Redwood Road!

First time out on Redwood, second time I've ever road through twisties, newbie rider (3 months seat time) On a group ride with 7 bikes, Trying to Rip behind the two lead riders who know the road.

Is that a recipe for disaster or what?

*slaps himself*

So I came out of a couple quick twisties and took one too fast, saw some leaves on the right. I focused on them like an idiot and said "great here I go" Slid down on my left side going about 15 mph after braking. Jumped right up and picked my bike up really fast as if I could save it from further damage or something hahhahaa.. Suuuuuure buddy! Make a long story short, We bent my left rearset back to riding capability and rode home.

Lesson learned:

Position in a group ride is very important!!!!

- DO NOT try to keep up with your buddies who have been riding for years.

-DO NOT try to get out there and measure your dick against experienced riders! especially on a road like Redwood.

-DO NOT worry if your going to fast or too slow for the people behind you.

Ride at your own pace and when you do dump your bike, Remember its not a matter of IF, Its a matter of WHEN. Learn from it and become a better rider!

Yup, what you said.
You might also ask your more experienced friends to ride behind you, so they can track your lines and body posistion and give hints . You can ask them to slow down too so you can learn what lines they pick and how they move thier weight. You can learn a lot doing that.
Just make sure you pick good role models... you dont need to learn others bad habits.

biggest error?

riding redwood....

if you had been on 9/35/84 none of this would have happened due to those roads being so friendly and cossetting to n00bs....

I've been riding for years and redwood scares me enough to stay away always....

too many tough turns, bad pavement, cops, rampaging deer, tough turns, debris, road raging bicyclists, ebola virus, tough turns, motor oil placed in the road by local residents, tough turns, damp patches in all the shady spots, blinding sunlight in the non shady spots, tough turns, wild boars that charge Japanese motorcycles, gravel, tough turns, Valentino Rossi practicing for the next GP, etc...

in short dude, if you know what best for your riding career, you'll steer well clear of the devil road that is redwood

slydrite said:

biggest error?

riding redwood....

if you had been on 9/35/84 none of this would have happened due to those roads being so friendly and cossetting to n00bs....

I've been riding for years and redwood scares me enough to stay away always....

too many tough turns, bad pavement, cops, rampaging deer, tough turns, debris, road raging bicyclists, ebola virus, tough turns, motor oil placed in the road by local residents, tough turns, damp patches in all the shady spots, blinding sunlight in the non shady spots, tough turns, wild boars that charge Japanese motorcycles, gravel, tough turns, Valentino Rossi practicing for the next GP, etc...

in short dude, if you know what best for your riding career, you'll steer well clear of the devil road that is redwood

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I agree with you completely --except that is my impression of Hwy 9, not Redwood!
Seriously, though both 9 & Redwood claim plenty of noobs (way too many, really).

CruJones33:
It sounds like "keeping up" was the main culprit and probably would've happened no matter what road you were if you were chasing more experienced riders and not riding your own pace.

It's tough to gauge what's the "right" speed to take a turn, especially if you're new. I try to remind myself that if the person ahead knows the road better than me, the "right" speed for me is "slower" than the person in front.

Glad you're okay and sounds like you learned from it without paying too high of a price.

Yeah I'm just glad I got it out of my system and over with yaknow..

We all got through to the middle spot and kicked back a for minute, Then when we took off to go back I wasn't even thinking about Position and which one I was in. I took off in the third position of seven guys, with two experienced riders in front of me and one behind me. So there I was tryin keep with dude in front of me and wondering if I'm going fast enough for dude behind me.

When I should of kept my ass back with the other beginner riders where I belong.

Just a Stupid move on my part.

I'll Never try to follow an experienced rider until I'm absolutely ready and I'll never really give a shit about how fast I'm going for the bozzo behind me.

Its not worth it.

redline said:

I agree with you completely --except that is my impression of Hwy 9, not Redwood!

