Damn, I crashed...
06-13-2005, 10:25 AM
#1
Senior Member
SuperBike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Posts: 1,315
Damn, I crashed...
Friday: the new Dunlop 208ZRs arrived, set up install with a buddy for Tuesday nite.
Saturday: got a couple hours, decided to burn up the remaining tread on the old tires. Bad idea.
A touch too much speed, a 100 degree right-hander and an 80 ft. strip of gravel & sand that's three feet wide on the outer edge of the apex and suddenly I've got 2 seconds to figure out how to make this turn come out right.
In hindsight, I must have target fixated on the crap in the road; I don't remember looking thru the turn, as usual. So I'm in the gravel, laying off the brakes, when I realize this ain't gonna work. I'm headed straight for the ditch. I brake, but I know I'm goin' in, it's pretty much over.
The rear of the bike pivots left around the steeringhead axis & highsides me off into the ditch on my back. Bike ended up behind me in the ditch pointed in the opposite direction.
I'm lucky or have a top-notch guardian angel. Couple bruises, some strained neck muscles: geez, I think I'm OK! Bike: sandwich-sized dent in the left side of the tank ($#*%!), upper fairing bracket bent, left rear fairing scratched (did I mention, $#*%!) Coulda been worse. Now what did we learn?!
Saturday: got a couple hours, decided to burn up the remaining tread on the old tires. Bad idea.
A touch too much speed, a 100 degree right-hander and an 80 ft. strip of gravel & sand that's three feet wide on the outer edge of the apex and suddenly I've got 2 seconds to figure out how to make this turn come out right.
In hindsight, I must have target fixated on the crap in the road; I don't remember looking thru the turn, as usual. So I'm in the gravel, laying off the brakes, when I realize this ain't gonna work. I'm headed straight for the ditch. I brake, but I know I'm goin' in, it's pretty much over.
The rear of the bike pivots left around the steeringhead axis & highsides me off into the ditch on my back. Bike ended up behind me in the ditch pointed in the opposite direction.
I'm lucky or have a top-notch guardian angel. Couple bruises, some strained neck muscles: geez, I think I'm OK! Bike: sandwich-sized dent in the left side of the tank ($#*%!), upper fairing bracket bent, left rear fairing scratched (did I mention, $#*%!) Coulda been worse. Now what did we learn?!
06-13-2005, 11:13 AM
#2
Senior Member
Superstock
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Southeast PA
Posts: 409
Well, glad to hear you made it out relatively unharmed. Probably would have happened whether you had new rubber on there or not though.
Target fixation + gravel/sand is just a bad combination.
Consider yourself lucky the bike didnt land on top of you.
Target fixation + gravel/sand is just a bad combination.
Consider yourself lucky the bike didnt land on top of you.
06-13-2005, 11:56 AM
#3
Senior Member
Back Marker
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Montreal
Posts: 201
Re: Damn, I crashed...
Yes yes, you were very lucky in your bad luck! No serious injuries and no death too as you are still writing here, so this is the good news!!
Ok, maybe I'm not well placed to give advise, almost same thing have happen to me in the first month I got my VTR last year. For myself, I've learn that the VTR is not a "real" sportbike as the other bikes as Fireblade, 600RR, R6/R1, GSX and ZX and others. So we have to be quite carefull on turn with the VTR, the asphalt on the street is not always clean and the suspension on the VTR are very poor and front brake just enough for "street" usage so these two doesn't give place to any "error" IMO. So now I must say that I had to change my riding method from my previous Fireblade to adapt it to the "reallity" of the FireStorm... less fun on agressive riding but more fun on city and low RPM, and you know... I love this too
Next time you got the idea to burn your remaining tire tread, do as mine:
1- find a brick wall or another solid wall
2- plug the front tire in this wall
3- clutch out and shift all the gear up
4- Enjoy the tire smoke...
5A- stay as long as you would or
5B- as long as the tire explode, at your taste...
( if you choose the option B, be sure to be not far away from your dealer to change the tire )
Cia and remember "Rubber side down" :wink:
Ok, maybe I'm not well placed to give advise, almost same thing have happen to me in the first month I got my VTR last year. For myself, I've learn that the VTR is not a "real" sportbike as the other bikes as Fireblade, 600RR, R6/R1, GSX and ZX and others. So we have to be quite carefull on turn with the VTR, the asphalt on the street is not always clean and the suspension on the VTR are very poor and front brake just enough for "street" usage so these two doesn't give place to any "error" IMO. So now I must say that I had to change my riding method from my previous Fireblade to adapt it to the "reallity" of the FireStorm... less fun on agressive riding but more fun on city and low RPM, and you know... I love this too
Next time you got the idea to burn your remaining tire tread, do as mine:
1- find a brick wall or another solid wall
2- plug the front tire in this wall
3- clutch out and shift all the gear up
4- Enjoy the tire smoke...
5A- stay as long as you would or
5B- as long as the tire explode, at your taste...
( if you choose the option B, be sure to be not far away from your dealer to change the tire
)Cia and remember "Rubber side down" :wink:
06-13-2005, 04:23 PM
#4
Guest
Posts: n/a
Glad to hear you are ok.
Kinda makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up when I think about the quick jaunt on the twisties through the foothills yesterday! We kept the corner speeds reasonable with big squirts between them. Managed to miss the dead cat, which was good...
BTW, I can't believe you wnt out on that awful rear tire, but there was plenty of tread on the sides.
