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

[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 !

DB

[Trudes]

What the others have said!!
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.

(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!)

[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:Me]

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:Me]

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.

[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

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.