It's a learning experience if anything to hear about someone's experience sliding across the pavement. It almost happened to me last night.
I was hauling it across the state to get pictures of the shuttle launch for the newspaper. I had to make it to the press badging gate before 8pm. I get there at 7:40, and it's closed. They say it's temporarily at another place, 27 miles away. I had 20 minutes to find it. The roads were all 35-55mph.
I turn around and pin the throttle to redline in the first four gears, hauling it back toward the main highway to head south. Then I see the exit sign out of the corner of my eye behind a tree. SCREEEEEEE I nail the brakes. The rear locks up and starts wiggling. I ease off the rear brake, save it, and swing around to get off at the exit. That was close.
I still had to push it pretty hard the rest of the way, and got there 5 minutes late. I was furious. I had to ride all the way back from where I came, to get to the launch site. Ridiculous their system is.
I actually have laid it down before though. A couple of times.
Once was on my friend Andres' bike that he'd just bought, and thankfully pre-damaged the fairings for me. I took off through a parking lot to move it to a safer place to teach him to ride. I started turning left and the bike wasn't going for it. It was stopping me from turning. I'm getting close to a curb at this point so I really try to lean it over, and WHAM the thing nails the pavement from under me. The kickstand was down. Note to self: always check the side stand. You never know if the safety switch is gonna be blown to save you from taking off with it down.
I had on all my gear, but only had cargo pants on, and I got knee rash from that. It took more than a month to heal. His fairing was slightly scratched but otherwise fine.
My only other spill was about 20mph. I was going around a corner into a parking lot, and the ramp into the parking lot went uphill, so the corner had a big change in camber, from on to waaaay off. I leaned into it and realized I was going too fast. I leaned some more just as the camber changed, and WHAM, smacked the pavement and went sliding.
I had full gear on that time, except for jeans. They got holes in the pocket area, right through part of my wallet too. I was unhurt. The bike was though. The bars bent a LOT, the turn signal broke, the tank had a big new dent, the rear brake was bent, and the front fender had more grind to it.
I was hauling it across the state to get pictures of the shuttle launch for the newspaper. I had to make it to the press badging gate before 8pm. I get there at 7:40, and it's closed. They say it's temporarily at another place, 27 miles away. I had 20 minutes to find it. The roads were all 35-55mph.
I turn around and pin the throttle to redline in the first four gears, hauling it back toward the main highway to head south. Then I see the exit sign out of the corner of my eye behind a tree. SCREEEEEEE I nail the brakes. The rear locks up and starts wiggling. I ease off the rear brake, save it, and swing around to get off at the exit. That was close.
I still had to push it pretty hard the rest of the way, and got there 5 minutes late. I was furious. I had to ride all the way back from where I came, to get to the launch site. Ridiculous their system is.
I actually have laid it down before though. A couple of times.
Once was on my friend Andres' bike that he'd just bought, and thankfully pre-damaged the fairings for me. I took off through a parking lot to move it to a safer place to teach him to ride. I started turning left and the bike wasn't going for it. It was stopping me from turning. I'm getting close to a curb at this point so I really try to lean it over, and WHAM the thing nails the pavement from under me. The kickstand was down. Note to self: always check the side stand. You never know if the safety switch is gonna be blown to save you from taking off with it down.
I had on all my gear, but only had cargo pants on, and I got knee rash from that. It took more than a month to heal. His fairing was slightly scratched but otherwise fine.
My only other spill was about 20mph. I was going around a corner into a parking lot, and the ramp into the parking lot went uphill, so the corner had a big change in camber, from on to waaaay off. I leaned into it and realized I was going too fast. I leaned some more just as the camber changed, and WHAM, smacked the pavement and went sliding.
I had full gear on that time, except for jeans. They got holes in the pocket area, right through part of my wallet too. I was unhurt. The bike was though. The bars bent a LOT, the turn signal broke, the tank had a big new dent, the rear brake was bent, and the front fender had more grind to it.
) and I'm out in the nowhere lands of Oregon, trying to drive the road to antelope (where the Raganeese (sp?) cult had taken over the town through the electoral process). As I wind my way up and over a dirt road on my fully loaded '85 suzuki madura 700 all of a sudden I am going down..... then bam- broken directionals....as I pick the bike up outta the mud, try to go on and wham, onto the other side, more broken directionals. As I try to get the bike righted the mud is sticking to my feet over 5 inches thick- the infamous oregon mud Ken Kesey wrote about in "Sometimes a Great Notion" (as was told to me by a local who stopped to help). The mud, as it turned out, was so sticky it jammed up the front wheel- locked it tight to the fender. I had to borrow a hose at a local ranch and spend a half an hour getting it out, then had to back track outta the area since I could not pass on that road !
Comment