were more than illegal but it was fun for a while.

[3-D Video]

Originally Posted by alanmcorcoran

I am trying to replace my natural SR with one that is to ALWAYS KEEP STEERING!!!

On the first day of my last trip down to Portugal I took the GZ out for a ride. I haven't been able to ride it much (I've been stuck in Brussels), and was a bit trepidatious… I forgot to put my helmet and gloves on, and I wasn't using my sense of smell to monitor the mix. I had to use more choke than usual, so I really should have been paying more attention to the exhaust odor.
The "main street" through the village is a narrow one lane blacktop that runs past my door. Off in one direction there's a wide area for an easy turn in front of a train station, so I headed that way. I made my turn and headed back past my house… all the time futzing with the choke. The road leads down to a narrow bridge which is steep enough to be blind to oncoming traffic. I could have squeezed past a car, but a tractor would have been a different story, and there are a lot of tractors around there. So, that was as far as I wanted to go for a warm-up ride.
I slowed and made a tight U turn, the engine sputtered into the turn. I backed off on the choke and gave it some gas, which made it accelerate, and I went wide. Let off on the gas, the engine sputtered again, but I'd cleared a stone house at the edge of the road and I was now facing in the right direction. I gave it the gas… gravel sprayed off the wall and down the road behind me. The bike fishtailed until the tire caught the asphalt, up I went onto the rear wheel. As my life flashed before my eyes, I heard an old flight instructor tell me, "3D (he called me by my first name), no matter what happens, always fly the plane". Huge rocks were everywhere, I just hovered above them, balancing the bike with the front wheel until it came down. The wheel bounced a couple of times as I lined up with the road. I smoothed out the engine, and got it back under control.
… I parked the bike facing the far corner of the garage, and I gave it a day to reflect before I rode it again. :whistle:

[Viirin]

I had no idea the GZ could wheelie - good story