I had an "OH S***" on Friday

[Steve S]

Last week my riding buddy and I had taken a trip down to ride the Dragon and to catch a few roads down in NC and SC while we were down that way. We spent the night at the Two Wheel Inn in Robinsville on Thursday night planning to head out 129 East on Friday morning.

 

Friday morning the road was still messy and it was pretty foggy after the heavy rains we had on Thursday evening so I was trying, (I thought) to take it easy as we left the Inn. About 2 miles into the trip I fell into a curve a little faster than was needed. Since the road was wet I didn't want to use too much rear brake so I grabbed some front brake and promptly killed what lean I had as I went into the curve. As I got closer to the double yellow line I saw 3 cars coming at me. I knew this wasn't gonna be a good situation, but I kept braking and leaning, all the time hoping for the best. The bike drifted over far enough to the left to hit the first of the yellow stripes. (Freshly painted and thick of course). Once it hit the painted stripe the whole front end SLID all the way into the left lane of the road.

 

Thanks to some very attentitive drivers, I met all three cars with the bike in the left lane, and me praying while I was hanging on for dear life and leaning over the yellow stripes.

 

All I can say is that once again God was watching over me. I was pretty shook up, plumb scared might be a better term, but we were able to finish our ride that day after I stopped and got my pusle and nerves back under control. Needless to say my riding style was not very agressive for the rest of the trip.

 

Thanks for letting me share my little misadventure.

Edited June 1, 2009 by Steve S

[friesman]

Thanks for being such a stand up guy and sharing your misadventure with the rest of us to help the rest of us remember that we have to pay attention at all times and dont take anything on the road for granted!!!

I am VERY happy that it turned out well for you, except your underwear that is......

 

Brian

[1BigDog]

The Dragon is a very unforgiving road. Dont take much to mess up on it. Glad you ended up ok.

[DragonRider]

Now you can say ," Been There:eek:, Done That:doh:, and Survived":big-grin-emoticon:...........now you can write the book...............

 

I bet we have all done the same thing some time in our riding career, I know I have.............:bang head:

[ventureohio]

We have all been there, glad you lived to share this story. My Venture is my first Touring bike, Owned it for about 4 months now and still getting use to how much it weighs. Sometimes I look like a real goober when I pull up to a light trying to determin my center of balance.

 

[Sylvester]

On my last trip to the Dragon, there was a stop on the road due to some kind of problem, and after checking it out I helped pull a sport bike up out of the woods where it and the rider went off the road. He was tore up but walking and the bike (after we hauled it up the mountain with a rope and a Jeep for pulling) looked pretty bad.

[Venturous Randy]

What makes this story so good is not only did you make it thru the incident, but ATTENTIVE drivers helped, rather then hurt your situation.

Randya

[KiteSquid]

So now that you have had a scarrry experacne, what are you going to do so it, or something simmular NEVER happens again?

 

Please try to list EVERYTHING you did wrong, and how to correct it in the future.

 

 

Thank you for sharing your story above.

[chabicheka]

there sure are lots of attentive drivers out there. i had a close one yesterday too and had it not been for this young attentive man, i would have been typing this from inside the casket.

was on the 401 ( major hwy) here in toronto coming back from the niagara falls. was in the middle lane of the highway.as the cars started to slow down in my lane, i turned my right indicator on, looked in the rear view mirror,no car...started leaning into it, and as is my habit, turned my head to the right to see if there was a car. and i see something right besides my rear tire. lucky for me, the young man had good reflexes and he went in to the shoulder of the hwy at the same time braking lightly to avoid me. i did wave to him to thank him,and he cooly went by without even giving me a dirty look or the middle finger which i fully deserved. am going to be extra careful from now on changing lanes.

 

so there sure are lots of good cagers out there among the bad ones...

we are always too quick to blame cagers, but oft times its the bikers at fault too.

[frogmaster]

Thanks for sharing. Does anybody remember what MSF.org states is the # 1 accident in motorcycling???

 

#1 = Failed to safely negotiate a curve.

 

There are MANY factors as we all know such as Speed, Grip/Traction, Hazards, Ect...

 

I visualize the worst case scenario that every curve has Sand, Pebbles, Potholes, Ect and find myself slowing down more than my more experienced peers but that is OK with me.

 

On a few occasions I seen some of the visualized curves and SPEED being my MOST CONTROLLABLE Factor I negotiated some worst case curves.... so far.

 

[Yammer Dan]

The main thing is you were able to look back and say "I pushed it too hard" instead of trying to find something else to blame it on. Means you will be around to make the next mistake. Be CAREFUL!!!

[Steve S]

The Dragon is a very unforgiving road. Dont take much to mess up on it. Glad you ended up ok.

 

 

I want to clarify that I wasn't on, or even near, the Dragon. We were about 5 miles EAST of Robinsville on U.S. 129. It was just an unfortunate incident where I let my mind wander and allowed my focus be somewhere else. You can be assured I really paid attention after that.

[Grandpagak]

glad to hear that it turned out well for you..

[Venturous Randy]

We had a local death over the weekend. A guy on a 1999 Harley going too fast could not make a curve and hit a guardrail and tree. Report stated alcohol was involved and he was wearing an "unapproved Helmet". He was 37 years old.

RandyA

[saga5]

The main thing is you were able to look back and say "I pushed it too hard" instead of trying to find something else to blame it on. Means you will be around to make the next mistake. Be CAREFUL!!!

 

I couldn't agree more