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Goodbye NC700

So what would you have done different to prevent the crash? I had a get of last year. First one in 30 years of riding. Was making a shape left, bike was tracking fine, all of a sudden I looking at the roadway vertically in my helmet while I'm sliding down the road. It's an strange feeling sliding and seeing you bike sliding next to you. I got up right away and had a sharp pain in my left side. Walked back to see what cause it and there was pea gravel about a half inch thick on the roadway. It was exactly the same colour as the pavement. No way I could have ever seen it. I manage to get the bike up and ride 60 miles into Cody Wyoming with broken ribs. They checked me out at the hospital and found only the rib fractures and I continues on with the rest of my trip.
 
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So what would you have done different to prevent the crash? .

I don't know, it was much the same as yours, I was going into a corner and hit pea stone and mud that wasn't visible until I was well into the corner. It was wide enough to cause loss of traction with both tires so I slid off the road, down a 15 - 20 foot bank, landed on a pile of stones that a farmer had cleared from his corn field, bounced off the rocks, the bike bounced off me, and I ended up laying in the corn for nearly two hours until a bicyclist heard my yells for help. I have thought about it countless times and still have no idea how/if I could have prevented it.
 
Ouch! sounds like the only way to have avoid that wreak was not to be on that road. I've lost traction due to debris on the road, but only with one tire or the other at a time. losing traction on both is like someone pulling a rug out from under you.
 
Ouch! sounds like the only way to have avoid that wreak was not to be on that road. I've lost traction due to debris on the road, but only with one tire or the other at a time. losing traction on both is like someone pulling a rug out from under you.


That's a good representation of how it felt.

Mine felt like someone took both my feet and smashed me into the ground. It was so quick and violent I didn't have a chance to react. Thank God I stayed on the road and there were people too help. All I can say is give yourself time to physically and mentally recover. It took me about 3 months to "get over it"

Oh and dont sneeze! A year later and I can still feel my damaged ribs.
 
Actually I was 10 mph under the speed limit, it was the inch thick gravel that made me lose traction. I ended up laying in a cornfield for 90 minutes before a passing bicyclist heard my cries for help.

speed limits are for cars, remember???

You were lucky you ended up in cornfield, it could be worse like e.g. fields of cactuses... ;)
Good luck with recovery. I wonder how did you manage break so many bones just sliding on a curve, did you hit anything?
 
speed limits are for cars, remember???

You were lucky you ended up in cornfield, it could be worse like e.g. fields of cactuses... ;)
Good luck with recovery. I wonder how did you manage break so many bones just sliding on a curve, did you hit anything?

I landed on a pile of stones and the bike hit me on the way down as well.
 
I wonder also, do you think if you had on other, better tyres then stock would it make a difference? e.g. maybe you could recover from the skid?
because to be honest I don't like stock tyres on this bike, they are meant for straight, even and clean asphalt roads only.
 
I wonder also, do you think if you had on other, better tyres then stock would it make a difference? e.g. maybe you could recover from the skid?
because to be honest I don't like stock tyres on this bike, they are meant for straight, even and clean asphalt roads only.

I agree, I have Distanzias on my DR650 and I find they do very well on gravel, when it's time to replace the stockers, I'm going to get something a bit more aggressive.
 
There isn't a tire in the world that would have helped him out. Pea gravel on pavement is just like ball bearings. When I had a similar accident I walked back to where the gravel was and it would roll under my boots, very slippery.
 
There isn't a tire in the world that would have helped him out. Pea gravel on pavement is just like ball bearings. When I had a similar accident I walked back to where the gravel was and it would roll under my boots, very slippery.

that we don't know, offroad tyres are always better in such cases. If there are more chances to get a grip I'd go for it.
More aggressive tyres impose greater point pressure on the road hence can go through the gravel. Your shoes were no offroad.
 
Switching to off road tires when 90% of your riding is on road doesn't make much sense. Not in just the increased cost due to wear, but noise and handling characteristics would be much different as well. Ruggybuggy may not be exactly correct in every sense, but in real world parameters he's dead on right.

Simple facts are, the world and it's roads aren't perfect, none of us are prefect, no tire is perfect for everything and no bike is perfect either. That all loads up every once in a while into a prefect storm :) and one of us bounces off the asphalt. No real defined fault, just a OHshit moment that we hopefully live thru.
 
As I have always said - "Only two kinds of motorcyclist:
1. Those who have gone down.
2. Those who will be down here with us shortly."

In 55 years of riding, I have had one of those "Oh Shit" moments about every 10 years. I believe those moments are just part of riding no matter how careful we try to be! Why heck, we have a major hurricane here every 10 years, also.

Some things just are going to happen !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Accept it, life is too short, just keep on living and riding.
 
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As I have always said - "Only two kinds of motorcyclist:
1. Those who have gone down.
2. Those who will be down here with us shortly."

In 55 years of riding, I have had one of those "Oh Shit" moments about every 10 years. I believe those moments are just part of riding no matter how careful we try to be! Why heck, we have a major hurricane here every 10 years, also.

Some things just are going to happen !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Accept it, life is too short, just keep on living and riding.


Well said!
 
As I have always said - "Only two kinds of motorcyclist:
1. Those who have gone down.
2. Those who will be down here with us shortly."

In 55 years of riding, I have had one of those "Oh Shit" moments about every 10 years. I believe those moments are just part of riding no matter how careful we try to be! Why heck, we have a major hurricane here every 10 years, also.

Some things just are going to happen !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Accept it, life is too short, just keep on living and riding.

no, I won't accept it - whenever I fall I'm trying to find out what went wrong to improve the odds next time.
 
Switching to off road tires when 90% of your riding is on road doesn't make much sense. Not in just the increased cost due to wear, but noise and handling characteristics would be much different as well.

well, then we should not ride like nuts on turns not to hurt ourselves or most importantly - other users of the road.
Remember, when you overshoot the turn you are a big hazard.
 
no, I won't accept it - whenever I fall I'm trying to find out what went wrong to improve the odds next time.

So, OCR is right. You're just trying to find out why you fell.
Figuring out what happened after the fact doesn't change the fact that you're one of those that have been down.
We all try to learn from our mistakes.
 
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