Intersection slideout

[KennyMonster]

I had my first spill on the street today after sliding out my sv650s and low siding in deep gravel that was covering the street in front of the intersection nearest my house. As I approached the intersection I was cruising around 25-30 mph thinking I was going to make the light and turn left. The light turned yellow, and because my housemate was following I made a split-second decision to stop and wait to not lose him at the light. Because I was paying too much attention to the traffic in the intersection and the light I failed to notice the terrible road conditions in front of me. By the time I realized what I was on, I was sliding and on my way down.

The street (http://liquefied.net/bikedown/Bike%20down%20003.jpg)

Thankfully I am in pretty good condition. My only injuries are a bruised thigh and a sprained foot from my bike landing on top of it. Right after it happened, it felt like someone had kicked my foot as hard as they could.

My foot with two lumps instead of one (http://liquefied.net/bikedown/Bike%20down%20010.jpg)

This injury probably could've been avoided if I had proper boots on like the Oxtar Tcs Evo Ti boots that I ordered last week and are still in the mail.

http://liquefied.net/bikedown/oxtar.jpg

Instead I had these on which I originally bought when I took the MSF class:

My poor excuse for a boot (http://liquefied.net/bikedown/Bike%20down%20014.jpg)

Notice that there is no abrasion damage. The injury was sustained entirely from the weight of the bike coming down my foot.

All my other gear was untouched except for my Joe Rocket Sonic left-hand glove:

Glove top (http://liquefied.net/bikedown/Bike%20down%20011.jpg)
Glove bottom (http://liquefied.net/bikedown/Bike%20down%20012.jpg)

The leather is a little frayed put my hand came out with no injury, not even a bruise. I'm still debating whether I should replace the glove or not.

My bike came out a bit worse than I did. I'm kind of disturbed how much metal snapped off of my bike for such a low-speed fall.

Broken off parts (http://liquefied.net/bikedown/Bike%20down%20008.jpg)
Ferring (http://liquefied.net/bikedown/Bike%20down%20018.jpg)
Slider and pedal (http://liquefied.net/bikedown/Bike%20down%20019.jpg)
Snapped pedal (http://liquefied.net/bikedown/Bike%20down%20025.jpg)

I expected the bike to come out much better considering I put frame sliders on it not too long ago. I was kind of annoyed until I realized the slider probably helped save my foot a bit.

Lessons learned:
- Wait for the friggen boots to come in the mail.
- The street you are so intimately familiar with really can change overnight.
- Ice on swollen bits is your friend.

Hope all of your Sundays were less crappy riding than mine.

[bmer97]

Thanks for great report/photos of unfortunate incident.

Ice is your friend/advil too!

[USARMworker]

Nice post. Very informative.

My only comment would be that you could have proceeded through the intersection and then pulled over to wait for your friend.

Those gloves are fine. Hope you feel better soon.

[redline]

That's too bad you crashed. Gravel/sand/salt is the enemy. Good example of what things can go wrong on a typical day of riding.

After the ice, the rest of your swelling can go down and movement restored by using one of the eucalyptus patches from Salonpas or the other brands. You can get them at Longs/RiteAid/wherever. You have to leave them on for a long time.

http://www.painreliever.com/salonpas.html

Hope you heal up quick.

http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/images/threads/000/205/313/3175321-salonpas.jpg

[Mad Gnome]

No me Gusta gravel.
That aircraft aluminum will tend to snap rather than bend. Get your replacement parts used and the fairing can most likely be patched and repainted. Good luck and glad you are OK, other than the self inflicted bruises from kicking yourself for all of the "could've dones" and general embaressment (SP?). Take care.
:Popcorn

[adidas]

heal up quick, glad it caused only 2 minor bumps on your foot. and the oxtars you ordered are good. were you wearing jeans? if not, this might also be a good time to invest in some riding pants.

do you remember which tire you locked up? i don't know how much riding experience you have but it may also be a good idea to start practicing emergency braking in a parking lot. e.g. set a marker, and when you come up to that marker at 25 (or 35mph or faster) hit the brakes. do it repeatedly and eventually you will start feeling more comfortable. if you practice enough, you may even start to get a feel for what it feels like to lock up the rear. this will give you more confidence in situations like this and maybe even keep you from falling.

[Mad Gnome]

"do you remember which tire you locked up? i don't know how much riding experience you have but it may also be a good idea to start practicing emergency braking in a parking lot. e.g. set a marker, and when you come up to that marker at 25 (or 35mph or faster) hit the brakes. do it repeatedly and eventually you will start feeling more comfortable. if you practice enough, you may even start to get a feel for what it feels like to lock up the rear. this will give you more confidence in situations like this"

:nerd
Hmm,
on a street bike: I've always found it difficult to do anything on sand, gravel or ice other than go straight and make no sudden moves until you are past the spot. You can accelerate and spin out the rear a bit, but even that is tricky. Stopping on these materials is like dancing on a floor full of marbles- possible but tricky. Emergency stop on that and you are going street sailing.
Please correct if I'm wrong .
+1 on the gear advise tho...

