U-turn smash-down

[whetaus-tr]

So, I make my turn into an alley on my Ninja 250, and prepare to pull a u-turn in there.

I slowed down, and down-shifted to what I thought was a proper gear.
I decided to make the turn a little challenging (and fun I guess) and leaned the bike while locking the steer all the way to the left, so I can do the quickest and tightest turn within my abilities. As I was exiting the u-turn after the midpoint, I needed to open up the throttle in order to straighten up the bike, given that the bike was already so much off the upright position.

....next thing I know, I hit the ground. The bike started sliding on the left fairing resulting the terrible scorching noise that I never want to hear again.

I didn't understand wtf had happened right away, but after thinking it there trying to analyze the situation, I came to the conclusion that I didn't have enough power to straighten up the bike, which resulted me to fall into the turn. I found the bike on ground in the 3rd gear, unfortunately. So, there was absolutely no response, when I opened up the throttle. And I fell.

There was a guy right there, watching the whole thing. And I think he was laughing under his beard as he was asking me if I was OK. That fall probably qualifies for the stupidest looking fall =)

Damage on the bike - cracked fairing, scratched mirror, bent bar, bent gear-shifter, broken signal. Biggest deal atm is, my left signal system is all messed up. The rear left signal doesn't blink anymore. It just stays on when I try to signal, so I use hand-signals for now.

My left knee is a bit banged up, which was the only contact with the asphalt.

I totally lost my confidence for turns tho. I think twice now at every turn, and wonder sometimes if I was just lucky all these times for not crashing doing "crazy" turns.

I had to digest the whole thing before I could share it here. It was a total disappointment, altho I know it shouldn't be, especially since a lot worse/serious **** can happen in the first season.

[rafiki911]

Damn, that sucks. Don't worry so much, you're confidence will come back and your bike can be fixed. The good new is, you did this at the end of the season so you don't have to miss too much riding. I dropped my bike in the beginning of the season turning into a plaza in 2nd gear when I should have been in first and it stalled and I just plopped over. lol I was so embarrassed and the plaza was packed, you're lucky it was only one person that saw you go down Hope your knee isn't to bad.

[jonpurdy]

That's good that you're challenging yourself. Too many people don't learn how to do slow-speed maneuvering and end up not being able to control their bikes for a long time. It's also good that you crashed at low speed and didn't get too banged up.

Yeah, you need to keep the engine revving so that the bike doesn't fall over when leaned. Doing it in first or second gear would've been a better idea but we all make mistakes. Another common mistake is fisting the front brake while leaned (even just slightly) into a turn will cause the bike to fall right over.

When doing tight u-turns make sure to rev the bike relatively high. If it's very low speed and quite tight then feathering the clutch and rear brake is good (especially if you upgrade to a bigger displacement bike).

Anyway, get the bike fixed and continue riding ASAP! GWS.

[whetaus-tr]

Damn, that sucks. Don't worry so much, you're confidence will come back and your bike can be fixed. The good new is, you did this at the end of the season so you don't have to miss too much riding. I dropped my bike in the beginning of the season turning into a plaza in 2nd gear when I should have been in first and it stalled and I just plopped over. lol I was so embarrassed and the plaza was packed, you're lucky it was only one person that saw you go down Hope your knee isn't to bad.

I guess yours is funnier lol I was totally embarrassed too tho

That fall couldn't stop me =) I hopped back on the bike, and got on 401 (I was making the u-turn in the first place to get on the 401 lol) and still riding since then. I would shoot myself if I had to miss even a day of riding for that lol

That's good that you're challenging yourself. Too many people don't learn how to do slow-speed maneuvering and end up not being able to control their bikes for a long time. It's also good that you crashed at low speed and didn't get too banged up.

Yeah, you need to keep the engine revving so that the bike doesn't fall over when leaned. Doing it in first or second gear would've been a better idea but we all make mistakes. Another common mistake is fisting the front brake while leaned (even just slightly) into a turn will cause the bike to fall right over.

When doing tight u-turns make sure to rev the bike relatively high. If it's very low speed and quite tight then feathering the clutch and rear brake is good (especially if you upgrade to a bigger displacement bike).

Anyway, get the bike fixed and continue riding ASAP! GWS.

I don't know if I will get the bike fixed.. I want scratches to stay on the fairing as a reminder, at least for now.

Btw, the clutch was in the whole time. After the mid-point of the turn, I was letting it out to the engaging point while giving enough throttle for 1st/2nd gear for my speed, but def not for 3rd. I had my foot on the rear brake as always too.

