Passes & Canyons Blog

Turns can be fun–or they can scare you silly.

I’ll knock on wood and say that I’ve never gone down on my motorcycle except in the mildest circumstances possible. That includes a 2 mph tip-over in mud and wiping out on gravel at about 5 mph when a dog walked out in front of me from between two cars. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t come close a few times. And there were plenty of other times when in truth I probably wasn’t all that close to disaster but managed to scare myself pretty badly just the same.

I’m happy to be able to say that most of these incidents were a good many years ago, when I was nowhere near as experienced or as good a rider as I am now. That fact testifies to the folly of someone thinking they can get on a motorcycle and ride it just fine without any sort of formal training. Like me. Managing to not go down and being a good rider are not at all the same thing. I’m a good rider today because I have by now had a great deal of experience AND I have taken the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s Beginning Rider Course (twice) and their Experienced Rider Course. Plus a couple other classes.

Almost without exception, the situations where I’ve been scared have been when I’ve been in a turn and either found myself going too fast or seen loose gravel on the road. You know as well as I do that there is nothing that will get your adrenaline pumping more than being leaned over in a turn and feeling that rear tire let go when it hits gravel or a patch of water. At that point there’s nothing you can do but ride through it and count on your tire to hook up again once you’ve cleared the hazard. Fortunately, that’s usually what happens.

Get a Grip

Going too fast is different. Most importantly, you can learn better riding skills that will help you avoid the situation in the first place or how to cope with it if you failed to avoid it.

The crucial factor in a sharp curve is traction. Leaning and braking both consume traction. If you’re going straight down the road at 90 degrees vertical you have maximum braking traction. Leaning into a curve it can be very dangerous to use the brakes because the farther you’re leaning the less traction you have left to brake with. Thus, the best way to enter a curve is to do your braking coming into the curve, before you initiate your lean.

Rider coaches will tell you not to touch your brake while in a curve, except very, very gently as a last resort. I have actually violated this rule from the very beginning because I didn’t understand the physics of it. Suffice it to say that I’ve gotten away with it because I’ve always been very gentle on the brake, but I’ve known instinctively that it was a risk and there were a lot of times when I was very scared. Now that I’ve learned more I do this a lot less, but I’m actually fairly confident in my ability to do it because I’ve been doing it successfully for so long.

The other factor in finding yourself too fast in a curve is taking a huge leap of faith and trusting in the bike, and that’s a mighty scary thing to do, too. The fact is, motorcycles and motorcycle tires are very good these days, and they have abilities that exceed those of most riders. That is, you can safely lean most bikes over farther than the rider has the courage to lean.

When it’s a do or die situation, though, you’re going to be a whole lot better off scaring yourself silly by leaning even further, than if you don’t try it and just accept that you’re going to crash. It’s hard to find that courage but seriously, what’s the worst that can happen if the only other alternative is crashing for sure? I make a point sometimes of leaning way off the bike, keeping it as upright as possible, even on easy turns. I figure I want it to be muscle memory coming into play if I ever desperately need to make that move.

In the end, I think what has saved me all these times was fear. I have been more afraid of crashing than I have been of pushing beyond my comfort zone. But fear is no fun, so I’ve worked to become a better rider and these days I just don’t find myself in these situations much anymore. It makes for a much more pleasant ride.

Biker Quote for Today

200mph, no hands. Damn that’d be cool… right up to the part where you die.

All that bodywork can make your bike tough to handle in strong crosswinds.

Yeah, OK, it’s the holidays. I cop openly to the charge of taking the easy way out and putting up one of these Examiner Resurrections rather than writing something new.

Do you hate riding in high winds where the blasts nearly blow you over into the oncoming lane? That’s always been one of the most unpleasant riding situations for me but I learned something new recently that makes a huge difference.

Of course, it varies depending on which bike I’m on as to just how much of a problem it is. On the Honda it’s no big deal because it’s basically a naked bike. The wind blows right through. The Kawi is a different story. Totally sheathed in plastic body work, the bike is like a big sail or a kite when the wind is hitting me square on at 90 degrees.

I was on the Kawi heading out to Limon a few weeks ago to meet up with the Run For The Wall and the wind was howling out of the south as I headed east. It was everything I could do to stay in my own lane and not get blown over the center line.

