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Every one of my close calls has been right here. There are 2 ramps to 3 major highways (495, 395, 95) and separate 395 HOV, plus continuing on straight. The signs work if you know where you want to go, but we're on the bottom of the beltway circle, so most people can't figure out if north/south/east is correct, which leads to a lot of last second swerves between ramps. Plus there's a 5 lane light just before the exchange, so people filter into the shortest line at reds, and then have to move into the lane they actually want to be in. Twice I've locked the rear, once pulled a stoppie, and several times swerved nearly into the divider because some contractor van realized he was headed to 495 N and really wanted 495 E.
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Jun 30, 2010 14:13
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pr0zac posted:Did the biggest stoppie of my life on the CBR this morning in traffic at about 50mph when some old guy cut into my lane 20 feet in front of me going 30 mph slower. Scariest experience I've had on a motorcycle so far. Guess my brakes are ok though. 929s have a beautiful balance for stoppies...they're the first bike that I got comfortable lifting the rear on. Well done on the avoidance too...another thing I use to help me avoid that is sticking as far to the left of the left lane as possible, sometimes you can accelerate past them rather than having to mash on the brakes, which has the advantage of not getting you asspacked by the other moron behind you not paying attention. Weinertron posted:I was a dummy today. I dared to touch the rear brake in the middle of a HUGE Texas rainstorm. I proceeded to lock up the rear wheel completely, slide the back side of the bike all over the lane back and forth a few times, stall it somehow Traction is really variable on the rain, but I still rely on the rear brake a lot because the consequences of locking it up tend to be much lower than the consequences of locking up the front. However, you do have to balance that with an understanding that it's not able to provide nearly as much stopping power as the front will, especially in the rain. You stalled the bike because you had the clutch out and the rear wheel was locked up, causing the engine to stop as well. That's something that most people don't get the chance to reflect on, haha. Glad you made it through safely, and trust me when I say, it'll get better...someday you'll love riding in the rain for the challenge it presents 
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Jun 30, 2010 19:21
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and end up remembering my MSF training to get the bike straight before letting off that rear brake. I kept that fucker upright.
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quote:You stalled the bike because you had the clutch out and the rear wheel was locked up, causing the engine to stop as well. That's something that most people don't get the chance to reflect on, haha. I guess that must have been what happened. I came to a controlled stop on the shoulder of the road with the clutch pulled in, so I guess at some point I must have pulled it in, but not before the thing stalled. I really didn't have much time to notice very little thing I was doing. I'm not averse to riding in rain, but I think I won't go out when it is that heavy often. I can't find out how much rain fell yesterday, but I did find out later that evening that I had rode through a flash flood warning. We're getting it dumped on us. I'm just glad that Austin isn't further south, I'm seeing 6" to 12" rain predicted in south Texas because of the hurricane.
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Jun 30, 2010 20:34
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Z3n posted:Glad you made it through safely, and trust me when I say, it'll get better...someday you'll love riding in the rain for the challenge it presents Riding in the rain also helps remove all the dead bugs from the front of your bike! Think of it like a free bike wash!
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Jun 30, 2010 21:42
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Raven457 posted:Riding in the rain also helps remove all the dead bugs from the front of your bike! Think of it like a free bike wash! It rained so goddamn hard here the other day, that with my bike parked at work, all the bugs from a week of riding were washed off completley. I'm so glad I didn't ride in that. Also if anyone wants to be forced to learn how to ride in the rain just take the oregon coast down to California. It rained every. Single. Day.
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Jun 30, 2010 22:39
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MrZig posted:Also if anyone wants to be forced to learn how to ride in the rain just take the oregon coast down to California. It rained every. Single. Day. Hahaha, that's the truth right there.
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Jun 30, 2010 23:02
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chryst posted:Every one of my close calls has been right here.
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Jun 30, 2010 23:43
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chryst posted:Every one of my close calls has been right here. I do not miss that area. Former NoVA local and I HATED that interchange in my car. I didn't even have a bike till I made the move out to Los Angeles and I'll tell you what, I wouldn't ride that interchange now even after 15k miles experience. gently caress. THAT.
