Crash

[krrakt]

Tell us about your crash or close call. When, what happened and what could you have done differently.

Perhaps these stories will help others if they find themselves in similar situations.

Here is one of mine.

When I first started riding at 18 I lived in Brampton, I rode an RZ350 and It was 1989.

The forks of the Credit (Belfountain) is not far from Brampton and I went to explore it with my friend on his FZ600. I was wearing leather Jacket, jeans gloves and runners.

IIRC when we entered the forks from Hwy.10 there are some small hills then a bridge after which you start to ascend the mountain. There is a left hand hairpin turn after a few curves and my friend in the lead negotiated the hairpin well and pretty fast, but I slowed down to about 10km/h and took a more conservative line. About 3/4 of the way through the turn my front wheel started sliding on some sand/gravel. I panicked, grabbed a mit full of front brake and tipped over on the high side once the front tire bit.

The bike fell on me and I broke my pelvis. My friend came back to look for me and he took the bike off of me before going to find a phone (cell phones were not too common back then) to call for help.

If I had been wearing leather armored pants I may not have been injured, I surely would have fared a bit better.

If I did not use my brake or used it very softly I may have avoided the highside but I might have hit the wall of rock that lined the road.

My bike barely had a few scratches, I was going that slow,just a few brackets were damaged.

With 20 years of riding under my belt, the outcome might be different these days. I Dunno.

Sand and gravel are our enemy thats for sure.

You need to be upright, smooth and delicate with your brakes, throttle and turns when you find yourself it it.

[Sushii]

While going about 65-70km/h through an intersection. A driver decides to do a left turn in front of me so i grab a fist full of front brake and rear, i was told during emergency baking, use both front and rear (Riders training). Anyways, used too much rear and low sided. If i had just used the front, i might've stopped enough to let the car turn and proceed as usual.

Now when i brake hard, i never use my rear, just my front. I only use my rear for slow speed maneuvers, such as tight turns and gently stops.

[southsidebuddha]

- I was 17, riding a YSR50 - my first bike in '88. Unfortunately, my crash was in a parking lot at the North York IKEA. It was the case of the 'driver didn't see me'. I'm sure the older riders here remember the YSR50/80.....well if you don't just google it.
Anyways, I was riding on towards the exit (this is before they added the second level parking) passing rows of parked cars when a car pulls out of one of the rows and crosses my path. I swerve and grab the brakes at the same time....knicked his bumper and lowsided the bike.
Naturally, he said he couldn't see me (familiar story huh). Of course I was thinking WTF???
At any rate - thankfully I was only going about 20-30kph and this was a parking lot.
Not a scratch on me - but my fairing's suffered some damage. That said, I sold the bike later that summer for an NS400.

[trevi]

I have a few, and you'll probably hear about a lot involving cars, but I'll give you one that involves another bike. I hate to admit this story, but there were definitely lessons learned.
Years ago when I was younger, growing up in Guelph, everyone rode squid. I went out riding with one of my friends, who was an idiot, on a beautiful Sunday. He was obsessed with brake stands. We were on a scenic road, next to a park with no-one in site, and he is behind me at a stop sign. The next thing I know there's two bikes and two guys laying on the ground, moaning. It all happened in a split second and luckily there were no cars around. Idiot friend tried a brake stand, lost control (like all those idiots you see on YouTube), clipped my left handle bar, and completely spun me around. I smashed up my knee, screwed up my left ankle (still cracks on-will 30 years later), got a major burn on my entire fore-arm (from my muffler), and had three small punctures in my upper chest. Idiot friend got off easier, however he had some skin from his wrist (about the size of a loonie) scalped out, so they had to take it from his azzz for plastic surgery.
Moral of the story
1) don't ride with idiots, your Sunday ride will turn into a Sunday hospital experience.
2) you can get hurt badly at any speed, on any bike.
3) proper gear would probably have spared me from the nagging injuries that I am carrying for life.

[krrakt]

It is amazing how much of a difference gear makes, even at low or no speed, our crashes prove that so much injury could be prevented or at least have been minimized for sure with it.

These days, I prepare for the worst, even if I'm just going around the corner.

[the_falcon]

Hopped on my new 250r tired and agitated. putting it into gear it i gave it very little throttle, jolted it, my reaction was to grab the bars, which then popped the clutch and rolled the throttle sending me into a wall doing a wheelie. Aside from a severely bruised ego, i walked away with a charlie horsed shoulder and a stiff neck. Ruined the cowl and both side fairings, probably just ride her as a street-fighter until i'm ready to sell.

Thank god i'm okay and it wasn't in traffic. If i wasn't in the mind state i was i might not have panicked and could have just pulled in the clutch and hit the brakes. This was something a number of friends warned me about, guess we learn somethings the hard way.

[Acadian1974]

Now when i brake hard, i never use my rear, just my front. I only use my rear for slow speed maneuvers, such as tight turns and gently stops.

Imminent fail

[WebControl]

Imminent fail

???

[rich6969]

i was 12 or 13 first time riding a Rm80.... Hit a Bump, twisted the throttled, power band kicked in...Yup it shure did hurt for weeks....

