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Well it finally happened! (GRAPHIC VIDEO AND IMAGES)

L18flyboy said:
Glad you are doing well and the bike damage wasn't excessive.

....Crossed some tar snakes at relatively low speed (heavily loaded bike with camping gear on dirt oriented tiers) on what was not a particularly warm day (high 80s?) southeast of Prescott. Thought for sure I was going to go down. As much as I've ridden over them without incident in the past, after that moment I had a new respect for them.
Click to expand...

Interesting You mentioned about Tar Snakes and Prescott. I also have ridden for years without Tar Snakes being a problem, until this year going into Prescott Az. You could feel the bike loosing grip, but then getting the grip back after it slid off the tar. My buddies noticed the samething. I"m now wondering if these Tar Snakes are composed of a more slippery material, or it might have been the summer heat.
 
This is great, (for me to see obviously not for you). I have been reading this and trying to see where this tar snake might be and then I saw it. I would have suspected one that was somewhat in the direction of travel. If it was the tar snakeI think it is, it appears more radial from the apex. I have to say, that would have never occured to me that that could happen.
 
The good the bad and the ugly

The Good you walked away. You didn't high side.
The Bad Your body and bike suffered unneeded abuse as, well as your pride.
The Ugly This can happen to anyone of us, on any day.

I was trying to look at your chicken strips. Sadly, as near as I can tell, mine look about the same.
Heal fast! I need to go slower.
 
Was working on the bike this morning and realized the shirt I was wearing.... Whoops!!
a4y4ydun.jpg
 
My bike was a Honda Canada Demo and used by professional riders on a track for photo shoots and mag articles (it also made a 7000km trip across Canada). When I bought the bike I noticed that the ball under the foot peg was ground down pretty good.
And the chicken patch on the rear tire was almost non existent. It is definitely possible to get this bike really low. Just not by me.
 
Good early morning all,

So I have been a long time lurker on this thread since I originally saw it, and I think about the video you posted and the circumstances of your accident regularly. I am a new rider myself, but I have been blessed with the knowledge and good advice from some very experienced riders. Chief among which is a current MSF instructor who has been riding and teaching for over 25 years.

I showed him your video and discussed the accident with him and one thing that stood out to both of us was the lack of throttle sound upon entering the turn. It appeared to us that you approached the curve too fast, slowed moderately and then left the throttle off until the point of impact with the ground. For us this seemed like possibly a larger contributing factor to the accident than tar snakes.

For your consideration:
1. Tar snakes are small, from the video it seems like your lowside was almost universal, i.e. your back tire didnt step out noticeably sooner than your front, or vice-versa. Unless you had both wheels on the same tar snake, I don't see how both wheels would have lost traction in such a fashion, one wheel should have slipped first.
2. In a turn without a smooth application of throttle, the weight of the bike is shifted disproportionately to the front tire. With a smaller contact patch than the rear, this is the last place you want the majority of the weight of your bike, especially leaned over in a turn.
3. Once you enter a turn and lean the bike over, a steady, smooth application of power (a smooth roll-on) will transfer the bike's weight to the rear and allow the weight of the bike to be placed on the rear tire. That throttle application should continue throughout the turn.

Check out Twist of the Wrist by Keith Code... There are videos avaliable online and books too. He even covers cornering in the wet and low-traction. It may help out.
 
Ponyperformance8 said:
Good early morning all,

So I have been a long time lurker on this thread since I originally saw it, and I think about the video you posted and the circumstances of your accident regularly. I am a new rider myself, but I have been blessed with the knowledge and good advice from some very experienced riders. Chief among which is a current MSF instructor who has been riding and teaching for over 25 years.

I showed him your video and discussed the accident with him and one thing that stood out to both of us was the lack of throttle sound upon entering the turn. It appeared to us that you approached the curve too fast, slowed moderately and then left the throttle off until the point of impact with the ground. For us this seemed like possibly a larger contributing factor to the accident than tar snakes.

For your consideration:
1. Tar snakes are small, from the video it seems like your lowside was almost universal, i.e. your back tire didnt step out noticeably sooner than your front, or vice-versa. Unless you had both wheels on the same tar snake, I don't see how both wheels would have lost traction in such a fashion, one wheel should have slipped first.
2. In a turn without a smooth application of throttle, the weight of the bike is shifted disproportionately to the front tire. With a smaller contact patch than the rear, this is the last place you want the majority of the weight of your bike, especially leaned over in a turn.
3. Once you enter a turn and lean the bike over, a steady, smooth application of power (a smooth roll-on) will transfer the bike's weight to the rear and allow the weight of the bike to be placed on the rear tire. That throttle application should continue throughout the turn.