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Jul 1, 2010 01:38
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Crosspostin 'dis from the trackday thread, because more people deserve to see how I almost died. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvHtChodNk0
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Jul 1, 2010 06:13
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I wanted to get a sports bike when I felt ready. Now I'm not so sure 
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Jul 1, 2010 11:35
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Endless Mike posted:This is all exactly why I avoid the Beltway as much as is humanly possible. (Hey local guy!) The rest of the beltway on the VA side doesn't bother me. The rebuilt 395 interchange tho, scary poo poo. And I live a mile away, so I have to use it all the time. It works pretty well for keeping traffic flowing, but christ does it make people drive like morons.
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Jul 1, 2010 14:23
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needknees posted:Crosspostin 'dis from the trackday thread, because more people deserve to see how I almost died. That kinda made me poo poo my pants a little.
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Jul 1, 2010 19:16
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needknees posted:Crosspostin 'dis from the trackday thread, because more people deserve to see how I almost died. What the hell? Is that a 2008+ CBR 1000RR? Isn't the HESD supposed to prevent that from happening?
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Jul 2, 2010 01:22
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needknees posted:Crosspostin 'dis from the trackday thread, because more people deserve to see how I almost died. "Just Hold On Loosely, but don't let go If you cling to tightly, you're gonna lose control"
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Jul 2, 2010 04:56
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Boat posted:Also, don't move to China. That is AMAZING. The weirdest part is just how low-speed they all are, most of them look to be at like 15mph. Do they not have stop signs there? Are the drivers REALLY THAT oblivious to anything going on around them? Just . . . how the gently caress do some of those happen? A lot of them seem to be people crashing into each other at barely above idle speed! Case in point at 2:05. Just . . . how the gently caress does that happen?
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Jul 2, 2010 05:16
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Tsaven Nava posted:That is AMAZING. The weirdest part is just how low-speed they all are, most of them look to be at like 15mph. Do they not have stop signs there? Are the drivers REALLY THAT oblivious to anything going on around them? Just . . . how the gently caress do some of those happen? A lot of them seem to be people crashing into each other at barely above idle speed! lol ,the one right after 2:00 is the best example of this I DIDN'T SEE HIM!
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Jul 2, 2010 05:43
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infraboy posted:What the hell? Is that a 2008+ CBR 1000RR? Isn't the HESD supposed to prevent that from happening? Yes, it's an 08 CBR1000. I've heard conflicting reports on the HESD, some of them apparently don't work at all. I haven't had time to go get it looked at yet but I'm guessing something is wrong with it... However, you can hear some mechanical screeching sound in the video that kinda sounds like it could be the damper working. I don't know. If it *is* working it sure didn't do a very good job.
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Jul 2, 2010 14:51
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Tsaven Nava posted:That is AMAZING. The weirdest part is just how low-speed they all are, most of them look to be at like 15mph. Do they not have stop signs there? Are the drivers REALLY THAT oblivious to anything going on around them? Just . . . how the gently caress do some of those happen? A lot of them seem to be people crashing into each other at barely above idle speed! I wonder how much of it is due to a cultural stigma of not looking directly at other people. People just keeping their head and eyes forward so they don't offend someone by looking directly at them.
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Jul 2, 2010 15:30
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needknees posted:Yes, it's an 08 CBR1000. I've heard conflicting reports on the HESD, some of them apparently don't work at all. I haven't had time to go get it looked at yet but I'm guessing something is wrong with it... I don't like the HESD at all. I feel like it's a compromise designed for street use, to prevent people from oversteering themselves at high speed, it seemed like it just straight locked up at 100+mph, and at the same time, it still didn't offer enough damping to prevent proper headshake, it just made it hard to steer. Very frustrating. Buy a prepped 600 that already has a proper damper installed (scotts or ohlins). 
