A lesson in humility.

[DarkLord]

I'm feeling a bit stink about sharing this but I think that I need to swallow my pride and share my experiences as of late.

I've only been riding about 5-6 months or and throughout this time I've developed my skills very quickly, to the point where my Hyosung had no chicken strips on it at all and I was keeping up with much bigger bikes on weekend blats. My confidence was getting bigger and bigger and so was my ego.

I thought that I would be ok with making a journey to Wellington on my Hyosung despite the warnings of my flatmates who advised me not to as it's a helluva long way from Auckland, but I just thought "nah it's cool I can pull it off" so one Saturday morning after bugger all sleep I set off on my way down there.

On the Tauranga-Taupo bridge two cages came to a complete stop in front of me. I was following too close and hit the front brake but it had been raining and the front tyre slipped on the road and the bike flew out from under me, went across the road and was bowled by an oncoming car. Written off. Fortunately I was unhurt and insurance has covered both me and the other car but it was a pretty terrifying experience.

I had the following week booked off work (as I was supposed to be in Wellington) so I ended up staying at home and putting some serious thought into what happened and why.

I realised that my attitude was becoming quite cocky and I should have listened to my flatmates. If that was the case I'd still have the bike.

I was following too close and not good enough at emergency braking to be able to stop, plus I still had the stock Shitko tyres on the bike so that made matters worse.

Crashing HURTS. Well duh, of course it does, and I'm lucky I was unhurt physically but it's hit me very hard personally and it's been quite a blow financially as well. I'd never really experienced a full on crash before, now that I know what it is like I see myself being far more careful. I need to spend more time developing my riding abilities more thoroughly before attempting anything like that again. Everyone on the scene of the accident could not believe how lucky I was. If I had held onto the bike I'd probably have been bowled by the oncoming car as well and may not be here to tell this story.

Fortunately things have since worked out in my favour - I have a new bike now, an '07 Hyosung that I got through my insurance payout, which seems much nicer to ride than the '06 one. However I feel much wiser now than I was before and far more humbled due to the crash so I see myself being far more careful.

All in all I am grateful for the experience as it has taught me so much but don't go through it if you can avoid it! Keep your attitude towards riding teachable and humble and if more experienced riders are telling you things you should listen to them, don't make the same mistake I did.

Anyway just thought I would share this story with you all.

Take care and ride safe

JG84.

[YLWDUC]

Good on ya, any crash you can walk away from is a good one. Especially if you end up learning from it.

[Badcat]

I
All in all I am grateful for the experience as it has taught me so much

JG84.

good work.
you're a long time dead, man.
glad you're still with us.

ken

[Al]

Kudos to you for sharing your experience and not blaming someone / something else for causing your misfortune.

take care out there:headbang:

[CookMySock]

[....] so one Saturday morning after bugger all sleep I set off on my way down there.Thanks for sharing that. Tiredness will take all the fun out of your ride also.

Interesting that the later model hyo is much nicer to ride.. Can you tell us more ?

edit: dont worry about it being a long way. Get a good sleep, have a good protein breakfast, and fill yer water bottle and hit the road ! You will love it ! :clap:

DB

[Trudes]

What the others have said!!:yes:
I believe it's a common thing for a lot of people when they start out riding (and driving in general), everything is going fine, the confidence grows, soon you become over-confident and cocky, start thinking that you're ten-feet tall and bullet proof, then BOOM, something happens that you don't have enough experience to handle and you're left (if you're lucky, like you), sitting on the side of the road thinking "I am such a cock!"
A wise person learns form the experience and realises they need to improve their skills, take on advice, slow down and not be so cocky. A stupid one continues on the same road and makes the same mistakes over and over again until they no longer can!
So well done for learning the real lesson before you came to some real serious grief. :rockon:

(Yes, spoken from experience, luckily for me, mine was a very minor off, but enough to scare me into not thinking I was the hottest thing on 2 wheels, helps too having been a cage driver for many years and learnt some of the lesson with a protective shell around me, pretty sure I'd be dead if I started riding at 16!:innocent:)

[skelstar]

Good to hear you came out of the crash ok, and arguably better for it. Good to see you can admit to the reasons, change accordingly and 'share' about it too.

[sugilite]

Thank You for sharing, it makes you think reading posts like that.

[CookMySock]

suggestion/observation: split past cars and get in the clear. Don't sit behind them. Get some hard-ass to take you for a double on your bike and demonstrate this.


DB
p.s. yes, sorry, you weren't asking for opinions.

[nallac]

good write up mate.
glad you lived to tell the tale,and learnt from it.

im hoping i learnt my lesson(s) from my dirt biking days

[MSTRS]

Glad you are here to tell the tale.
(I realised that my attitude was becoming quite cocky and I should have listened to my flatmates)...
Can I just point out that going to Welly wasn't the reason you crashed. From your description of your 'attitude' before, it was just a matter of time and could just as easily happened 5 metres from your house.

[karla]

Humility is a virtue, not about shame :)

Great to hear that you survived, biker gods were on your side, that is a thing to be greatful for. :woohoo:

[skelstar]

Can I just point out that going to Welly wasn't the reason you crashed. From your description of your 'attitude' before, it was just a matter of time and could just as easily happened 5 metres from your house.
Agreed, did a 2000km trip 6 months after my induction to motorcycling (on a Hyobag too) and it was well within my limits. A Wgtn-Auck trip is quite achievable in a day, doing within your limits anyway.

