First crash on the street - Lowside at Mt. Tamal (With GoPro footage)

[Wolfdog]

Situation: Last ride of the day (it always is..), riding with two other forum members. 3 days of heavy riding for me, I was pretty exhausted. Went into this corner all wrong, bad position, bad speed control. Never ridden Tamal, should have been sticking to my limits.

Outcome: Bike was very rideable, only damage that I can tell is a cracked fairing and a busted tail light. Both will be fixed
Damage to me is a possible broken foot. Gotta get x-rays done.


Video: Warning:Brief NSFW language


youtu.be/yKNR_iZyEZ4

 

[DataDan]

Sorry about the crash. Sounds like you and the bike will be back to tip-top in no time. :thumbup

Blind, decreasing-radius right curves take a lot of riders. But you had an extra element of distraction that interfered. What were you looking at as you began turn-in?

 

[MCCRASH]

Too much front brake. I'm betting you saw the white truck in the other lane, internally panicked a bit, and hit the front brake mid-corner. Better would have been to look through the turn, and maintain constant throttle and speed without any braking.

Heal up!

 

[Wolfdog]

Sorry about the crash. Sounds like you and the bike will be back to tip-top in no time. :thumbup

Blind, decreasing-radius right curves take a lot of riders. But you had an extra element of distraction that interfered. What were you looking at as you began turn-in?

Rather certain that I fixated on the truck as he came into view(as the above poster suggested)

Can't recall if I applied front breaking, but sounds probable.

 

[Hooli]

Embedded. :cool


youtu.be/yKNR_iZyEZ4

 

[Wolfdog]

Thanks!

 

[EastBayDave]

Too much front brake. I'm betting you saw the white truck in the other lane, internally panicked a bit, and hit the front brake mid-corner. Better would have been to look through the turn, and maintain constant throttle and speed without any braking. Heal up!

Yeah, positioning was off a bit; likely a reaction to the truck & a slight squeeze of the front brake when off-line @ corner-entry.

No biggie man. Sounds like the bikes ok, & hopefully you don't have a broken foot, just bruising. You will know better next time.

Get well soon! :thumbup

 

[Wolfdog]

Yeah, positioning was off a bit; likely a reaction to the truck & a slight squeeze of the front brake when off-line @ corner-entry.

No biggie man. Sounds like the bikes ok, & hopefully you don't have a broken foot, just bruising. You will know better next time.

Get well soon! :thumbup

Thank you, I believe you are completely right. Chalk this one up to inexperience, but happy I get to keep riding and learning.

 

[DataDan]

So what can you change or improve to prevent this kind of thing from happening?

 

[Archimedes]

Yup, target fixation on the truck. Work on looking through the turn where you want to go and ignore the traffic coming the other way. Unless it's in your lane where you want to go!

Oh and never give up on a turn.

 

[GAJ]

Could have been so much worse, count your lucky stars.

Would maintaining a 4 second vision ahead been of value do you thing?

I find that tactic invaluable on any road, because even if I "know" the road I can't be certain conditions including traffic and potential obstacles will be exactly the same as the last time I went on that particular road.

Sure, means you're slow sometimes especially through blind right handers but beats the alternative.

Guard rails can really really mess you up.

 

[jdhu]

Glad you are OK, and yeah, had that truck (or another vehicle) arrived a few seconds later......

Can't see your braking hand, but would guess you grabbed the lever, since you aren't all that leaned over. Also, your approach to the corner looked a little shaky, kind of a wobble. Understandable if you don't know the corner.

Anyway, glad you are OK

 

[NudeMischief]

We all have had target fixation to some extent. Definitely had something to do with braking or uneasy throttle because that was not very far over at all. Pick yourself up and learn from your mistakes.This was not a bad lowside or a bad crash at all, I rode with a buddy last weekend up highway 9 and watched another guy come into a (15mph right hand down hill) turn hot with a good line, lean in scrape peg and foot and panic and grabbed front brake and slid and hit hard.

Brakes should be used before a turn for the most part, and never in a panic moment.

Rule of thumb is If you dont know the road, play it safe.

 

[Wolfdog]

We all have had target fixation to some extent. Definitely had something to do with braking or uneasy throttle because that was not very far over at all. Pick yourself up and learn from your mistakes.This was not a bad lowside or a bad crash at all, I rode with a buddy last weekend up highway 9 and watched another guy come into a (15mph right hand down hill) turn hot with a good line, lean in scrape peg and foot and panic and grabbed front brake and slid and hit hard.

Brakes should be used before a turn for the most part, and never in a panic moment.

Rule of thumb is If you dont know the road, play it safe.

Definitely. Glad it wasn't as bad as it might have been, I'll keep learning. Thanks for the input!

 

[DataDan]

So what can you change or improve to prevent this kind of thing from happening?

What I had in mind was practice at focusing on your planned path and ignoring distractions.

This is not a natural ability. We look at what seems threatening. Those who are able to center their attention on reference points that guide them through the turn in spite of visual interference have trained themselves in that skill. You can too.

In Sport Riding Techniques, Nick Ienatsch writes about overcoming the distraction of a fallen rider in an AMA 250GP race:

In a split second Cornwell was on his right side, crashed out of the race. I remember fighting to keep my eyes on the racetrack, on my chosen line, a job as strenuous to me at that moment as bench-pressing 300 pounds...

Using your eyes comes down to one thing: mental discipline.​

Practice in non-threatening situations. On a straight between turns, there's a car in the oncoming lane, a bicyclist on the shoulder, or a suicidal squirrel crossing the road. Use this as an opportunity to train your eyes to maintain aim. Focus on a point on the road several seconds ahead, seeing the distraction only in your peripheral vision. Make this a habit, so when a distraction appears in a critical situation, you will keep your eyes away from it and maintain focus on your planned path.


For more on visual skill, see the recent Crash Analysis thread First Sportbike Crash Redwood Rd. In that incident, the rider was distracted by the motorcycle he was following rather than an oncoming vehicle. But the effect was the same: Because his attention was drawn away from his planned line approaching a turn, he was unable to execute it.

 

[tagraff]

What I had in mind was practice at focusing on your planned path and ignoring distractions.

This is not a natural ability. We look at what seems threatening. Those who are able to center their attention on reference points that guide them through the turn in spite of visual interference have trained themselves in that skill. You can too.

Great point! I have found this extremely helpful. The tweak I have added to this approach is that at every blind curve, for example, I am consciously anticipating a car to coming from the other side. This way, if there are distractions you don't get surprised by them so ignoring them becomes easier. If no car show up, it's a pleasant surprise and you move on to the next thing.