Almost low sided tonight..........

[vadasz1]

Was riding in to work tonight on Trafalgar Rd. going north of Hwy 7.  Passed thru Ballinifad and noticed that rain passed thru not too long before.  I get to Hwy 124 and gear down to I think 2nd gear at the lights and as I took the right turn, I give her some gas and the next thing I know my rear end is moving about 3 feet to the left as I am still negotiating the turn.  I was applying some gas in the middle of the turn like I usually do but tonight really gave a bit of a scare.  Luckliy I snaped off of the throttle and the back end came back and the bike came upright.  Collected my thoughts for a second and gave a big "WWWHHHOOOOOOOOO" and put her into third and continued on.

I think it was a combination of the rain not washing the slickness off of the road and also that I am nearing the end of the rear tire's life.  I think it has enough still for this year.  Next time I take a corner in the wet I think I will wait a bit longer to apply the throttle. 

Like I said, this hasn't happened before and I have ridden to work in heavy downpours before.  So I am counting my blessings and glad that I am more experienced now.

[Re-Vision]

We go so long between rains here in Texas that when we do get a shower the roads becomes extremely slippery from the oils in the asphalt. Think it's more treacherous than ice and certainly no fun sliding down the highway without your bike under you. That which doesn't kill us only makes us stronger it's said, but you still have to go home and change your underwear. Ride carefully!    BDC

[YellowJacket!]

Its a scary thing to hear about close calls but a relief to learn that everything turned out ok in the end.  The good thing is that your training/experience/instinct kicked in and you did the right thing and didn't overreact.  That combination of actions is now proabably burned into your neurons.

One of my classmates wasn't so lucky the other day.  He bought a brand new Shadow 750 and started riding a few months ago after taking the MSF course. The other day he was on his way to class and a guy in a pickup in front of him decided that he didn't need to use the middle turning lane to turn left.  He jammed on his brakes and my friend aparently hadn't perfected the 2 second rule and first locked his brakes up.  Realizing that a bad thing was about to happen, he laid it down and slid under the truck with the bike still on his leg.  He slid about 20 feet and got wedged and the idiot in the truck thought it a good idea to drive forward to unwedge him.  Ouch.
Bad case of roadrash on his legs - hospital scrubs provide absolutely no protection at all - and fortunately no broken bone but very sore.  He did have a riding jacket on that didn't have pads - it was one of the lok cool on a cruiser jackets - so while it provided a bit more protection than just skin alone, the road still abraided right through and inflicted some more rash on his forearm and elbow.  Add to that some on his hip and he's gonna be sore for a while.  Helmet is now useless too - but it did what it was supposed to do.

Unfortunately, his beautiful Shadow didn't fare so well....but he's alive.

One thing that I learned from it is that not only do I need to get out and ride more, I need to get out and PRACTICE more.  I've done a lot of things to change YJ lately but its been a while since I've been on a decent ride due to school.  I'm more than sure that many of her characteristics have changed and I need to explore and relearn them in order to be better prepared.

While I hate to hear or read stories like this it really puts things into perspective that I'm not invincible and anything can happen in a split second and I need to be prepared.

Thanks for sharing and I am very glad and relieved that you are ok.

David