Motorcycle Crash : (
alright, i'm switchin the topic back to motorcycles. The other day a kid from school asked me if i wanted to go riding. He just bought a brand spankin new 600cc gixxer. (That's my dream bike for the record). Anyways, it's like 9:30 at night, and we go for a quick ride down a winding road. We've never been on the road before, but we're still going pretty fast anyways. He was in front of me setting the pace. Maybe this is where i should mention an important piece of information. He has almost no riding experience! He's a nice kid and all, but he didn't even have his license or insurance. Anyways, we took a hairpin turn at like 65 mph and he couldn't stay in the lane. as he drifted to the outside of the turn he locked his back tire (bad!) and his bike high-sided. If you don't know what that means.. let me explain: the back end of his bike swung out to the left, then to the right, and back to the left. After this, the bike threw him over the handle bars. The bike hit a curb, did a flip in the air and landed in a ditch.
At about this point i hit my brakes pretty hard...but not hard enough to lock up my back tire. I pulled over to help him, but he was already standing up. He ended up breaking his collar bone... the bike was totaled, and the fire department had a nice chat with us.
So my our little ride took longer than i thought. On the way home (at like 1:00 am) i got to do a lot of thinking. My first thought was holy shit, what am i doing on a bike. then i thought about how he could have died if a car was coming in the other direction. But then i realized that this situation is exactly what i warn people about. What i mean is: i recognized the fact that he was on a bike that's really freaking fast, and he really doesn't have any experience at all.
So yeah- he crashed and it was pretty graphic to see when i was like 25 feet behind him... but it's also a really bad indicator of how dangerous motorcycles actually are. That accident came down to the rider. period. not the bike, or hazardous condition, or other cars... it was just the kid on the bike going way to fast.
Ok well i'll admit i was really scared right after the crash, but now i think i've considered every factor of the accident, and it really should be something that makes me scared to ride. The important thing is that the kid's alright (walking around with a limp, his arm in a sling, and a few bruises) but he'll live. If he wasn't wearing a helmet he would be either in the hospital, or in a graveyard. So what have we learned? wear the correct riding gear (duh), don't race down a road you've never been on while it's dark out (also duh), and don't ride past the level you're comfortable with (duh!). I guess i haven't really learned anything, cuz i already knew all that. but it's still a good lesson
-steve
p.s. the real victim here is the 2005 gixxer that's totaled. what a loss *hangs head in shame*
At about this point i hit my brakes pretty hard...but not hard enough to lock up my back tire. I pulled over to help him, but he was already standing up. He ended up breaking his collar bone... the bike was totaled, and the fire department had a nice chat with us.
So my our little ride took longer than i thought. On the way home (at like 1:00 am) i got to do a lot of thinking. My first thought was holy shit, what am i doing on a bike. then i thought about how he could have died if a car was coming in the other direction. But then i realized that this situation is exactly what i warn people about. What i mean is: i recognized the fact that he was on a bike that's really freaking fast, and he really doesn't have any experience at all.
So yeah- he crashed and it was pretty graphic to see when i was like 25 feet behind him... but it's also a really bad indicator of how dangerous motorcycles actually are. That accident came down to the rider. period. not the bike, or hazardous condition, or other cars... it was just the kid on the bike going way to fast.
Ok well i'll admit i was really scared right after the crash, but now i think i've considered every factor of the accident, and it really should be something that makes me scared to ride. The important thing is that the kid's alright (walking around with a limp, his arm in a sling, and a few bruises) but he'll live. If he wasn't wearing a helmet he would be either in the hospital, or in a graveyard. So what have we learned? wear the correct riding gear (duh), don't race down a road you've never been on while it's dark out (also duh), and don't ride past the level you're comfortable with (duh!). I guess i haven't really learned anything, cuz i already knew all that. but it's still a good lesson
-steve
p.s. the real victim here is the 2005 gixxer that's totaled. what a loss *hangs head in shame*
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