Took a few years off my life today:

Nice weather today so I decided to go for a sporting solo ride. Shortly into it I took a familiar turn about 45-50 mph. I counter-steered to get a good lean angle for an extra thrill. I didn't see the thin patch of sand just as I entered it. My front wheel washed out badly but I managed to save it. The worrisome thing I have is that once I had it straightened up, it seemed to want to slide the rear tire, I can't remember which way, but there was a definite secondary reaction. I stayed up but thanked The Lord profusely all the way home that I didn't fall and that there was no car coming.

I went back and looked at the turn and measured a black mark 12 ft long, I never used the brakes.
This retired guy will be slowing down from now on. I don't want to mess me or my bike up.
Has anyone had a similar experience?
Jaydee

I feel for you, have experanced a slide or 2 over the 40 years of owning my Norton, have also lost the front end completely from loose gravel on nice tight corners, but luckly that was in my younger days, the first time I was coming down one of my favorite mountian range road and coming into the very last tight twisty at a speed of 65 MPH just got into the corner when I seen the gravel all over the road, it happened so quick no time to even think about it and out went the frontend and straight into a dich, had a mate on the back as well, I got a gash on my chin and a bit of a gravel rash on the left leg, my mate didn't even get a scrach, the bike, bent left foot peg, bent handle bars and a few scraches on the left muffler, so was pretty lucky really.

With only so much tread that sits on the road, its just one of those thing we got to put up with, gravel, sand, oil etc etc, its just some of the things of being on the road and doing the things we love to do, but there are just as many other factors that we got to watch out for these days and thats other drivers that don't look out or care who else is on the road, poeple talking or texting on the mobil phone while driving or poeple pulling out in front of us even when they do see us.

Anyway good that you kept upright, but it does make you slow down, but only for a short time anyway.

Ashley

I slid my front wheel a couple of years ago when a guy pulled out in front of me. Scary feeling.

Latest scare ? New MK111 , unfamiliar with it ,Ottawa to Kingston to Toronto . Slid front on small gravel on tight left turn in lakes district. Below speed limit. Rear wobbled , no brakes used , just let off on fuel until could pull over beside lake to catch breath and lower heart-rate. Decided to fish for a bit to calm down.

Sand and loose gravel is the worst. It's sometimes hard to see it.

Lost my BSA in loose gravel coming around a corner and accelerating years ago. Went down on that one.

Last summer I was coming through an intersection and the road crews had just filled some cracks. I was accelerating when I hit the oily tar and the back wheel started to come loose and slide out. They had thrown some small gravel on the crack so I didn't see that it was fresh. I recovered but went home and shook for a while...when we get older those extra thrills aren't as thrilling anymore.

As careful as we are, there are still hazards out there.

It will be warm enough to ride in a day or two but 'Pa', my trusty Norton, will stay in the workshop until we get a good rain to wash all of the salt off the tarmac.
The course salt spread on the streets to help melt the ice and snow gets ground down into a fine powder and becomes very, very slippery.
It also puts a fine corrosive coating on our coveted toys.
I think I'll ride the Triumph instead.
Ride On
Dave

Makes me think of old Hobot and THE gravel. Ride safely boys and girls.

When I used to work in GP racing, Kevin Schwantz once told me to grab a pit bike and follow him out to have a look at something - we were at the Mugello racetrack in Italy at the time. I duly went with him to the appointed place - a desperately fast right hand uphill corner, whereupon he pointed at a huge black line that was heading pointedly left, to what for anyone else would have been certain ruin. 'That was my FRONT tyre', he exclaimed! :shock:

Hi Jaydee,
Too much counter steering perhaps?

Dave

Paddy_SP said:

When I used to work in GP racing, Kevin Schwantz once told me to grab a pit bike and follow him out to have a look at something - we were at the Mugello racetrack in Italy at the time. I duly went with him to the appointed place - a desperately fast right hand uphill corner, whereupon he pointed at a huge black line that was heading pointedly left, to what for anyone else would have been certain ruin. 'That was my FRONT tyre', he exclaimed! :shock:

Click to expand...

Rather points out the difference between those who can ride and the rest of us who only think we can.....

/Steve.

SteveBorland said:

Paddy_SP said:

When I used to work in GP racing, Kevin Schwantz once told me to grab a pit bike and follow him out to have a look at something - we were at the Mugello racetrack in Italy at the time. I duly went with him to the appointed place - a desperately fast right hand uphill corner, whereupon he pointed at a huge black line that was heading pointedly left, to what for anyone else would have been certain ruin. 'That was my FRONT tyre', he exclaimed! :shock:

Click to expand...

Rather points out the difference between those who can ride and the rest of us who only think we can.....

/Steve.

Click to expand...