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are you serious?!?!?

ever looked at map of both roads?

redwood has much tighter, smaller radius, less n00b friendly corners than 9.

in complete seriousness, man, redwood is far more techincal than 9, not to mention the far worse pavement quality and the undualting nature of redwood makes for good motocross experience....

CruJones33 said:

Yeah I'm just glad I got it out of my system and over with yaknow..

We all got through to the middle spot and kicked back a for minute, Then when we took off to go back I wasn't even thinking about Position and which one I was in. I took off in the third position of seven guys, with two experienced riders in front of me and one behind me. So there I was tryin keep with dude in front of me and wondering if I'm going fast enough for dude behind me.

When I should of kept my ass back with the other beginner riders where I belong.

Just a Stupid move on my part.

I'll Never try to follow an experienced rider until I'm absolutely ready and I'll never really give a shit about how fast I'm going for the bozzo behind me.

Its not worth it.

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Don't forget, you can pull over to the right side of the lane on the straight and wave the faster guy behind you forward. That can take a little pressure off sometimes

Glad you're ok.

slydrite said:

are you serious?!?!?

ever looked at map of both roads?

redwood has much tighter, smaller radius, less n00b friendly corners than 9.

in complete seriousness, man, redwood is far more techincal than 9, not to mention the far worse pavement quality and the undualting nature of redwood makes for good motocross experience....

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Yep, Redwood is more technical and has worse pavement. I was mostly commenting on the "too many cops..too many Rossi riders" part.

For some reason newbies seem to crash a lot on both roads. Maybe the roads are just popular. I dunno. Maybe they get swept up in the desire to chase the "fast guys" (whoever they are).

Whenever I see where a newbie actually crashed, it doesn't seem to be in the "most technical" part of the road. I think the crashes happen in the "fast" turns. It's a mystery to me.

redline said:

Whenever I see where a newbie actually crashed, it doesn't seem to be in the "most technical" part of the road. I think the crashes happen in the "fast" turns. It's a mystery to me.

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I've noticed the same thing...in the few accidents that i've seen over the past few weekends (few too many), i've noticed that they've all taken place on the higher, more open turns. Turns that you'd have to be doing 100+ to have "fun" on, so it's not worth wicking it up in. What causes people to crash there as opposed to the other places?

Z3n said:

Turns that you'd have to be doing 100+ to have "fun" on

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On Redwood?

I think it's because they look at it and figure they can be stupid and that the road will not bite 'em. It's that riding beyond thier abilities and lead wrist thing. Then too it might be that the new bikes are so much "More" than back in the day. A little lack of wrist control on the newer 600s or 1000s and you are breaking that rear tire loose. Add that to other bad habits, sloppy lines and poor positioning and you are in the ditch.

Although a series of events led up to the crash, it seems that target fixation was the single largest cause. If you had been able to tear your eyes away from the leaves, perhaps you could have managed that extra bit of lean to safely avoid them. You can garner the same lesson of not riding beyond your limits by surviving an oh shit moment. These moments can be just as educational as a crash if you recognise them for what they are and make the right choices on how to correct them. My analysis of this crash would be that you have found (albiet the hard way) that you have a problem with target fixation.
One way that I "deprogramed" myself from the instinct to track hazards can be practiced in a straight line. When cruising down boring straights, I will pick out objects/ irregularities on the pavement ie. potholes, tar snakes, pebbles etc. As soon as I spot them, I make the concious decision to direct my eyes to the nearest safe path around them. The first 40-50 times it feels incredibly unnatural, but after enough practice it becomes second nature and requires little attention to achieve. When shit starts to hit the fan, your spare attention becomes extremely limited, thus it is easiest to fall back on habits. Besides, wtf else can you do in a straight short of scanning for hazards? Worked well for me, and hopefully someone new!
Glad to hear that the damage was only superficial, and that you have a learning attitude rather than a blame passing attitude!

CruJones33 said:

On Redwood?

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No, up on 9/etc. I haven't ridden redwood yet.