Mistakes in motorcycle ridership

[nightrider]

I did something real stupid just now.

On my way home, I was thinking about two bozos at my work and the comeuppance they should get, and the meeting coming up, and how I would describe if asked their incompetence, laziness, and irresponsibility.

I was accelerating fast from green lights on a route I know very well and have chosen for safety. I was going up a familiar 4-lane, one-way main street, leaving the other traffic behind as usual. It's a 30 zone. I was doing 35, maybe 40, and even accelerating a bit when I realized:

I was flying through a four-lane intersection with red lights.

Two lanes for traffic, two lanes between them for lightrail. Completely red. Not turning red, not about to turn green, just plain red.

I crossed it in a heartbeat realizing there was nothing I could do, and that I had just done something incredibly stupid, ignorant, and reckless.

I never want this to happen again.

Will someone please tell me they have done this before, and other stupid mistakes you have made and lived to recognize.

[domas]

I was racing with a car in heavy traffic at 80 mph in 30mph zone. Crossing also to upcoming lane.

When i came home i though "what for?". Who cares now that i won. Who would care that i won if i crashed and injured myself for life. Now i practice to resist doing stupid actions. It is hard, but I'm getting there. I hope i will survive until then.

Be safe

[makenzie71]

hmmmmm...one time I was going downhill toward an intersection.  Light turned yellow and I began to slow down but hit ice...laid on the horn and slid right through the intersection.  That's about as hot as I've gotten.

[Unnamed]

I wasn't distracted, but when I was new(er) at riding I rode too fast on a small road trying to get better at cornering and crashed at 40 mph. It was stupid, that sort of stuff belongs on a track under controlled conditions until you're good enough to do it safely on the road.

On a related issue, its probably not helpful that cornering ability is considered as important as it is by most motorcyclists. I had a couple hundred miles under my belt at the time and I had no business trying to improve my cornering ability yet.

[Jarrett]

I did something real stupid just now.

On my way home, I was thinking about two bozos at my work and the comeuppance they should get, and the meeting coming up, and how I would describe if asked their incompetence, laziness, and irresponsibility.

I was accelerating fast from green lights on a route I know very well and have chosen for safety. I was going up a familiar 4-lane, one-way main street, leaving the other traffic behind as usual. It's a 30 zone. I was doing 35, maybe 40, and even accelerating a bit when I realized:

I was flying through a four-lane intersection with red lights.

Two lanes for traffic, two lanes between them for lightrail. Completely red. Not turning red, not about to turn green, just plain red.

I crossed it in a heartbeat realizing there was nothing I could do, and that I had just done something incredibly stupid, ignorant, and reckless.

I never want this to happen again.

Will someone please tell me they have done this before, and other stupid mistakes you have made and lived to recognize.

That's  very We Todd Did.  Good thing you survived.  Lucky!

[ohgood]

On a bike: LIkely the dumbest thing I've done is just wheelies. 2nd dumbest was flying (not quite jumping) railroad tracks.

Almost jumping rr tracks is really really stupid. It's one of the few places you can lose traction in 1/10th of a second and/or tear off a body part thanks to loose cross ties or tracks.

[3imo]

I've done the accidental red light run twice. 

Luck was on my side.  that was durring my first 6 months riding.  I pay a bit more attention now.
Youre OK. Don't sweat it, just don't do it again.

[RVertigo]

I've accidentally run a red light...  I was very flustered and trying to get the hell of the road...  I didn't even notice that I ran the light until I was almost through the intersection...  And it was in an industrial area, so TONS of trucks running around there.   

I've also been known to speed and ride recklessly... 

[pbureau69]

Being distracted by a pretty girl in a car for a split second and the car in front of me smacking brakes down, forcing me to do a emergency stop, ended inches from a bumper with my front wheel, no falling down or anything of the sort, but scared the crap out of me... I had plenty of distance and this was at 45 MPH in morning traffic...

You wont catch me again to twist my head to look at pretty girls next to me again.

otherwise I dont fool around on the road on a bike.

[groff22]

I dropped my bike the first day I owned it, while trying to take off... in the dealership parking lot ... embarrassing... and STUPID. I have never dropped it since that day.

Oh, and I got in sh@t for slaloming down the road while leaving from work... the BIG CHEESE was passing by in his car and busted my ass...

Other minor things, run a red light, pulled out in front of a car I could swear hand their blinker on to turn right...

Thats it... phew.