[adidas]

Originally posted by Mad Gnome

:nerd
Hmm,
on a street bike: I've always found it difficult to do anything on sand, gravel or ice other than go straight and make no sudden moves until you are past the spot. You can accelerate and spin out the rear a bit, but even that is tricky. Stopping on these materials is like dancing on a floor full of marbles- possible but tricky. Emergency stop on that and you are going street sailing.
Please correct if I'm wrong .
+1 on the gear advise tho...

right, i agree that the best course of action when you encounter gravel is no action at all. but when you HAVE to brake on gravel, emergency braking training can come in handy, not in terms of being able to grab a lot of brake quickly during emergency. but rather in terms of being able to

1. judge how much to grab before locking up any tires
2. and then not panicking once the tire is locked up (panicking = sudden body movements, sudden rider inputs, or releasing the brakes all of a sudden etc.).

you are absolutely right tho, depending on the amount of gravel spread out on the road, stopping can be like "dancing on a floor full of marbles."

i'd still like to know which tire locked up. :nerd

[KennyMonster]

Thanks for all the replies.

As an update, my foot is mostly healed. The heel is still a little sore either because of a deep bruise or a very minor fracture. Either way I'm sure it will be fine in another week or two. I also got my bike mostly fixed up at this point. The pedal assembly has been completely repaired along with the two turn signals. The fairing was also repaired but it is unpainted so it looks like crap. Unfortunately I also broke a fork seal on my left fork. Being that I don't have the tools and know-how to fix it myself I am going to have to bring it in.

Originally posted by adidas
were you wearing jeans? if not, this might also be a good time to invest in some riding pants.

I was wearing nylon riding pants and knee pads at the time along with my textile jacket. The only thing they did on this crash though was get dusty.

Originally posted by adidas
i don't know how much riding experience you have but it may also be a good idea to start practicing emergency braking in a parking lot. e.g. set a marker, and when you come up to that marker at 25 (or 35mph or faster) hit the brakes. do it repeatedly and eventually you will start feeling more comfortable. if you practice enough, you may even start to get a feel for what it feels like to lock up the rear. this will give you more confidence in situations like this and maybe even keep you from falling.

I actually did practice emergency stopping a parking lot when I first started riding. I even practice on wet asphalt. In retrospect I wouldn't recommend doing the wet asphalt stops as I dropped my friends Ninja 500 as a result. It's been a while since I've practiced and I should really go again.

Originally posted by adidas
i'd still like to know which tire locked up

I lockup the front wheel. I know this because at the time I was not using the rear brake. I've sort of been experimenting recently with only using the front brake as I have a bad habit of locking up the rear even when not emergency braking. I know it will increase by stopping distance but I'm trying to figure out if that's a good trade-off for an increased chance of not locking the rear and high siding.

Originally posted by Mad Gnome
Stopping on these materials is like dancing on a floor full of marbles- possible but tricky.

With the speed I was going in the amount of gravel that was on the road, I'm pretty sure the only way I could have prevented going down was to roll through the gravel and either stop in the intersection or just execute a left turn. If I had seen the gravel road I would have just turned.

All in all I'm probably going to try to get back into the habit of using the rear brake when I go practice emergency braking again.

[USARMworker]

Originally posted by KennyMonster
All in all I'm probably going to try to get back into the habit of using the rear brake when I go practice emergency braking again.

Good call. :thumbup

[Climber]

Originally posted by KennyMonster
My foot with two lumps instead of one (http://liquefied.net/bikedown/Bike%20down%20010.jpg)
What's wrong with that? That's what my foot looks like normally (I have a weird extra bundle of muscle there that allowed me to hang from a bar with the tops of my feet the first time I ever tried it)! :laughing

[KennyMonster]

Originally posted by Climber
What's wrong with that? That's what my foot looks like normally (I have a weird extra bundle of muscle there that allowed me to hang from a bar with the tops of my feet the first time I ever tried it)! :laughing

I actually have muscle there too... the lump was just twice the size as normal. Also my heel was nice and swollen which I didn't notice until later that night...

[Climber]

One thing to watch out for with foot injuries is that you will be walking different and that will put extra stress on your knees which were designed to be used in a particular manner.

Did you see a doctor about your foot? There are many small bones in the foot and that kind of weight on them could fracture one or more of them though in many cases there isn't much you can do for them besides just waiting for them to heal.

[KennyMonster]

Originally posted by Climber
Did you see a doctor about your foot? There are many small bones in the foot and that kind of weight on them could fracture one or more of them though in many cases there isn't much you can do for them besides just waiting for them to heal.

I haven't... I kinda figured they would just tell me to ice it and stay off of it.

[Mad Gnome]

The tricky part of using brakes on a slippery surface is that it's tough to know when you are locked up. The speed and feel is close to normal braking then you get traction and you find out really quickly that the wheel is stopped, with the rotors locked. Bad way to do a "stoppie".
Also when in a slide, your weight distribution becomes critical and can make the difference between riding out the slide and getting thrown (high sides= no fun)
:blah
I too ride it through and aim for the escape route , if there is one, rather than trying to stop quickly.
Take care o' yourself!:Port

[belltold12]

damn that's one dirty road. You should take a broom and sweep it up, then send CalTrans documentation of the time you spent doing so, and ask for a reciept so you can deduct it from your taxes lol. Seriously, whatever happened to those streetsweeper trucks? This thread made me realize I haven't seen one of those in a long ass time.