Hope this can save your life

I just finished reading onecbrblue06's forum on never riding again.  I'm glad to hear he is doing okay.  I've thought a lot about the situation he is in.  we as riders have to understand the risk we put ourselves for the joy we get for riding.  There are a lot of factors that can make the risk on motorcycles worse. 

I heard a statistic from my father in law, who helped get me into riding, saying that 95% of accidents have 1 of 3 factors involved.  1) riding experience less than 6 months, 2) rider is under the age of 25, this can also be explained as immaturity on a motorcycle.  3) alcohol. 

By understanding that, and learning from others who make mistakes as well as my own, I like to think that I keep the risk of riding pretty low.  So I'm going to share my crash story in hopes others will learn from it.  I would like to encourage others to use this forum for that too.

Summer 06, I looked into riding, I had no riding experience what so ever.  I did drive a manual transmission car and thought the principle would be similar.  I had a friend selling a bike and he told me to come over and check it out.  He told me to take it around the block.  I was very hesistant since like I've said before, I have no experience on a motorcycle.  But I did anyways.  I was able to move around the block pretty good, and pretty proud of myself.  I didn't think I could pass up the deal to buy the 04 CBR 600 F4i for $3500 with 2K miles on it.  (he wanted to buy a harley).  The day I took the loan out, he agreed to ride the bike to my house the next day.  I was very excited, but when the time came around he said he wasn't feeling good that day and asked if he could do it another day.  I was too excited to wait, I told him that I could come by and ride it to my house.  I only lived 2-3 miles down the street.  I talked to my wife and she remembered hearing me say I did well riding the bike around the block so she agreed.  We put the kids in the car and went to his house to pick up the bike.  I tried to remember some mistakes I've heard from other riders who dropped their bike to not make the same mistake.  One that stuck out was my aunt who was turning out of a parking lot on her cruiser and turned the handlebar too much and ended dropping the bike.

This is where the mistake happens, so read this paragraph if you want to skip all the fluf leading up to this point.  I got on the bike and took it to the stop sign that led to the main road with other cars.  I was going to make a left turn and didn't want to drop the bike turning the handle bar too much and knew I had to lean into the turn.  while all this was going through my head, there were multiple times I also thought I could have went.  I saw another oppurtunity and had decided to go.  I started and heard the engine rev up.  I remember holding on tighter and it getting louder.  I must have blanked out from the adrenaline because the next thing I remembered was moving quickly into the chain linked fence across the street.  (5-6 feet left from the brick wall).  I think I dumped the clutch but don't remember doing it, since I knew that would cause bad things to happen.  My wife who was in the car behind me said that I wheelied into a ditch and flew into the fence.  She wanted to freak out but she said she instinctively knew that she couldn't because the kids would have lost it.  The kids already started crying.  I got up fine, I was wearing a helmet and jacket.  I was more mad that I wrecked the bike the first day I got it.  I was going to get on the bike and take it home from there (it just had some pretty deep scratches on the fairing) but my wife stopped me.  I told her that I can't just leave the bike here.  She told me to call the guy I bought it from to take it home

didn't you want a 1KRR sometime after that? ;-)

You did forget one really important factor... most accidents are caused because other people dont respect motorcycles.. I live in new york.. and the majority of the bike accidents here are because assholes dont pay attention and crash into motorcycles... Their excuse " i didnt see him"

maybe in the city. nationwide NTSA reports that the majority is single vehicle accidents...and so does the MSF.
 

quote:

ORIGINAL: CBattR1000

You did forget one really important factor... most accidents are caused because other people dont respect motorcycles.. I live in new york.. and the majority of the bike accidents here are because assholes dont pay attention and crash into motorcycles... Their excuse " i didnt see him"

I think steps 1 and 2 help prevent that issue. I am always aware of what's going on at intersections - at any entry to the road - and going a speed where I can avoid or brake for anything. If you're not, you're just a statistic in waiting.

Btw, Gsus, sad/happy story. I have a wife and daughter, so my heart goes out to you and them over the experience. Very sad this sort of thing sticks with you, but it's got its good points. The kids need to know we're mortal and accidents can happen.

Good points but I'm going to say something that sounds quite squiddly but is the truth (keep in mind, this isn't a recommendation, just a personal observation):
While I think being prepared and taking msf et. al. is quite important, I think back 20 years ago when I started riding on the street and think I would've wrecked too if I read and prepared to the point where I'm over thinking everything. I'm conservative and careful by nature anyway but I really think what saved me was just getting on and learning (on low traffic roads) on my own until I felt comfortable enough to get more experienced advice on being a safer and better rider. For me personally I think the other stuff would just made me over analyze things at that early stage. Of course what works for me doesn't necessarily mean it's good advice for someone else (and probably the majority).

Note that a big part of the above was based on having previous dirt bike experience (which I highly recommend before getting a 1st street bike) but it had been quite a few years between the last dirt bike and the first street bike. Another major factor that kept me from some possible messed up situations was the fact that it was a ninja 250.

quote:


95% of accidents have 1 of 3 factors involved.  1) riding experience less than 6 months, 2) rider is under the age of 25, this can also be explained as immaturity on a motorcycle.  3) alcohol. 

