Thanks for saving my life.

[sleemanj]

Today I have come to realise something, I'm a fucking bad rider, I don't think I was when I first quit riding in 2001 to do other things, but since returning, I definately am, fuck.

Today a bicyclist actually told me literally "thanks for saving my life", you know why, because I took a little lie down in front of him when he appeared around the bend coming the opposite direction and I went to tighten the line.

It was a fucking bicyclist, there was fucking heaps of fucking room, I wasn't going fast, I wasn't cranked over much, I certainly wasn't fucking knee down, and I fucking layed it down on a 90 degree bend.

That's twice in 4 months I've had a lie down, the first I convinced myself was something on the road in the dark. This one I could try and lay blame on an old dry front tyre or gravel in the corner, or bad suspension or ... but no, it was me, no two ways.

So to that cyclist who thinks I saved his life, thanks for the compliment, but it's totally unwarranted, you should really have chewed me out for nearly killing you and I would have agreed; in fact I probably should be thanking you for saving my life, because this is probably the impetus I need to get some professional training before I do somebody some damage. That's if I have any ability left that can be trained.

Fuck.

I know, :whocares:, but ranting cheers me up.

And I'm not even mid life yet. :bye:

[scumdog]

Hope you learned from that little episode:blink:

[KiwiGs]

If you don't learn from this then you are bad rider.
Having had a few lie downs my self, i know how easy it is to look for an excuse. You haven't so you are more than half way to becoming a better rider.
The fact the cyclist thanked you, may also mean you are being a bit hard on your self.....
How are you and the bike by the way?
On the plus side could have been worse you could have been like me.
My last lie down kept me off bikes for a year and resulted in a couple of times under the knife.
Cheers

[rocketman1]

Mate,
Good on you for being honest, more us should be, sometomes its the only way to learn
Seem like you need some track time.
Book your self in for a few days at the next track day, it may improve things for you.
Good luck, with keeping the shiny (scratched???) side up in future.

[sleemanj]

The fact the cyclist thanked you, may also mean you are being a bit hard on your self.....

Nah, not a chance, there can only be two reasons for it, too fast for the bike, or shitty rider, I wasn't too fast for the bike by a long way.


How are you and the bike by the way?

Rode it back in a fashion, no major damage. Don't want to add to ACC's numbers so I'll just HTFU and limp about with the ibuprofen for a couple weeks :-/


My last lie down kept me off bikes for a year and resulted in a couple of times under the knife.

Yep everything could be worse, that's for sure.

[mattian]

you dusted yourself off and got back up and in the saddle again both times. Thats the important thing.

2 times is enough though bro.

Maybe a mentor might be a good idea for you.

[CookMySock]

uh, like what did you do to drop it? Once you get that figured out, just stop doing it.

Bikes dont just leap out from under you when you get a fright.

Steve

[KiwiGs]

Rode it back in a fashion, no major damage. Don't want to add to ACC's numbers so I'll just HTFU and limp about with the ibuprofen for a couple weeks :-/
Don't do that mate. If you want to keep the bike ACC numbers down, fine just tell the doc you fell of a push bike or something....

[mossy1200]

Go ride a dirt bike for a while and get used to unpredictable surface.It will change your natural responce to an incident.

[300weatherby]

Training is available and local ! : Mainland driving school has a motorcycle training section,training is done at Ruapuna and Levels,and skillsets specific to surviving on the road are taught,$250 will get a whole days instuction,you will get a shock at just how much you don't know about you,your bike and how easy it can be to avoid the carnage the car drivers and ourselves inflict! and you get to have fun doing it! - this course should be a mandatory part of licencing.

If you practice what you learn there,you will forever be safer

Mainland Driving School:03 9626927,ask for Mike Flowers,tell them Andy sent you (browny points for me :woohoo:!)

[Ragingrob]

The cyclist was on your side of the road coming towards you?? He can pay for your fucken insurance then!

[McJim]

Tell 'em you fell out of a car.

[Molly]

From time to time I beat myself up about my riding. Especially, for some reason, slow corners or descending corners (like going into Akaroa). I just have no sense of what the front tyre is doing (doesn't help that I'm riding with a Springer front end and 'numb' Dunlop tyres).

Maybe a track day would help (stop laughing at the back)? Besides, I always figured that as soon as I started getting cocky about my abilities I'll find myself on my arse.

A little doubt encourages restraint.

[avgas]

Being humble is the first step - means you are willing to learn your flaws.
I learn something new every time on a bike - yet many older riders I have ridden with think they are saturated with experience. Reality is that they are only full of something else.

[AllanB]

Make sure you claim ACC - I'd appreciate it if I knew where my money was going.

If you appear physically OK, tell them that since the accident you are having trouble preforming sexually and they need to fun a therapy trip to Amsterdam.

[TuonoTom]

*waits for Katman to do his thing

[sleemanj]

Training is available and local ! : Mainland driving school has

Yes, I see this in my near future, one of those round tuit things which is going to get crossed off the list sooner than later.

