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I've read all the usual books and know i should practice emergency stops more, but haven't been great about it (I also need to go practice those low speed parking lot skills too so I can show up the bike cops in the videos). I've been making it a point to do it more recently, so I'm used to the feeling of my front tire gently losing traction. Last night I was riding somewhere in light rain after it had been pouring all day, and approached a left turn that was green but takes forever if you miss it. I accelerated to catch it (mistake #1, 55mph in a 35 in the rain), realized I wasn't going to make it, but for this light if you just miss the left turn you can always make the straight and then make a u-turn. Decided to do that, had plenty of room but the cars for the light were taking longer to get moving than expected (mistake #2). Braked when I usually would rather than early (mistake #3), and when I got down to ~10mph the front end washed out harder than I've ever experienced. I let off the brakes and without thinking put a foot down, ended up saving it, and all was good, but had I fallen there were any number of ways I could have avoided that. The biggest surprise wasn't just that I have less traction in the rain, but how quickly it went from fine to really bad compared to the gentle loss when it's dry. I live in So Cal so rain isn't something I'm used to anyway, but I've been making it a point to take the bike out in the rain more so I'm comfortable with it.
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Jan 13, 2017 16:08
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Yeah it's been raining a lot lately here. You might have hit a patch of oil. If you want to practice braking I suggest taking up mountain biking, or gravel grinding
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Jan 14, 2017 07:26
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Almost ate poo poo today, been rewatching my camera footage to figure out what went wrong/how it could've been prevented: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb-rJEmw0L0 Going 70mph in that video. When I'm on the road, I keep my eyes on not just the car directly in front of me but try to look 2-3 cars directly in front of me to watch for braking behavior. My visibility wasn't so great this time so I could only really see the car directly in front of me at this moment. I could've improved visibility by moving to the left or right side of my lane, but I tend to ride in the center to try to take ownership of the lane to prevent merges as well as give me some buffer if I need to run off to the left. Here's the breakdown in the video 0:02 - car in front of me brakes 0:03 - a full second later, I react and brake 0:04 - car in front of me starts swerving off to the side, I realize when this happens it usually means they're braking hard and are probably swerving to avoid rear ending someone - upon this realization, I start trying to brake harder and accidentally lock up my rear 0:05 - From here on, my brain goes into autopilot and makes a lot of decisions that I'm not entirely clear about, but I think it went like this: -I don't think I have enough time to stop before I rear end -Try to swerve towards the right since the car directly in front of my has swerved left and there'll be less space to maneuver -My rear is still locked and is reducing my ability to swerve right since I'm basically rear end dragging at this point 0:06 - Try to gently release my rear brake, worried about what'll happen to my front end when the rear picks up traction again. - Rear picks up traction, I fishtail but stay loose on the handlebars to let the bike sort itself out. - I get lucky on two counts here: 1. The bike sorts itself out in time for me to swerve out of the way 2. I had just enough space to quickly squeeze between the mini and the white SUV. After watching the video, I'm thinking about what else could've been done to avoid getting in the situation in the first place, did I have enough time to brake if I hadn't locked up my rear, and was swerving right the correct move to make in a poo poo hits the fan situation?
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Mar 19, 2017 13:18
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Well the one thing I noticed that could have been done better is not locking up the rear. You might have been able to put more braking force on the front than the rear which would have stopped you quicker. But that does look like one of those situations you can't really prepare for. Maybe a little more space between you and the car in front would be it. I would wager that if you did hit one of those cars in front of you, you would have slowed down enough already that it wouldn't have been a catastrophic accident, so all in all you did about the best you can do.
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Mar 19, 2017 13:58
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is it close call or "today I backed it in and threaded the needle through some cagers" give yourself some credit 
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Mar 19, 2017 16:01
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What bike do you have, again? That was fantastic to watch. Nice save, and you didn't target fixate!
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Mar 19, 2017 16:14
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I'd say that realistically that was a really well-executed save. Yeah you could say that your braking wasn't as laser-perfect as a MotoGP racer, but you kept it upright and didn't hit anything. That's all that matters. A good example of why you must never let your attention wander. If you'd been zoned out, you might easily have just pancaked into the back of the car. VVVV this is a good point though, yeah. I watched it on my phone and couldn't really see the lane positioning. I tend to ride about 2 feet off the lane marking at all times so you can easily slip between the cars if you need to. Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Mar 19, 2017 |
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Mar 19, 2017 17:18
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Two reasons not to be dead center in the lane: You couldn't see anyone braking past the car in front of you, and you had nowhere to go without swerving.
