Today I had the misfortune of joining the massive statistic of those who have dropped a bike. Thankfully I was not hurt in any way (other than my pride), and the bike has sustained no evidence of this incident. So here's what happened:
On my way home from work it was raining. When I got into my driveway I decided to turn the bike around so as to face the entrance. I was going slowly and avoiding any obstacles that were obviously in my way. What I didn't take notice of is the fact that my driveway is absolutely covered with pine needles. When I tried to turn the bike around, both the front and rear tires slipped out from under me. Thankfully I was going not much faster than walking speed, so I was more concerned about the bike than myself. As much as I tried to right the bike it was just too heavy. Ultimately I found myself between the concrete driveway and a 400lb bike.
As soon as the bike tipped the engine cut off (as designed). I righted the bike and put the kickstand down, then started to look for damage from the fall. If there is any it's far too minor to catch my attention. My relief was palpable!
This is what I learned from the situation: Wet leaves (and pine needles are very slippery). It is analogous to what I imagine riding on ice would be like.
So when my driveway dries up I'll be removing any trace of brush from its surface to avoid this happening again in my driveway. When I'm not in my driveway I won't have any control over how many wet leaves are in my path, so that leaves me with two options:
- Never ride in the rain
- Learn how to safely cross areas of wet leaves
The prior option is not acceptable to me. When I got this bike I decided that it was going to be my main source of transportation. My bike gets about triple the fuel efficiency of my car, so it just makes good sense to use the bike as much as possible. So here are some ideas I have that THEORETICALLY will enable me to cross an area covered with wet leaves:
- Don't use breaks on wet leaves
- Keep the throttle in the same position throughout the traversal across the wet leaves
- Don't turn on wet leave
- Don't lean the bike on wet leaves. If you have to turn on wet leaves slow down enough so that you don't have to lean the bike at all.
I'll have to go out and test these ideas to confirm that they actually do work. As soon as I do I'll write another posting to let you know how it went and what I learned.
Tags: Doh! · Motorcycle Saftey · Riding TipsNo Comments