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Jul 2, 2010 18:33
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During the middle of the day, around 12:30PM, I got tunnel vision and ran through a red light at 110MPH near a school district while children and cars were going across. Jaywalking is extremely common so I thought they were jaywalking, and the cars I didn't think about. Usually I am extremely adamant about red lights and stopping for yellows, I can't explain how I didn't see the red. I am fine but I could have killed plenty of people had I not been so lucky. Been driving the speed limit for the last few days ever since.
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Jul 15, 2010 04:31
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Jack the Smack posted:Been driving the speed limit for the last few days ever since. Hell has frozen over.
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Jul 15, 2010 04:36
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Jack the Smack posted:During the middle of the day, around 12:30PM, I got tunnel vision and ran through a red light at 110MPH near a school district while children and cars were going across. Jaywalking is extremely common so I thought they were jaywalking, and the cars I didn't think about. Usually I am extremely adamant about red lights and stopping for yellows, I can't explain how I didn't see the red.
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Jul 17, 2010 14:41
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Dwight Eisenhower posted:You're doing it all wrong, you made it through because you were doing 110 and that reduced the probability that you'd be occupying the same space and time as any of the pedestrians/cross traffic to near 0. Next time go 130 or 140 to be even safer. So, when he's moving so fast that we can't accurately know both his position and momentum he'll be the safest, right? (Uncertainty principle still holds.)
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Jul 17, 2010 17:39
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Took a CB1000R out for a test ride yesterday. Took it to a familiar slip road, peg feeler on deck (they are literally 6 inches long; this is not pushing the boat out) and cracked the throttle in a measured manner. Did an little dance in the air above the bike as it fishtailed violently across the tarmac. Having also discovered that I could lock the front wheel with one finger (non-C-ABS bike), got back to the stealership to discover that the clever PO had fitted BT020s to a thousand cc naked (and treated them to a weekly dousing in WD40, I don't know). loving tyres, how do they etc. 
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Aug 1, 2010 13:40
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Just a tiny close call, but it was my first. I lost traction on what really felt like both wheels coming through a roundabout with some kind of dirt strewn sparsely across the asphalt. It had rained a few hours before which might have worsened the situation, because it didn't look slippery at all. Anyway, I felt the front tire slide less about a foot and immediately after the rear wheel followed. I regained traction and never lost my balance but it did get my heart racing for a few seconds. Just to get back on the horse took a longer road home with a lot of roundabouts so I could get some serious leaning on. Actually I think my purposeful leaning practice on my way home made me more confident with traction and lean angles than the slipping made me less confident. Good experience.
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Aug 2, 2010 23:02
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Saga posted:Took a CB1000R out for a test ride yesterday. Can you translate the rest into English?
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Aug 3, 2010 21:20
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Aargh posted:Can you translate the rest into English?  Here it is in 'Murican. Saga posted:Took a CB1000R out for a test ride yesterday.
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Aug 3, 2010 22:05
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Jabs posted:It's already in English, which you apparently do not speak. That's not in 'Murican. This is in 'Murican. Took a CB1000R out for a test ride yesterday. posted:
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Aug 3, 2010 22:48
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Z3n posted:That's not in 'Murican. This is in 'Murican.