[Kasumi]

Emmm ive sped, i doubt any one hasnt done that. But i dont and wouldn't do it in a manner i would consider unsafe and im a pretty safe person. Mmmm i misjudged a corner, not going over the speed limit but going faster than i should and had to lean in hard, then i hit the footpeg on teh floor which normally wouldn't o bin too bad but i wasn't expecting it so i wobbled at almost full lean, didnt take a spill though.

I had an interesting experience today, damn blind biddy car drivers, driving through my village past the village hall and its basically open parking right outside the hall with just white lines seperating it from the road. A car with an old lady in it was driving along this open parking "filtering" into the road, no indicators or anything, she was so small she could barely see over the door sills. The old 6th biker sense was working and i knew she was just going to pull out on me and as i was basically next to her she did. I leasurly drove around her as i knew it was coming and it was like 20 mph, she saw me then just indicated and carried on pulling into me! didnt swerve away or stop or anything. eeek. So i blasted off up the road way out of her way!

[Blu_Spd_Dmon]

last September I was following my moms boy friend down a twisty road in Evergreen. I was going too fast for my skill level. About half way through a long sweeping left turn the turn tightened up. I looked and leaned the bike over as far as i could but it wasn't far enough. I hit the guard rail at maybe 50mph. I recovered and didn't eat dirt like i thought i was going to. Gave me a good scare. ill never try to keep up with a better rider again!
Oh and i speed all the time.

Hmmm now that i think about it there was another time. I was headed up I-25, going the flow of traffic, 75mph. I got in the right lane planning to get off on the next exit ramp. this idiot next to me was kind of swerving a little so i was keeping an eye on them. I was expecting the off ramp to be a gently right turn like EVERY other freking off ramp on I-25. It wasn't, once I got closer and looked up it was a 90 degree right turn  Oh shaZam!!! locked up the back and it made a screeching noise. After i slowed down a lot I let off the break and made the turn. If I didn't let off the break and make the turn i would have taken a 20 foot vertical spill. Trying to be careful almost got me in a wreak.
Thats all my f%$k up stories.

[scratch]

I was flying through a four-lane intersection with red lights.

Two lanes for traffic, two lanes between them for lightrail. Completely red. Not turning red, not about to turn green, just plain red.

Will someone please tell me they have done this before, and other stupid mistakes you have made and lived to recognize.

I did this Tuesday morning of last week, it had rained, I was racing a hybrid, didn't notice the red until it was too late, braked anyway, locked up the rear, let go and just went through after the car that had the green finished its left turn.

[Blu_Spd_Dmon]

I did this Tuesday morning of last week, it had rained, I was racing a hybrid, didn't notice the red until it was too late, braked anyway, locked up the rear, let go and just went through after the car that had the green finished its left turn.

Scratch is a RACER 

[scratch]

Former.

AFM #787 at Sears Point (now Infineon), Sonoma, CA 1989-90 on a '89 FZR400 in the 450 Stock and Stupidstreet classes.  The Superstreet race was for practice, and to learn the track.

[nightrider]

Someone brought up to me that the majority of accidents are 2-3 miles from home, due to the driver/rider feeling familiar with the streets and getting sloppy.

One way to maintain alertness would be to change routes frequently, which I will now start doing after my little spin at Russian roulette last night.

Change of routine is also essential for countersurveillance: to make you harder to track and/or assassinate. As well as being a trick to "gaining power" in the shamanistic sense as outlined by Carlos Castaneda. fwiw.   

[rangerbrown]

can i not vote for more than one?

[annguyen1981]

I, too, did something similar (I think).

I was traveling home from school one night two summers ago.  It was a VERY familiar road to me.  Two lanes in each direction.  Not much traffic that night (Except the cute girl behind me)

Anyway.  I approached an intersection, and went right through.  I looked in the mirror to see if the girl was still there, when I noticed that the lights were red.



To this day, I don't know if the light was red when I went through...  Scary.

[frye]

i test rode a VTR1000 superhawk the other night. it was such a bee-chan bike. but it had a lot of power so i didnt have to shift to 2nd tiil i was on the freeway onramp. when i got to econd i revved it to see how much power it really had. and it wheeelied a bit. it was only bad cause i did it through busy LA 101 traffic and had to slam down back brakes to not run up on the car in front of me

[Egaeus]

I've done it twice I can think of in the cage, but not on the bike.  Once was when I was 17 or so, once was a couple of years ago.  Both were not busy times.  I felt very stupid and very lucky.