[Orangepeel]

I can relate to the parking lot thing, lol. Yup, slow speeds and tight turns are something I still need to practice with a vengence .

It's actually kind of frustrating to feel the season (for n00bs like me who would prefer more ideal riding conditions) closing in so quickly.

I hope you heal up quickly, Whetaus . Banged my knees up, whacked my head (helmet on) took my big right toe out of joint and slightly twisted my ankle just a week before I went for my motorcycle course. I slipped my tires out from under me on a mountain bike. Wet grass and bad judgement on my part.

The emotion rush is pretty amusing, actually . First it's "oh sh*t, I'm gonna crash"

Then you check yourself over and curse your stupidity. Next you check your ride, amd suddenly wonder if someone else has seen your blunder, lol. Last off is being ****** off with yourself and a mild case of denial followed by grudgingly accepting the blunder.

Didn't tell anyone except hubby that I was so banged up. I wanted to do the rider training so bad!!!

Damn, that sucks. Don't worry so much, you're confidence will come back and your bike can be fixed. The good new is, you did this at the end of the season so you don't have to miss too much riding. I dropped my bike in the beginning of the season turning into a plaza in 2nd gear when I should have been in first and it stalled and I just plopped over. lol I was so embarrassed and the plaza was packed, you're lucky it was only one person that saw you go down Hope your knee isn't to bad.

[soto]

You're right - 3rd gear was your mistake.

In fact, it is best to always be gearing down as you're slowing down so you are always in the right gear and have power available in case you need it. Plus blipping the throttle is fun and sounds cool. I even do it in my car.

An exercise I used to do was to zig-zag through parking spaces in an empty lot - basically a series of tight U-turns. Keep increasing your speed as you get comfortable and you'll be scraping pegs in no time.

[Lightcycle]

Btw, the clutch was in the whole time. After the mid-point of the turn, I was letting it out to the engaging point while giving enough throttle for 1st/2nd gear for my speed, but def not for 3rd. I had my foot on the rear brake as always too.

Try slipping the clutch and dragging the rear brake instead of disengaging the clutch entirely.

If you were still in 3rd you would have known it if you were slipping the clutch, instead of finding out when you re-engaged it.

[Kibosh3]

feather the clutch to keep power to the rear ... should have never gotten into the turn in 3rd gear... but live and learn !

[short stop]

What everyone else has much suggested: keep the bike in a lower gear for slow-speed maneauvers, and feather the clutch whilst using rear brake. If I was doing something like a tight u-turn, I wouldn't be in any a higher a gear than 1st.

[bboySushi]

Btw, the clutch was in the whole time.

afaik from my experience you should never have your clutch all the way in (unless you're shifting gears). Don't lose faith though, keep pulling those U-turns! I'm surprised at how much damage you incurred, perhaps you should invest in frame sliders (best investment imho).

[rbjeepthing]

It's harder to ride slow then it is to ride fast. Keep your chin up.

[Jayv]

FWIW for tight u-turns i've always done it with the clutch in, bad habit or incorrect technique perhaps but i've been doing it for so long like that it works for me.

[ride2rideagain]

sorry to hear, feel better and learn from this

[mastahjay69]

There was a Jewish guy right there, dressed up like a gangster

What did his religion have to do with this story? Please ban OP.

Thank you.

[whetaus-tr]

It's actually kind of frustrating to feel the season (for n00bs like me who would prefer more ideal riding conditions) closing in so quickly.

For that reason only, I am planning on moving to Australia or somewhere south in the States in a few years time =) You guys can join me if you like lol

You're right - 3rd gear was your mistake.

In fact, it is best to always be gearing down as you're slowing down so you are always in the right gear and have power available in case you need it. Plus blipping the throttle is fun and sounds cool. I even do it in my car.

An exercise I used to do was to zig-zag through parking spaces in an empty lot - basically a series of tight U-turns. Keep increasing your speed as you get comfortable and you'll be scraping pegs in no time.

I always downshift as well, unless in a situation like my accident - I was travelling around 60km/h at 6th gear, and I had to accelerate a bit to left-turn into this alley before the oncoming traffic was too close. And as soon as I entered, my mission was to make a u-turn in there as quickly as possible, without going deep in the alley. So, from 60km/h to 20km/h(?), I made sort of an emergency brake there.

