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I am posting twice in a row here? Given the events of the past few weeks I may need to find a new weekend hobby.  Riding a twisty with a crest at the top of a right hander. As I get light on the bike from the crest I notice dirt on the road and do the wrong thing, I pump the brakes. BOTH wheels get squirrely and sideways for a moment. I don't know how but I didn't go down. I think the fact it happened so fast I couldn't react had a lot to do with it. BIke straightened out and I kept riding. Thankfully I wasn't going as fast as I usually would in that spot. Stugazi fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Jul 7, 2013 |
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Jul 6, 2013 22:25
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To make Stugazi feel better I have a double whammy of stupid; Recently I've been practicing moving about on the bike a bit, not hanging off exactly just trying to get a better body position so I don't have to lean as far. This is working pretty well so far, I feel a lot more smoother in the corners but it has led to me adjusting the line I'd normally take through some (for the better!). Anyway I went out for a brap round my favourite lunchtime loop and on one of the last right handed double apex corners I'd come through differently to how I usually would, running deeper between the two apexes. I remember thinking "gently caress this is bumpier than normal" about half a second before the front end started to give. I stopped rolling on the throttle and reduced my lean a bit and thankfully didn't bin it. Today I went back because I'd been dwelling on it and couldn't understand why I nearly lost the front as I didn't feel nearly as far over as I had been on some of the earlier corners. This time around I notice a builders sand bag all torn open at the side of the road and sand everywhere which probably explains yesterday. Stupidly I spent far too long looking at this on the outside of the corner and nearly ran myself off the loving road. 
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Jul 12, 2013 13:34
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Warm up lap... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwEMkcvCOa4&t=169s 
Zool fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Jul 13, 2013 |
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Jul 13, 2013 21:05
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You're going to love the poo nuggets in your suit. I guarantee it.
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Jul 13, 2013 21:58
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Whelp, had my first "oh poo poo" moment last weekend coming home from a short ride. I was about 3 blocks from my apartment in pretty dense downtown traffic and just went through the light at about 15 mph. I look over my shoulder to see if there is room for me to change lanes left. As I turn my head forward, the SUV in front of me has slammed on the brakes to a full stop. I hit the brakes pretty hard but didn't lock them up, stopping about a foot from their bumper. It really shocked me how quickly things in front of me changed with a half second glance over my shoulder.
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Jul 18, 2013 17:04
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On my ride from Seattle to LA I spent a few hours dinking around the Oregon coast, and on an access road leading to a parking lot on the beach I ran into trouble. And by trouble I mean a spill of sand that had gone across the road from both sides, meeting in the middle, and being no shallower than 1-2" deep at any one point. Even at ~10-15mph my heavily laden KLR didn't like it, and I had the experience of my bike trying to yank itself in about five directions at once as I crossed the 2 feet of sand. On the way back out I made sure to go through at nearly walking speeds. Still felt sketchy as hell.
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Jul 18, 2013 17:27
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hot sauce posted:Whelp, had my first "oh poo poo" moment last weekend coming home from a short ride. I was about 3 blocks from my apartment in pretty dense downtown traffic and just went through the light at about 15 mph. I look over my shoulder to see if there is room for me to change lanes left. As I turn my head forward, the SUV in front of me has slammed on the brakes to a full stop. I hit the brakes pretty hard but didn't lock them up, stopping about a foot from their bumper. It really shocked me how quickly things in front of me changed with a half second glance over my shoulder. The sun does not have no prisoners. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1IIELT-79E
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Jul 18, 2013 19:54
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Almost got creamed in a lovely little town called Somerset in Ohio a few hours ago. I was coming up on a roundabout, and it was clear to the left. As I was going through a truck on my right went in front of me a bit too soon, followed immediately by a car I had to swerve around. When I came back through an hour later, I noticed a sign that said "YIELD TO TRAFFIC ON RIGHT". What the gently caress? Never in my life have I see anything like that and I can't imagine what the reasoning behind such a decision was. I guess they are trying to give priority to those entering the circle instead of those that are already in it which is the complete opposite of every traffic circle I've ever been on.
