A lesson in humility.

[gijoe1313]

Crikey , 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!

[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

[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

[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.