doing some really tight circles in an empty culdesac... it wasn't all that bad actually. I'm not even sure how fast I was going; probably pretty slow but I was leaned over close to the max. I had been practicing this for about 2 hours & got a lazy mind after a while I guess.
I just kept pushing & pushing the limit for the two hours & eventually the inevitable happened I suppose. It seemed like every time I scrubbed that new rubber on the tire (stock) , the bike would fall or dip slightly. That combined with most likely a jerk on the throttle & I was on the ground. It's pretty wierd. It all happened in the BLINK of an eye, I cant even pinpoint exactly what I did wrong. Had to be something I did on the throttle...
My reaction was good though. Leaning over that far & the bike didn't land on my leg like I was so worried about while practicing. I was gripping the tank with my knees and somehow slid my leg out from under and found myself sliding on my back, feet first, with my bike next to me. I was wearing my helmet, leather jacket, leather work boots, leather gloves, and... jeans. This is some pretty good motovation to get off my ass & get some leather pants. Sliding on my jacket was FINE; my back and elbows feel great. I dont like the feeling of sliding on just jeans. It sucks. My butt is sore, behind my knee is slightly rashed, the outside of my ankle is slightly rashed just aboove my boot, and lower back a little bit where my jacket rode up as well. Oddly enough my jeans arent torn at all. :thumb:
I love how the GS held up from the slide. I limped up to it on it's side with gas pooling on the ground under it; from my pod filters I think. Seeing that gas I am thinking the worst, but I just pick it up and put it on its sidestand. The left faring is scratched obviously. Mostly at the top edge where it meets the frame. Whatever; it was scratched before, and I didnt lose sleep over it before. Gives my bike some personality :cookoo:. The left blinker stayed in tack this time, just scratched the plastic some (I dropped my bike a long time ago & it popped into the faring like nothing). The left mirror was scratched and jerked loose, but ok as well. The clutch cover is pretty damned scratched as well, but not cracked or anything. And last (I think) the left rearset was bent in some. The heel guard looked like it was about 1/2 and inch from hitting the chain, but still very functionable.
The thing that freaked me out was trying to start it up. It wouldnt do anything. I put the petcock on prime for a few seconds just for the hell of it and still wouldnt go. It was in gear with the clutch pulled in but wouldnt go. I tried to find neutral but It felt like nothing would grab in the gearbox. everything felt loose... I gave it a good kick downwards & the neutral light came on. After that everything felt normal when changing gears. I put it back into neutral, thumbed the starter & it hesitated some but cranked over with the choke & a good wind on the grip. :icon_mrgreen:
I rode home & everything seemed fine, like nothing happened at all; seriously. well, except for having to push my left mirror up to see behing me... but that's nothing. I pulled into my garage, tightened the morror, rubbed some black crap off my tail, tightened the blinker, looked the bike over; rear alignment, chain slack, what I could think of & everything appears fine. The left rearset I just bent back straight with a crowbar. piece of cake.
my leg is sore but in a wierd way I'm glad this finally happened. Ok I'm not GLAD, but I'm not at all upset either. It's good to experience. Luckily nothing REALLY bad happened to my bike & I walked away relatively unscathed. This could have been a lot worse. I could have been going a lot faster & my ass would be smeared across the street like a skidmark. This was just another lesson on my bike; no dent in my wallet, no searing pains, just more experience and knowledge. I'm gonna go look for some leather pants on ebay...
Happy Riding! :cheers:
GLad you are ok!!! And dont be surprised when Corndog67 calls you a dumbass.
Let it go. It's going to drive you to drinking and drugs.
You probably feel bad about crashing... But, don't.
You didn't crash being a squid... You (probably) didn't say, "Hey guys! Watch THIS!"... You (probably) weren't trying to show off in front of a hot grrl...
You were practicing in a safe, closed off area... You were trying to be a better rider. GOOD!
Next time... When you get tired, stop pushing... Push a little slower over time. Let your brain form the new pathways and let your body learn the feel.
YOU ROCK! :thumb: Now... Let's go have a beer! :cheers:
Great write up, and glad to hear you're okay. Rough guess, how fast do you think you were going, 10, 20, 30???
thanks,
I'd say maybe about 15-20 mph.