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Mar 19, 2017 19:23
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Well the one thing I noticed that could have been done better is not locking up the rear. Yeah definitely. I locked up the rear on accident cause I panicked. I'm still unsure if I would've had enough time for a full stop assuming maximum braking potential. I need to go find a parking lot to do drills to find how quickly I can stop and also to get acquainted with how much braking it takes to lock up my wheels since the rear took a lot less force than I expected to lock. Coydog posted:What bike do you have, again? That was fantastic to watch. Nice save, and you didn't target fixate! Suzuki DL650 Sagebrush posted:A good example of why you must never let your attention wander. If you'd been zoned out, you might easily have just pancaked into the back of the car. Yeah it's been a long time since something stupid happened. I got complacent and was due for a reminder of my mortality. ManicJason posted:Two reasons not to be dead center in the lane: You couldn't see anyone braking past the car in front of you, and you had nowhere to go without swerving. I think there's pros and cons for each lane position. I choose middle because it gives me more ownership of the lane while still providing a timing buffer for if people merge in from the right. The tradeoff is that I lose visibility of the cars in front of me, which is then offset by the fact that my bike's seat height is tall and I can usually see over most people. Regardless though, I think I'll be trying a new position that's more offset. I'll also be increasing my following distance from now on. Taking a full second to react at 60mph means you'll travel 88ft in that one second before you act. That's about 4-5 car lengths already, which I thought was a decent buffer but apparently isn't enough for my old man reflexes. Bay Area goons, never go on the 101. Here's a bonus picture from that same day not ten minutes later on that highway:  On a side note, was it SoCal Supermoto that goons recommended going to? I was planning on taking these classes sometime, but maybe I should consider pushing that date earlier
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Mar 19, 2017 20:23
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yergacheffe posted:Yeah definitely. I locked up the rear on accident cause I panicked. I'm still unsure if I would've had enough time for a full stop assuming maximum braking potential. I need to go find a parking lot to do drills to find how quickly I can stop and also to get acquainted with how much braking it takes to lock up my wheels since the rear took a lot less force than I expected to lock. I run that same chunk freeway every day. A: You're following way too closely to not be on your poo poo there. If you're alert, awake, and ready for whatever, fine, but that's way too close for comfort. I've had situations where a car has straddled a loving ladder and it's popped out from under the car at 70mph, and that's too close to effectively react to that except to maybe reflexively slam the throttle open and hope you go over it. B: You shouldn't really ever be in the middle of the lane. It's a compromise position that puts where all the dirt/dropped oil/crap accumulates on the road. The idea that you're "owning your lane position" is some bullshit justification that popped up somewhere awhile ago, hooks nicely into "I deserve this space on the road cause I pay my goddamn taxes" attitude, and is a great way to get yourself pasted by a car. The only thing that owns a lane position is a loving tank or a semi, everything else is just waiting to be bounced off into space by aforementioned tank or semi. If you've got cars on your right, maybe temporarily scoot to the left side of the lane, but in general, hang out on the right side of the lane and keep an eye on your mirrors to watch for cars behaving erratically, other motorcyclists, etc. 1 quick check of the 2 lanes behind you with properly adjusted mirrors should take maybe a half second, and you can do it about once every 10-15 seconds and it's very unlikely you'll be caught off guard if something weird is going on behind you. C: Always aim for the split. This is California, cars expect you to be there, when people do that swerve braking thing, they almost always go shoulder rather than to the right lane. You could have just as easily pointed the bike towards the split, gently applied the brakes, and passed the first couple of cars at a rather large delta, but while still slowing, and it would have been a non-issue. Bias towards movement as opposed to stopping, because you also don't have any guarantee that the car behind you saw any of this going down, or they might have gotten distracted by you going slideways on entrance to the split, and asspacked you, or worse, had you not saved it, hit you as you're tumbling to a stop (human bodies tumbling on the ground stop very quickly, and will outbrake most cars). D: Practice your braking. On a bike like a DL650, you've got enough braking force in the front to stop much quicker than you did and avoid locking up the rear. Get comfortable with that balance. The rear took a lot less than you expected because you transferred a lot of weight to the front, so the rear locked very easily. Besides that, well, good job handling the situation despite setting yourself up for a bit of failure there. Long term commuting on freeways like 101/880/etc is about setting the habits so you can have the lowest risk outs at all times - in this case, that means shooting for the thing that asks the least of the bike, your skills, and maneuverability - carrying your speed into the split and using that additional time/distance to scrub off speed in a more controlled fashion is a much better call than rapidly and aggressively braking, even on the relatively consistent conditions of a well traveled freeway.