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Jul 19, 2013 01:29
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I feel a tad silly posting an almost 0 mph drop in the almost crash thread, but this has to be shared. I was pulling into a parking spot and noticed a plastic bottle in the left part of the spot. I went around it, stopped, put my left foot down and WHOA WHOA WHAT THE HELL sliding around everywhere until my heel finally hit down in time to catch the bike. I look down and  I kept that bastard, though I'm not entirely sure why.
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Jul 28, 2013 05:36
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I appreciate the effort to go green, but you can buy toe sliders.
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Jul 28, 2013 06:11
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nsaP posted:The sun does not have no prisoners. I'm always amazed at how long it takes him to realize that the big brown box has stopped moving. Had a couple words with a lovely teenager last night after he almost pulled out in front of me from a stop, resulting in me having to weave around his car. I went something like this: "Hey man, try and keep a better eye out next time. That's the most common way cars kill motorcyclists." "gently caress you human being, you wanna go?" I snapped my visor shut and rode off while listening to his alpha calls of "That's right, ride off bitch!" I've taught myself to keep cool, but that doesn't seem to work any better than being mad at people  edit: Kind of old, but worth mentioning Bow TIE Fighter posted:Locked up the rear which squealed for (what felt like) minutes, didn't lock up the front, but probably could have braked harder. Forgot to downshift, so I need more practice, probably also could have shifted my weight back over the rear tire, which may have helped (?). Generally when emergency braking, it's advised to just clutch in and focus all of your attention on the brakes. Unfortunately it's gone now, but I had a braking study PDF saved that basically stated, unless your brakes are crazy bad for some reason, that you don't gain any consequential stopping power from downshifting as long as you're using your brakes properly. AncientTV fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Jul 28, 2013 |
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Jul 28, 2013 18:37
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AncientTV posted:Had a couple words with a lovely teenager last night after he almost pulled out in front of me from a stop, resulting in me having to weave around his car. I went something like this: I had an oblivious idiot pull right across in front of me with his brakes on today, to get from the left lane to the gas station on the right. I had to brake hard and dodge to the left. I blared the horn right behind his car. The horn on my bike is pretty loud, but he didn't even turn his head in my direction after pulling in to the gas station, he never even noticed me. Looked over at him, he had white earbuds in his ears 
KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Jul 28, 2013 |
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Jul 28, 2013 19:17
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Ugh, there's nothing worse than a lovely driver who doesn't even realise they're being lovely. I usually try and chase them down and point out what an irresponsible shitheel they are being in the nicest, most polite way I can but sometimes you can't and it feels lovely knowing they're just going to carry on, maybe even hurting or killing someone next time and there's nothing you can do. AncientTV posted:"gently caress you human being, you wanna go?" We had a horrific blizzard back in February, totally caught the island by surprise and people were struggling to get around on ungritted, unsalted roads*. I nearly got merged into by a woman who had her wing mirrors folded in, so I pulled up along side her car when she stopped and tapped her window, then the mirrors. I couldn't hear her through the car window and my helmet and the snow, but everyone can lip read "gently caress YOU!". I just wanted to help you not kill people, crazy lady *we can't use salt because of our captive water table, and we don't even have the infrastructure (trucks/storage) for gritting, that much snow is super rare for us.
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Jul 30, 2013 12:53
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ReelBigLizard posted:
I'm tempted to keep a trophy mirror every now and then.
