Rookie Mistake

[Rick Haywood]

Well, While Mike (eusa1) and I were riding back from B2Mom and Dads in the rain and I made a rookie mistake and am paying for it today. I was riding in the middle of my lane and went to slow down and just touched my front brake (stupid stupid) well the next thing I know I am on the pavement sliding and so is the bike. I slammed to the pavement very hard and hit my head very hard ( had on Helmet) and slammed my body hard also. Before me and the bike stopped sliding the bike spun and my head ended up under the front of the bike. Well I remember the bike going down and then the next theing I remember is Mike asking....Hey Buddy Are you hurt, can you hear me, hey are you hurt? Then I hear him tell a guy that was offering to help lift the bike up. DO NOT GRAB ANYWHERE EXCEPT THIS BLACK HANDLE. Well about that time I became undazed and told Mike I thought I was OK. I remember thinking when I hit my head WOW I am glad I have my helmet on. I also remember thinking OH NO my bike. Well I got lucky and It didn't hurt the bike to bad Rode it on home from Murray, KY. Went to the hospital when I got home and ended up with craked ribs, Chest contussion (sp) and a scaped and bruised elbow. I am very sore and it hurts to move but I will be OK. So the moral is...........No matter how much you ride or how much experience you have do not forget what you know and get to comfortable. Always remember the little things. It could have been worse for me and all because I forgot for just a second about the little things I learned. But as you all probably guessed it only took me about a 1/2 a second after I touched the brake to remember that I shouldn't have done that.

[Trader]

Glad you are OK!

 

You know....as we get older we don't bounce as well as we used to.

 

Been there....done that....luckily it was on wet grass at low speed.

 

 

Yet another reminder of the importance of wearing the gear.

 

without the helmet we could easily have had yet another sad story!

[SilvrT]

Dang Rick ... glad it wasn't any worse. A hard way to "remember" something tho. Hope you heal up quickly!

[RandyR]

Rick, glad you're mostly Ok.

 

The bike can be fixed up.

[Flyinfool]

Glad to hear that you are for the most part OK and should heal well.

 

Bikes are easier to fix than bones.

 

So did you even use the front brake at all for the rest of the trip?

 

With that little bit of rain we had yesterday, being the first rain in almost a month, all of the oil that had accumulated on the roads became very slick especially the center of the lanes. There were crashes everywhere with cages losing it. Yesterday something made me take the truck to work for the first time in over a month. durring my commute I had to make hard evasive manuvers 6 times in 40 miles to avoid stupid cages. Glad I was not on the bike. I would have hated to have to make a panic stop or hard swerve on those slick roads.

 

Just seeing how people reacted to rain, I cant wait till the flies.

[Rick Haywood]

Glad to hear that you are for the most part OK and should heal well.

 

Bikes are easier to fix than bones.

 

So did you even use the front brake at all for the rest of the trip?

With that little bit of rain we had yesterday, being the first rain in almost a month, all of the oil that had accumulated on the roads became very slick especially the center of the lanes. There were crashes everywhere with cages losing it. Yesterday something made me take the truck to work for the first time in over a month. durring my commute I had to make hard evasive manuvers 6 times in 40 miles to avoid stupid cages. Glad I was not on the bike. I would have hated to have to make a panic stop or hard swerve on those slick roads.

 

Just seeing how people reacted to rain, I cant wait till the flies.

 

 

 

No Was afraid to touch it.

[Guest]

Just glad your here to tell the story....... Heal well

[TheKid]

Glad you are ok Rick.

[saddlebum]

Glad you are Ok Rick, well at least ok enough to talk about it. The irony of it is we all do the stupid little things, although we know better. There is an an old saying "familiarity breeds contempt" . I have a bad habit of using the front brake only, when my feet are up on the highway pegs and I get too lazy to move them, and on many such occasions I have thought to myself "mmm that was not smart". I am also sure I am not the only one considering the consistancy of human nature.

