Crash

K

krrakt

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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.:evil5:

You need to be upright, smooth and delicate with your brakes, throttle and turns when you find yourself it it.
 
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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.
 
- 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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
riding my shiny 1 month old 600rr, 0 degrees out, no idea how to properly turn it, too much lean angle a tight corner and lowsided it. bike flew into the ditch, i ended up in the opposing lane of traffic on a blind corner. pretty derpy. anything under 10 degrees now i ride like im on ice (slowly). was wearing all my gear so i was completely fine.
 
Sushii said:
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.
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good way to never learn how to use your rear brake :lol:
 
I was riding along Danforth, eastbound in heavy traffic in the curb lane. A cop car was ahead, oncoming, and signalling a left turn to a side street. The car in front of me decided that they should be "nice" and give up their right of way to let the cop make his left turn - which was stupid of him to do but I was ready for it. So, I hit my brakes and slow down. The car in front of me then realizes he's being a moron, holding up a string of traffic to let a cop turn left, and comes off the brakes and hits the gas. I get off my brakes and then look into my rearview to make sure I'm not about to get squished if the car behind me hasn't been paying attention. All is cool behind me and I raise my eyes to see that the car in front has had another change of mind. Now he's locked his wheels and slid to a stop. I didn't even have time to touch my brakes.

I went up over the bars and landed on my shoulder on the trunk of the car, rolled off onto my feet and caught my CBX before it could fall over. The bike's front was mangled and my shins were cut up a bit from hitting the cylinders but otherwise I had not a scratch. The coppers came over, amazed that I had caught the bike but not believing that I wasn't hurt. They were a bit embarassed that their mere presence had caused the moron in the car to behave so stupidly.

I learned that, so long as you are moving, you better be most concerned about what's in front of you. I also learned that, even when you think you're doing it all well - proper following distance, covering your brake, scanning ahead - you can still screw up.
 
I gently lowered my bike down on it's side after losing my balance getting it off the centre stand. I wasn't on the bike. Hopefully I don't have another story anytime soon. I try to be very cautious though. So far no real close calls (unless you count people intentionally trying to run you over...but that's another thread.)
 
4 years ago coming home from a work event in the early evening.

Aproaching gas station with driver waiting to make a left out of gas station. I act defensively and start to slow in case he doesn't see me. Blip the horn and he stops creeping out into interesction. I assume he has seen me and ease off brake and continue on, driver decides to make the left in front of me.

Hit over his front well and catapult over the car. Probably going about 20-30 K at the time. Relatively uninjured except for the area where I hit the gas tank. Completely dented the gas tank with my groin area. There are things down there which bruise that would surprise you. Was wearing my leather jacket but a pair of suit pants for work.

Bike was a write off and the driver was charged. Groin healed well, so no fear.
 
I posted my experience in a separate thread but knowledge about the rubber I'm riding on would've helped when I slipped on some slick pavement wearing race tires. I was being cautious to begin with but had I understood the properties of these tires I might've paid more attention to the road surface and chosen a different route or had the bike towed. Race/track tires: very hard and slick when cold, unlikely to get them to ideal temperature on the streets, designed for only 2 or 3 heat cycles, will not forgive you for riding over slick roads like a street tire will.
 
Sushii said:
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.
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Imminent fail
 
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....:)
 
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Acadian1974 said:
Imminent fail
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vociferous said:
time for sush to take the beginner riding class
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??? 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".
 
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