Yes - he was certainly in a different league to even well-known World Superbike racers. Unfortunately, I fell out with the team management and after I went things were in such disarray that he was left to ride a bike which wasn't even fit to compete against the privateers. It's a real shame as he was such a talent that he'd have stayed at the top for a long time, given the right equipment.

Similar story with a different ending;

Cool, misty morning on the way to work. It was an early Saturday so no on-coming traffic. I accelerated out of the streetcar lane and the rear wheel spun ever so slightly on the rail, putting the bike a wee bit sideways. Once on solid ground again, the wheels were thus perpendicular to the direction of travel. Over I went. Last thing I remember seeing was the rail beside my nose. I rolled and got back up as the bike was still skidding toward the sidewalk. It hit, front end first, bending the footpeg, one of the front forks and smashing the headlight. Tough old thing was still running. I stood it up, remarkably still ride-able and got it home. Damage repaired fairly easily but I still have the scar on the helmet and leather jacket for the stories. Lesson: avoid streetcar rails vigorously.

Ride safe.
BC
Toronto
71 Commando
68 TR6P

Many years ago, I took a tumble because of cows. I came round a bend in a quiet country road and encountered a large patch of cow dung. That stuff has a very low coefficient of friction. No significant damage done, but the clean-up was stinky!

jaydee75 said:

Nice weather today so I decided to go for a sporting solo ride. Shortly into it I took a familiar turn about 45-50 mph. I counter-steered to get a good lean angle for an extra thrill. I didn't see the thin patch of sand just as I entered it. My front wheel washed out badly but I managed to save it. The worrisome thing I have is that once I had it straightened up, it seemed to want to slide the rear tire, I can't remember which way, but there was a definite secondary reaction. I stayed up but thanked The Lord profusely all the way home that I didn't fall and that there was no car coming.

I went back and looked at the turn and measured a black mark 12 ft long, I never used the brakes.
This retired guy will be slowing down from now on. I don't want to mess me or my bike up.
Has anyone had a similar experience?
Jaydee

Click to expand...

This always happens on a warm day in the middle of winter.
I've had many such slides that produced high pucker factor moments.
Funny how they bring your thinking back down to earth, and you appreciate the little things in life again.

Buzz Chaney was a local bike and Midget car racer from back in the day, and it was from his shop that my ride came from. My dad was relaying a similar story to Buzz about hitting some sand on the road. When asked how he would handle something like that, without saying a word, he held out his right hand and twisted it as if opening the throttle.
As much flat-tracking and fire road "racing" as I've done through the years, I'd have to agree. It's been more than once that hitting the brakes have made a bad situation worse. 'So glad to hear you kept it upright!

Nathan

One day an oncoming car turned left in front of me as I approached an intersection. He never saw me until I was skidding toward him while he was stopped in my lane. He finally saw me and gunned the car to get out of my lane and I just missed his ass end. I scooted back around and met him in the parking lot where he apologized profusely, saying he didnt even see me until it was too late, then he decided to try and gun it to avoid me sliding into him which thankfully worked out for me... He said that he didn't see me against the back drop of the sky behind me because I was wearing a sky blue tee shirt with a silver image on it (seldom scene tee shirt) I realized that I shouldn't wear sky blue tee shirts when I ride. I did thank him for gunning it, rather than freezing up. I felt partially to blame because I should make an effort to be more visible in traffic, and a sky blue tee shirt is really not a good choice.

Are you sure the black streak didn't come from your britches? :mrgreen:

I think it is important to know when to let go of the handle bars. If you lose the front, often the bike will go into a lock to lock tank slapper. If you hang on ,you will get pitched over the front because all the reaction comes through the bars. This is particularly bad with wide bars. On occasion, I have opened my hands and even grabbed the tank throwing the bike to keep it upright until it comes out of it's antics. Once I grabbed the bars too early and got slung over the front. On another occasion I broke the front when free with the drum brake, when trying to avoid an idiot and did not let go quickly enough. I dislocated my chromo-clavicular joint and was in pain for about 10 months. The natural reaction is to hang on and try to correct the situation, however If you watch a lot of road racing, you will sometimes see guys fall off the side of their bike, while the bike stays upright and motors onward. The important thing is to never do silly-stuff where there is nowhere to go. That is one of the problems with riding on public roads.

A good hydraulic steering damper stops a lot of rot.

I know the advice in general with a tank slapper is to release the pressure or let go of the bars and let the bike sort itself out. I was touring in France in the early 80's on my Commando with Craven panders, loaded, perhaps not very well.
Tank slapper at about 90 mph. Didn't know much about it at the time, certainly don't recall having time to react.
Don't know if I was thrown off front, side or back but bike ended up a fair distance down the road from me.
With reflection the bike and I ended up a bit battered and bent but we were both very lucky. Don't ride at those speeds now!!