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Man down, what a mess

windypoint

New member
Well today was a great day for a ride in Tucson so I went riding with a buddy and he invited a friend on a Harley. I could tell the guy was not a strong rider but there was no pressure to keep up and we went through a series of twisties. One corner was a bit of a surprise but I passed through and checked for my buddy on his 1100GS. He was right there but no Harley. We both turned around to find him sprawled on the gound with the bike upside down. After calling 911 and having him taken to the hospital, we arranged to tow his bike to the dealer where it was declared a total loss. We then went to the hospital to check on him and found he has a broken leg, shoulder, cracked ribs and a bleeeding spleen as well as a concussion. I don't think he could have been going more than 25 in this curve, but I am amazed at the extent of his injuries. He is 67 and I am not far behind. Am I getting to brittle for this s..t? I feel bad about this whole day. In hindsight, maybe I should have babysitted more. He was more confident than I was about his riding. He is now looking at several weeks of recovery. Damn
 
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Very sad. Sometimes it's good to put the slowest rider in front, but that doesn't always work either. It took me a couple weeks to recover from a dislocated little finger, at 67 that guy is going to be hurting for a while.
 
Sad to hear he is messed up and his bike totalled. But more than likely he screwed up in the turn you said "was a bit of a surprise". Turns, and single bike crashes account for 40% of motorcycle crashes, and of those I'd say a very high percentage are caused solely by the rider's mistakes, lack of training, and lack of ability. I have seen it way too many times.

So many riders just figure their so-so skills are ok (or worse, they feel their skill level is ok if nothing ever happens). Its sad when the laws of natural selection bite the weaker rider.
 
A returning rider

A sad story but a real eye opener.
Decades ago I dropped my CB350 riding in the mountains in Japan. I had no experience on gravel and did everything wrong. Hurt feelings, paint and turn signals. I was lucky.. I am now much older and wiser.
As a returning rider, I found somewhere on this forum a reference to "Proficient Motorcycling" by David Hough. I downloaded it to my Kindle and am so glad I did. It was an eye opener on how much I had forgotten and did not know.
I have ordered a hard copy for my brother-in-law and nephew who just purchased HD's and they have no experience at all. My wife is worried to death about them but they are adults.
I hope the book helps them. They are good people.
 
Sad story. Hope his recovery is quick and uncomplicated.
Everyone has different riding abilities, so what I do when leading a group is find the newest or slowest rider and put them in position number two with me being position number one. I lead the ride but they set the pace. I realize this is upsetting to some in the group but I tell them there are plenty of roads out there so if you donÔÇÖt like it take off. I had a woman (new rider) tell me that I was the best ride leader she had ridden with so far. She really enjoyed the ride and was very comfortable riding with me. Little did she know that she was actually leading the ride I was just picking the roads. Now I do not baby them. I will run at different speeds and see where they are comfortable. Then I test them every now and then to see if they are still comfortable. Of course I have the added advantage of having been a MSF instructor so I know what to look for with new riders. I actually hate group rides but every now and then I give in and become one of the pack. I feel that motorcycle riding is a solo event and I can get so low that I barley have any chicken strips on my RT. This is my kind of riding, not leading a parade though the country. This is the way I do it and it works for me and those that choose to follow me. I have never lost a rider in any rides I have been the lead bike.
 
Thanks for the input folks. My first reaction for the future is to restrict my rides to people I know and ride with them. The fellow that was hurt was not going above the speed limit, just his ability. Here is the corner. The surprise was that the next corner is sharper and the road has negative camber. Here is a link of the corner.

https://maps.google.com/maps/myplac...121248&spn=0.003513,0.005987&ctz=420&t=h&z=18

We were heading East.

I will visit him later today.
 
Did he go down still in the roadway, or off the road to the south? or north?

Not turning enough is a common "off the outside of the curve" cause.

Dragging hard parts can cause an instant reaction and a high side in the road.

That is why I am curious as to where he went down.
 
I too am in the "late 60's" bunch of riders that have been on bikes for almost 50 years and now thinking that it is time to give them up. A friend that is also my age just sold his last bike. He rode it only 400 miles the past year.

I think most of us can tell you stories of close calls, or not so close calls where we were hurt. I know I can, and maybe it is time to pick a safer hobby. Not an easy decision to make, I know because I am going through the process myself.

Hope your friend is better soon.

Wayne
 
Thanks for the input folks. My first reaction for the future is to restrict my rides to people I know and ride with them. The fellow that was hurt was not going above the speed limit, just his ability. Here is the corner. The surprise was that the next corner is sharper and the road has negative camber. Here is a link of the corner.

https://maps.google.com/maps/myplac...121248&spn=0.003513,0.005987&ctz=420&t=h&z=18

We were heading East.

I will visit him later today.

I've ridden that road... it is not bad at all, so don't feel like you were at fault for not choosing a better route. As you said, and as many people now do, you may only want to ride with people with verified riding skills. Best wishes to him in any case.
 