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Jul 30, 2013 13:08
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Doesn't count as a crash I guess, but the emotional damage (to my ego mainly) is very real. At the mall today I the motorcycle bays were chained off (no idea why), but when I parked on a regular space security bitched and directed me to a different set of motorcycle bays on the other side of the lot. Parked there and went on my merry way. Came back, and some dickhead in a hosed up Toyota Hilux had parked across the motorcycle bays at an angle, meaning that I have to move around him to back the bike out of the bay, against a slope that I have to move up against at a 45 degree angle. As I was walking the bike backwards I bumped it against a waist high pole at the top of the slope I didn't see, and dropped the bike away from me, so it went down hard. Right in front of a bunch of people too, so really embarrassing. Nasty scratch on the bottom of the clutch housing, brake lever scratched, side of the handlebar scratched, small chip on the fairing's paint job, scratch on the badge, back of the mirror scratched. 2000 miles on this bike (F800 GT), and I am just about ready to kill someone Gave the security jerks that let the fucker park there, that were so vigilant about preventing me from parking in one of the many available regular bays, an earful. Would have scratched the poo poo out of his paintjob if I thought he'd notice. Parking in a regular parking space from now on gently caress this bullshit, have to pay full price for parking anyway. gently caress. Then on the way home some jerk almost merges into me at this roundabout (left lane to go left, right lane to go straight or turn right past the roundabout, I was on the left, he was merging from the right) coming from the M10: https://www.google.co.za/maps/preview#!data=!1m4!1m3!1d467!2d28.2423321!3d-25.8153976 I saw him in time and got out of the way, but it was a good thing I was almost home, since I clearly shouldn't be riding any more today. EDIT: I should really have taken the hint, quickly jumped on the bike to go pick something up and on my way back, just as I was about to turn across the M10 from the east, some idiot on a motorcycle with the lights turned off blasts past at at least 100kph (80 zone). Saw him just in time, as its completely dark already, if I didn't, I was pulling out right in front of him. What kind of idiot rides around on a bike at night without any lights? There are no street lights on that section of the road so no way he doesn't know they're off :/ Learnings: A) To hell with motorcycle parking bays. B) Keep watching for oblivious merge-ees. C) Get night vision?  D) When you get the feeling that you shouldn't be riding, loving listen. Batcat! Batcat! fucked around with this message at 18:24 on Jul 30, 2013 |
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Jul 30, 2013 15:41
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I was following a big bro-truck through a right hand turn at an intersection. There was construction nearby, so the road was covered in that fine dusty poo poo. Big truck made the right, I slowed, checked left and oncoming traffic, and proceeded right as well, only to be surprised by the big truck, who had stopped about 50 feet down the road! Not turning left, not behind anybody, just... stopped. I braked hard and felt my back end start sliding. I modulated the rear brake a couple of times to bring it back into line, but I wasn't slowing down quickly enough. I had the presence of mind to dodge rather than fixate, and I passed him on the right doing about 5-10mph. Lesson learned: look where you're going through the turn dumbass! I probably could have stopped harder with my front brake as well, but I didn't want to chance it.
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Aug 10, 2013 17:59
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Nearly ran myself into the back of an articulated lorry earlier today! Some massive tarpaulin came flapping out from underneath it straight at me on a national speed limit road, I managed to brake and swerve around that, came off the brakes and glanced down to make sure it hadn't got tangled in the bike. Looked back up and the fucker had started braking himself to pull over! Queue me doing the same emergency brake and swerve for the second time in five seconds round the side of the truck. Note to future me, if the bike doesn't feel weird you can wait until you've pulled over to check if something's caught in it!