[vociferous]

Imminent fail

time for sush to take the beginner riding class

[Sushii]

Imminent fail

time for sush to take the beginner riding class

??? Whats wrong with using ONLY the front when braking hard? Please enlighten me. When your braking hard, your rear in most cases does not have contact with the ground. When it doesn't have contact with the ground its useless, and when it suddeny gets contact and your using your rear, it starts to skid.

Please dont get this confused with regular braking and "Braking HARD".

[Acadian1974]

When your braking hard, your rear in most cases does not have contact with the ground.

If this is the case you have much bigger problems than a basic riding course will solve... perhaps you should reconsider riding altogether.

[murf]

Imminent fail

You might want to tell Kevin Schwantz and many others that they have/are doing it wrong all these years! Lol
It also depends on type of bike you are riding, on a cruiser you would use the rear brake.

[PLau]

during emergency baking

Sooo what are we baking? Do I need my gear?

Heh, just had to when I saw it.

[SeaBreez]

Yesterday, while heading south on Dufferin, I had to jam on the bakes to avoid rear ending a "last minute" left turning suv. I grabbed the lever hard and jammed on the rear brake. As I watched my front wheel nearing his back bumper - I thought "oh F#@K" I'm going to crash. At that moment my rear wheel started skidding sideways and I quickly let off on the rear brake. Luckily the bike straightened itself and stopped within inches of his bumper....

Lesson learned!

...take it easy out there fellow riders...there is still fine grit on the roads.

[Sushii]

Sooo what are we baking? Do I need my gear?

Heh, just had to when I saw it.

We're baking cookies! And yes, no squids allowed.

[Sushii]

You guys are all being pretty harsh on Sushii aren't you? I've heard a ton of riders claim that they don't ever use the rear brake. Heck, even the instructors at the MSF course suggested that up to 100% braking should be done with the fronts in an emergency stop.

Is there value to learning how to use the rear brake effectively? Sure. Does not using it make you a terrible or untalented rider who should give up forever? Hardly. In fact--and correct me if I'm wrong but--I believe the primary benefit to using rear brakes during normal riding is to reduce the wear on your front brakes and to take advantage of greater traction during slippery conditions. Aside from that it's just regarded as good form unless you're getting into advanced territory like trail braking.

Hes not being harsh, hes being ignorant.

In theory

In theory, you should, of course, brake optimal in an emergency situation: in that case, you have the shortest possible braking distance, and that's exactly what is needed.

But in practice, that's hard to achieve at a moment where panic comes around the corner.

The danger is that you, next to squeeze the front brake (which is perfect if you do it like squeezing a lemon, and not all in once), also will slam the rear brake, and hold on to it, which is not ok.

Pull the clutch and use the front brake

For a real emergency stop, you can better leave the rear brake for what it is, and only use the front brake. On top of that, you pull the clutch.

Why no rear brake?

It is very difficult not to slam the rear brake in an emergency situation, and especially to let the rear brake go in time. If your muscles get tense in such a situation, the tendency is to push the rear brake hard with your foot.
That will result in a locked rear wheel. If you are lucky, it will slide from left to right and back, and if you are less lucky, the rear wheel will move passed the front wheel.

In an emergency situation, you don't want that.
That's the reason for the advice not to touch the rear brake in an emergency stop.
As a bonus, the bike will stay upright, because the rear wheel will keep turning. A turning wheel has resistance to move sideways.

[mmmnaked]

Now when i brake hard, i never use my rear, just my front. I only use my rear for slow speed maneuvers, such as tight turns and gently stops.

good way to never learn how to use your rear brake

[MadPoet]

I low sided on the DVP in the rain because the rear brake locked up slowing down. I since then use the front brakes to react to the various conditions, emergency or otherwise, but then I follow up with rear brakes to complete my stop. Using both brakes will stop the bike in a shorter distance than using just one. It still occasionally slides in the last 10 feet of stopping but by then I am already below 10km/hr.

IMHO in reacting to an emergency situation sometimes there is a panic that would lead to extra jamming on the brake pedal causing a slide.

I also backed off my rear brakes a little so that it is not ultra sensitive anymore.

[JD1]

Good thread to place my experience from yesterday afternoon, especially considering all the talk about front/rear breaks.

I was coming down main street at speed limit, looking to turn left at the next set of lights. There were cars stopped to my right because of a red light, but because I was going past them with the intention of turning right and not going straight, I kept my speed at the limit and made my way to the lights.

However, one of the stopped cars waved a car through from the right, that intended to make a left turn onto the street at proceed North (I was heading south).

He couldn't see me because of the cars blocking his view and the same goes for me. I saw him at the last second as his car pulled in front of me. I literally had milliseconds to respond and instinctively grabbed the front break too hard, causing the forward motion and the sudden stop to kick me right over the handle-bars where I fell right in front of the car with the bike on top of me.

I've gone over the situation in my head countless times and the only way to avoid a similar situation in the future is to ride more defensively. Knowing that stopped cars may wave a driver through who cannot see anything until it is too late, I can slow my speed next time and do what I can to ensure that the coast is clear before proceeding to the light to make my turn.

I hope this was explained well enough. The driver was charged in the incident and I was hauled to the hospital. Originally, the EMS feared a broken hip, but X-rays showed nothing but some pretty bad bruising. I'm limping but I'm alive and I'm thankful for it.

Any insight as to what can be done in the future to avoid this would be greatly appreciated.