.............. I feel bad about this whole day. In hindsight, maybe I should have babysitted more. He was more confident than I was about his riding. He is now looking at several weeks of recovery. Damn

Sorry to hear, but you should not feel bad, he was riding the bike not you. On the rare occasion I am riding with someone I question their skills, I make it clear that they are to ride their own ride, and assure them I will always wait (usually in the straights), but I am going to run my pace in the corners, that is why I ride.

I have worked with several one on one, but will not in a group. I have also had people crash behind me, two of them I didn't even know, but passed them and they felt the need to try and keep up. I have also parked on the side of the road and waited, when I caught another and they felt the need to stay ahead, and were riding out of control and didn't want a front row seat to the carnage.

Bottom line the person riding their bike is the only one responsible.
 
Did he go down still in the roadway, or off the road to the south? or north?

Not turning enough is a common "off the outside of the curve" cause.

Dragging hard parts can cause an instant reaction and a high side in the road.

That is why I am curious as to where he went down.

He went off the road at the first turn onto the right gravel where he lost it. My guess is he partially made the first turn and then saw the next turn and mentally froze up. His front tire hit the gravel and that was it. He ended up on the right gravel side before the sharper turn.
 
I'm sorry to read this.

I usually question rider training in these instances. Did he take any formal rider training or did he just buy and ride?
 
Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood), "A man's got to know his limitations"

Yep, when doing twisties, I ride my ride...sometinmes I'm the fastest and sometimes not. I have led hundreds of rides (BMW's) so I no all about hearding cats. With that said I hope you friend recovers soon and if he continues to ride get him into a MSF class.
 
I too am suffering from advanced "old fart" syndrome. On a vacation trip from Oregon to Farmington New Mexico two up with luggage I dropped the bike twice because I'm only 5'8" and about 165 lbs. Not enough upper body strength to hold it once it started going over. Self, I said to myself get a lower bike like one of those harleys. So I bought a HD Electra Glide loaded and rode it, once. I live on a mountain and have a "driveway" that is over half a mile long and gravel going downhill losing about 900 feet of elevation from house to highway. Harley was a bit unstable going down and I couldn't quite reach the foot brake so gently applied the front brake and the front wheel washed out immediately. I got off the brake and wrestled the bike back under control and proceeded to ride it into town and back home. I never rode that bike again. I sold it "finally" and got most of my money back and have since lowered the foot pegs and seat on my RT and find it much more comfortable and by NEVER using the front brake while the wheel is turned any way but straight ahead haven't dropped it yet. We did hit an antelope in the Nevada desert and "rode through" the experience with about $3000 in damage to the RT and felt very lucky that we stayed up and under control.
 
Nothing makes me more nervous than to have a stranger ask to join us for a ride. Usually I am ungracious and simply say we (Voni and I) like to ride alone. But here in the Big Bend we get lots of visitors or drop-bys who often would like to go riding. Riding in the National Park where the speed limits are low doesn't worry me too much, but when they want to go ride the River Road (FM170) from Terlingua to Presidio my alarm bells go off loudly. That is a twisty, sometimes sandy, technical road that folks come from all over to ride. It bites a lot of riders.

There are a handful of folks, good friends, that we welcome to ride with us because we know they are skilled and are unlikely to get stupid. But there are not very many such folks. Particularly leaving rallies, we often just decline to ride with others.
 
He went off the road at the first turn onto the right gravel where he lost it. My guess is he partially made the first turn and then saw the next turn and mentally froze up. His front tire hit the gravel and that was it. He ended up on the right gravel side before the sharper turn.

I'd suspect target fixation. He came out of one corner, saw the next one and panic set in - causing him to fixate on where he didn't want to go (the gravel.) Sure as the sun comes up every morning, that will result in you ending up right where you locked on. This can happen to most anyone given the right circumstances. I learned it early when dirt bike riding, if I looked between the two trees (too close to fit the bars through by a few inches) at where I really wanted to go (down the trail) somehow, magically, I'd end up where I wanted to go (finally figured out how to do that with a hip wiggle and a bar wiggle side to side.. and keep going straight.) If I looked at either of the trees, I headed right to it.

Look where you WANT to go. Primary rule of motorbiking IMHO.

BTW - On that sort of ride. where I'm unsure of a rider, I first announce that they not try to keep up, that I'll wait for them. And then I put the slower rider in the middle of the group, usually next to last.. and have someone I trust as tail rider who won't run over them. This gives them some confidence they won't be left behind if the bike ahead of them starts pulling away, and that means they are more likely to ride their own ride. Leading group rides is pretty much an art.. learned by doing it a bunch. I end up for some reason doing a lot of it, so far haven't lost anyone on a ride or had to call the ambulance.
 
I too am in the "late 60's" bunch of riders that have been on bikes for almost 50 years and now thinking that it is time to give them up.

Saw an article or thread somewhere about the increasing popularity of trikes for exactly that reason
 
Nothing makes me more nervous than to have a stranger ask to join us for a ride. Usually I am ungracious and simply say we (Voni and I) like to ride alone. .

Same with me and Debbie. We've had plenty of times when someone askes to ride with us and most of the time I tell them we prefer to ride alone. Sometimes people are put off by this and I feel bad, but that's the way it is.
I know how Debbie rides and I feel safer just riding with her, plus we find it's more fun to ride with just two bikes.
 
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