At times like these I tend to keep both my hands clamped tightly on the grips, fighting to keep the bike going where I want it to go. But this time, at some point for some reason, I let go with my left hand. And the change was phenomenal! Using only my right hand, control was a breeze (pun intended). I could keep the bike in the lane just as easy as pie, and after some thought I figured out why.

It seems that my death grip on the left side was applying turning input to that side. Hard as I was trying to control on the right, the left was counteracting. By letting go with the left, the right was in full control.

Now, there are some of you out there I’m sure who are reading this and thinking I’m a real idiot for not figuring this out years ago. Fine, I’m an idiot. But I’m passing this information along to the rest of us idiots who still haven’t figured it out. Try it. You’ll be amazed.

Biker Quote for Today

Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and start thinking about what could go right.

You, too, can be a rider trainer, and now it won’t cost you a bundle for the training.

It used to be, if you wanted to take the training class to become a motorcycle riding instructor it cost you $450. I know this because I took that course several years ago. And then I ended up never teaching a single class, so good-bye $450.

Things have changed. I recently received my December issue of Spokesman, the newsletter of ABATE of Colorado, and there was this section in the state coordinator’s message:

ABATE is looking for Rider Ed instructors. We will provide the training.

Whoa! I want to look into this!

So I talked to Bruce Downs the other day, the aforementioned state coordinator. And yes, it turns out that there is at least one good thing that has come out of having the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) taking on the contract to administer the Colorado Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program: The rider training instructor program is free. Don’t ask me how that works out, because I don’t know.

So this is a great chance if you have ever wanted to be a rider trainer. I asked Bruce for more information. Here’s the gist of it.

It’s not clear to me but you probably can’t just call the MSF and say, “Hey, I want training.” I believe you have to go through a training organization. Some group like, oh, I don’t know, umm . . . ABATE!

And then once they have enough prospective trainers lined up they will ask the MSF for a training program. Bruce says this is likely to be in May or June because the MSF has made changes to its training curriculum and as of July 1 all training will need to conform to the new program. It’s the Beginning Rider Course Updated, or BRCU. That U is the new part. So there’s no reason to train on the old program and then turn around and have to get retrained on the new.

The pay is actually not bad. You earn $70 for each student and there are generally six students in each class. So that’s $420 for two days work. And you can work as much or as little as you want, although you have to lead two classes a year to keep your certification current.

If you’re interested the person to contact is Deb Craig at ABATE at abategeneral@abateofcolo.org., or call 303-789-3264. She’ll send you an application and you’ll be on the list.

Biker Quote for Today

Accidents hurt — safety doesn’t.

What’s up ahead? You never know.

OK, more crazy things people have encountered when riding. It’s kind of a zoo out there, actually. (These are from Adventure Rider.)

• I was headed north on I-5 when the top of an RV peeled off like a tuna can lid. A wall about twelve feet tall of aluminum and interior stood erect in the middle lane and the piece was sliding at about eighty miles an hour. Sparks were spitting out from under it. I was lucky that I was riding the inside lane because a diesel was in the outside lane and he was jack-knifing his trailer in order to avoid it. I only had enough time to see it coming in the center lane.
• Heading South on US 83 in West Texas, a pickup was pulling a grain cart heading North and the hitch pin bounced out, cart came across my lane. Full brake lock and came way too close.
• (Same guy) Heading West on I-70 in Kansas at night and saw headlights/taillights/headlights about a half mile down the road. I knew a car had crashed so was fully aware and getting ready to stop and help, but this fire ball was still coming towards me and not slowing down at all. I was trying to figure out what the hell when I realized it was a pickup missing the front driver wheel. Some lunatic was driving the wrong way on an interstate highway at night with no lights. He had hit a suv head on which was the crash I had seen, the highway patrol chased him another 10 miles before they got him stopped.
• Man, I wish I had a picture of this one. Making my last left turn on my 86 mile commute home, 5 mile zone of death and am paying extra attention. I have a green, catch movement from the right, it’s 11 o’clock at night, bicycle riding against traffic runs the light, process and wait for him to go by, then fireworks thrown into intersection by bicyclist, ok I’m too tired for this, start to go, wait what? Bicycle is towing a 12 foot canoe and I almost rode right through it. This.Is.California.
• If any of you have ever been near the Mississippi River (northern part) in the spring, you know all about May flies. Those things FILL the air to the point that after just a few miles, you are literally covered in dead bug juice….the Iowa DOT goes as far as to put signs up showing a mayfly on the road, with the word “Slippery”…and it CAN be….absolutely disgusting cleaning cooked bug guts off your pipes and radiator.
• How about a 3 foot alligator, in Idaho! Was playing on the ST1100 at work, call it playing because I just patrol to be visible, going through an area along the river with a bunch of hot springs. Came around a curve and saw what looked like a log in the road, but one end moved and had two reflective dots. Got stopped and saw what was and tried to back pedal. It turned and scooted back into brush. Turned out to be an attempted theft from a private farm by high school kids.
• A month ago, riding in the N. California coastal hills with a buddy, I pulled over and my buddy came alongside saying he had to clean off his jacket. What? Turns out about a mile back a buzzard had lifted off ahead of him carrying a huge load of purified road kill. It flew low over my pal and suddenly dropped his load like a precision bomb, a direct hit. It was about the consistency of jelly and so putrid I almost puked while helping wipe it off his jacket. We rode on a couple miles further to a small lake where we were able to wash off the worst of it while flies buzzed around us.
• It was down in New Mexico on I-25 heading north around sunrise, I saw three golden eagles in the median eating breakfast. I passed some small car just as I got to them, they saw me and took flight. Two went almost vertical, but Larry the lazy eagle headed right in front of me! I watched him as he looked over his right wing and realized he better alter his flight plan.