[marty]

interestingly, your crash appears to have had a little to do with the distance you travelled (which was your friends concern), a little to do with your attitude (your concern - post crash it appears), a little with the weather (out of your control), and a little to do with your tiredness (in your control).

minimising any one of those may or may not have helped - best thing is that you learn from it!

[007XX]

It takes a big man to admit to having made a mistake :rockon:

And as everyone else said, the distance of Auck / Wellie is a big one indeed, but not impossible. I've done it before in one day on my VTR and although a bit tiring, it was fine.

But I would have never done it without a decent night sleep beforehand.

Anyway, you've obviously beaten yourself up enough on the subject, and I am glad you came out ok from it.

[gijoe1313]

Crikey :gob: , sounds like your pillion angel was having a chinwag with the asphalt angel and consulted their books and said "nup, you still with us!"

Sounds like you had a good reflection (I know I do when I stuff up!) and came around to the right way of thinking. Keep on learning, keep on reading and keep practising all the skills. There are some good threads here on riding in the wet and the innernetz has some good sites as well.

Always brings back to my mind the incidents I've gone through and keeps me on my toes! Thanks for sharing and being candid about it all. If you want to head to Wellywood again, I'm always going down every now and then ... might be the opportunity to do it that way! :msn-wink:

[mowgli]

Great post and a timely reminder. Kudos sent. Complacency is an insideous killer. I regularly remind myself that despite things feeling freer and more fluid through the corners that riding demands my utmost respect.

I used to feel a little sheepish about practising figure eights in the carpark, as if all eyes were on me. Now it's just a regular part of riding. I've also found that max effort braking, even from slow speeds, is really good for training you to progressively load up the front brake without skidding.

I don't agree that splitting is necessarily the answer. There are always going to be times when you're stuck, even for a short while, behind another vehicle. The answer is a combination of following distance and noting your escape routes. I'm regularly noting how much space there is between the vehicle in front and the verge and between opposing vehicles. I've never had to use one of these pre-selected escapes but I hope that in the event that I do I'll naturally know which way to duck. Where there is no viable escape that's my cue to hang back a bit to increase space for braking.

[DarkLord]

Thanks for the replies and kudos everyone.

I'm the sort of person who likes to plan things so it was pretty hard to look back and basically say "what the f*&% was I thinking?!" When I woke up in the morning I should have said "nah I haven't slept enough, I should put this off". I never for a moment thought it would cost me my pride and joy, but all you can do is live and learn. There were so many contributing factors, some of them were out of my control but the main one was fatigue, I think.

The '07 is a much nicer bike because it just feels so much smoother and the gear changes seem a lot easier, the '06 one could be a bit clunky at times, it's a little hard to explain really but ride an '06 then an '07 and you'll see what I mean. It is a wee bit peppier as well!

People were asking if I would get a car or anything but I could never do that, I love riding too much to ever give it up! :)

[BiK3RChiK]

Hmmm... I had a similar experience on the weekend, without the major stack-up. Basically, I hadn't had lunch and a cup of coffee about half an hour before my ride in the evening... stuffed it up going out the drive and have a broken mirror and brake lever for my efforts.

+1 for the heads up!

[yod]

i recently binned as well mate and all you can do is be thankful you're relatively unhurt and are still here to learn from it

my last bin was 15 odd years ago and it was pure complacency that caused the latest one - it really reinforces the need to keep your mind on the job all the time

you sound like you have the right attiutude and thats a huge plus in your favour :niceone:

[faredce]

man im reali glad that i read that post ay.

im in a similar position with my riding time. my skills are far from perfect but they have come along in leaps and bounds and i am far more confident, unfortunately i have come close once to doing something stupid and was luckey i caught myself and gave myself a telling off for being a dick!

cheers for the reminder again not to be arrogant or cockey

glad your otherwise unscathed mate

[n0regret5]

aww..memories. :-) don't let it get you too down. and for fucks sake don't let the Fear get to you!!! i've seen too many people crash and never ride again cos of the Fear..'what if?' etc.
if you managed to wear down chicken strips on your first bike then i think you're on to a good thing. it took me till my fourth!

[Mikkel]

Good post - well written and addressing an important point :)

Luckily you're here still and able to share your experience... Sounds like your insurance took care of everything that won't buff out with time.
However, I think that lesson is one that all riders, new or experienced, needs to remind themselves off every now and again.

I'd say, sign up for a RRRS course in Wellington, get on your bike with plenty of time and have a nice cruisy ride down and do it.
I had/have my own apprehensions about hard use of the front brake due to my own crashes - Andrew had me doing a stoppie in the wet this weekend, I was absolutely stoked :D

[Capinure]

Look ont he bright side mate!
You got a better bike and you have learnt/taught a leason.

Kudos to you!

[Pedrostt500]

I always View any minor inncident as a wake up call, ie I was doing some thing stupid or I wasnt paying attention to what was happening around me.
You loose a bit of skin it will grow back, a bent pride is easily fixed, and a broken or written off motor bike can be fixed or replaced.
There are things that are worse than death, my worst fear is spending the next 20 yrs as a semi living vegtable not able to do any thing for my self and knowing that some one else will have to feed me wipe my bum and change my clothes, and the worst bit would be knowing all the things that I could do for myself, including ride a motor bike.
So be careful out there.