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Aug 21, 2013 15:49
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Forgot to post this one from a few days ago. Three lanes one direction, intersection with a dedicated fourth left-turn lane: I'm approaching this intersection where I nearly got destroyed some months ago by a red-light runner, and I notice the car in front of me seems confused - he's drifting around on the line (probably looking at his phone). I back off to give him space, and when he emphatically chooses my lane (far left) I continue on at speed. He comes to the intersection (green for all lanes our direction, traffic moving ~40mph) and realizes he wanted to be in the left-turn lane... and does the logical thing, which is to slam on his brakes halfway into the intersection and put his blinker on. Thankfully I had given him that little extra space because it was enough for me to apply the brakes, feel the rear lock, and realize I wasn't going to stop in time. I let off and did a fast serve-split past on his right side, between him and the car in the next lane. I even managed to blare my piddly horn at him. Adrenaline surging, I did the stupid thing and turned around to chase him down and mime my best "What the gently caress, rear end in a top hat" gestures. He wouldn't even look at me. I'm still a dummy because: I was still following too closely despite backing off, especially given the driver was obviously distracted. I'm also changing my commute route to avoid that goddamned intersection because stupid poo poo is always going down there. That was a sweet emergency swerve though. I probably scared the piss out of the poor driver in the neighboring lane 
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Aug 30, 2013 19:34
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The Royal Nonesuch posted:I'm still a dummy because: I was still following too closely despite backing off, especially given the driver was obviously distracted. I'm also changing my commute route to avoid that goddamned intersection because stupid poo poo is always going down there. Good move on this. The old house I was at had four main routes I could take to work, sadly the one I really enjoyed had not one but two horrible intersections that I almost got taken out in. Changed my route and avoided those spots and my commute was a lot less stressful in exchange for being a little more boring. A well executed emergency swerve feels pretty sweet after the fact.
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Aug 30, 2013 22:57
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I've been riding for about 4 months now and recently came the closest I've come to making a very silly mess of myself. I've debated not posting this because, frankly, I feel like a prick but I guess this thread would suck if everyone thought that. A little backstory: My commute to work is long, but traffic free and I don't pleasure ride around towns so I've had limited filtering experience. And even then, the little filtering I've done has been through completely stationary traffic. However, the other Friday was the day before our wedding. I'd taken the day off and had a bunch of errands to run so I opted for the bike because I knew traffic would be terrible all day due to a local festival. It was a great decision and I flew through town to town getting my jobs done. I got back home, sat down for a drink when my fiancée (Now wife) called. A package for the wedding had been held up at the postal depot 40 miles away - it was a no-brainer, the only way to get there in time was on the bike so off I go. Three miles down the road I merge onto the motorway (Highway), get about 1/4 of a mile in and promptly hit nose to tail traffic, that's barely moving. Okay, time to do some serious filtering. It was the best thing ever - cars were even moving out my way. I carry on and carry on and eventually, after about 30 minutes of filtering I get to the front of the traffic where it starts easing up. The cars are still only doing about 20 Mph and other bikes were merrily filtering so I did too. And here's where it starts going wrong. As I approach two cars next to each other, the one on the left (And in the lane to my left) begins to meander right. I drop my speed a little, but I have plenty of room in my own lane. I also have plenty of time to brake so continue on. As I get between the cars, I realise that the occupants actually know each other and are getting close to talk. I already felt committed to the manoeuvre and still felt I had space (Which I did, even in hindsight) but then the car on the right started to come left, too. Now, this is my first mistake, really. Using the horn is generally considered aggressive in the UK so I try not to do it (Unless I am being aggressive of course...) so I revved my bike. I didn't redline it and make it scream - I just wanted to blip the throttle a little and increase my presence. That would probably have been fine......but what happened next, I'm not really sure of. Either my bike was in a far lower gear than I thought or I simply slipped off the clutch. Either way, the end result is that I teared between the two cars doing a very real, very high wheelie. And I mean, all I saw was sky - my immediate assumption was that I was going to be on my back. My instinct (Having never ever brought the wheel up more than an inch before) was to hit all the brakes (Yes, I know the front wheel was off the ground). Fortunately I reacted quickly enough to drop the front of the bike. However, I was no longer going in a straight line and nor was I holding the bars level - the front wheel hit the ground hard (The fork travel was untrue) and immediately jolted me further off course towards another car in front. I now presumed I was either going to direcly hit the car or highside into it - somehow, I still had enough luck remaining that I was able to swerve around the car, missing the rear quarter by less than a foot. I stabilised the bike and promptly sat in the left lane (The non-ovetaking lane) riding as slow as I could. The cars I'd gone between then overtook me laughing So yes, fortunately "nothing" happened but, to be honest, I'm still shook up over the whole thing. Knowing it was completely my own doing just makes it worse, too - I nearly became the very definition of a YouTube fail video - would have smashed up my bike, upped my insurance premiums (I can barely afford it as it is, being a new rider) and could have potentially lost my license. (Police over here take an incredibly dim view of wheelies) that's ignoring the fact that I could have seriously hurt myself, and perhaps somebody else too. No more blipping the throttle for me.
