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As I rode home last night after the group ride up to Rt. 17, I had time to think about the “incident” that happened…
For those of you that don’t know, I took a bit of a slider on the back side of 17 coming around a left hand turn and ended up in the woods. As I was coming into the turn, it looked like a nice left sweeper, and I was coming in comfortably. As I got into it, I realized that it was a bit more of a hair pin than I was prepared for. I got too far to the outside and got caught in the sand on the shoulder. After that, I was pulled into the woods…
While thinking about it on the ride home, I was trying to figure out what I learned from this…
Below are a few things I knew and was reminded of yesterday, and a few things I learned. Most of which won’t be anything new to many of the experienced riders here, but I thought some members might benefit from ‘em
1: Gear Up – Prepare for the crash, Not the ride… Sliding through some gravel and sand, then having my head bounce off the log that stopped my bike made me EXTREMELY thankful I was properly geared. Thanks to proper gear, I stood right up, NO road rash, NO cuts… Nothing but a small bloody lip.
2: Know the unique handling characteristics of your bike BEFORE you attempt to ride it hard. Having spent the last 5 years on a Yamaha V-Max, the K1200R is completely different machine. Although I didn’t think I was being too wild on the bike, I realized afterwards that I haven’t had the bike long enough to REALLY get to know any little handling quirks… (3 months now…)
3: If you’ve Never ridden a particular rode before, take it easy the first time. Especially one that is renowned for having awesome twisties. The last 5 years on the V-max were spent going “Straight and Fast”, not riding twisties... I should have gone down much slower and easier on my first attempt and learned the road. – Nikon actually warned us about this at the bottom of 17 before we headed up. I did heed his warning on the way up, unfortunately, not on the way down… Thanks for the warning Nikon, had that bit of information not been in my head prior to hitting 17, my “incident” could have been much worse!
4: This was probably my biggest mistake. I realized afterwards, that as soon as I knew the corner was sharper than I had expected, I made an almost fatal mistake. I let my eyes drift to where I WAS going in lieu of where I WANTED to go… I know better
As I write this, I’m thinking I’m seriously going to see if I can get in a day on the track… I don’t know if there are any open slots, but I’m going to look. Possibly with more practice on the K I could have avoided this… Who knows, but hey additional training and practice are never going to hurt anyone!
Ride Safe all…