Things I learnt from the BRONZ course (the riders cut)
Hi all,
For those those of you at the BRONZ course last Sunday or have heard about it, I was the rider involved in the wee incident.
The exercise we were doing was evasion, we had just done some counter steering runs to learn how to countersteer and now putting it into practical situation. We were told to ride towards an instructor and at a specified distance were given a direction left or right to which way to go to evade the object infront of us.
We had all gone through once and now it was my turn again for the final run. So off I went towards Lars, our instructor, I cut in front of our group to line myself up with the cones, through to second gear, backed off the throttle and got myself ready for the arm to come out to tell me which way to go. From this moment my selective memory kicks in, I can remember Lars' hand going out to my left and seeing his face. The next thing I'm rolling on the deck, my bike about 5 metres away on its side and Lars about 15 metres away on the ground behind me.
A person, who I think was justsomeguy, came running towards me saying something but I don't really remember. I lay myself down and two people came over to remove my helmet, again don't remember who they were. Then came Jill, who was a nurse, who checked me over and stabilised my neck and reassured and comforted me. Thank you for all you did, I had a sharp pain in my lower back and was thinking the worst, you saw that and you stayed and comforted me, thank you.
To cut a long story short, Lars and I were taken to North Shore Hospital. I was discharged around 7:30pm with only muscle soreness in my lower back but Lars came off a lot worse. From what I remember, he had a good imprint of my front tire on his left shin, bruised and cut left wrist and forearm, brusing to his left hip and a large bump to the back of the head. If you are reading this Lars, I don't know how to begin to appologise to you and your wife, and if you don't mind i'll be coming over for a visit when I'm allowed to get behind the wheel of a car. And I have now learnt, by your expense, that the bike goes where my eyes are looking.
Now the aim of this thread, what I learnt from this whole experience:
1) Where ever my eyes go the bike will follow and not to focus on the hazards ahead,
2) Always, always wear protective clothing,
3) Last but not least, things can happen, even in a controlled environment like a riding school, and to be accountable for my actions. I screwed up, I've accepted that and now I have to do my best learn from it and fix what I can. I will always be in debt to Lars and his family and all those who helped me.
From what I can remember, here's a list of people i'd like to thank: Lars and his family, Finn, Peggy, Tracey, Jill, justsomeguy, the firemen at Whenuapai, the ambo officers, E.D. staff at North Shore hospital and all those involved whom i can't remember.
If this has made no sense, I'll probably add to it later on as I ween myself off the painkillers.
As for the bike: I had a quick look the other day, I'll need new left peg and front fairing, probably a new tank, don't know about the forks and bars, the bike started so hopefuly no mechanical damage. Luckily I didn't pay much for it.
To end, when I've recovered and cleared to drive a motor vehicle, I'd like to organise a get together to say thanks to everyone. Keep you all posted.
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind - Bruce Lee
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Originally Posted by DingDong
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Has anyone seen my baffles?
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