[plastic]

So. I got about 1000miles and about 4 months riding and got my second fall while squezing in between stopped traffic – my mirror hit a car mirror, lost balance and… no body injuries (padded squander pants and jacket probably helped) but bike got a bit scratches and car bumper got torn. Overall feeling pretty crappy about the whole thing. Big bummer. I guess once again a shorter lighter bike would have helped… is 2nd drops in such a short time normal or am I just totally inept?
Love riding of course and. Thought. I was doing pretty good skill wise, but apparently I’m not…

[eon]

I wouldn’t beat yourself up over it, you are still learning and making mistakes and so far they have been minor (though I can’t remember your other accident). We learn from our mistakes and the fact you are down on yourself I see as a good thing. It means you are taking responsibility for what happened rather than trying to blame the car, the road, karma or whatever.

Personally I have had a 20 mph low side, a standing still drop, a drop when practicing u-turns and countless near drops. All have gone into the experience bank to make sure they don’t happen again (or at least try to not happen again). Have to say at 1000 miles and 4 months you are still very much a rookie. If anything you might be over estimating your ability, but that’s hard to gauge. There is SO much to learn and it takes time and miles under your belt before it becomes second nature. I’ve gone from 12k to 24k miles this year and took an advanced riding class (ie. beyond what MSF teaches) and I am 10x the better rider now than I was this time last year.

So stick with it, it only gets better.

[TrialsRider]

Nobody is born a skilled motorcycle rider, it’s a practiced thing. it takes time, practice and persistence ) One thing I have learned is; don’t practice what you do well, analyze and practice things you find difficult, and in your case that would seem to be go slow riding technique.

Glad you weren’t injured, I thought to write more but don’t want to sound preachy.
Just, get back on that horse

[madjak30]

1000 miles…yup, that’s about when I dropped my bike on a gravel road…I was getting pretty confident and thought I had figured out riding…and I think at around 3000 miles, I dropped it in my driveway…taking it off the center stand and I was standing on the uphill side of the bike…it tipped toward down hill and I couldn’t stop it (broke the signal lens that day…dammit)…I’m starting to realize that there is no end to the learning curve…it just isn’t as steep as you go along, but as soon as you think “I’ve got this…”, oops, something happens to snap you back to reality…

Just keep at it, the slow stuff is the hard part for everyone…anyone can ride a bike down the road at speed…the damn things pretty much do it themselves (except the awareness, avoidance…blah blah blah), it’s the balance at slow speeds and how “grabby” the brakes are when you are barely moving that takes practice and skill…and that is the stuff that people take for granted…

Later.

[plastic]

Yep, already did the driveway drop (literally a 3% incline, turned around to close the gate and heard to loud (and painful) blang.

The over confidence thing is about ride, It was a good wake up call to remind me to take it easy.

Thanks for the support guys. Kinda needed the pat on the back. Now back to riding. And anymore tips (and preaching) are more than welcome.

[Author]

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