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Mar 19, 2017 21:47
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yergacheffe posted:I think there's pros and cons for each lane position. I choose middle because it gives me more ownership of the lane while still providing a timing buffer for if people merge in from the right. The tradeoff is that I lose visibility of the cars in front of me, which is then offset by the fact that my bike's seat height is tall and I can usually see over most people. Regardless though, I think I'll be trying a new position that's more offset. To reiterate what z3n says, definitely don't ride directly in the middle of the lane. The proper spot to be is in one of the two "tire tracks", the area that the cars' tires constantly sweep clean. The center doesn't get swept and it's directly under the car engines, so it's where the oil and broken glass and sand ends up; and furthermore, being in the middle actually decreases your "ownership" of the lane vs. being in a blocking position on the near-side tire track. Here's where you should be on the 101:  If you're in the right lane, stay to the left to prevent people trying to share your lane when merging to exit. If you're in the left lane, stay to the right to prevent people merging into you while trying to pass. Avoid riding in the center lanes if you can; if you have to, I would still stay in one of the tire tracks, but pick the one that seems safer. I have a tendency to stay to the left since the people exiting (coming from the left) are more likely to be going fast and doing crazy poo poo than the ones merging on.
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Mar 19, 2017 22:08
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Z3n posted:B: You shouldn't really ever be in the middle of the lane. It's a compromise position that puts where all the dirt/dropped oil/crap accumulates on the road. The idea that you're "owning your lane position" is some bullshit justification that popped up somewhere awhile ago, hooks nicely into "I deserve this space on the road cause I pay my goddamn taxes" attitude, and is a great way to get yourself pasted by a car. The only thing that owns a lane position is a loving tank or a semi, everything else is just waiting to be bounced off into space by aforementioned tank or semi. If you've got cars on your right, maybe temporarily scoot to the left side of the lane, but in general, hang out on the right side of the lane and keep an eye on your mirrors to watch for cars behaving erratically, other motorcyclists, etc. 1 quick check of the 2 lanes behind you with properly adjusted mirrors should take maybe a half second, and you can do it about once every 10-15 seconds and it's very unlikely you'll be caught off guard if something weird is going on behind you. Let me elaborate a bit more on "ownership". I know it's not aimed at me specifically, but I have no preconceived notion that I own the road because I pay taxes or whatever. You're absolutely right in that, ultimately in a car vs bike situation, car is always going to win. I didn't like the idea of riding closer to a blocking position on the edge because what I'm worried most about are the crazies that aren't going to see me regardless and will merge into me. Riding in the middle gives me more of a timing window to see that and react. However, you could argue that timing window is a false sense of security. I'd estimate it'd give me an extra second at most, and well we see how fast things can happen in an oh poo poo moment. I already do a quick scan every now and then to check all directions for funny business, so I think I'll be moving closer to the side and consider that scan as my timing window instead. You guys also bring up a good point I hadn't considered and that's the fact that gross road goop gets piled up in the center. I'm paranoid of losing traction randomly because my tires picked up something so that's another good reason for me to stay out of the middle. My breakdown on commuting is divided into prevention and oh poo poo: Prevention - Emphasis should be put here. Be situationally aware of what's going with other drivers and tune your sixth sense to predict their behaviors. Adjust following speed accordingly to road conditions (I hosed up here). Consider what escape routes you have in your current situation and assess if that's within your limits of comfort/safety/skill because that'll lead us to-- oh poo poo - This is where preparations in prevention transform into mitigation. When poo poo goes down very quick, I think for most people your brain will take over to autopilot and quickly execute what you've rehearsed mentally during prevention. My first reaction was to brake (which I think is a natural decision, but wasn't correct given my following distance and my riding skill). This transitioned to going for the split (one of my escape routes if I'm riding in the left lane, and a better decision to prevent getting rear ended in a hard braking situation) But yeah I agree all points you guys brought up. I don't think there was anything egregiously wrong other than following distance in my situation. I've outlined my mindset and I think my autopilot did okay, but I still can't shake the feeling that I got very lucky. My takeaway will be to practice braking, adjust following distance, and combine brake+aiming for split as my emergency maneuver instead.