[Monty]

Ouch! Glad you made it home ok, and the injuries aren't too bad. Wish I would have gotten to see you guys while you were here, but I am on midnights this week.

[Yammer Dan]

Rick this ain't good to wake up to. Glad you aren't hurt any worse(right now you are thinking nothing could be worse than those ribs) than you are. Hope bike is not bad but it can be fixed. I am a big front brake user. Keep telling myself I should break that habit and use rear more. Before I break Something!!! Heal fast Bro.

[Carbon_One]

Rick, like others have said I'm glad to hear you telling us this story rather then thru someone else. Thou your injuries are semi serious be very thankfull they weren't worse and that you had your gear on. More importantly a helmet.

Even being on a trike now, I have found that while extremely stable on wet roads, the front tire can and will slip & slide if braking too much on blacktop early in the rains. The middle of the lane doesn't get the oils flushed off quite as fast as the tire sections do from cages driving thru them. So one must always be cautious & as you have come to realize it only takes a second or so to get into trouble.

Heal well,

Larry

[dingy]

And this is the exact reason linked brakes are a bad idea on the 1st gens.

Any time you do any braking you are using a front brake.

Glad your OK Rick, been a bad year here for members.

Gary

[ragtop69gs]

I'm happy the damages to you and the scoot weren't worse. I did the same thing years ago on the shadow, same situation, same result. I am now very cautious with my front brake when the roads are wet. I tend to ride like a grandma when it's wet now.

 

" I have a bad habit of using the front brake only, when my feet are up on the highway pegs and I get too lazy to move them"

 

I am guilty of this also, but, under normal driving conditions it's not much of a problem.

[etcswjoe]

Hope you get to feeling better quick and glad it was not worse.

[tufftom4]

I am so glad to hear you are ok, I just got back from the dr's for a follow up on having a plate put in my shoulder and had fluid drained from my lung yesterday so I know how much worse it can get. Give me a call if ya wanna talk.

 

Tom

[mm482]

Glad you could get up and ride away!!! Did I say I hate to ride in the rain?

Earl

[XV1100SE]

Glad you are okay.

[chabicheka]

Glad you could get up and ride away!!! Did I say I hate to ride in the rain?

Earl

 

 

:sign yeah that:

[Venturous Randy]

I had my rookie mistake also yesterday and it was also related to the front brake. Linda and I took about a 60 mile ride and one of the roads we will occasionally ride is the original roadbed of the Tweetsie Railroad here in east Tennessee. We had been down most of it before and it is a really neat slow ride with most of it being a narrow one lane paved road with some narrow cuts through rocks.

Where I got in trouble was there was a section we had never tried before because I did not think it was open. Well after a mile or so, it did come to a house and at that point the road went to gravel. As I was coming up to that point, just barely moving, I was picking a good place to make a u-turn. Just as I was just about stopped, using the front brake as I had my feet down, I came upon some very fine gravel. Yep, before I realized it, my front tire slid and instead of letting off the brake, I guess I squeezed it harder. There was a slight slope to the right so before I could save it, we were over to the left. Fortunately, neither one of us got any injuries, but my left fairing took a beating.

I was real glad we did not get hurt, but I was real mad at myself for that moment of inattention that got my fairing busted.

RandyA

[kbran]

Glad your ok Rick.

[myminpins]

So glad you're okay, Rick, but I have to ask...

 

WHY was that a rookie mistake?? Were the roads freshly wet so it was oil slicked??? Did you come down HARD on your front brake?

 

I'm not understanding why you're calling this a rookie mistake and what you did exactly that made you fall??????

[eusa1]

if he would have layed there a few mins longer.. i think i could have got that bike traded off for little white mazda???:whistling:gosh my back hurts from lifting that bike off your head!!

[j_berg]

glad to hear you are both ok.

[Sylvester]

I just pm'd you about the trailer and then saw this. I am sorry for you spill and feel somewhat guilty. Heal quickly and with little pain. I slid through and intersection doing the front brake boogy forty five years ago and I am very cautious of the front brake in the center of the lane.