|
Z3n posted:As to my near crash..I've had a few of them over the years. The one that springs to mind is at buttonwillow, I was in the B group riding on Dunlop Qualifiers, and had just pulled my fastest lap ever. I look at the timer, see 2:08, and know that I have at least a 2:07 in me. Coming into turn one, I get on the gas, start to roll on out of the corner, and the back end hits a patched section of pavement, goes sideways, and right as I start to think I'm going to lowside, it catches, snaps me up, completely off the bike, luckily I somehow land back on the bike which is the midst of an immense tankslapper. I've got that sick feeling in my stomach as the bike continues to headshake madly as I'm heading towards the edge of the track but magically it slowly comes back, I get my feet on the pegs, and I look up to see the corner worker reaching for his red flag. I wave weakly at him, he gives me the thumbs up, I crawl around the track and pit. I managed something similar going in a straight line. Down the back straight at Oulton Park, going over the little rise on a bike with too much rebound damping at the back and a bit of a rearward weight bias (and no damper), I experienced a full lock-to-lock slapper and ended up with both toes on the ground and one hand on the bars. The guy behind me couldn't believe I'd stayed on. Neither could I at the time... True professionals can actually crash there. I remember once watching a BSB race from the inside of the next corner. Lots of booming noises from the straight, a sudden silence, then a 955 surfs into view on its side, completes the straight and exits into the kitty litter. The rider presumably had either left the track to one side, or was still re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. Other than that, I've only had the usual going round a familiar corner, encountering unexpected dirt/gravel etc. right on the apex and doing some unplanned two-wheel drift. Sometimes without even spotting the crap on the road. Only thing recent but not very exciting was borrowing a friend's 929 after doing most of a trackday on my CBR400 with its 2-pot sliders. Got to the end of a short straight into a chicane and had forgotten what the 929/954/RC51 Nissins can do - cue back end in air and graunching from the front wheel as it locks momentarily, but somehow manages not to tuck on me. All in front of a small crowd of spectators. In my defense, the 929 is quite a bit more wayward than my old '954. Oh, another memorable (but probably boring) one on the '954 was a fast 100mph+ right at some place in the Carolinas (NCMP?) on a very hot day. I'd been caning the poo poo out of the bike on normal road Diablos, and the back decided it'd had enough as I got on the power. Cue extended sidewaysness and some screaming from me - it felt like the back tyre was actually liquefying itself for the rest of the lap. Just to make me feel better, I got it back under control for the exit, only to be greeted by a fireball right in front of me. Someone with a Dayglo orange GSX-R had crashed on the exit and the bike had caught fire just off the track. And not just a bit on fire - proper Hollywood style. It was like Days of Thunder, only without midgets. Saga fucked around with this message at 07:55 on Oct 26, 2009 |
#
¿
Oct 26, 2009 07:48
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 2, 2024 08:28 |
|
|
In my experience, although I know it's a state-by-state thing to some extent, the US is crazy about double-yellow lines. Basically if there's a corner within the next 3 miles, there will be double-yellow lines. It's stupid even in a car in most states. Here in the UK, the double (white) lines usually get used only if it would unsafe for the average car to pass a dawdling tractor. So you will have single white or normal dashed lines even in situations where a car couldn't manage a safe overtake of another vehicle doing under the limit. Have to agree with Z3N on this one - it may be illegal, but on the bike you have the road space requirements of a bicycle, the height of an SUV (or a 7 1/2 ton truck, if you're standing up) and the acceleration of your average supercar. There will be many situations on a bike where passing is both illegal and completely safe. Z3n posted:Meh, I disagree. Simply because they've repainted lines on assorted roads in my area, and it seems like any time they repaint lines, dotted lines go to solid. How about instead you let me make the determination about the conditions, the ability of my vehicle to pass, and let me figure out what is safe and what is not safe?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 27, 2009 10:01
|
|
|
redscare posted:Now I'm trying to figure out how I give a car a wide birth. Doesn't sound pleasant Having driven one, they have lousy rear visibility and handle like supermarket shopping carts. That probably accounts for most of the lousy driving.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 29, 2009 17:33
|
|
berth
|
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. 
|
|
#
¿
Aug 1, 2010 13:40
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 4, 2010 14:04
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 5, 2010 12:07
|
|
|
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 |
|
#
¿
Aug 16, 2010 16:13
|
|
|
schreibs posted: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. Oh poo poo, that would explain it if true. It looks bone dry and good to go. Then you try leaning over and lose the front! The exit to 1 is also a bit nasty because it sucks you into a lot of lean and then there's a dip as you start to exit, so people either lowside or highside. Usually the former luckily. e: lesson is, go to Beaver Run or Pocono instead!