Alright! The first three don't apply to me any more so I am going to start stunting like mad!!! I think I am ready for a 12 O'clock in 3rd gear going 110+!

Seriously, +1 on the MSF. Also, the question is never IF you wreck, its WHEN you wreck... so always be prepared (this includes having a good life insurance plan for anyone you might leave behind)

I was in crash that almost killed me-- 45 mph, full gear and I was even wearing a reflective vest when a car pulled out in front of me. Somebody order a medium-rare T-bone?

None of you guys have crash stories?!  I'm shocked. 

I was curious about the riding ergos on a liter bike yes, I've had a chance to sit on my friends 07 R1 and I have another friend gonna let me try his 07 CBR1000, but I'm pretty happy on my F4i now, I don't think I'll need another bike for a while.  It's just reading about the new bikes sometimes makes me want them.  By the way, if you check out www.motorcycle-usa.com they have the 2007 literbike smackdown.  Honda was rank #1 on the street!!

My kids love the bike now, when ever the day is beautiful, I take them out front to ride their bikes and they think they are just like their dad.  One day I was washing my bike and the kids rode their bikes next to mine and ask if they could wash theirs too.  My wife said it was adorable.  I'm trying to get my wife over her fear.  She used to hate the fact that I rode on the freeway at night but she hasn't complained about that for a while.  And just the other day she followed me while I was riding my bike, she said her heart was racing the whole time but I'm hoping that she'll get over the whole fear thing eventually.

in time they will...
my accident stories? let's see...2 months after i got my bike, in a residential area, a truck had passed its delivery stop and instead of turning around, stuck the truck in reverse and ran my bike over...fast forward to 4 months later...while being a noob, with stupid noob behavior and cockiness with way overconfidence in the twisties, a voice told me..."you can take this turn fast"...ok mang...60 in a 25 turn? i wasn't ready for that...anyway, ran wide...but right before the bike was about to launch off a dirt berm and down a 2000 ft cliff, i got my break...the front end washed out and i was thrown onto the roadway...lucky no cars were coming.
 
after that about eleventy billion close calls...

here's mine. riding down the main road in my town at 45 mph, a lady coming the opposite direction turns left infront of me from a non turning lane. i go crashing into the side of her minivan with my 98 ZX-9R along with busting out her windshield and then flying through the air and then bouncing down the street. so i get careflighted to the hospital and spend some time there while i was in a coma for 12 days. result: broken left femor, compound fracture in my left arm, broken left hip, broken left ankle. also, removed my left kidney, my spleen and about 1 1/2 feet of small intestine. so, after 30 days in the hospital and $450,000 in medical bills i was off to physical theropy for 3 months so i could walk again. so after all was said and done, i have titanium rods, pins, and plates in most of the left side of my body now and a couple less organs. nice trade! but i was wearing a helmet that definatley saved my life, thanks shoei. and jacket and gloves, so i had very little road rash. so about 8 months later i bought a new 02 ZX-12R! nice upgrade i thought. all and all, obviously i was close to dying and now i ride harder than ever before. i just take it to the back roads or the track now. but for the record i do have an 06 cbr1000rr now for all of you wondering about the kawi's.

Wow, Jason2tx's accident sounded really bad.  Have you fully recovered?  I always get nervous when I see someone going to cross the road in front of me.  I learned in my MSF coarse left turns are the most common car maneuvers in motorcycle accidents.  I usually slow down expecting them to make the move to go in front of me.  After giving them the chance to move in front and knowing they won't make the move, from their face or car movements, I pick up on the throttle so I spend the less amount of time in front of them.  If I'm driving in a multi-lane road, I will try to use other cars to protect myself.  I'll slow down or speed up so if the car is going to cross in front of me they would have to hit the car next to me to get to me.

Tahoe's first accident, just sounds like bad luck.  I had a close one similar to your 4 months later, I ended up straightening the bike up (I learned in the MSF not to brake in a turn) and braking hard and stopping in the oncoming lane just before I ended up into another chain linked fence.  Luckily there was no oncoming traffic.  That was during the fall 06 (within my 6 months of learning too).  Not wise on my part.

Yea, it was pretty damn bad. I have a ton of huge scars now from all the surgery. But I'm fully recovered now, I just walk with a limp sometimes when my hip or knee hurts. Not really a big deal though. About the wreck, I don't even rememeber what happened. The wreck happened on a Monday night, and I can't remember anything that happen from the Friday afternoon before that. Which happen to be the same day I had put on full muzzy exhaust, factory jet kit, air filter and had it dyno tuned. It then rained from Friday afternoon until Monday afternoon, so I didn't get to ride all weekend. When I wrecked I had only been riding for about 15 minutes. So all the stuff I just did to the bike and the 2 week old Shoei Picotte helmet was all thrashed. It sucked. Oh well...