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Aug 31, 2013 12:10
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Thanks for posting that, it made my morning. Lane splitting like a motherfucking boss. One day I hope to be capable of wheeliefilter too.
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Aug 31, 2013 15:51
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Oh man, that must have looked absolutely amazing.
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Aug 31, 2013 17:11
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It wasn't really an almost crash but today something stupid happened while at a stop sign. I was stopped at a sign with a car facing the opposite direction. We both arrive at the same time and we both started going at the same time as we were both going straight. We get about halfway through the intersection and he decides "I HAVE TO GO LEFT NOW!" and jerks the wheel hard, almost hitting me broadside. He noticed at the last second and didn't hit me but it was pretty close. Dumbass.
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Aug 31, 2013 22:47
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hermand posted:WHEELIEFILTERING I did the same thing by accident a few months ago. I generally don't rev my bike as I think it's dumb. Now I think it's dangerous too. I was filtering and these cars were both hugging the center line so I gave it a quick fast rev. However, I forgot to hold the clutch in.  Got the front tire up just a foot or two at most but scared the poo poo out of me. When we got to the next light my friend on his biked pulled up next to me with a WTF head shake. I shamed my family.
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Sep 1, 2013 05:12
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Your family sucks.
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Sep 2, 2013 02:44
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One time I needed to overtake some slowpoke tourists in a hire car, except I forgot about a hump in the tarmac on that road. Cue me overtaking said hire car entirely on the back wheel, probably looked awesome but I nearly shat myself.
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Sep 3, 2013 12:03
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I had a lady almost clip my front wheel the other day. I was in the right lane of a four-lane road when I see a silver Mercedes SUV coming up behind me in the left lane. As she gets past me, I noticed the back was pretty effed up like she had backed into a bollard. I made a mental note to watch her, and sure enough about 15 seconds later she almost merges into my front wheel as we are coming up on an intersection with a red light. Basically, we are both slowing down, when she decides she wants to be in my lane to merge onto the freeway coming up in about 1/2 mile and merges into my lane. So yeah. I hate idiot drivers. Akion fucked around with this message at 18:22 on Sep 5, 2013 |
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Sep 5, 2013 17:58
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Guy in an oncoming taxi decided to turn left as I was about to enter the intersection. I could tell he was about to turn regardless of if I was there or not, so managed to stop in time with relative ease. This was my first "somebody just tried to kill me" moment though, so it's special 
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Sep 9, 2013 05:21
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Get used to it.
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Sep 9, 2013 05:33
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The easiest way to spot really awful drivers is to look for the TAXI sign on top.
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Sep 9, 2013 09:52
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Collateral Damage posted:The easiest way to spot really awful drivers is to look for the TAXI sign on top. The best thing about the decision to license minicabs in London is that that little TFL roundel on the back window is a more effective danger warning symbol than painting them bright orange and having them playing a constant sound of children screaming. When you see it on the back of an Audi just get off the bike, call your family, and say goodbye.
