Gas Pumper
Tue Jan 21st, 2014, 10:23 AM
Met the pavement on my way to work last Friday.
The scene: Was heading down Iliff towards 225 in the right-hand lane. For anyone unfamiliar with the area, they have closed some lanes while building the new elevated light rail line. Needless to say, people (read: douchebags) race in the left hand lanes (that eventually close) to get past as many cars as possible. One of these fellow humans in a 1/2 ton pickup decided to do just that, and jerked his truck into my lane about a half of a car length in front of me, then slam on the brakes due to a car turning right at Blackhawk.
Option 1: Accident avoidance; Can't do right, theres a sidewalk. Can't go left, there is a car in the lane next to me. Option hosed.
Option 2: Eat this guys tailgate. I wasn't very hungry. Option hosed.
Option 3: "Grab" everything. Winner! (fail)
I "grabbed " everything. By "grab" I mean front and rear brakes, while downshifting. Next thing I know, I'm rolling down Iliff...
I stand-up, survey myself real quick (thanking God I ride ATGATT... well, mostly), then pick up the bike, throw broken off pieces of the fairings, turn signal, etc off the road and onto the sidewalk, and proceed to push my bike to the intersection to get out of the road. Did a quick damage assessment of the bike, phoned the wife to bring things to pry with. Breathe.
While I was waiting, I thought about what I did wrong. I "grabbed" the front too hard, too fast? I answered that as plausible, but unlikely. I've grabbed the front plenty harder to see what the limits were... I've always easy-on/easy-off, even in panic-y situations before.
Fast forward a couple of days, and I return to the scene (found the gouges in the pavement). There was crap everywhere, but it was mostly sand and dirt. I think I went went down with too much front brake for the loss in traction. Or, I just simply grabbed too much front brake, period. Don't know, but I'm almost certain if I didn't go down, I was going to get a nice Chevrolet breakfast.
Damage? Front, left-side main and rear fairings busted, bent handlebar, broken-ish clutch lever, mangled shift-linkage, missing front left turn signal, bruised mirror and foot pegs, leather jacket scuffed (leather is awesome, btw), couple marks on the Shoei, and a sore leg, hip, wrist and shoulder. Not a mark on me.
Truck took off (don't even know if they realized what happened), first 4 cars behind me went around, then finally someone asked if I was OK.
Lessons? Increase my bubble. Could this have been prevented if I gave myself a little more room between myself and traffic? Maybe... worth the change regardless. Also, people are asshats. The driver for wanting to save a whole 20 seconds of traffic to the people who just went around a downed rider.
Anyways, that's the tale of Gas Pumper this past week (not to mention the bike falling over due to wind, and of course it was on the other side of the bike). Any of this happen to any one of you?
The scene: Was heading down Iliff towards 225 in the right-hand lane. For anyone unfamiliar with the area, they have closed some lanes while building the new elevated light rail line. Needless to say, people (read: douchebags) race in the left hand lanes (that eventually close) to get past as many cars as possible. One of these fellow humans in a 1/2 ton pickup decided to do just that, and jerked his truck into my lane about a half of a car length in front of me, then slam on the brakes due to a car turning right at Blackhawk.
Option 1: Accident avoidance; Can't do right, theres a sidewalk. Can't go left, there is a car in the lane next to me. Option hosed.
Option 2: Eat this guys tailgate. I wasn't very hungry. Option hosed.
Option 3: "Grab" everything. Winner! (fail)
I "grabbed " everything. By "grab" I mean front and rear brakes, while downshifting. Next thing I know, I'm rolling down Iliff...
I stand-up, survey myself real quick (thanking God I ride ATGATT... well, mostly), then pick up the bike, throw broken off pieces of the fairings, turn signal, etc off the road and onto the sidewalk, and proceed to push my bike to the intersection to get out of the road. Did a quick damage assessment of the bike, phoned the wife to bring things to pry with. Breathe.
While I was waiting, I thought about what I did wrong. I "grabbed" the front too hard, too fast? I answered that as plausible, but unlikely. I've grabbed the front plenty harder to see what the limits were... I've always easy-on/easy-off, even in panic-y situations before.
Fast forward a couple of days, and I return to the scene (found the gouges in the pavement). There was crap everywhere, but it was mostly sand and dirt. I think I went went down with too much front brake for the loss in traction. Or, I just simply grabbed too much front brake, period. Don't know, but I'm almost certain if I didn't go down, I was going to get a nice Chevrolet breakfast.
Damage? Front, left-side main and rear fairings busted, bent handlebar, broken-ish clutch lever, mangled shift-linkage, missing front left turn signal, bruised mirror and foot pegs, leather jacket scuffed (leather is awesome, btw), couple marks on the Shoei, and a sore leg, hip, wrist and shoulder. Not a mark on me.
Truck took off (don't even know if they realized what happened), first 4 cars behind me went around, then finally someone asked if I was OK.
Lessons? Increase my bubble. Could this have been prevented if I gave myself a little more room between myself and traffic? Maybe... worth the change regardless. Also, people are asshats. The driver for wanting to save a whole 20 seconds of traffic to the people who just went around a downed rider.
Anyways, that's the tale of Gas Pumper this past week (not to mention the bike falling over due to wind, and of course it was on the other side of the bike). Any of this happen to any one of you?