Saga fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Aug 16, 2010 |
|
#
¿
Aug 16, 2010 16:21
|
|
|
Jabs posted:Does it smell good It's in West Virginia. 
|
|
#
¿
Aug 16, 2010 16:42
|
|
|
Jabs posted:
I'll make you feel better...  Doesn't an F350 sound like just the ticket after that?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2010 20:49
|
|
|
SlightlyMadman posted:Whoa, I wish I knew all this a few weeks ago. I used to have some really nice Harley Davidson shoes, but I came up to a curb a little faster than I was comfortable with and had to lay 'em down. Good thing insurance covered them, or I'd still be paying down that second mortgage I took out to buy them. I had those shoes too. They were really inconvenient because whenever it rained I had to hide under a bridge. The end came when it drizzled for 7 days once (this is England you know). A concerned BMW owner called the RSPCA, who trapped me and placed me in a humane shelter for vagabond trolls, prop. R. Kyanka. Eventually I escaped, but a donkey stole my shoes and chewed them heavily. I came close to crying, I'm not afraid to admit. All that held me back were my HD "1948" sunglasses. One drop of salty water and the chrome would have been all hosed up.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2011 06:50
|
|
|
Hand signals are also useful if it's unclear what you might be doing. E.g. are you turning across traffic into a side road or about to overtake a line of cars. I think they're pretty good for making the point "hey, pay attention because I'm about to do something". Usually a good thing on a bike. I mean, let's say you had just managed to perfect your fourth-gear one handed stand up wheelie. You wouldn't want anyone to miss that.* * Internationally understood symbol is an index finger jabbed skywards and then four fingers held aloft with the thumb crossed over the palm. Like so: "I am about to hoist a minger - check it out bitches"  "Fourth gear muthafucka!"  Note that these symbols should not be used while riding in China, as emergency services may attend. "It's hosed again - knew I should have bought Japanese" "Yep, I have lost fourth gear"
|
|
#
¿
May 24, 2011 15:06
|
|
|
Strangely enough, I saw a dog with a truck full of gravel wielding a shovel near that very spot yesterday. I wonder if there's any connection between these events?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 22, 2011 14:46
|
|
|
polystyrus posted:It was really wet the other day, and I went out to pick something up from eBay. Plenty of unfamiliar roads. Would have been a nice country lane ride except for the rain. Didn't think it was that wet, and I stupidly put my trousers *inside* my boots. I hate wet boots. You don't need to explain your suspicious rug burn to us, we can't see you over the internet!
|
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2011 06:51
|
|
|
SlightlyMadman posted:You are a loving genius. I'm not sure any girl at 6'1" and 190lbs could qualify as "cute," but a pink tutu and some hello kitty stickers can't hurt, right? Shave your legs - problem solved!
|
|
#
¿
Oct 24, 2011 17:37
|
|
|
T-boned a peasant, er, pheasant a few weeks ago. Was pulling feathers out of my brake calipers after that. Unfortunately it disappeared into the bushes, so no free dinner. Not really an almost crash however, as I didn't. I had what I suspect was birdstrike in Scotland back in the day - bombing along somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Fife with no-one around and something I never saw hit my helmet just in front of my left temple, hard enough to give me a headache. I suspect a sparrow and a combined speed at impact into 3 figures was responsible.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 3, 2011 12:49
|
|
|
An owl, that's nothing! Buddy of mine hit a golden eagle. Then he had to wrestle it into submission, Crocodile Dundee style.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 3, 2011 16:55
|
|
|
A true Hoon would have just stuck his leg out... (Congratulations on your lucky escape!)
|
|
#
¿
Nov 11, 2011 14:36
|
|
|
KozmoNaut posted:Very dull people indeed. They probably have protractors and pocket protectors and they're going to be calculating frame counts, distances and stuff. Sucks dude. I suggest the following: i) Sell bandit ii) Purchase track bike iii) Bribe Cornelius with sexual favours for lifts to the track  iv) Optional: in your spare time, plan and implement a campaign of hostile forums posting directed at anyone who points out your error v) Sell track bike when suspension is lifted and purchase something very fast - you might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb, as we say over here. Comedy alternative, emigrate to a country with less bike-fascism.
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2012 12:38
|
|
|
Just don't get hard on the gas on the way into a decreasing radius corner. Back brake also good for tightening your line without upsetting the front end. ReformedNiceGuy posted:I thought I'd contribute as I've been riding on my own for a whole week now! I was riding down the aptly named Cemetery Road (from top to bottom on this road).
