It trakes true talent or a lack thereof, I'm pretty sure which catergory I fall into. Last Thusday Night I managed to Highside my bike going 10 mph. Ouch!

Cause and Effect

1. They recoated the parking lot recently and it offers very little traction.
2. It was about 50 degrees and I had cold tires
3. My engine is kind of unpredictable...sometimes its happy and then there are other times it's HAPPY

I was leaving the parking lot after work at about 12:30 A.M. I had let the bike warm up like I always do. The bike was running well. Anyways I was leaving my parking lot, I went to turn left onto a two lane road/highway. I didn't actually stop it was more like more like slow down before I went onto the road its late and there is no traffic. Anyways I lean left and give it a normal amount of throttle and the bike starts to slide out on me. The tire slipped and the back end comes out and the bike starts to lean over, very far over to the left. I should have just gone ahead and dropped it right there but I tried to save it I'm not sure if this was a mistake or not. I was leaned over too far to try and put my left foot down so it stayed on the peg where it belonged. So the bike is in the oncoming lane of traffic now and its probably facing 30 degrees off the center of the road. The back end keeps sliding out and I countersteer into the slide and this sets up the highside. The bike is still leaned over to the left and Then the rear tire hits the yellow center line of the road. I beleive that once this happened the rear tire regained traction and my bike being 45 degrees off center to the road with the front end at full lock to the right the rear hit traction and flipped me over from full left to on the ground on the right side in the blink of an eye. It happened so fast I didn't even realize it until my head hit the asphalt. I went down with the bike when it hit the ground I stopped liding about 2 feet from the bike and when I got up It was sitting perpindicular to the road just off of the centerline.

Personal injury: My right foor got smashed by the bike when it hit the gound and I sepnt all weekend hobbling around but its feeling better now. And my right elbow got bruised to the point that it started to bleed from the impact. There were no holes in my leathers but I've got a nice scab on my right elbow. My helmet hit the ground and it put a small crack/hole in the outer shell. I was wearing my SMX boots GP plus gloves Soumy helmet and Teknik one peice leathers when I went down. There is some abraision on my right shoulder area on my leathers but nothing major, mostly because I didn't slide that far. Always wear your gear.

Bike damage: Right brake lever broken, Right Clip on has some minor damage, Right Frame slider crush/bent the lower subframe but the engine mounts still look fine, Bent right rearset bracket and it trashed the tailpeice and kind of rashed the upper glass fairing wich isn't that big of a deal to me All in all I figure about 150$ worth of damage. And a lesson learned.

I figure I'd write this because there has got to be something here that someone can learn from my pain.

 

My mate dropped his Gsxr 750 similar to your story, left his house early in the morning for work, cold, 2 corners later he said the thing just slid out from under him doing less than 15km/h - said it was cold tires and too much lean as well.

Could have been some morning moisture on the road or in your case very early morning moisture.

Anyway, heal up and back on the bike.

 

My brother did the same thing on cold tires but his bike wasnt as lucky as yours. Glad you and your bike are alright.

 

what bike were you riding?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by egryda &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what bike were you riding?</TD></TR></TABLE>
I think it's listed in his sig.

1990 FZR400/RZ350 Hybrid

So what would have been the correct thing to do in this situation? I had a similiar thing happen to me on a cold morning on my way to work. Going through a right hand turn maybe 10-12 mph, rear spun up a little, but I just let off the gas and I was ok. Scared the **** out of me though.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by backlash &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I think it's listed in his sig.

1990 FZR400/RZ350 Hybrid

So what would have been the correct thing to do in this situation? I had a similiar thing happen to me on a cold morning on my way to work. Going through a right hand turn maybe 10-12 mph, rear spun up a little, but I just let off the gas and I was ok. Scared the **** out of me though. </TD></TR></TABLE>

There isn't a correct thing to do but if you could make yourself gently wind off the power and make a controlld return from spin to traction then not only would it save your *** it would qualify you as a GP rider

The more relaxed you can be the more chance you have of getting away with it of course this is so very simple when you are scared shitless!

 

Once, I was leaving a restaurant in Long Beach (actually Shoreline Village where they race the Long Beach Grand Prix) the night after the actual race (the streets were still lined with concrete barriers and chain linked fence) and I realized wow, I feel like I'm at a track.. wait a minute, I AM AT A TRACK!!.

So I started to book it a little and as I was approaching Ocean Blvd. I had to stop and make a right so I started to brake. I needed a bit more assistance from my rear brake so I slighty slightly began to press it and it locked instantly so I released it but by then I was almost sideways. Luckily, my nose was pitched so far down that the rear was still light and didn't grip back inline to throw me off.

Now I was kicking my tail sideways to a stop on the lightly damp (it's right next to the ocean) cemented street and I may have looked like Rossi, late braking through a corner at a wet Donington, but I almost shat my pants.

I think maybe your road might've been slightly damp.

 

The road may have been damp but I'm thinking it had more to do with a very cold tire.

If I had grabbed the clutch lever while leaned over to the left to stop power going to the wheel would the bike have instantly dropped(lowsided)? Hindsight makes me wonder that if There wasn't the yellow line on the road would the same thing have happened anyways?

I've got to pull a new tailpeice and I've ordered the levers so I'll be back on the road by the beginning of next week. My arm will probably be good by then too.

 

I lowsided 2 weeks ago going around a corner too fast on cold tires. Lesson learned.

I felt like a retard too.

Gear is our friend: I was wearing a full suit that night. I had just received the pants that week and was wearing them at the time instead of the Jeans I normally wore. Nice scuff on the butt instead of a scab on my ***.

 

I'd almost bet w/o your leathers and boots it would have been broken bones and stitches instead of a few bruises and blood blisters.

 

wow man that blows. i find it crazy that your helmet cracked .. i road into the side of a pickup truck at 40mph with a cheapo KBC helmet and it just put some scratches on it.

but glad your ok and your bike is relatively ok as well .. good post

 

Your helmet probably was a plastic shell and I beleive the Shell is Fiberglass on my Soumy therfore it doesn't bounce back, it cracks.

 

ahh i gotcha.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jasper_db1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I lowsided [more than] 2 weeks ago going around a corner too fast on cold tires. Lesson learned.

I felt like a retard too.

Gear is our friend </TD></TR></TABLE>

Exact same thing happened to me, luckily I was wearing two jackets (one Joe Rocket), gloves, and pants...