- This topic has 3 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 1 month ago by eon.
my first spill (a little road rash included)
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March 17, 2009 at 1:09 am #2614nau_lax21Participant
I had my first (and hopefully last) drop last Saturday.
Let’s start with the gear. What I was doing right:
-Full Face helmet (scorpion exo400)
-leather jacket (alpinestars atl)
-leather gloves (scorpion stinger)
For what I was doing wrong, I was wearing jeans and normal tennis shoes. I always thought ATGATT was a nice catch phrase to ride by, but not very practical. I’m glad I learned my lesson in a not too severe way and now will for sure be riding in all the gear, all the time.So here’s what happened, I was approaching an intersection and I was in the left lane, going approx. 40mph, as the left turn lane opens, a green Lexus driven by a 70+ year old lady going about 25 in the lane to the right of me comes right into my lane with no signal. I panic… hitting the rear brake too hard, lock the wheel, and my back tire comes sliding out to my right, all of this causing me to lowside to my left. Thank God there was not a car behind me, because I would have been a speed bump.
The jeans ripped pretty bad, and as I slid/rolled to a stop my knee/upper leg took a bit of road rash in the process. My shoes also ripped up, leaving just a little cut on my foot.
I pulled the bike back up and pulled the old lady over, and basically lectured her for a minute. Didn’t yell at her or anything, there was no good that would have come out of it.
I learned my lesson the hard way, but it could have been sooo much worse. Gotta gear up all the time. Gotta work on those emergency stops too.
March 17, 2009 at 2:17 am #17100MunchParticipantGlad to hear your safe. ATGATT is very important…. but so are eyes in all directions…..guess we have to settle for what we can.
March 17, 2009 at 4:20 pm #17112WeaponZeroParticipantATGATT is a rule to live by. Unfortunately I still don’t own a pair of riding pants because of my fluctuating pants size (losing weight–woohoo!) but I do own everything else and wear it even if I’m taking my bike up the street to my dad’s place.
For the record, I do believe people her age should have to take regular driving tests to keep their license. As someone who was born and raised in South Florida, I can say I have seen many times how deadly an elderly person who’s eyes and ears are gone can be behind the wheel of a car.
March 17, 2009 at 4:20 pm #17113eonParticipantGlad to hear you are ok and are treating this as something to learn from. As well as the ATGATT rule you obviously know you need to practice your emergency braking. Add to that your situational awareness so that these little old ladies don’t take you by surprise. This last bit is the hardest skill to learn I think. I have not had a spill yet (fingers crossed) but most times I’m out at least one person will take me by surprise. I try and learn from each of these so I can prevent it from happening again. It takes time and many miles on the bike but I know I am much better at it than I was 6 months ago. Still have a long ways to go though.
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