1st Bin: Binned my new bike

[Stromble]

Hey folks,

I bought a Kawasaki Versys last week and binned it 100Kmh on a bend in Waitoki last friday. Perfect dry sunny day, not a sharp bend, just one of those long sweepers, felt that I couldnt lean the bike long enough and drifted over the white line and caught the gravel.. Next thing I knew, I was upside down in the ditch with the bike up the embankment and a sore leg..

Damage:

Bike: Bent bars, scratched panels, little scuff on the rear wheel rim.

Me: Lost a few layers of skin, from road burns to right leg, no breaks, just lots of bruises, thank god for good gear.. apart from the jeans. Never again will I go out without my lower gear on. Weird as even when I nip out to the shops up the road, I always kit up from head to toe and the one day I didnt, this happens...!! ah well, lesson learned..

Not quite sure of what happened, been thinking it over for a few days now and replaying the events in my head. Only thing I can think of is that I got a little confident on the new bike quickly, though obviously not confident enough to drop the bike a little further into the corner once I started to drift..

Bike' been booked in for inspection, just need to ensure that there isnt any serious frame damage etc.. but seems to be cosmetic.

My helmet was scratched, mainly the visor went down the road, jacket torn, and half the carbon knuckles ground of my gloves..(hands absolutely fine - thanks to the guys at Motomail for making me spend on good gloves and helmet.!) Though I think I will be switching the Cordura jacket to leather...

The bike has Shinko tyres which arent stock, I think this bike sells new with Bridgestone BT020's 160/60/17 back and 120/70/17 front.. though upon closer inspection, the rear Shinko is 170/60/17...

Without jumping to assumptions that this would be dangerous or have contributed to my bin, I am interested to know the thoughts on fitting oversized tyres to bikes? I know people do it to cars, but doesnt seem as risky when you have 4 wheels..

Any wisdom would be much appreciated..

[gijoe1313]

Cripes, you were lucky! How long have you been riding? I'll leave it for the more learned folk to add their observations.

Just remember to get yourself checked out properly like!

[Crisis management]

In all likelyhood you stuffed up.

Don't blame the tyres, conditions etc, you have to gain the skills to ride around those issues, they are with you every day.

Sounds like you got off lightly, congratulations, now get back out there riding.

[Squiggles]

Shinko's arent great, but the bike didnt slide out from under you, the rear being oversize wont have helped. What most likely contributed would be you, thinking that you couldnt lean more :bugger:

[madandy]

I shouldn't think the rear tyre being one size up from stock would contribute to your off. It would possibly effect how the bike tips into turns but shouldn't have prevented you from cranking her down harder in time if you were cornering at a suitable pace for th bend.
If I've read right you seem to have experienced some severe understeer. How is the front tyre? Correctly inflated? plenty of rubber left on it?

Sorry to hear of your misfortune - may you learn something valuable from it on top of the lesson that jeans are not much use above jogging speed.
Heal well.

[surfchick]

lady luck was with long enough for you to stay within better limits and NEVER do that again..be good to find your limits more slowy on ya nu ride. and great call re getting decent gloves etc. hand are precious weee things useful for all sorts of tasks

[vifferman]

Perfect dry sunny day, not a sharp bend, just one of those long sweepers, felt that I couldnt lean the bike long enough and drifted over the white line and caught the gravel.. Next thing I knew, I was upside down in the ditch with the bike up the embankment and a sore leg.

Classic result of inexperience. More'n likely, you looked at the corner, went "OMIGOD! I'm not going to make it!", then stopped looking through the corner and started looking at the corner, which is where you ended up.

Basically, you go where you look. The Shinkos may have contributed to it, in that they felt like there wasn't much lean left. Some tyres are like that: they don't give you confidence there's more lean left, and that if you tip it in any more, the bike will fall over/crash/skid/bite your arse/all of the above.

[FROSTY:Me]

Trying to get a mental image of the situation.
Dry day -big right? hand sweeper you were cornering at 100km/h and ran off the road on the left?
3 possible senarios
1) you hit a tar snake and startd to slide
2)You target fixated and ran straight at the ditch
3)You simply forgot to lean

Not to suggest you aint tellin the truth --another possibility is that you were going a "bit" faster and simply underestimated how much you needed to lean

[Stromble]

Classic result of inexperience. More'n likely, you looked at the corner, went "OMIGOD! I'm not going to make it!", then stopped looking through the corner and started looking at the corner, which is where you ended up.