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Aug 4, 2010 02:57
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Jabs posted:That's not 'Murican. Coming from a long line of them, I can tell you that's Scandihoovian, don'tchaknow. Jag förstår inte. Talar du engelska?  My almost-crashed moment:  I went for a ride on a Honda motorcycle model whose name is called CB1000R lent to me by a kindly dealer whose name is [deleted to protect the guilty]. I foolishly made the mistake of operating the throttle (gas, or poignee de gaz) in a section of road with a bend or kink in it, known as a corner or if you're 'murican a curve approaching a highway, motorway or otherwise a long straight bit of road with multiple lanes. The previous owner of the motorcycle had seen fit to use a completely inappropriate set of pneumatic suspensory and frictive devices known here as tyres (or tires if you prefer), featuring a surprisingly low coefficient of friction. In combination with a four-stroke, four cylinder engine of a cubic capacity approaching or exceeding one standard earth liter, this appears to have been a poor choice on his or her part, resulting in a sudden and unanticipated loss of traction located primarily at the rear or driving wheel of the motocyclovehicular conveyance. This resulted in the rapid oscillation of said wheel around a point located at or near to the headstock or steering stem of the death machine at a rate estimated at approximately 3-4 m/s, and resulted in the ejection of the rider's posterior from the saddle, seat or cockpit of the vee-hicle. Having observed this behavior, I proceeded to operate the anterior braking system using two digits on one of my upper limbs (human normal), and noted a similar deficiency in the frictive capacity of the corresponding tyre or tire, especially taking into account the high relative velocities and rapid acceleration that the model Honda 2008 CB1000R motorcycle is capable of achieving and the desirability of avoiding collision with solid objects, or the rapid and unintended rotation of the death machine perpendicular to an axis defined by the front, forward or anterior axle. I returned the 2008 CB1000R motorcycle forthwith to [redacted], undertaking in future to ascertain fully the capabilities of any machine before mounting upon it and not to purchase a 2008 CB1000R motorcycle without ensuring the fitment of appropriate pneumatic suspensory and frictive mechanisms. Is that better? I tried in biker first but apparently no-one understood. Language is so confusing to me.
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Aug 4, 2010 14:04
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 I wish I could do all of my ride reports in that style.
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Aug 4, 2010 16:48
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hooo, i just had my first almost-crash. Finally figured out why my virago wouldn't start (the PO neglected to connect a ground to the negative battery terminal) so I went out for an evening cruise. I saw storm clouds to the north but I didn't think much of it. Coming back towards home, I was on this deserted industrial street that goes straight through a tunnel under the interstate, and then promptly does a 90 degree left turn. I backed off the throttle as I came out of the tunnel, and instantly noticed the turn was not only covered in what must have been a tar spill (the road had recently been gravelled), but that it had apparently rained on this side of the bridge (all the roads up until exiting the tunnel were bone dry). Fuuuuuuuck. My mountain biking experience has taught me how to threshold brake, and I eased into both brakes until I felt the front start to lock. I was rapidly approaching the curb of the 90 left so after shedding as much speed as possible I released the brakes and leaned the bike into the turn. I felt the front wheel drifting wide so I countersteered and leaned out to counter the bike's fall - and just like that it was over, I was back on (wet) pavement. If I hadn't taken the MSF (or had copious bicycle experience) I think I probably wouldn't have been alert enough to see the change in road conditions and I also would not have known how to keep myself upright. To anyone who takes motorcycling seriously (and everyone should) I highly recommend both the MSF as well as spending some serious time riding a bicycle. I see all these old fat guys on harleys and I wonder when the last time they rode a bicycle was.
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Aug 5, 2010 03:18
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cloudstrife2993 posted:I see all these old fat guys on harleys and I wonder when the last time they rode a bicycle was. Someone post that Harley picture series where he gets the footboards down while posing for the camera and then lowsides it Z3N, I aim to please but hopefully will avoid any more near crashes. Until winter anyway.
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Aug 5, 2010 12:07
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Riding back from BC up the number 93, I almost got tuned by someone in an orange Mazda3 or similar. Two-lane highway, dotted yellow line, he was passing an RV who had pulled over halfway onto the shoulder to let him around. This stuck him halfway into the oncoming lane (his) and halfway into mine as we passed eachother. I'm probably only typing this tonight because I had been on the far side of the lane to avoid an SUV that I thought was going to pull that stunt, though the SUV had made it around his target and I was starting to drift back towards the centerline. It's that last part that really bothers me, I was still thinking about the last guy and failed to spot the Mazda until he was right on top of me. Fuckin'ell. On the bright side, if I had been in my car, we woulda creamed eachother's driver-side headlight at a closing speed of about 240 kph.
