Take responsibility

The few falls I had when I started riding, I identified the mistake I made and will do my best to never avoid that.

First was a lowside around a bend just two minutes away from my house, in front of a landscape supplies yard. Its a blind corner with lots of gravel on the outside of the bend where cars dont normally drive. Since its a blind corner, I tend to stay wide and slow, and at night I didnt see the gravel. Started the bend and was losing the rear, so I straightened up and tried to scrub some more speed, but the kerb was approaching and I had to turn again, but wasnt as fortunate and lost it entirely. Lesson learnt, pick a suitable line not just for the corner but for the road surface.

Second time was in the wet, wasnt paying enough attention to the traffic in front of me and was following a little too close. Aquaplaned when I grabbed too much front and came down. Lesson learnt, leave more space and brake progressively in the wet.

That being said, there are some times there is absolutely nothing you can do. One time I was turning right from a set of lights as they turned green, and the car behind me had the bright idea to cut inside my turn and nearly cleaned me up.

An accident never happens for only 1 factor. It's always the sum of at least 2, and normally no more than 3.
The most commom usually are:
1. Malpratice;
2. Imprudence;
3. Ngligence.
And yes, most of the time the rider has your portion of fault.

When I had my accident, I was faster than the speed limit. Was I wrong? YES.
If the girl was paying attention to the road, that woldn't happen.
I was too fast, she didn't see me = ****.

If I was at the speed limit, I could have braked in time.
If she had a bit of attention, she'd braked and I would have passed.
As I use to say: Only for been on a bike, I'm already wrong.

Drive safetly friends, ALWAYS.

When I sold my bikes some 20+ years ago, I chalked it up to getting married and having a child (actually my wife had the child). But in reality, I stopped riding way before that from paranoia. Just the thought of other drivers not paying attention freaked me out. And just think....that was way before cell phones.

During the years since; driving in cars, vans, and trucks while watching how careless many if not most motorcycle riders are made me realize who was mostly at fault. Yes, some drivers are clueless but but wreckless riding is worse.

Lane splitting is legal here in Cali but it must be done with caution. I see so many riders straddling the double yellow of the car pool lane to pass slower traffic, and that's fine (I do it). But when the double yellow breaks to dashed white it's time to back off and let cars enter and exit the HOV lane. Many, many, many riders continue to throttle thru and get ticked off when someone wants to legally change lanes. Countless times watching the traffic portion of the morning news "motorcycle down in the carpool lane" and I just replay the visual of the guy zipping over the dashed white lines. SMH

As already mentioned....save a life, your own!


Randy

One of my instructors teaching at the MSF when I took it with my wife was a police officer.

He said "accidents" are when things beyond your control happen.... tire blowout, wheel falls off, deer hits you, etc... Everything else is a "traffic crash" and is avoidable.

@ the OP! I rock the gear! Back in 2010-2011, I first heard of Brittany's Story, I was riding a Versys then and a lot of those folks encouraged wearing the gear. It changed my riding life. I gear up for every ride now and I have other folks who gear up to thank!

Edited by Tintin
Warning! This video doesn't show blood or anything major but it does show scars that are leftover from a female rider that went down as a passenger with only a helmet. If you have a weak stomach or uneasy about seeing aftermath videos please reconsider clicking the video below.

Brittany's Story

Capn Kirk said:

One of my instructors teaching at the MSF when I took it with my wife was a police officer.

He said "accidents" are when things beyond your control happen.... tire blowout, wheel falls off, deer hits you, etc... Everything else is a "traffic crash" and is avoidable.

@ the OP! I rock the gear! Back in 2010-2011, I first heard

Edited by Tintin
Warning! This video doesn't show blood or anything major but it does show scars that are leftover from a female rider that went down as a passenger with only a helmet. If you have a weak stomach or uneasy about seeing aftermath videos please reconsider clicking the video below.

Brittany's Story

I was riding a Versys then and a lot of those folks encouraged wearing the gear. It changed my riding life. I gear up for every ride now and I have other folks who gear up to thank!

Click to expand...

Capn Kirk, please post a warning for videos that some people may not be able to handle. I know there wasn't any blood or missing limbs in it but some people have a hard time watching "aftermath" videos.

I COMPLETELY AGREE with what she is putting out there as a message to all riders that think they are invincible/don't ride with enough protection!

I always explain to people that you prepare for the slide NOT the ride!

I would much rather sweat in this Georgia heat than be in the E.R. or I.C.U. getting a skin graph because "it was hot" and I didn't wear a jacket. :-/

Some people have a hard time with seeing videos like that since it gets in their head later when riding.

I know this because I'm one of the people but not just with motorcycles. When I raced BMX or downhill/free ride MTB and was close to going down or if someone talked about going down I would pack up and leave. It would get in my head, cause me to overthink while the adrenaline was still flowing, cause me to make a mistake, and go down the next time. I learned quickly that when this happens that for me (not everyone else) it's best to pack it up and leave so it doesn't turn into an ER visit.

