• Welcome to the Yamaha FZ1 Forums. Member registration disables ads and allows you to post and share. Register Here.

Quite the eventful ride

M

MegaMatt5000

senallttam
Joined
Mar 2, 2013
Messages
248
Location
Colorado
Visit site
So today, I met up with a buddy to go ride Skaggs Springs. He's been riding for a year with mostly cruising miles (he's on a 250 Rebel), so I was just going to take it easy. Anyway, we get onto the freeway to make it over there, but the freeway was just backed up in dead stop traffic. So, we lane splitted about 10 miles up (we're in California) to where we found a road block and everyone was being directed off the freeway into Windsor. From there we had to ride through town, which was just completely congested from all the freeway traffic, to get to the next open freeway entrance. From there we made our way over to Skaggs, and by the time we got there it had taken an hour, but normally takes 30 minutes. We made a run to the bridge taking it easy, I made sure that he was still behind me the whole way. We turned around to go back the other way, and I asked him if he wanted to lead, but he said he didn't want to hold me up, even though I told him I don't mind at all it's not a race. He was really hesitant and I could tell he didn't want to lead, so I just went first and told him to ride at his own pace. I went a bit faster on the way back through my favorite turns, but I would slow down on the straights till he caught up, which would be less than 10 seconds. However, later on down the road, I slowed down for him to catch up. I waited, and waited, but he never showed up. At that point I already knew what had happened, so I turned around. 200 yards or so back, I found him laying on the ground with his bike. It was one of the tighter more challenging right turns on the road, and he had crossed into the other lane. Good news is, he was alright. He had some road rash on his elbow and hip but nothing too bad. He had on all the gear except pants, just jeans. His tourmaster textile jacket definitely saved him some damage. I checked his jacket, and it was very thin, so a thicker jacket probably could've saved him the damage on his right arm, but it was definitely better than a sweatshirt or tshirt. His jeans had worn down right over his crotch and luckily didn't go through his underwear. Just the thought of penis road rash makes me cringe. Anyway, a nice trucker, who used to ride, stopped for us with a first aid kit, and I got him all cleaned and bandaged up. We got his bike running and he was able to ride it home. What was supposed to be just a 2 hour ride turned into 3 1/2 hours. He was a bit shaken up and couldn't fully remember what happened, but from his vague explanation, he said the he was trying out the technique that I taught him about leaning your body in more and keeping the bike more upright, but then he started to go wide into the opposite lane, and at that point he said he stood the bike up (which is what you shouldn't do) and just crashed. He didn't go down from running into the guard rail, and he can't remember, but it looks like he stood the bike up and slammed on the brakes while still leaned over some to avoid the guard rail, and that caused him to go down. To top it off, I got stung in the neck by a bee or wasp half a mile away from home, but that's a lot better than road rash. I'm just glad that my buddy was alright, and after seeing what happened to him, I will definitely think twice before pushing my limits in the twisties.
 
Glad he was mostly ok. Could have been a lot worse if there had been someone coming the opposite direction! I guess it was just the old issue of not riding at his own pace...
 
Glad there were not more injuries.

Skaggs is a great road but be careful there I once had a dead boar in the middle of my lane after coming through a turn. Luckily it was the first slow check it out run so no problem evading it.
I know that some use the road as a race track but that's not a good idea, usually I try to avoid it when there are too many motorcyclist on it, had already bikers going the opposite directions than me running wide and almost knocking me out.

I would always prefer leather gear towards textile and always were full gear, can't really understand the people wearing jeans. The knees and hips are very important for walking and without armor around them you risk bad injuries.
 
Definitely sucks having anyone go down on your "watch" but it happens from time to time. Be happy that he walked away from it with just some rash and bruises. Like Tony and the others have already said, it could have been much worse. Glad that your buddy is okay. He'll heal up just fine and be on the Rebel again in no time, only a bit wiser. :)
 
In order to not drag hard parts and lever the rear wheel of the ground, he would have REALLY hang off the Rebel or go slow. I am glad he didn't go down harder and could ride home.
 
Kpd1031 said:
Leaning your body in more and keeping the bike more upright????????
Click to expand...