Kinda makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up when I think about the quick jaunt on the twisties through the foothills yesterday! We kept the corner speeds reasonable with big squirts between them. Managed to miss the dead cat, which was good...
BTW, I can't believe you wnt out on that awful rear tire, but there was plenty of tread on the sides.
06-13-2005, 10:58 PM
#5
Senior Member
SuperSport
Join Date: May 2005
Location: North Wales, PA
Posts: 809
Re: Damn, I crashed...
man, something about this bike. I also crashed my superhawk shortly after I got it. (less than a week) and under the same circumstances. target fixated and went wide off the road. the bike has since been fixed, and although there were some residual trust issues, we are getting along pretty well now. when I finish her new look, I'll post pics.
06-14-2005, 10:51 AM
#6
Senior Member
SuperBike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Posts: 1,315
Re: Damn, I crashed...
Hey, swordfish, any injuries from your crash?
RC996: yeah, riding on that tire was dumb. Gotta file this lesson away - destructive testing on tires can destroy you.
Spooning on the new ones tonight though. Never have run 208s. Tread depth sure is shallow (7/32 F & 5/32 R).
RC996: yeah, riding on that tire was dumb. Gotta file this lesson away - destructive testing on tires can destroy you.
Spooning on the new ones tonight though. Never have run 208s. Tread depth sure is shallow (7/32 F & 5/32 R).
06-14-2005, 10:55 AM
#7
Senior Member
SuperSport
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Nananimo, B.C.
Posts: 764
Re: Damn, I crashed...
Target fixation is a much bigger problem than I realized. It never happened to me on my dirt or other bikes I guess cause I didn't ride them anywhere near as fast. Since this is my first sport bike its happened to me about three times although I didn't crash.
It takes so much will power to tear your eyes away from impending doom and lean your bike past the comfort point I can't believe it.
It takes so much will power to tear your eyes away from impending doom and lean your bike past the comfort point I can't believe it.
06-14-2005, 12:12 PM
#8
Senior Member
Back Marker
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: New York City
Posts: 146
Re: Damn, I crashed...
Go buy your Guardian Angel a beer! Phew! Why is it that gravel can attract more attention than a great pair of ****? I tend to do the same thing. The only thing I do to avoid it is to remind myself of when I was a kid and skidding the bike out on gravel was fun - twisted, but it relaxes my sphincter and I ride through with only a slight knee slapper. Still leaves skid marks in my shorts though. Congrats on walking away from it. The good news is you can get all those fun replacement parts!
06-15-2005, 09:03 AM
#9
Senior Member
SuperBike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Posts: 1,315
Re: Damn, I crashed...
Yeah, I'm already thinkin' a black tank would look cool on the red bike.
A buddy & I put the new 208ZRs on last night over a few Newcastles. He's got the right equipment (manually operated) for putting them on. I've been spooning on the last couple sets by myself & that's not much fun.
They balanced up nicely w/ only 1/4oz. of weight on each. Before I had a wobble/mini-tankslapper thing goin' on at 50mph. That's GONE now. WOOhoo! Now i can go back to the hands-free stopping technique.
A buddy & I put the new 208ZRs on last night over a few Newcastles. He's got the right equipment (manually operated) for putting them on. I've been spooning on the last couple sets by myself & that's not much fun.
They balanced up nicely w/ only 1/4oz. of weight on each. Before I had a wobble/mini-tankslapper thing goin' on at 50mph. That's GONE now. WOOhoo! Now i can go back to the hands-free stopping technique.
06-15-2005, 09:09 PM
#10
Senior Member
SuperSport
Join Date: May 2005
Location: North Wales, PA
Posts: 809
Re: Damn, I crashed...
Hey, swordfish, any injuries from your crash?
RC996: yeah, riding on that tire was dumb. Gotta file this lesson away - destructive testing on tires can destroy you.
Spooning on the new ones tonight though. Never have run 208s. Tread depth sure is shallow (7/32 F & 5/32 R).
RC996: yeah, riding on that tire was dumb. Gotta file this lesson away - destructive testing on tires can destroy you.
Spooning on the new ones tonight though. Never have run 208s. Tread depth sure is shallow (7/32 F & 5/32 R).
nothing serious. I went down on grass, so that helped some. I got a nice cut on my chin, some bruises, and a scuff on my wrist. it should have been much worse. thankfully I still had my old bike. so I still got to ride all weekend. now the SH is all fixed up but I still need to paint my new front fairing and slap on some decals I got for it. gonna have a retro fighterplane kinda theme. complete with nose art.
06-16-2005, 08:57 AM
#12
Senior Member
MotoGP
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gainesville FLA.
Posts: 3,844
Re: Damn, I crashed...
You guys have to stop this target fixation thing. 
This is the third post I've read when someone target fixated and crashed. 
If we keep this up there won't be any body left on this forum. Trust your superhawk, I just spent two days kneedraggin' on Jennings gp A motorcycle only track in north Florida. I still have stock suspension (for now but I'm working on inverted forks right now) and had no problem draggin my knee. Trust the hawk it can take pretty much whatever you can throw at it.
This is the third post I've read when someone target fixated and crashed. If we keep this up there won't be any body left on this forum. Trust your superhawk, I just spent two days kneedraggin' on Jennings gp A motorcycle only track in north Florida. I still have stock suspension (for now but I'm working on inverted forks right now) and had no problem draggin my knee. Trust the hawk it can take pretty much whatever you can throw at it.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