[martybabe]

Good post mate. You know you messed up, your not blaming any one but yourself and your gonna get yourself some training.

We all make mistakes, you've clearly learned from yours and you're gonna do your best to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again rather than spit the dummy and give up biking.

An admirable attitude, don't be so hard on yourself.

[Maki]

Have a look at this thread, Slee. You might find something useful.

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=110902

Good on you for your honest post.

[Katman]

*waits for Katman to do his thing

How about instead I just tell you to go fuck yourself?

[Laxi]

How about instead I just tell you to go fuck yourself?

hell not SMC today? shit somthing original (well for you anyway)

[Mudflaps]

I also hadn't ridden bikes for roughly ten years until just recently when I started racing a bucket racer. I learnt so much in 5 races on a 100 cc bike that it made my past riding experience look like a pittance! I have fallen off on the track (4 times in fact) But are learning why and how, which has to help me when I'm on the road next. I've also found it teaches you to act in a better manner when put into a difficult situation. All good things.

Hope you heal up soon. Good luck, and maybe find a bucket racer!! Great fun and great learning tool.

[ital916]

uh, like what did you do to drop it? Once you get that figured out, just stop doing it.

Bikes dont just leap out from under you when you get a fright.

Steve

I think he hit a cats eye.

[ital916]

*waits for Katman to do his thing

He seems to be the only one that tells it like it is anymore.

Good on ya mate for being honest and realising a fuck up, you just gotta figure out what went wrong and fix it. Oh and for a bit of clarification can you clear up what the cyclist was doing? Coming towards you or you just came accross a cyclist heading in the same direction as you.

[Laxi]

He seems to be the only one that tells it like it is anymore.

Good on ya mate for being honest and realising a fuck up, you just gotta figure out what went wrong and fix it. Oh and for a bit of clarification can you clear up what the cyclist was doing? Coming towards you or you just came accross a cyclist heading in the same direction as you.


he appeared around the bend coming the opposite direction

:blink::blink:

[ital916]

:blink::blink:

Im just trying to make a mental image of this. So this dude was in the middle of the road. Coming towards you in your lane, whilst you were tightening your line, whilst not cranked over and not going fast and then you crashed.

Im not trying to be a dick, Im just trying to understand what the hell was going on lol.

How bout you walk us through it in fine detail. Vent some more.

[gammaguy]

if you really are that bad,quit now while you are still alive.

Im not sure if you can blog from the afterlife.Care to find out?

[Laxi]

if you really are that bad,quit now while you are still alive.

Im not sure if you can blog from the afterlife.Care to find out?

what a fucked up response! what? you never dropped your bike?

[sleemanj]

How bout you walk us through it in fine detail. Vent some more.

Like I said, it was all on me.

Cyclist bore no fault, he was on his side of the road as I recall. I was not over the line at the time I saw the cyclist (I think), but if he hadn't been there I suspect would have run wide and been close to collecting him.

What I'm saying is, I KNOW there was a lot more lean that the bike could give, and tighten that corner immeasurably, if I'd told it to do it. In short. I suck.


I misread the corner,
I carried too much speed,
I didn't wash off enough going in,
I didn't see the guy until far too late in the process,
I was probably in too high a gear below the bike's power band (but don't recall),
My body positioning almost certainly sucked,
When confronted with the conditions (cyclist coming, little gravely mid corner near the center) I did not take effective action (should have counter steered harder to tighten the line),
I suspect I allowed my reflexes to override my knowledge (brake reflex vs counter steer knowledge) although that's a bit hazy I certainly can't discount it
I suspect there could have been some target fixation going on, again, reflex vs. knowledge


All the above (and probably more) combined to produce the resultant accident, and they can all be directly attribute to me being a bad 32 year old rider who has lost his 22 year old's mojo if he ever had it.

Luckily in this case the loss of mojo has not resulted in the loss of body parts and hopefully this enlightening experience and some retraining will result in less frequent lie downs in future.

NB: It was the corner in the map below, I was coming from Avonhead Road so a left hander for me, I don't know what speed I was doing, couldn't even hazard a guess, but I didn't slide more than probably 3 or 4 meters, maybe less, so can't have been much, lost it just around the apex.

<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&amp;ll=-43.492455,172.533819&amp;spn=0.004896,0.013111&amp;t=h&amp;z=1 7&amp;output=embed"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&amp;ll=-43.492455,172.533819&amp;spn=0.004896,0.013111&amp;t=h&amp;z=1 7&amp;source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>

[ital916]

Like I said, it was all on me.

Cyclist bore no fault, he was on his side of the road as I recall. I was not over the line at the time I saw the cyclist (I think), but if he hadn't been there I suspect would have run wide and been close to collecting him.

What I'm saying is, I KNOW there was a lot more lean that the bike could give, and tighten that corner immeasurably, if I'd told it to do it. In short. I suck.