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Aug 16, 2010 06:21
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I think this fits in here better than the track days thread.... Video of yesterday when I saved a high side mid corner. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4TFE81Ch5g&fmt=37
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Aug 16, 2010 15:33
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The other day I rode to work, and during the day it rained pretty hard. On my way out of the parking structure, the final turn had gotten really wet and that stretch of concrete is pretty slick anyway. I took the turn a little too fast, and the back tire slipped out. I almost panicked. I stuck my foot out, and was all ready to grab every control and mash it closed, when the emergency response part of my brain took over and canceled all the various improper actions. After a second of just maintaining throttle, my bike stood back up nicely and went on about its business.  It's funny - whenever I think I might be going over, the only thing my brain can think of is the damage to the sidebags. 
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Aug 16, 2010 15:38
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schreibs posted:I think this fits in here better than the track days thread.... loving nice save. Just too greedy on the throttle or what? What kind of bike and tires are you running? Edit - I have my own almost crash. Saturday I was riding around on the three (non 90 degree intersection between fields) turns central iowa has to offer in a 150+ mile radius. On a road I am very familiar with I came into the first (blind) corner at a reasonable clip. Right as I turned in and the rest of the corner revealed itself I discovered I was on a perfect line. A perfect line right into the loving HUGE PILE OF GRAVEL THAT COVERED OVER 3/4 OF THE LANE  I've never seen gravel in that spot in over 6 years. Definitely wasn't expecting it and of course I did exactly what I shouldn't do and rode straight through it. Target fixation is a bitch. Hindsight being 20/20 and all, there was a very thin strip on the very inside of the lane that was clear (I think. At least it was more clear than a shitload of gravel). Maybe 6-8" wide, including the white paint stripe on the side of the road. I could have tightened my line in time to get to that clear area, but I didn't  . I'm disappointed in my reaction to this, but I have to say I was happy with how I handled an 80+mph two wheel drift... I stayed as loose as possible and just let the bike sort it out. I regained traction towards the DY and continued on my way, wondering what I was going to do with the huge load of poo poo now occupying my riding gear.moral of the story -- DON'T RIDE LIKE A JACKASS ON PUBLIC ROADS. needknees fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Aug 16, 2010 |
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Aug 16, 2010 15:56
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Violated the throttle rule...adding throttle while not reducing lean angle. I did that a lot on my SV, and it eventually ended up with me crashing twice before I learned my lesson. Nice save though! rear end out of the seat and everything.
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Aug 16, 2010 16:11
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needknees posted:loving nice save. Just too greedy on the throttle or what? What kind of bike and tires are you running? Unless they've majorly rebuilt it in the last couple of years, the jefferson circuit is way loving slippery, especially if it's rained any time in the last day or two (e: I remember getting onto it after it had rained the night before in mid-summer while it was bone dry - the sediment on it made it like riding on a wet road in the middle of winter). It's either polished to hell or they deliberately used a special grip-free formulation for the tarmac. You don't have to do much to nearly highside. Also, the video isn't playing right for me, but did this happen exiting the first corner (clockwise) by any chance? ee: needkness posted:moral of the story --
Saga fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Aug 16, 2010 |
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Aug 16, 2010 16:13
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I don't know if it was throttle or dragging pegs. I was rolling on more throttle when it happened and I felt the rear lose all traction and catch again which bucked me. There was a control rider I was working with and he was following me when it happened. He said he would send me his video of it so I should know when I see that. Ive got a worn BT-016 front and a very worn Dunlop Roadsmart on the rear on my SV650 (both have 4 track days and street wear on them however the Roadsmart was on there when I bought the bike and was told it was pretty new back in Sept09). This clip is how I ended my day. I lost my nerve after that and definitely need new tires before I go out again if only for that boost to my confidence in the bike. It rained all morning, we had our first session at 1:30pm just a half hour after it stopped raining. Needless to say it was a little slick. Jefferson is a little bit of an odd track because it used to be used by law enforcement/military and the track dried too quickly for them to simulate wet situations so they poured peanut oil all over it. That same peanut oil still plagues the track years later. schreibs fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Aug 16, 2010 |
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Aug 16, 2010 16:16
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