low side crash

[davidduarte]

I'm mad. Mad at myself. On the way into work tonight, took exit 38 off of I-84 as I usually do. There's a light at the bottom of the ramp, where I turn left to go towards my office.

It's a very sharp left hand turn, and I typically do it in third gear, but fairly slow, although I have had the bike leaned over pretty hard at times, once even grinding the centerstand a bit. I was looking through the turn, and had the bike leaned over, when it went out from under me. I lowsided on the left side of the bike. I let go of the bike and it slid a few feet away to the curb. Here's where the bike ended up, you can see the spot where gas leaked out (I rode back to the scene to take pictures, that's my bike in the background):

Got up, picked up the bike and hit the kill switch and turned the ignition off, even though the engine wasn't running at this point. I looked back at the intersection, and there was strip of dirt/sand that I had tracked right through.

I was lucky, in that I wasn't injured, I didn't hit my head (especially since I was wearing a new helmet that I just bought last week), and there was only minor damage to the bike, which started right up, and I rode the last mile or so into my office without a hitch. After calling my wife and parents, and having a bite to eat, I had time before I had to start working, so I rode back and took pictures you see here.

 

[cowboyup3371]

Glad you are safe and sound.

 

[davidduarte]

few more shots of the scene:

and the damage to the bike:

 

[davidduarte]

Glad you are safe and sound.

Thanks cowboy, the mistake I made was that I was so focused on leaning the bike over and looking through the turn, that I neglected to look at the beginning of the turn, and therefore didn't see the sand until after the bike was down. I was really lucky, if you have to crash your bike, there are much worse ways to crash. I lowsided at pretty low speed, with no one behind me, in partly cloudy but dry conditions.

 

[MikeG]

+1 for engine guards! Glad you are fine, there's a couple turns near my house that seem to attract gravel and they always slow me waaaay down.

 

[1_v8_merc]

Atleast it was only lowspeed and no cars all around you!
(not to mention it's more embarrassing with people around)

Good job posting pics!
More people need to do this to REALLY put things into perspective!

I have a bad habit of down shifting too low at too high of a speed....I've locked the tires and chirped them plenty of times while coming to a stop....

I also Lean hard at lights....I've almost nailed dirt piles, so I make sure to look down AND forward.

 

[davidduarte]

Atleast it was only lowspeed and no cars all around you!
(not to mention it's more embarrassing with people around)

Good job posting pics!
More people need to do this to REALLY put things into perspective!

I have a bad habit of down shifting too low at too high of a speed....I've locked the tires and chirped them plenty of times while coming to a stop....

I also Lean hard at lights....I've almost nailed dirt piles, so I make sure to look down AND forward.

if the light had been red, I might have spotted it, because I would have stopped, but I was coming down at speed, downshifted into third, and started my lean. I think that's when I hit the sand.

 

[TheCafeKid]

With the rains we've had come extra gravel and mud/sand. It happens. Merely a flesh wound. Dust it off and ride on. Lesson learned and no pain from that makes it an easy one. Glad you're ok

 

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Yep, on a loose material it doesn't take much centrifugal force to get that front wheel out from under you. It's happened to me a couple of times. I'm happy you're OK. It's a bonus that your bike is not wadded up too. Stay safe. Thanks for letting us know.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[Guest]

Yeah, I laid my bike down when my rear tire hit a piece of a broomstick
laying amongst pea gravel.
There are alot of slippery surfaces out there that I "try" to watch out for,
Acorns, Pine Needles, Sand, Gravel, Tree Branches, and the one that got me, pieces of broom sticks.
Now your case savers look like mine!
Glad your OK!

 

[Guest]

Glad to hear you're ok and see the bike's not too badly banged up.

Looking at that patch reminds me of when I used to flag marshal for the bike races and we used to lay gravel type stuff over oil lines to soak them up, so maybe there's some oil under there as well...

 

[Charlie G]

Thanks for posting the pictures. Glad your ok.

cg

 

[davidduarte]

Thanks for posting the pictures. Glad your ok.

cg

Thanks, I'm glad too I was lucky in many ways, and I wanted to analyze what happened, and share that with the folks in here, so we could all learn from my mistake. That patch was small, and had I even seen it going in, from that angle it would have looked smaller. I'll be going to work that way again today, so I'll be more mindful of it.

 

[Richsuz]

Glad you managed it with minor damage. I had a similar scare on a hairpin turn, but there was actually OIL on the ground. I was busy making sure the bikers in front of me were a safe distance away, since it was also a steep uphill hairpin turn, so I was not paying attention to the pavement in itself. I am also wondering, how much of a factor was the condition of your tires? I go through similar dirt patches on the ground on a regular basis, living in a third world country and all. And most of the time, after the initial scare of loosing traction, the thread catches again, outside the dirt area and am able to re establish control of the bike.

 

[davidduarte]

Glad you managed it with minor damage. I had a similar scare on a hairpin turn, but there was actually OIL on the ground. I was busy making sure the bikers in front of me were a safe distance away, since it was also a steep uphill hairpin turn, so I was not paying attention to the pavement in itself. I am also wondering, how much of a factor was the condition of your tires? I go through similar dirt patches on the ground on a regular basis, living in a third world country and all. And most of the time, after the initial scare of loosing traction, the thread catches again, outside the dirt area and am able to re establish control of the bike.

Funny you should ask, my new tires should arrive either today or tomorrow. The tires still have plenty of tread, but I've never been that crazy about their handling. Most of the riding I've done in the past few years has been commuting back and forth to work, so my rear is more worn in the middle than on the sides. I think it was just the perfect storm. I didn't look down as I entered the turn, so I didn't see the dirt/sand. I'm pretty sure I hit the patch just as I was leaned over hard and rolling the gas on to go through the turn. A month or two ago, I was making a lefthand turn to get on to the HOV lane on I-84 East in Vernon, when I hit some sand or gravel. The rear tire kicked out, but I recovered and continued up the ramp. For that turn, I wasn't leaned over that hard. When I crashed, I was leaned over pretty hard. I'm not sure if I could have kept the bike up given the conditions. Oh well, I didn't get hurt, and the bike doesn't need repair, so I'll just chalk it up to a lesson learned the hard way