I misread the corner,
I carried too much speed,
I didn't wash off enough going in,
I didn't see the guy until far too late in the process,
I was probably in too high a gear below the bike's power band (but don't recall),
My body positioning almost certainly sucked,
When confronted with the conditions (cyclist coming, little gravely mid corner near the center) I did not take effective action (should have counter steered harder to tighten the line),
I suspect I allowed my reflexes to override my knowledge (brake reflex vs counter steer knowledge) although that's a bit hazy I certainly can't discount it
I suspect there could have been some target fixation going on, again, reflex vs. knowledge


All the above (and probably more) combined to produce the resultant accident, and they can all be directly attribute to me being a bad 32 year old rider who has lost his 22 year old's mojo if he ever had it.

Luckily in this case the loss of mojo has not resulted in the loss of body parts and hopefully this enlightening experience and some retraining will result in less frequent lie downs in future.

NB: It was the corner in the map below, I was coming from Avonhead Road so a left hander for me, I don't know what speed I was doing, couldn't even hazard a guess, but I didn't slide more than probably 3 or 4 meters, maybe less, so can't have been much, lost it just around the apex.


I'll rock my 2c worth, you dont have to listen if you dont want to.

It seems like you have managed to determine everything which you did wrong to lead up to the accident, which is good. I wouldnt beat yourself up too much dude, you fucked up, now it's time to own that mistake and never do it again.

It is good you got back on the bike, and though it gets spouted over and over again, I'm going to say it again, "slow in fast out" mate. There is no fault in being over cautious on a corner when road riding. There are a multitude of factors that can make your bike hit trouble.

Looking from google maps, it seems you should be able to see round that enitre corner. It is a sharp looking one but seems to have ace line of sight, you are quite possibly not looking far enough ahead.

Remember, know whats happening 2 seconds in front of you, prepare for whata going to happen 4 seconds in front of you and scan for whats 6-12 seconds ahead of you on the horizon, just so you are not caught out. Its difficult to to do, and I even suck at it but you will find you get less suprised by stuff and are more prepared.

You dont have to kiss the mirrors whilst road riding in my opinion, or shift your body round (the it is fun to do so sometimes), and trust your tires (tis why you need good ones).

I ride at 5/10-6/10ths and have fun, give it a go. You will find corners less adrenaline pumping but your riding is smoother and see more/miss less.

[jafar]

*waits for Katman to do his thing


How about instead I just tell you to go fuck yourself?

& he did :woohoo:

[Dropped]

Check you wheel alignment dude. It could be way out and it will cause you to come off!

[TuonoTom]

How about instead I just tell you to go fuck yourself?

Cheers mate.

[Simon]

I think the dirt skills help - Trains you not to grab a handful of brake mid-corner.

[sleemanj]

Looking from google maps, it seems you should be able to see round that enitre corner. It is a sharp looking one but seems to have ace line of sight, you are quite possibly not looking far enough ahead.


Yes generally you can look right over the corner, I think I looked through and saw there was no traffic, bicyclists tend to blend in a bit sometimes.

Anyhow thanks for the advice everybody, all taken on board. :rockon:

[Neon]

'Tis true though that decreasing radius turns are a shit. I can see how you might have been caught out there.

[YellowDog]

Yes generally you can look right over the corner, I think I looked through and saw there was no traffic, bicyclists tend to blend in a bit sometimes.

Anyhow thanks for the advice everybody, all taken on board. :rockon:
The corner looks pretty sharp and having so much of a view I would have used the entire road to hug it tight.

It is very easy for us to comment on this, as we wern't there.

And you punishment is:

Go and take that corner 20 times from both directions and get it out of your system.
If you manage to put it down again - give up.

Good luck.

[gammaguy]

what a fucked up response! what? you never dropped your bike?

yes.but i learned from it.

[triple-bee]

I notice that you are in ChCh I have over 20 years road and limited race expirience my misses has nearly 30 It sounds like classic target fixation I still get it even now I/We would be happy to go out with you and give a few pointers am not trying to sound condesending but you sound on the verge of quitting which would be a shame as you are obviously keen to stay on the bike

Any time that suits you, Neil

[sleemanj]

the verge of quitting

Nah I'm too stubborn for that.


Any time that suits you, Neil

Thanks for the offer, but once things are back on line I'll get hooked up with Mainland out at Ruapuna and see how it goes.

I'm sure that'll straighten me out :bash:

Or at least have fun trying.

[StoneY]

This one I could try and lay blame on an old dry front tyre :

I would have
If it helps you recover some dignity, my GSX600F had one of them tyres, handled like shit

Go get a NEW front tyre, a GOOD one that wears out disgustingly fast, then take that same corner bro

You might get a surprise...I sure did, and now every tyre I buy (new Pilot on Duc tonight in fact) is far from budget

[tri boy]

FWIW, maybe your mind is drifting from the task at hand, (concentrating on riding safely).
I believe it happens to all of us. Hell, I know an ex F1 bike racer who stopped racing because he would be thinking about things to do in his business week, rather than his approach to a corner/ line.
Thing is to learn to stay focused but also take in small snippets of enjoyment besides the bike handling issues.
Don't give up unless you really feel as though m/cycles aren't for you. MHO