Should I just stop riding?... | Page 3 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Should I just stop riding?...

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A 4 cylinder sportbike with narrow bars and massive front brakes is Not a good starter bike for anyone.
:| you are way too likely to brake too hard on wet leaves or streetcar tracks and crash.
 
Commuting downtown on a 600 sport bike is hardly ideal. Friend of mine went from 600 supersport to a beat up DRZ and couldn't be happier.
 
RobtheBold said:
I haven't, no. I'm not being snarky, but have you?
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Yes, in 1986 on my 5 month old BMW K100RS (apparently the off duty fireman driving his pickup truck with monster mudder tires was trying to get a better look at my new bike) hit me in the middle of Kingston road and Lawrence Ave intersection, I yielded for oncoming traffic but I guess I could have drove right into it instead.
... plus once in a Honda Civic car, both times the other guy was deemed 100% at fault.
 
Trials said:
Yes, in 1986 on my 5 month old BMW K100RS (apparently the off duty fireman driving his pickup truck with monster mudder tires was trying to get a better look at my new bike) hit me in the middle of Kingston road and Lawrence Ave intersection, I yielded for oncoming traffic but I guess I could have drove right into it instead.
... plus once in a Honda Civic car, both times the other guy was deemed 100% at fault.
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By fault determination rules, getting rear ended puts the back vehicle 100% at fault. In reality, the front vehicle in most situations should have seen it coming and can sometimes escape (especially on a bike). The only time it would be partly the front vehicles fault is if they brake checked or otherwise threw out the anchor for no apparent reason. Based on your other posts and history, I would hazard a guess that you knew it was coming and made the decision that the safest place to be was on the hood of the car behind you. Sometimes that is the answer, but normally you can at least make some space to allow them to slow down more. I know when I am stopping I could care less whats in front of me, peripheral vision takes care of that, I am looking behind to see if the person behind me is going to cause trouble.

Given that the OP has had four situations in two years where they were caught off guard by something and went down, my suspicion is their situational awareness needs a lot of work in addition to their bike control. Continuing this slow learning process on the streets is quickly becoming a bad idea. In the interest of a long and happy life, they need to do something drastic to alter their learning pattern (or stop riding).
 
In all honesty, in hindsight, is there anything you think you could have done to avoid it? Could you have been a couple bike lengths farther back - give yourself an escape route? It's been a few decades for the K100RS knock, but were you looking in your mirrors for the Civic? How did it happen a second time?

The fact the other guys were deemed 100% at fault doesn't change anything for me, really. I was taught, and subsequently try to teach riders that it's always your fault. I think if people accepted that, it would change the number of accidents people have.

While I have never been re-ended, I was ... front-ended (?) once. I was backed into - dude in a truck stopped at a red light, realized he was on the train tracks and started backing up. His truck was beeping, I was honking and trying to duck-walk backwards, and he ended up backing onto my front fender. To this day I struggle with how I could have avoided that, but I think if I got off my bike and moved backwards faster it would have done it.

That you are alive to talk about it is positive. I know a couple people who are not here because they were rear-ended at an intersection and stopped paying attention. I refuse to let it be the other person's fault - **** fate!! I'm in charge.
 
I feel like my first two falls were just rider inexperience both times it was due to someone in front braking to hard and me braking to hard. After I started to lean more towards actively using my rear brake more to compensate. The rest of the season after i did fine on my daily commute and joy rides.

In June of this season was when the Mac truck hit me. To detail it more I was stopped in traffic with the truck stopped behind me and a few cars in front. Once the car in front of me started to move, I popped it into 1st and smack right away I was being pushed from behind. The driver of the truck must have forgot about me.. this was something that was 100% his fault and could happen to anyone...

I do agree that maybe my situational awareness may need work, my most recent fall was in the morning going to work so I could have been more tired than I thought combined with yes.. the commute.. thinking about getting to work fast enough and maybe at times being a bit aggressive. In this case I may have been to close to the person in front.. I remember it was a white cube fan.. and it did stop fast in front of me... Its a bit hazy because I did get knocked out for a few minutes.. No concussion tho, so that's good.

I was planning on taking more courses, I initially took the rider training course and did well in it. I was looking into track courses too, but when I saw the price of admission I needed to put some money aside for next year.

I think with the season basically at an end I have to focus on healing and see where I am at next spring. I always appreciate the advice on these forums and will take it all into consideration. I really love to ride, I think I need to adjust the way I do.
 
MSFT said:
I feel like my first two falls were just rider inexperience both times it was due to someone in front braking to hard and me braking to hard. After I started to lean more towards actively using my rear brake more to compensate. The rest of the season after i did fine on my daily commute and joy rides.

In June of this season was when the Mac truck hit me. To detail it more I was stopped in traffic with the truck stopped behind me and a few cars in front. Once the car in front of me started to move, I popped it into 1st and smack right away I was being pushed from behind. The driver of the truck must have forgot about me.. this was something that was 100% his fault and could happen to anyone...

I do agree that maybe my situational awareness may need work, my most recent fall was in the morning going to work so I could have been more tired than I thought combined with yes.. the commute.. thinking about getting to work fast enough and maybe at times being a bit aggressive. In this case I may have been to close to the person in front.. I remember it was a white cube fan.. and it did stop fast in front of me... Its a bit hazy because I did get knocked out for a few minutes.. No concussion tho, so that's good.