Quote from: l3uddha on May 25, 2006, 05:45:23 PM
...likely a jerk on the throttle...
ya, but thats not always the culprit...LOL...glad you're okay. happens to lots of riders.
just a fyi, these stock tires dont hold a low lean angle very well. my front tire looks as if some one took a cheese crator to it. you can do it but be mind fun that they get "greasey" after a while. if you want to do more of this i would get a nother set of wheels and put real sport bike tires on them and save the stockes for regular riding as they last a long time. i have a sticker tire on the back right now and the stock on the front, it's a ok combo but i can feels the fornt wash out or " pushed through the corner". my cbr has sportteck m1 melsers (spell) in it. they handle like a dream and even better at high speed turns.
get soem better pants
get some nee sliders
get real riding boots
heh, yea i know what y mean. I've got a lot of stuff lined up; right now is just kind of the limbo period. the whole time I was doing this I knew there was a big chance of lowsiding; but I figured better to lowside at a low speed under semi-controlled conditions than to do something stupid at 60mph and wreck.
The past few days I've been doing this; lust leaning way the hell over and holding it. today was by far the longest "session" but I really needed to know some sort of limit. Now I've at least got somewhat of an idea of what type of angles these stock tires can take. Even if it was my error and not running off the edge of the tire, I feel a lot more comftorable getting down to that angle. I wont panic and roll off the throttle anymore when I know I still have a ways to go. I know I can get MUCH more lean out of this bike; now I just gotta figure out how to get there without (hopefully) lowsiding again. right now I'm waiting for my Kat rear rim. it should be here any day (shipping from canada takes a while :cry:) and then I'll make the swap & get some great rubber. I found a good deal on a new 1-piece leather suit w/ sliders that I'll be ordering in a week.... when I get my next paycheck. boots... um yea those too. maybe when I get my next next paycheck.... I know it's all very worth it.
Glad you're alright. I was actually just talking to My Name Is Dave about doing something similar. I wanted to go to a parking lot and do a bunch of lowspeed stuff, but I know that when you're doing it close to the limits like that you might inevitably fall. That's why I was waiting to do a track prep on my bike before I did. That involves (for me) removing all lights and signals, changing to a pre-dented tank, and changing the bars out to something less expensive (SM2s aren't even close to cheap), as well as removing the tail plastics.
If it falls, nothing gets damaged but cheap bar ends, an already dented tank, and some already scratched case guards.
I think next time I practice I will do the same. I'll just bring the allen wrenches to remove the morrors & stuff. the bodywork is already pretty much trashed on the left side. but I didnt buy the bike to ride around & look pretty...
suprisingly the stock bar held up fine (this time). the first time I laid my bike down I had the stock bar-ends on. The bike landed on the left side and the bar end was bent inward right at the bolt. This time I had no bar ends at all, and there was luckily no damage to the bar. the left grip is a little frayed at the edge, but very little. The stock bar ends stick out pretty far, so it's no suprise that they will take a lot of damage in a slide.
I would baby my SM2's as well; that's why I cant go out and buy them. I'm beginning work on my own bar; one that I can break at will...
i hope you have engine guards if you're gunna keep the low siding up :laugh:
no really they are a god send, may look a little ugly but when i slid off at 40 the only damage was a bent mirror, a graze on the rear indicator and a graze on the engine guards, and of course a sore hip elbow sholder and ankle :icon_mrgreen:
from what I've heard noone makes case guards for the F models. I would very much like some, but also to keep my faring as well. any options out there besides removing the faring or fabricating my own guards?
oh ok you have fairings. hisss :icon_mrgreen:
the only thing you could do is fit crash bobbins. you'll get them on ebay or most motorcycle shops will carry them
crash bobbins? is that just another word for frame sliders? I heard those wont mount on the F model as well without cutting through the faring and drilling the frame.... ugh!
I was talking to my friend about this the other day, how when you haven't gone down it's difficult to judge how far you can lean in a turn before you lose traction. I just don't have a feel for it, and it bothers me (not that I'm glad you went down, but at least you're okay and now you have an idea of when to stop). Anyways, we were talking about trying it on a cheap dirtbike to see what it feels like. Come to think of it, a bicycle might even do the trick, although you can't really accelerate throughout the turn... :dunno_white: