First crash, low speed lowside

[wiseblood]

This is a report of a crash from about three months ago. For your reading pleasure.

It was about 5 pm on a Friday, coming home from work. (I’m in New York City. My commute is from Manhattan to Queens via the Long Island Expressway.) At the time I had my license about a month (passed the MSF course in July) and have been riding to work for about two weeks.

It was POURING rain. Traffic on the LIE was at a standstill. I was wearing a helmet (of course), gloves, jeans, and an FG jacket. I was completely soaked, and my windscreen was fogged up from the steam coming off my radiator. And I was pissed at the situation. Being a completely n00b, I was a little reluctant to start lane sharing in these circumstance. Then, I saw another rider cruise by a couple lanes over, and he gave me a big “waddaya waiting for?!” wave. So, I pulled out and started making my way through traffic.

After about 100 feet, I spotted a cop car three cars ahead. Panic. Grabbed the front breaks. I was surprised how fast I hit the ground!! Surreal. Fortunately, traffic was already at a standstill, and I was only going about 7 mph.

The guy in front of me was kind enough to hop right out of his car and help me right the bike. The extent of my injuries were a sore/bruised knee, bruised hip, and a tiny scratch on my right forearm (with a correspoding hole in my jacket). (BTW, the knee is sometimes still a little sore, three months later – and that scratch is a scar now.) The bike, amazingly, was unscathed. I had R&G sliders which caught the drop. A couple days later I notice my rear break pedal is slightly bent in, and I have a tiny scratch on the passenger peg. The fairings were untouched, as were the mirrors, signals, levers, etc.

Mistakes leading to crash:

1. Grabbed front break too fast/too much. Front wheel locked and tucked, due to the slick road. If I needed to emergency stop, I should have been more smooth about it, waiting for the weight to shift forward. (Of course, I shouldn’t have been in a situation requiring me to emergency stop!)

2. Riding beyond my abilities. I should not have started sharing lanes in those conditions, especially given my lack of experience.

3. I should never have taken the bike to work that day! I saw the weather report, and I knew there was a 50% chance of rain.

Comments? Suggestions? Observations?

 

[new2bike]

you were lucky that it was a raining day. what if it wasn't and you were doing 70mph? So far you've not seen the root cause of your problem
1st you were too hard on the front break while the bike was not straight
2nd why cops? is it illigal to do lane splitting in NJ or what? not in CA
3rd crashed on street after 2 weeks of doing MSF? come on, after taking the MSF, you need to rider in a parking lot to practice what you heard and saw at the MSF. before you take your bike out of that parking lot, be honest and ask yourself that if you could stop the bike at 50mph safely or not. and right/left U-turns 20feet wide. and many of other techniques all bikers needs on any streets. and I don't think you could be able to master all of those within 2 weeks (20hrs of riding max). After the parking lot, you need to ride around your neighborhood, then local on weekends (no traffic). Then after about 4000 miles of riding then biking to work.
If you had to fall then take the risks in a parking lot, cause you always have chances to correct you correct your mistakes in a parking lot, but not all the time on highways (and not less than 80mph for bikes in CA, cause in carpool lanes, bikes must be fast or be cut off)
Practice well and Ride safe

P.S. English is not my 1st language, but bike was my 1st transportation. Not that I loved riding but I couldn't afford to have a cage. And it'd be the same if I were still in Saigon, VN.

 

[JeffKoch]

Mistakes leading to crash:

1. Grabbed front break too fast/too much. Front wheel locked and tucked, due to the slick road. If I needed to emergency stop, I should have been more smooth about it, waiting for the weight to shift forward. (Of course, I shouldn’t have been in a situation requiring me to emergency stop!)

2. Riding beyond my abilities. I should not have started sharing lanes in those conditions, especially given my lack of experience.

3. I should never have taken the bike to work that day! I saw the weather report, and I knew there was a 50% chance of rain.

I think this kinda sums it up. Riding through heavy traffic in pouring rain is treacherous even for very experienced riders, if you have a car then in hindsight it would have been much better to drive rather than ride. You're totally invisible, and no one expects to see a motorcycle in these conditions - so you're much more likely to get into trouble, and the very limited traction means you don't have much margin to stop quickly or swerve. If you have to go out in heavy rain, give yourself lots of room to maneuver and plan on using a lot more rear brake than you're used to - if you lock up the rear, it's easy to back off and regain traction, whereas locking up the front often means an instant crash before you have the opportunity to react.

 

[masameet]

When riding in traffic you have to ride defensively, have your fingers over the front brake lever, anticipate braking by watching the flow of traffic and noticing which vehicles might not be going with the flow, and when necessary gently squeeze that front brake lever. When it's raining, it's better to slow down enough so you can easily brake to a complete stop without hitting the pavement. Also try not to take your cue on how fast to ride from another rider: Ride your ride.

Sounds like you could use some emergency braking practice. An empty parking lot is a good place to start. Practice braking on wet roads and dry roads. Practice using the brakes separately -- first both brakes, then just the front, and finally only the rear -- all at different speeds. See how the bike responds. See how you act. As you raise your speed progressively before braking, scoot your butt as far back on the seat as possible. This will help to maintain weight over the rear tire and lessen weight transference to the front end. Also having tires with good tread sipes will help the bike maintain traction.

 

[wiseblood]

2nd why cops? is it illigal to do lane splitting in NJ or what? not in CA

FYI: Lane sharing is not legal in NY.

 

[wiseblood]

Also try not to take your cue on how fast to ride from another rider: Ride your ride.

Yeah, that was certainly the failure here. (One of many.)

 

[wiseblood]

I think this kinda sums it up. Riding through heavy traffic in pouring rain is treacherous even for very experienced riders, if you have a car then in hindsight it would have been much better to drive rather than ride.

Oh, practical, YES! But fun? Did I mention that there is easy mass transit from my house to work?

If you have to go out in heavy rain, give yourself lots of room to maneuver and plan on using a lot more rear brake than you're used to - if you lock up the rear, it's easy to back off and regain traction, whereas locking up the front often means an instant crash before you have the opportunity to react.

Granted, we're talking about low speed, low throttle. But, isn't the common advice that if the rear starts sliding while breaking, STAY ON the break to avoid a high-side?

Jesse

 

[insider]

FYI: Lane sharing is not legal in NY.

Yes, that's is a "excessive lane change" ticket.

Yeah, maybe a bit too new of a rider to be dealing with extreme weather conditions. I rode through 3 NY winters because I was poor… There are conditions you haven’t even thought of.

Bridges freezes on over passes. Any wet spots on the ground can be potential ice. (I’ve had my bike slipping out from under me while waiting at a red light.)

It’s very hard to learn any of these lessons from a course or from another rider, sometimes you just have to be lucky and react just the right way…

I would suggest take mass transit until you are a more experienced rider during normal conditions.

 

[JeffKoch]

Granted, we're talking about low speed, low throttle. But, isn't the common advice that if the rear starts sliding while breaking, STAY ON the break to avoid a high-side?

That's more for cruiser riders who lock up the rear in turns (and even then I personally think it's bad advice, unless you have very slow reactions and can't react until the rear is already hung way out, which generally takes a long time) - if you're straight up and down at low speed then you want to let off the brake, and then modulate to brake at the threshold of traction. You'd want to do the same with the front, problem is that you can tuck the front very quickly, before you have a chance to react. Locking the rear won't cause an instant crash like locking the front often does.

 

[GIXXER_777]

FYI: Lane sharing is not legal in NY.

+1

Glad you are fine. I don't think I would ride in N.Y. unless it's upstate. Does the LIE still have those thick painted lines? Always be careful of any painted surfaces in the rain.