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Mar 20, 2017 01:11
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yergacheffe posted:Let me elaborate a bit more on "ownership". I know it's not aimed at me specifically, but I have no preconceived notion that I own the road because I pay taxes or whatever. You're absolutely right in that, ultimately in a car vs bike situation, car is always going to win. I didn't like the idea of riding closer to a blocking position on the edge because what I'm worried most about are the crazies that aren't going to see me regardless and will merge into me. Riding in the middle gives me more of a timing window to see that and react. However, you could argue that timing window is a false sense of security. I'd estimate it'd give me an extra second at most, and well we see how fast things can happen in an oh poo poo moment. I already do a quick scan every now and then to check all directions for funny business, so I think I'll be moving closer to the side and consider that scan as my timing window instead. You guys also bring up a good point I hadn't considered and that's the fact that gross road goop gets piled up in the center. I'm paranoid of losing traction randomly because my tires picked up something so that's another good reason for me to stay out of the middle. Got slightly ranty there, sorry. Perils of the gig. Sounds like you've taken away a good set of lessons here. I'd encourage you to sorta mentally calculate following distance by thinking "if a chunk of metal shows up directly in front of me after a car straddles it, could i handle it in enough time at my following distance?". This is also why I try and ride in the tire tracks in general, less likelyhood of debris floating along. I once got tagged by a 5 gallon home depot bucket kicked up by the car in front of me on the way to a job interview, right in the coolant pipe. Limped it there leaking coolant. 
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Mar 20, 2017 06:09
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Endo'd today splitting Vermont north at a spot where people let other people thru Had to brake hard but it's cool Just like if your turning left illegally thru traffic cause people are letting you but in a place where dude bros on bikes run maybe look both ways But it's cool idc
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Mar 25, 2017 02:23
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In karma news I swapped over with a splitbuddy to check up on a gixzer dude rear ended on the ten. He was good tho and they both had insurance so I dipped
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Mar 25, 2017 02:26
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A MIRACLE posted:Endo'd today splitting Vermont north at a spot where people let other people thru What do you ride, and how awesome was that endo? Were any mailboxes harmed?
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Mar 25, 2017 02:45
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I ride an fz with decent brakes and can't remember the last time I saw a leave it to beaver mailbox lol Anyways was splitting the ten later to day and passed another splitter and we both stopped for a third dude who got hit by a ranger, I left after ascertaining his safety and jumped off at Vermont What do you guys think of the nineties cbr F series? I know they aren't quite as city friendly as my FZ but I really want to change it up http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/mcy/6049221136.html I've already owned an inline 4 carbed Honda so gently caress off with the noob comments about maintenance
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Mar 25, 2017 03:17
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 post removedVV lack of sleep + cold meds VV Jazzzzz fucked around with this message at 05:56 on Mar 25, 2017 |
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Mar 25, 2017 03:58
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is this guy's brain addled or something what are these posts
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Mar 25, 2017 04:06
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Let's See, Was out running a cop got speed bobbles touched guardrail going about 75 mph, no they didn't catch me. Was on a sport ride, leathers and such, there was an S corner at about 120 mph, hit a bad bump coming off of it, handlebars came to opposite lock once or more, then ended up in my hands again. Once on the interstate there was clear cold weather, sunny but shaded on some corners. I was going 100 mph when I entered a big sweeping corner in the shade and was able to let off the throttle a bit before I hit the black ice. I was at 85 mph then and stayed at that throttle setting as the rear wheel slowly and smoothly lost traction. I allowed the bike to countersteer, must have been some 15 odd degrees, at 85 mph on ice. This lasted for a few seconds then smoothly corrected itself. Life is Fun Sometimes
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Mar 27, 2017 01:31
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you're gonna die
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Mar 27, 2017 01:54
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FecLives posted:Let's See, source your quotes
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Mar 27, 2017 02:02
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FecLives posted:Let's See, Get a gopro.
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Mar 27, 2017 04:40
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FecLives posted:Let's See, you sound cool, tell us some more
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Mar 27, 2017 05:20
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One time I talked about the times I ran from the cops and I got probated but IOC hated me and I don't think we have any oversight anymore so keep the stories coming. Both of mine were on a Ninja 250 too so don't let anyone tell you they're slow.
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Mar 27, 2017 05:50
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nsaP posted:One time I talked about the times I ran from the cops and I got probated but IOC hated me and I don't think we have any oversight anymore so keep the stories coming. I wish we could outrun cager mods. 
