unhinged
unsatisficed
I recently had my first moto crash. I somehow escaped any serious injury after broadsiding a car and flying ~50-100 feet.
A left turner pulled out from a side road across my path. He was trying to piggyback behind another car in front of him who barely cleared me; that one probably saw me but the second one probably didn't have a clear view and just glanced at the cars behind me.
One factor here was that I was a little bit distracted from having filtered at the previous light and paying attention to a slightly aggressive car. I don't think I've ever consciously thought about this distraction aspect of filtering so that's one thing I thought I could remind people about here.
But I think a more fundamental issue was not ensuring that I was in the right mindset when setting out that day. Filtering on this kind of road with side streets and such was never going to matter... there were no fun curves, no point in trying to do anything here except chill and cruise.
The other small advice I am thinking about is composing your mind before a ride (or drive). You may be distracted or impatient. Going through a specific checklist before riding has not been a ritual for me. If I had a "mental check" on such a list I think I probably would not have crashed there.
Just taking a moment to focus and prioritize in general may help, but since left turners are so common it may also make sense to specifically think about that before every ride and in a more general way. I mean not only looking out for specific left turners but remembering that they are more likely on certain kinds of roads.
And the third thing I'll mention is that those roads are likely to be near your house where you may have a false sense of confidence.
Oh and about gear: A* textile non-mesh jacket kind of did the job but I got small spots of road rash where holes wore through. I didn't expect that at this speed and will stick with leather. I was in casual jeans which allowed a bruised knee and scrapes. Gauntlet gloves and A* SMX boots were perfect.
Adding a couple other thoughts: I didn't use high beams and will consider it, but I don't think it would have mattered here. One other thought is I stayed upright when I hit the car which helped me launch over it instead of into it. I did have ABS which may have helped although I barely had time to brake at all. I was still lucky not to go into a lamp post or the curb.
A left turner pulled out from a side road across my path. He was trying to piggyback behind another car in front of him who barely cleared me; that one probably saw me but the second one probably didn't have a clear view and just glanced at the cars behind me.
One factor here was that I was a little bit distracted from having filtered at the previous light and paying attention to a slightly aggressive car. I don't think I've ever consciously thought about this distraction aspect of filtering so that's one thing I thought I could remind people about here.
But I think a more fundamental issue was not ensuring that I was in the right mindset when setting out that day. Filtering on this kind of road with side streets and such was never going to matter... there were no fun curves, no point in trying to do anything here except chill and cruise.
The other small advice I am thinking about is composing your mind before a ride (or drive). You may be distracted or impatient. Going through a specific checklist before riding has not been a ritual for me. If I had a "mental check" on such a list I think I probably would not have crashed there.
Just taking a moment to focus and prioritize in general may help, but since left turners are so common it may also make sense to specifically think about that before every ride and in a more general way. I mean not only looking out for specific left turners but remembering that they are more likely on certain kinds of roads.
And the third thing I'll mention is that those roads are likely to be near your house where you may have a false sense of confidence.
Oh and about gear: A* textile non-mesh jacket kind of did the job but I got small spots of road rash where holes wore through. I didn't expect that at this speed and will stick with leather. I was in casual jeans which allowed a bruised knee and scrapes. Gauntlet gloves and A* SMX boots were perfect.
Adding a couple other thoughts: I didn't use high beams and will consider it, but I don't think it would have mattered here. One other thought is I stayed upright when I hit the car which helped me launch over it instead of into it. I did have ABS which may have helped although I barely had time to brake at all. I was still lucky not to go into a lamp post or the curb.
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