Check out Twist of the Wrist by Keith Code... There are videos avaliable online and books too. He even covers cornering in the wet and low-traction. It may help out.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree with this thesis in part. I certainly agree that the tar seam was way to small and pointing in the wrong direction to be anything more than a very minor contributing factor. I also agree that there may have been insufficient power applied to drive thru the bend. However I stand by my view that the original tyres are rubbish, especially one with 13000 miles on it. As a matter of course I drive thru bends with power on, having done all the necessary braking on entry. Yet my front still let go several times on the original tyres. This has not happened me since I changed to another brand. In this case I changed to PR3's.
 
Jimmy_Pop said:
That's a great shirt
Click to expand...

Thanks! Actually, I found it at a thrift shop. When I found it I thought to myself (the same thing I think about basically everything I've bought from a thrift shop), "Why would anyone throw this away???" It's just as soft and smells just as great as the day I bought it!
 
Two weekends ago my club outing was doing the Angeles Crest highway with a side trip down the same road to the San Andreas fault and Devil's Punch Bowl park (see http://nc700-forum.com/forum/nc700-general-discussion/1982-2013-what-did-you-do-your-nc700-today-57.html#566 ). I had a cruiser style bike behind me riding two up and for a moment I was sure they had gone down on that same turn when I heard gawd-awful sounds of scraping chrome. According to the rider behind him, they dragged a bit more than just the pegs, but stayed upright. His wife was not a happy camper.
 
UPDATE: I'm back in the saddle, as they say. Got the bike put back together and rode it to work this morning. Man, how I miss commuting on this bike! There are still a few parts left to replace but nothing that compromises the bike's integrity.

01b06b04d54fe8f5dd563f1294c868aa9e4bfde751.jpg

My wounds are almost completely healed and I'm finally able to tie my boots around my wrapped ankle. (Sorry the images are so big, I don't know how to make them smaller)

01c176a79591ad2f212787d782ebc323d6258c1ba8_00001.jpg01d5dbe71ed1ec6b0cbee25c7f84798a742af70f76_00001.jpg0142115d8202f81d4cd285fcb7764ae37101e34dab_00001.jpg

Still very timid on the bike for now, as expected, but I can't wait to get right back up that mountain and take that corner the right way. Thank you guys for all the well wishes!
 
You'll probably feel a bit timid for a while yet; I had a 55mph high side back in 06 (Royal Enfield rear brake pedal FELL OFF (!), caught in the road, and launched the bike and me) . For months after, I kept feeling like the bike (any bike) wasn't "right" under me, kept pulling off the road to see if anything was wrong, tip-toed around curves, etc.
After some time, everything gets normal again.:D
 
Josh h I'm glad your feeling better. I used to live in Montrose at the foot of the Angles crest highway. Loved to ride it on my Virago 1100. But those curves can be dangerous, not to mention the umpteen hundred foot fall if you go over the edge.
If you ride it this fall be carefull of black ice. Ice will form in the shady spots and not melt.

echo15 said:
You'll probably feel a bit timid for a while yet; I had a 55mph high side back in 06 (Royal Enfield rear brake pedal FELL OFF (!), caught in the road, and launched the bike and me) . For months after, I kept feeling like the bike (any bike) wasn't "right" under me, kept pulling off the road to see if anything was wrong, tip-toed around curves, etc.
After some time, everything gets normal again.:D
Click to expand...

If you had a royal Enfield made in India I'm surprised the brake pedal is the only thing that fell off. I owned one in England. The only bike I ever thought was actully trying to kill me.
After a long ride one day I washed the bike. Noticed what I thought was a small line of dirt on the front clap holding the front wheel on. Dirt didn't come off. Took the the clamp off and as soon as I unthreaded the second bolt the the clamp fell apart in two pieces.
Had that happned at 50 mph it would have been rather spectacular, and painful.
The Enfield was fun, as long as you stayed on back roads and planned your stops 100 feet in advance. It had a disk front brake, drum back brake. The front would slow down and the bike would think about stopping. By the time they made up thier minds you were past where you wanted to stop at. The Enfield was Fast enough to get hurt on, Not fast enough to survive on the motor ways without getting run over.
 
Josh, glad you are healing and getting back in the saddle. I have read the threads and now conjecture it was the foot peg which scraped but maybe the side stand scraped and lifted the bike enough to cause the low slide, the side stand is lower and with all the forces in play in the curve, very close to the ground. On my BMW G650gs, I have scraped the side stand (and both are similar is placement and size) many times thinking I was scraping the peg but realized, if I was scraping the peg, the bike would be on the ground.
Glad the bike is getting back in shape.
 
Glad to see you were alright. Makes us all be a little more careful.....and definitely protective gear!

I agree with the throttle hypothesis......I always downshift before the corner to keep torque to the tires. Same concept with slow riding during the police motor course....you have to keep that torque.
 
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