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Mar 27, 2017 05:56
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can't outrun the
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Mar 27, 2017 12:29
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Good poo poo, we haven't had a bona fide generic squid in here for ages 
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Mar 27, 2017 14:40
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On Saturday I must have been tired because everything felt off, I made a left turn onto a street that had 2.5 lanes worth of room and barely made the turn in that much room. I should have taken that as a sign, but later when getting off the freeway I decided not to slow down as much as usual, target fixated on the guardrail, then had to fight the urge to hit the front brakes when I wasn't going to make the turn. I got my head out of my rear end and looked through and leaned more, but that shouldn't have been an issue. It's an offramp I take multiple times a day sometimes and I've never come close to crashing on it. I probably should have just turned around and taken the car when I hosed up my first turn, but already had my gear on and it was a short ride so... I know the answer is always commit to the turn more, but I really had to fight grabbing the front brake (and standing the bike up straight into the guardrail). I was getting off at Angeles Crest too, so I would have had the luxury of a huge group of bikers watching me gently caress up something simple.
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Mar 27, 2017 17:17
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nsaP posted:One time I talked about the times I ran from the cops and I got probated but IOC hated me and I don't think we have any oversight anymore so keep the stories coming.
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Mar 27, 2017 18:32
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If you can lose the cops on a Kawasaki Eliminator 125, they shouldn't be able to use radio to catch you
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Mar 27, 2017 22:14
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If you got time to kill this kid on a moped outriding the forest dicks is my favorite chase video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLFTV3KtdmU
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Mar 28, 2017 03:59
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nsaP posted:If you got time to kill this kid on a moped outriding the forest dicks is my favorite chase video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxlFphYBABI
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Mar 28, 2017 04:32
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This one is a classic.
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Mar 28, 2017 13:00
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Almost had a classic No Prisoners crash last night. Riding home from work, tired, hungry, not making great decisions. Stuck behind a car inexplicably doing 5 under the limit on on open stretch up to some traffic lights. We get to the lights, he turns right, I go left and give it the beans out of frustration. There's a queue of traffic in the opposite lane to me. Just as I get to the back of it, I nearly get T-boned by a car floating out of a side street I couldn't see because of the queue. At the point I spotted him I had just enough time to stop completely OR keep all my speed and miss him comfortably. Fatigue made my reaction time garbage though, so by the time I actually registered that he might hit me it was too late to stop, but I bottled it and started slowing down anyway. Luckily the road was wide enough that we didn't collide, I ended up riding down the side of him for a few moments before accelerating past. If he'd decided to drive in the gutter as some people do, I'd have been hosed. If I hadn't been speeding I'd a) probably have seen him earlier, my head being high enough to see over the queue of cars and actively scanning that area as a stereotypical accident point, b) had more time to react if I still only saw him when I did, c) have been able to stop safely in the given conditions (those including my lovely reaction time and awareness). The root mistake here was not being fully aware of my mental state and accounting for that by going slower and being extra cautious of road rage. This commute has been uneventful for most of three months, and I got complacent. In future I'll take extra care to note my mental condition before setting off on any ride, and compensating for it as required, most likely by slowing down and doing more deliberate visual checks.
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Apr 6, 2017 06:16
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Went from rear sets back to oem footpegs. HOORAY COMFORT. OEM shift rod only had one lock nut on each side, not 2. Oh well, finger tightened and carried on. On a loooooooong uphill 6% grade section of I-70 going into the mountains my shifter flopped around instead of taking me down to 5th, and to my horror the only side the shift rod was connected to was the bit going into the transmission. Thankfully I was near an exit and was able to get the 10mm out of the pillion toolbag and actually TIGHTEN IT DOWN before carrying on. I could only imagine being bogged and stuck somewhere and traffic, flying as it does, flying into me had I not noticed it when I did. Never forget to really tighten down poo poo on your shifter unless you want to be stuck in 6th, and you do not want this in the Rocky Mountains. On the other hand I happened to end up near the dinosaur tracks and got to play with my bike in the Stegosaurus parking lot. Space Whale fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Jun 25, 2017 |
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Jun 25, 2017 20:18
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lol if you've never ridden home with one vise-grip on the shifter shaft and another one on the remains of the clutch cable
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Jun 26, 2017 00:48
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Sagebrush posted:lol if you've never ridden home with one vise-grip on the shifter shaft and another one on the remains of the clutch cable I need to add vice grips to the pillion bag then.
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Jun 26, 2017 04:25
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Space Whale posted:I need to add vice grips to the pillion bag then. alternatively install parts correctly you ape
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Jun 26, 2017 04:25
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| # ? May 3, 2024 07:16 |
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I hit a bird yesterday. I was only doing about 40mph on a back road and this little black bird divebombed me from the left. I bobbed and weaved thinking it was going to hit my face, which brought my mirror up just enough to smack right into the little guy. The worst part was seeing him arc off the mirror to the shoulder and just kind of plopping onto the gravel. There's no way he survived. 
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Jun 26, 2017 12:55
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