Basically, you go where you look. The Shinkos may have contributed to it, in that they felt like there wasn't much lean left. Some tyres are like that: they don't give you confidence there's more lean left, and that if you tip it in any more, the bike will fall over/crash/skid/bite your arse/all of the above.

You're right there Vifferman.. I got to the point where I convinced myself I wasn't going to make the corner and started wondering where I was gonna land.. looked there and sure as hell, thats where I laid..

Absolutely agree on the experience part, just one of momentry lapses of thought and that was it. Been round the same route 50 times before, no problems. Hopefully Ill be back round the same bend soon!

[Stromble]

Trying to get a mental image of the situation.
Dry day -big right? hand sweeper you were cornering at 100km/h and ran off the road on the left?
3 possible senarios
1) you hit a tar snake and startd to slide
2)You target fixated and ran straight at the ditch
3)You simply forgot to lean

Not to suggest you aint tellin the truth --another possibility is that you were going a "bit" faster and simply underestimated how much you needed to lean

Yep, big right hander. I think Viffer hit the nail on the head.. I did become target fixated..

[HungusMaximist]

It's all good brother and don't take it too much at heart. It is a psychological thing 99 % of the time and you can only learn from this!

Just remember, in most cases your skills run out before the bikes does.

[vifferman]

I think Viffer hit the nail on the head.. I did become target fixated..

It's VERY easy to do. Remember: the bike can go a lot faster and corner more betterer than you think you can.
But when you forget that, you tend to panic, tense up, and think too much, when you should be (by instinct, through practicing good cornering technique over and over again), be continuing to look as far ahead through the corner as you can, leaning a bit more, and (if necessary) hanging off the inside a bit.

[Stromble]

I shouldn't think the rear tyre being one size up from stock would contribute to your off. It would possibly effect how the bike tips into turns but shouldn't have prevented you from cranking her down harder in time if you were cornering at a suitable pace for th bend.
If I've read right you seem to have experienced some severe understeer. How is the front tyre? Correctly inflated? plenty of rubber left on it?

Sorry to hear of your misfortune - may you learn something valuable from it on top of the lesson that jeans are not much use above jogging speed.
Heal well.

Thanks Andy,
Front tyre is ok, plenty of grip. I rode it to Whangerei and back the day before, through all the twisties, really enjoyed the bike, not a single scare, bike seemed to do everything I wanted.. So the next days event was quite random.. Though youre right, I certainly have learned some lessons, and mainly yes, wearing jeans=not good.!

[Boob Johnson]

Funny you mention those Shinko tyres. I just returned from a trip to the friendly bike shop & while I was waiting had a wee look at what tyres they had in stock. A Shinko 180/55/17 was $195 next to the Metlzer Z6 & the likes all at $330 ish.

Some things you can cut corners on (no pun intended.........honest ) but tyres are not one of them

Not suggesting it was 100% the tyres fault, obviously the rider has to take the majority of the blame in this case but hell, you wouldn't catch me with some cheap ass brand of tyre on my bike or any other for that matter.

Heal well mate, lesson learned by the sounds of it

Hopefully Ill be back round the same bend soon!

That's the spirit, straight back on the horse

[Stromble]

Funny you mention those Shinko tyres. I just returned from a trip to the friendly bike shop & while I was waiting had a wee look at what tyres they had in stock. A Shinko 180/55/17 was $195 next to the Metlzer Z6 & the likes all at $330 ish.

Some things you can cut corners on (no pun intended.........honest ) but tyres are not one of them

Not suggesting it was 100% the tyres fault, obviously the rider has to take the majority of the blame in this case but hell, you wouldn't catch me with some cheap ass brand of tyre on my bike or any other for that matter.

Heal well mate, lesson learned by the sounds of it



That's the spirit, straight back on the horse

Yeh, the Shinkos are going, not that I blame them, they did feel incredibly grippy on the long twisties up north, but I would rather ensure the bike has its recommended tyre sizes.. Luckily a guy on trade me was selling the tyres off his ER-6, which are the same stock tyres used on the Versys, Just received them today, hardly used. Will be having them fitted tomorrow!