|
|
#
¿
Jun 20, 2012 11:18
|
|
|
aventari posted:You were riding a WRX You should see that thing wheelie though.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 22, 2012 14:03
|
|
|
Collateral Damage posted:Well I just the most embarrassing laydown yesterday. I was getting some final practice on the evasion course part of the swedish driving test. I'm waiting for my turn to drive about 100 meters down the course with the bike in neutral and my right foot down. For whatever reason I decide to switch my weight to the left foot, and as I do I accidentally nudge the gear lever, which causes the bike to jump forward before stalling and slowly tipping over. Did you emit a strangled cry as you slowly toppled to the ground?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2012 19:44
|
|
|
KodiakRS posted:I don't know. It's the first motorcycle with a center stand that I've owned. It certainly doesn't help that I weigh about 280LBS which overwhelms the suspension a bit. That was right about where I was starting to drag knee though so it's not like it hits really early. At that weight I would definitely respring the shock. New spring should be something like $100 and either DIY or take it off the bike and let the dealer risk injury for the cost of an hour's labour. Racetech has a spring rate "recommender" on their website, though I don't know how new that multistrada is.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2012 09:44
|
|
|
You need two multistradas. If The Great Lorenzo can do it, so can you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSehxjPJEpc
|
|
#
¿
Jul 20, 2012 13:46
|
|
|
goddamnedtwisto posted:I don't think he actually wanted to take me out (all he'd have needed to do is shift left or just not turn in time and I'd have ended up in the side of a bus), just stop me taking the gap. One reason I like taking the bike is that encountering these people in the car is worse. There are a couple of cars I inevitably run into on my commute who do 40 in a 60 unless you try to legally pass them, at which point they go all Cole Trickle up in that bitch and keep the "hammer down" to the extent of risking a head-on collision. And then they go back to crawling along at 40. When I'm on the Tuono that tactic doesn't work so well and I can happily ignore them. Unfortunately, life is full of arseholes who like to take out their frustrations and personal miseries on whoever is handy. Astra man is fat, middle aged and his wife has left him so darkies are taking are jerbs, kids have no morals these days (other than Linda 23 from Essex phwoar worra stunna!) and motorcycles are causing the breakdown of organised society by not being cars. You know, the usual Daily Mail poo poo. His attitude won't have anything to do with you, you're just a convenient "other" on which to project his fears and insecurities. I honestly wouldn't worry about what he says to his insurance, since statements have been taken at the scene and there is actual camera footage.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2012 20:26
|
|
|
Ziploc posted:What if he actually didn't notice you or expected you to wait behind the bus? If your not technically in a lane, how can someone expect which lane your supposed to be in? Do you have right of way into his lane? It sounds like he accelerated with you, you were all up in his personal space which potentially surprised and drew his attention which caused him to hit the truck. What happened is basically the Arstra driver decided that he wasn't going to let twisto into the lane, which he successfully achieved by closing the gap between him and the van in front to nothing. Unfortunately, he was so busy congratulating himself on obstructing another road user that he didn't pay any attention to the van and drove into the back of it.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2012 08:26
|
|
|
KozmoNaut posted:If it's done right, chip sealing just gives you a mediocre, but cheap surface for low-traffic roads. "Done right" means using enough bitumen and no more aggregate than the bitumen will hold. It also means rolling down the aggregate properly. gently caress up any of those parameters (as underpaid, overworked road workers are wont to do) and you can end up with a top layer consisting of loose aggregate. This is absolute murder on windshields and hellish for motorcyclists, as you've discovered. This is exactly how our local council in Surrey does it. They have some clown dump a fuckton of loose aggregate on a slightly worn road surface and basically smooth it over with a rake like a motherfucking Shinto rock garden. I'm picturing Irish traveller contractors dress in ceremonial robes and headdress, serenaded with traditional drum (...and bass, poundin' from their white Ford chassis cab). On residential roads, the cars turn this into drifts and washboarding in about a day. There are actual banks of gravel and ripples like a sand dune on the Paris-Dakar. Eventually it all ends up in the gutter and hopefully no-one crashes in the meantime. On rural roads, this takes a road with indifferent grip and makes it positively loving dangerous. Eventually the piles of aggregate get smaller and some of it sticks. This lasts, literally, about 3 days, before the traffic rips the aggregate off the surface of the road in the highest wear areas and you once again have a shiny, low grip surface. 
|
|
#
¿
Sep 6, 2012 19:59
|
|
|
I wheelie everywhere with my headlight on low-beam. I feel this is an excellent compromise and to judge by the enthusiastic waving of fists from cars going in the other direction, other motorists agree!
|
|
#
¿
Sep 7, 2012 20:54
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 2, 2024 08:28 |
|
|
ReformedNiceGuy posted:Added maps goodness A mere stone's throw from my ancestral lands! Post pictures please. To me, the basic lesson is to slow down on B roads where you can't see through the corner so that you will be able to stop or slow adequately when someone is doing something stupid. That isn't "slow down you mad fool, you will kill us all doing 40mph on a national speed limit road" (said the Daily Mail reading Micra driver). It's simply that where you can't see through to the exit of the corner, B roads have a habit of featuring things like unexpected surface contamination, pedestrians and ramblists, ponies out for a hack, cyclists, the back of New Holland's finest ... or some dumb gently caress in a car or van who decides to overtake on a blind corner because he or she simply couldn't possibly wait behind a cyclist for 10 seconds. If you can see the exit, by all means go as mad as you want - but if you can't, it's best to back right off. There are no prizes for impaling yourself on a yummy mummy Mercedes.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 10, 2013 21:26
|
|