Topic: Irregular pavement and wiping out... my fears

[Quail "Owner of the comfortable k8"]

In this part of PA Horse and buggys make driving fast on any road other than the 4 laners a risky venture.  Horse crap and 20MPH buggys make every curve an adventure.  I have have learned with out falling that braking real hard until she slids on a tight turn a nightmare,  because "that buggy was not on the road 5 minutes ago when you were going the other way !"  I had a young horse bolt when i came around a curve, I think it was the quiet 4 to 4 pipes that suprised the horse.  I think there is something to the loud pipe thoughts.  i also had my centerstand bottom real hard on uneven pavement in a corner, that lifted the rear enough to change the angle about 15 degrees, I did not high side but my correction put me in the gravel, I hate to think if there would have been a car coming.

The only problem with throwing your weight instead of pushing into the turn "I think" Is I get lazy when I do that a lot and forget to push at times and find myself leaning with little respone at higher speeds.  But most people that throw the shoulder are really just pushing the handlebar and don't know it.  Enough can not be said for sliding your tail on the seat at slow speeds though.  We old farts get lazy and sit like a bump on a log and find out the response is to slow until the brain says " hey move your ass or you are going to drop this thing".  Well thats what my brain says.  It also tells me I am pretty cool.

[techy5025]

The thing that we have to live with in Fla. is people who insist on
aiming their sprinklers so they spray the street.  Funny how they
always seem to live on the corner lots too....right where you
need to turn....quite slippery....and hard to see at night.

That ...  and animals that run across the road at the last minute...
totally unpredictable what they will do.

A friend just wiped out the other day by hitting a two inch step
up where they were paving at night.....four ribs and a broken
shoulder but the bike was hardly scratched.

The weather looks good here for riding on Christmas day....have
a great Christmas guys!

Jim

[ElCheapo]

That ...  and animals that run across the road at the last minute...
totally unpredictable what they will do.

Jim

I did not get to see the guy. But I recently saw a large moped in a shop of a buddy of mine that was beaten to death and was laid down on BOTH sides. I guess the story is the guy didn't wear his helmet, was on his was to work and nailed a Racoon. From what he said the guy had something like 100 stitches in various areas and a cracked skull and it knocked out one of his eyes!!!  Yes ICK. Not a pretty sight. The moped looked like someone dragged it for about 30 yards on each side.

And this was a guy who was normally very hyper about wearing his helmet. 

[Uncle Ernie]

Quail, I wasn'r meaning that throwing your shoulder into the turn was a substitute for counter steering.  What I meant was that pushing the bike farther down will weight the outside peg and make it easier to drag the center stand, a peg, whatever.  Throwing your weight in is just sort of a little help- short of actually hanging off.  Moving around some also keeps you limber and makes it less likely to stiff-arm in a panic.  Perhaps just something to consider...

[Jim Shea]

One other piece of advice I was given is; always change your position in the lane, so do not stay in the same place on the road all the time; if you move around the lane you are in, you make yourself more visible!

[Bob Wessner]

One other piece of advice I was given is; always change your position in the lane,

I've found I do that a good deal for other reasons also, such as approaching a driveway with a car waiting to pull out, or a crossroad with a car sitting cross to my travel. If they are sitting on the left, I tend to move slightly to the right of my lane and if on the right, the opposite. In my mind anyway, I'm giving myself and extra fraction of a second if they fail to notice me and start to move and possibly cross my path. You are constantly evaluating the changing conditions and responding even if you don't notice it as an obvious action.

[Jim Shea]

Bob,
Absolutely, if you are constantly moving, then I feel that you are probably thinking, instead of just sitting there.