Body position, by hanging off the inside of the bike (leaning in) through a corner shifts the center of gravity so that the bike can remain more upright and thereby increasing the amount of available traction on the tires.

I'm sure Dreamdemon to a better degree could explain the concept. But I'm pretty sure it has to do with traction, centripital and cetnrifugal forces, friction coefficients, etc, etc. **hint, hint, please explain**

As for a good video check out the following

Body Position, Lean Angle and Traction: Reed - YouTube
 
Your buddy sounds like he has a concussion. If he has any nausea, loss of appetite, headache or worsening headache I would get in to get checked out ASAP. You can have minor tears the tissue covering the brain and slow brain bleeds from a good head smack on the ground. A Head CT scan will most likely be able to see if there is a bleed.

A natural remedy for concussion is Arnica Montana 30c, it's a homeopathic remedy and has helped not only myself but a few patients of mine with concussion symptoms. I would only do this after he gets a checkout by a doctor first though.
 
Bummer I have had this happen to me also taking some people over some of our great roads. I was ridding slower then normal by far and gave some places for them to watch for gravel. one of them hit gravel and whipped out he was ok and the bike was a little scratched up. I am really good about ridding at my own pace but some people have a hard time with it. I felt bad and still feel bad about it but everyone has to ride there own pace..
 
Ssky0078 said:
Body position, by hanging off the inside of the bike (leaning in) through a corner shifts the center of gravity so that the bike can remain more upright and thereby increasing the amount of available traction on the tires.
Click to expand...

No need to explain. I am aware of the technique in racing and aggressive street riding. However at the speeds his buddy was riding, not only is this not necessary, but was probably the reason he went wide. I see this all the time with inexperienced riders. They try to copy what they see in racing, hang off the side of the bike but don't lean the bike enough to make the turn. You can hang off the bike all you want and for what ever reason, the fact remains if you don't lean the bike enough relative to the speed you are going and the turn you are trying to make, you will end up wide.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Kpd1031 said:
No need to explain. I am aware of the technique in racing and aggressive street riding. However at the speeds his buddy was riding, not only is this not necessary, but was probably the reason he went wide. I see this all the time with inexperienced riders. They try to copy what they see in racing, hang off the side of the bike but don't lean the bike enough to make the turn. You can hang off the bike all you want and for what ever reason, the fact remains if you don't lean the bike enough relative to the speed you are going and the turn you are trying to make, you will end up wide.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is a common sight on the road. Hanging off makes only sense when you are really fast and a good rider. In most cases it is not required.

@Sky
when you hang to the side of the MC you shift the center of mass, allowing to keep the bike more upright given the same speed and curve radius. The main advantage is that in racing you are able to accelerate earlier when coming out of the corner. That's why most racers are doing it. It has also other benefits like increasing ground clearing and in principle allowing for higher curve speed (the higher the speed the larger the required lean angle to make a given line) without running out of tire.

However I know plenty of very fast riders who do not use hanging off and are much faster than many others applying hanging off. It's definitely not a beginners technique because it requires several well coordinated movements in a very fluent manner to not upset the bike and only than the hanging off brings benefits.
 
Sky maybe didn't mean hanging off in the racing sense with a cheek off, knee out, face kissing the mirror; nothing that extreme.

In the case of senallttam's newbie friend, he may have suffered from the typical new rider 'stiff armed, crossed up, head down' riding technique. Had he perhaps simply leaned his body with the bike & turned his head deep into the turn, he may have had been able to confidently make it through the turn without incident.

I think some of you experienced guys forget what it's like to be a new rider. You suck at everything when you're new :)
 
LOOK at the turn's exit, i.e. where you want to go

LEAN the bike over, it won't fall over or slide out from under you

BELIEVE you will make it, 99.9% of the time you will

As a newbie he probably didn't LOOK or LEAN, making the last point irrelevant. He focused on where the bike was headed and not where he wanted to go.....common newbie error.
 
The whole reason I gave him that advice is because he told me after our first run to the bride that he had scraped his pegs quite a few times. He is alright though and went to the doctor today to get checked up. Aside from all of that, he admitted that he was going too fast for his own ability, and that he is eager to ride again! I'm sure he will be much more cautious in the future.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top