The same thing happened last weekend when I was riding with my fiancé on the back of my bike. I had a great ride all day on some Georgia mtn back roads and had a close call with some pebbles on the road. I left off, pulled over, and got off because I was shaken up since I've never had a close call like that with her or anyone else riding with me. I gave myself plenty of time to let the adrenaline wear off, my mind to stop overthinking it, and not be hard on myself for not seeing them on the road. I got back on the bike and road back home like I was a newbie.

EDIT: I do wish she promoted a Snell Certified helmet instead of the DOT. I have a HJC CL-17 that is Snell Certified (tested with an anvil that has a point instead of a flat surface like the D.O.T. testing/used anvil). that only cost me $130.

Please read as you may look at your DOT or ECE helmet different http://www.smf.org/standards/m/2015/M2015FinalFinal

Lookup the certification on your current helmet
http://www.smf.org/cert

Testing procedures (flame test, dynamic retention, shell penetration, impact, positional stability (Roll-Off), and facial penetration testing)
http://www.smf.org/testing


Any questions please visit below
http://www.smf.org/helmetfaq

"DOT certification is done on the honor system. The helmet's manufacturer determines whether his helmets satisfy DOT and then claims the qualification for himself. There is not even a reporting requirement. The government does contract for some spot check testing at commercial and private labs but not very much. In recent years much of their effort has been spent against so-called beanie helmets that are obviously substandard and are worn only by helmet law protesters.

Around 1990 a few magazine articles appeared questioning whether Snell certified helmets met the DOT standard. Some went as far as claiming that it was impossible to meet both standards with the same helmet but others were more cautious and said only that meeting both was very difficult.

In fact, Snell certified helmets do meet DOT. If you want to be sure that your helmet meets the DOT standard, get a Snell certified helmet. Manufacturers apply for and earn Snell certification because they care about quality. These are the very manufacturers for whom the honor system works. A Snell sticker is your best assurance that the helmet meets both Snell and DOT. Without our sticker, it's purely a gamble that the helmet meets any standard at all."

"The Snell Memorial Foundation is a private not-for-profit organization that sets voluntary standards for motorcycle helmets, bicycle helmets and auto racing helmets, as well as other kinds of protective headgear. Snell Standards are the world's toughest. We demand quite a bit more protective capability in helmets than anybody else on the planet."

Taken from http://www.smf.org/home

Tintin said:

I do wish she promoted a Snell Certified helmet instead of the DOT.

Click to expand...

As far a Snell ratings, I used to believe as you did but I backed away from the "must have snell" belief. A lot to read but here is more reading material on the subject.

Copied from above link: "To Snell? Or Not To Snell?
In analyzing the accident-involved helmets, the Hurt researchers also addressed whether helmets certified to different standards actually performed differently in real crashes; that is, did a Snell-certified helmet work better at protecting a person in the real world than a plain old DOT-certified or equivalent helmet? The answer was no. In real street conditions, the DOT or equivalent helmets worked just as well as the Snell-certified helmets.

In the case of fatal accidents, there was one more important discovery in the Hurt Report: There were essentially no deaths to helmeted riders from head injuries alone.

Don't get me wrong, I am not dissing a Snell Rated helmet. I have owned them myself. What I am saying is Snell Helmets may not be the "Super Helmets" we have been lead to believe they are. One should do their own research and decide for themselves.

I guess I'll pile onto the ATGATT meme and say I was VERY happy I ignored the incessant "aren't you hot in all that gear?" commentary as I was on a 2 week trip from DC to AR to OK and then to CO (never made it) and it was literally 100+ in the shade. Fellow riders were dressed in chaps if not plain ol' jeans, the occasional jacket but more often just a short-sleeve shirt and the obligatory leather vest.

By contrast I was wearing Kevlar lined jeans, JR air over pants with hip and knee armor, 3/4 jacket with externally sown on armor pockets and back protector, long sleeve T and full height adventure boots and full gauntlet gloves. I decided to "see how fast she'll go" on a deserted 6 lane high way north of OK City at ~mid day and got into a wicked tank slapper at 128mph and crashed at somewhere north of 80mph. I ground to a halt and crawled my way to the median all of 12 miles from the nearest trauma center in Bartlesville OK. Didn't break a thing but feet were black and blue and could barely walk for several days. Only major trauma was my left arm which I hit repeatedly as I tumbled sideways down the highway. The external armor pocket threads ripped right out and I suffered pretty extreme impact abrasion thru my still intact jacket sleeve. I lost a nice chunk of flesh off the lower arm in a triangular shape. Good 6 inch scar. God was merciful to this fool that day!

It's always better to sweat than to bleed. If I wasn't wearing proper gear I'd have a few more cosmetic enhancements no doubt. By contrast my neighbor had a very pretty daughter who was 17yrs old riding a 125cc Yam scooter on I395 (dumb!) and got side-swiped by an SUV on her way back home. She was wearing a 3/4 helmet and street clothes. She ended up in the hospital for 3+ weeks with an external leg fixture (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_fixation) and a variety of thankfully moderate to light road rash.

Asphalt is not kind to human flesh. Wear protection or be prepared to suffer the consequences.