I didn't exactly count the gears as I was banging them down during hard braking, but 99% of the time, I can guess what gear it is that I downshift into even tho clutch is never let out. My lucky guesses come from the variation of the force that is required on the lever by my feet, as you guys probably know that the required force to change a gear is different on different gears at different speeds; also, the depth of the lever movement is unique to each gear change, on my bike at least. But, I guess that time right before the accident fell into the %1 chance that my lucky guesses were wrong. And I thought that I was in the 2nd gear, but turned out it was the 3rd.

Try slipping the clutch and dragging the rear brake instead of disengaging the clutch entirely.

If you were still in 3rd you would have known it if you were slipping the clutch, instead of finding out when you re-engaged it.

By saying in my prev post "I was letting it out to the engaging point while giving enough throttle for 1st/2nd gear for my speed, but def not for 3rd.", what I was trying to say was that I was starting slipping the clutch while powering.

feather the clutch to keep power to the rear ... should have never gotten into the turn in 3rd gear... but live and learn !

I was coming down from the 6th....

afaik from my experience you should never have your clutch all the way in (unless you're shifting gears). Don't lose faith though, keep pulling those U-turns! I'm surprised at how much damage you incurred, perhaps you should invest in frame sliders (best investment imho).

About the frame sliders - my buddies always told me that I would for sure drop the bike somehow, as apparently that's what they did in the beginning and what I would do too, but through out my 12K this season since June, I always thought to myself that frame sliders weren't really necessary at all.

Well, altho technically I havent dropped the bike, I will def put the sliders on my next bike.

It's harder to ride slow then it is to ride fast. Keep your chin up.

Very hard to believe that one from the outside until hopping on to a bike. Watching people go 200+ km/h on youtube makes non-motorcyclists think that those riders must have special powers lol

FWIW for tight u-turns i've always done it with the clutch in, bad habit or incorrect technique perhaps but i've been doing it for so long like that it works for me.

I find myself experimenting, not necessarily to find out what's better but to gain experience. Thanks to GTAM, and of course to the instructors at RTI, I think I have the right idea mostly, about what's best and what's worst.

sorry to hear, feel better and learn from this

Done and done =)

What did his religion have to do with this story? Please ban OP.

Thank you.

Sorry to get you fired up for that.
His religion doesn't have to do with anything. It just had to do with typing/re-living my smash experience. And the image of the guy with the beard and the suit and the hat, allocated a big space in my mood-dependent memory as of that moment. Or, perhaps, it has to do with the fact that he was the only person around to offer help and ask if I was OK. Consider that as an unnecessary detail in that story, also, chill out.

[adri]

*giggle* funny fall but you have the right attitude about it: get up, laugh at yourself, figure out what you did wrong, try and learn from it and keep on riding. Good for you!

[Rob MacLennan]

whetaus-tr - There's nothing to be ashamed of, or even really embarrassed about, in that incident. We all learn some things the hard way. For example after more than 20 years of riding, I learnt the hard way that you don't ride your bike from the gas pumps, to a parking spot, with your helmet on the left side mirror. It tends to push on the front brake lever when you get towards lock and, when you turn harder to make up for the steeper than expected lean and lower speed (all the while not realizing that your brake is being depressed), it tends to make you fall down.

I'm not saying that that happened to anyone I know, in front of a packed parking lot at The Icehouse in Campbellville, but it may have.

[rafiki911]

lmao sorry but that is pretty funny. I hope that this person that you may know didn't get hurt

whetaus-tr - There's nothing to be ashamed of, or even really embarrassed about, in that incident. We all learn some things the hard way. For example after more than 20 years of riding, I learnt the hard way that you don't ride your bike from the gas pumps, to a parking spot, with your helmet on the left side mirror. It tends to push on the front brake lever when you get towards lock and, when you turn harder to make up for the steeper than expected lean and lower speed (all the while not realizing that your brake is being depressed), it tends to make you fall down.

I'm not saying that that happened to anyone I know, in front of a packed parking lot at The Icehouse in Campbellville, but it may have.

[Rob MacLennan]

lmao sorry but that is pretty funny. I hope that this person that you may know didn't get hurt

If this did in fact happen, and I'm not saying that it did or that this person might have been me, then the fall would likely have been at less than a walking pass and would very likely have involved absolutely no damage, except to this mythical person's ego.

[rafiki911]

This mythical person is getting an "aww muffin" from me.

If this did in fact happen, and I'm not saying that it did or that this person might have been me, then the fall would likely have been at less than a walking pass and would very likely have involved absolutely no damage, except to this mythical person's ego.