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Sep 9, 2013 23:48
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Yesterday, I was riding with a few friends when we got caught in some bad rain. When we decided to pull off at a DIY car wash to get some shelter, I had limited visibility (so the turn off was closer than I'd thought), didn't slow down soon enough, and as I started turning, I stupidly applied too much rear brake on a smooth, newly paved, wet road. I knew even before I lost traction that I'd hosed up. Started to low side, got traction again, started to high side (pointing me towards a very deep ravine with no barrier) and then somehow managed to snap it back into a straight line almost like nothing happened. Stupid, stupid, stupid. A friend riding behind me swore that he thought I was heading right down that ravine before I got it upright and back on a straight line. That was luck, and not any skill on my part, which makes me feel even more like an idiot. I didn't crash, but I'm certainly still a dummy. It was definitely a learning experience.
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Sep 9, 2013 23:51
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I live by the rule that if I come up too hot on a turn off of the road I'm on I'll just blow it and turn around rather than evasive braking or swerving. I do this in the car or on the bike. You could end up like you almost did or have someone run up your rear end because they were tailgating and not expecting you to threshold brake before a max G turn.
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Sep 10, 2013 02:36
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So I'm running late and riding a bit 'Spirited' to get on base quickly. I pop up to the last bridge that goes over the subway tracks going about 80~90km and I'm passing a slow Korean Bongo truck on the right and there's a gentle curve to the left ahead that I need to whip around him to make. Suddenly my entire right side was burning as the hose to the radiator gave way and sprayed me with coolant mid-lean. I managed to stand her up and wondering what the hell happened I just hit the kill switch and coast to a stop. My examination revealed that the hose from the radiator came off of the pump, but the ring clamp is still in place. Luckily there was a mechanic's nearby, even though he was 'closed' the rollup doors were wide open so I could borrow their tools to pinch the ring clamp thingie back onto the bike. As I'm wondering what to do about coolant the owner wakes up and comes downstairs from his apartment and hooks me up with a free-top-off. I'm pretty amazed that I didn't kill myself with that truck bearing down on me and had the presence of mind to shut everything off to keep the engine from blowing up, but I'm really confused on why the hose decided to pop off. Now it's just another thing I have to OCD check every time I get on the bike. Also, so glad I wear civvies in to work and change into my uniform there, the whole right side was soaked and stank of coolant.
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Sep 10, 2013 03:55
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Air cooled superiority. So the mechanic was closed, left his garage door open with his tools there, and was fine with you coming into his shop while he was sleeping and borrowing his tools?
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Sep 10, 2013 03:58
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Yeah, I don't get it. Why didn't he just shoot you for trespassing?
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Sep 10, 2013 04:04
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Korea man, he was apologizing he couldn't help me any more. You'd be suprised how many mechanics shops leave their stuff wide open at night with no security and yet they return the next day to everything still there. In fairness though, once he came downstairs he recognized me as I bought some parts from him a while back and I'm friends with the guy next door who runs the self-car wash. \/\/\/ Nah dude, like literally, no one was downstaris, bay doors were wide open, tool cabinets open and unlocked. All I needed was some pliers to pinch the clamp back on and I did yell in Korean asking if anyone was around first. I assume that's what woke him up. nullscan fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Sep 10, 2013 |
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Sep 10, 2013 04:22
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I'm sure he meant it was closed but people were still there working. Mechanics who let you borrow tools real quick are the best, one of my bicycle cranks fell off once and a guy let me use a ratchet to fix it.
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Sep 10, 2013 04:25
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Nidhg00670000 posted:Yeah, I don't get it. Why didn't he just shoot you for trespassing? Getting shot may be a bit much, but if you pull something like that on the wrong mechanic around here, you'll be picking up your teeth with broken fingers. Lots of them are (former) outlaw bikers though, so if it's for a bike, it might be OK, as long as it's not some jap crap rice rocket or something.
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Sep 10, 2013 09:25
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Closing the bay doors would probably require bringing all the half-stripped scooters, used tires etc in from all over the sidewalk
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Sep 10, 2013 10:17
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