I was planning on taking more courses, I initially took the rider training course and did well in it. I was looking into track courses too, but when I saw the price of admission I needed to put some money aside for next year.

I think with the season basically at an end I have to focus on healing and see where I am at next spring. I always appreciate the advice on these forums and will take it all into consideration. I really love to ride, I think I need to adjust the way I do.
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If this is something you love, you'll find out how you can make it work. I echo some suggestions, perhaps not FAST but maybe SHARP? It's completely focused on upgrading street skills and cutekill (forum admin) helps run it. From what i recall the pricing is more in line with an M2/M course from the riding 'schools'.

www.sharpridermotorcycletraining.com

Does a SS really fit your riding style? If not, maybe look at swapping out. If you have a daily downtown commute there are bikes much better suited for street traffic.

Lastly, riding can and should take all your focus. If you`re tired or know you may be tired, maybe don't take the bike out that day. It's not worth it to end up underneath a car.

Be safe!
 
MSFT said:
Once the car in front of me started to move, I popped it into 1st and smack right away I was being pushed from behind. [\QUOTE]

You should always be in first gear when stopped at a traffic light. They teach you that in your course. It allows you to quickly react to escape a dangerous situation.

Get that out of your system...and late braking/turning at speeds not safe/according to road conditions and you will be a much better/safer rider.

Leave space around you to avoid having to brake hard in the first place.

If you cannot do this then it doesn’t matter what bike you ride, the outcome will be the same.

Heal well and ride safe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Evoex said:
Does a SS really fit your riding style? If not, maybe look at swapping out. If you have a daily downtown commute there are bikes much better suited for street traffic.
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I'd submit an F4 is not a Super Sport, but a decent commuting bike. Someone who is 2 years into a riding career should be well comfortable on it, by now, I would hope. Having said that, if they are not, change it up - there are sooooo many choices, you have to find one that works for you!
 
RobtheBold said:
...but were you looking in your mirrors for the Civic?...
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No no, I was in the Civic, car rear ended me, he accelerated through the yellow light into stopped traffic, I gave him all the room I could, wasn't enough.

... only had that one motorcycle accident on the street since April 1971 (got my M license) I do all my crashing in the dirt. and lots of it, like probably 1000 times by now if you count getting hit by flying motorcycles.
 
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Trials said:
No no, I was in the Civic, car rear ended me,
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That doesn't count in this thread, IMHO. I was specifically talking about getting rear-ended on a motorcycle - we all have a slightly more relaxed mindset in a car, and I don't want to muddy the water with you being in a cage .....
 
Evoex said:
We can agree to disagree then.
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no, we can't. It''s a sport bike. The CBR600RR would be Honda's SuperSport.

YZF600 ThunderCat - Sport Bike
YZF 600 R6 - SuperSport

The clip on's are above the triple clamp ... it has a single, banana seat - sport bike.
 
RobtheBold said:
The CBR600RR would be Honda's SuperSport.
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That did not exist until four years later. The 600F4 was Honda's fastest 600 at the time. Now it's mostly semantics anyway, most agree that any 600 cc inline 4 is not a great choice for a bike early in a riding career. Some are worse than others and this particular one is much better choice than more recent RR's, but it is still over 100 hp and has twitchier handling than a non-sport bike.
 
GreyGhost said:
That did not exist until four years later. The 600F4 was Honda's fastest 600 at the time. Now it's mostly semantics anyway, most agree that any 600 cc inline 4 is not a great choice for a bike early in a riding career. Some are worse than others and this particular one is much better choice than more recent RR's, but it is still over 100 hp and has twitchier handling than a non-sport bike.
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Aww you ruined it. :(
 
RobtheBold said:
no, we can't. It''s a sport bike. The CBR600RR would be Honda's SuperSport.

YZF600 ThunderCat - Sport Bike
YZF 600 R6 - SuperSport

The clip on's are above the triple clamp ... it has a single, banana seat - sport bike.
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Now you tell me, I raced a F4 for a couple of years , no wonder I was so slow :)
 
RobtheBold said:
That doesn't count in this thread, IMHO. I was specifically talking about getting rear-ended on a motorcycle - we all have a slightly more relaxed mindset in a car, and I don't want to muddy the water with you being in a cage .....
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You sound like the type of guy to say women are asking to be sexually assaulted because of what they wear. It's always the victim's fault, eh?


You can't control what other people do. If their distracted and going to rear end you, there's not much you can do about it sometimes.
 
I ran a 600 Gixxer and a 600 TCat and a 600 Katana all in a close time frame. The 600 Katana might be the top of what I'd say a 2nd year rider should be on. The TCat and Gixxer are different enough, but the Cat can still be a handful for an inexperienced rider. TCat and F4 are very similar. Both were the Super Sports of their time, now maybe relegated to just Sport....but still plenty of oomph.


Interestingly enough, both times I was rear ended was on bikes and on purpose from the offending dolt.
 
When I went from my CB400 to the CBR600 I thought it was a good progression... I mean I had a whole thread about which bike to get for my price point.

Up until the fall I had no issues and yes I had the mentality of knowing that this new one was more powerful and personally i believe i babied it over riding around like an ****** on it. I could absolutely feel the difference in speed, power distribution and handling and I have made a concentrated effort to learn to ride it properly.

I think in the end it may boil down to my mentality of the commute to work over riding for joy, I think that extra aggressiveness even subtly played a part in it. My mentality was getting to work asap..why is traffic so slow.. vroom vroom lol... Over just taking my time and calmly riding in.
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