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Went down on Mt Hamilton

Totally learned experience. Crashes are great for that...hence how Crash analysis subforum was birthed!
 
I used to do drills, of locking the front wheel, and riding it as far as I could, before a dab.
Dirt or pavement on my dirt bike, knobbies slide a bit quicker, lower speed.
Start with the wheel locked, a slow roll in first, make it easy to catch your balance, 15 to 20 feet, my max distance.
NOT a high speed drill. Not a Panic stop. Some of the same feel as pushing the front in deep sand.,
 
Hey Brona, does your Lightning have front and rear brake levers on the handlebars? On my electric bike the safety mechanism stops delivering power to the motor the moment either brake is activated. This has resulted in a few WTF moments where the bike ends up on its side. Granted this is a dirt bike but I'm wondering if your Lightening has the same mechanism and if it contributed to your crash.
 
Holeshot said:
Track event. There's no better braking feel practice than at speed in a controlled environment. Personally, I hate it when people use my parking lots for practice on their bikes. I don't need the hassle of a crash on my pavement. I'd bet most land owners feel similar.



Eyes up and looking through the corner as far as you can with the slower, sharper corners with low sight lines, especially. Brake application matters and which brake you focus on, matters. It's not easy to lock up a front tire, but the easiest way is to snatch the brake lever abruptly and forcefully. I also suspect some target fixation. Spot an exit out of the mess if you can. Sometimes, shit happens and the bike touches ground....glad you're in good spirits and shape.
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Track event is the best for learning and building skills, no doubt. Plus, once you've got the bike outfitted for track with proper TIRES, street riding is safer in my opinion.

On the other hand, after going down on the track, I realized just how uncontrolled the road conditions are and ended up sticking to the track days. I can't control when rocks, wet leaves, and deer step onto the road in front of me; those things are relatively well contained at track days.
 
Amen Dottie. Track has made street rides not as fun as they used to be, but then again...when I got my HD Lowrider ST and fitted it up, I've had some really fun rides.
 
My .02 is that dirt is better than track in all respects -- a larger range of dynamics, conditions, and techniques for building skills, and better logistics and cost. I don't regret roadracing in the dark ages, but with experience I realized I would have been better off putting in the effort toward off-pavement motorsports. And similarly in the car world, rally > track. Tracking is almost pointless / boring when you can be sideways busting pendulums. I've also noticed that when experienced track people come to learn rally, they're treated as intermediate students -- i.e. better than a rando off the street, but not by a whole lot.

My semi-rural location is conducive to "mixed media" riding.. romping on and off pavement with no traffic and no cops in one loop that starts almost at the front door. Dealing with constantly variable traction is what made me a better street rider, and dirt-inspired technique permeates all my street riding, Harleys included. The track didn't do much for me beyond sharpening trail braking skills (when you needed feel and not the latest six-axis IMU).

So to any street-only rider, I would say.. go dirt, because you're missing a whole world of awesomeness, and go light because 600 lbs (I am looking at you, my two GSs) sucks. To any newer street rider, I would say.. a day of hard play on a dirtbike will teach you more than a year of track days, and the stuff you learn will be vastly more applicable to real roads with the sand, leaves, paint, oil, grates, potholes, ruts, etc.

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zanshin said:
My .02 is that dirt is better than track in all respects -- a larger range of dynamics, conditions, and techniques for building skills, and better logistics and cost. ....
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Exactly right. Everything that happens on a MotoGP track at 100mph can be replicated and practiced on a dirt bike at 19mph.
 
Glad you're okay! I recommend to practice trail braking, and drag your front brake in the turn, until you're happy with your direction and speed (it less likely you'd grab front brake, because you're already on brakes, and even if you grab - threshold of locking the wheel will be higher). Mt Hamilton and all narrow roads (single lane mines road, etc.) on right handers almost hug inside of the turn (I know making turn in later gives you better visibility, but on narrow roads you don't have room and time to adjust properly). It will force you to take such turn slower, but I think it's a good thing for a public, narrow road.

Go over YCRS online course, they cover a lot of things that will save you more than once.
 
Because of all the blind turns and oncoming traffic, I would keep my head close to the centerline of the bike. Else, shifting your head inside negatively affects your line of sight when rounding the bend.
 
Imo Mt Ham and Mines roads are not just rides, they are an experience.
The FULL experience consists of:
Contact/ close call with a deer

Water crossing

Sight/smell of a dead animal

Gravel at the apex of a decreasing radius corner

1 ton truck with a horse trailer halfway into your lane opposite direction on a hairpin corner

Exiting a corner only to find something blocking the entire road

Sadly I had to remove "enjoying a really good hamburger" from the list :(

Glad you are ok Elfin :ride
 
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