  First order of business, lighten the load and then go vertical. He took a s–t and I watched it hit my left hand, continue up my left arm, and cross my face as his butthole and lower legs grazed the top of my helmet. I pulled over onto the shoulder and my girlfriend-who was following on her own bike-looked at me and I could see she was in pain from trying not to laugh out loud.

  I had worn an open faced helmet that trip-it was f—ing hot-and without even thinking about it, I licked my lips. Did you know that eagle s–t has a slightly butterscotch flavor to it? Who knew? My girlfriend was no longer in pain. She was laughing out loud.

  I no longer wear open faced helmets and she and I are no longer together.

• Riding along a dirt lane to a campground in Steelevile MO, what I thought was a mass of about 40 to 50 dragonflies hovering and darting around over the middle of the road turned out to actually be a mass of humming birds. I never slowed down since bug guts never really bothered me. But I recognized what they were as I rode through the cloud of birds. Never touched a one of them as they simply just parted enough to let me through. It didn’t even faze them and they returned to their buzzing over the middle of the road as if nothing ever happened.

Biker Quote for Today

The most dangerous place on earth is between a biker and his bike.

The rider (me) definitely lost control of the bike when this happened.

“All of the crashes and near-crashes included in the risk analyses involve some type of control loss for the rider, whereas the baseline reference events include no loss of control.”

It may seem a little obvious and that may be a bit frustrating, but that is the primary conclusion drawn in the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) naturalistic study of motorcycle crashes and near-crashes. Isn’t loss of control a given in a crash?

I guess I’m not sure how to read that. Are they saying that the rider’s loss of control caused the crash or near-crash? Or that the crash/near-crash resulted in the rider’s loss of control? It’s that latter reading in which I would say, “Well . . . Yeah!”

But consider that dropping the bike is included in these incidents and that suggests the former is the one they mean. Dropping the bike didn’t cause the rider to lose control; dropping the bike indicates a loss of control by the rider.

(I’m reasoning this all through as I sit here writing. You’re seeing my thought process in action.)

So if I’ve got that right, then that may well be a significant conclusion. In every instance, the rider could have done something to avoid getting into the situation in the first place.

That actually jibes with what my friend Jungle says. He essentially believes that ALL crashes are avoidable and if you did crash, it was your fault. You could have avoided it if you had been paying more attention, looking further down the road, keeping your speed in check, whatever. And sure, people do turn left in front of you; they’ve done it to me but I haven’t crashed because I’ve either been paying attention and anticipating them, or slowed down nearing the intersection, or whatever. I’m sure this is true of you, too.

Of course then I have to consider what happened to Alan. He and Dan were out riding and seemingly out of nowhere a deer dashed out and hit him from behind. He never saw it, though Dan, riding behind, saw it all. Challenging Jungle a little, I don’t really know how Alan could have done anything at all to prevent that one.

But in all but the very tiniest number of instances, it seems you can do something. That’s why you’ve got to be sober and that’s why you’ve got to be paying attention, ALL THE TIME.

Of course, none of us is perfect and so none of us is really paying attention all the time, every single second. And most of the time we get away with it, but sometimes we don’t. Todd, a guy who came with the OFMC just one year, was on his bike sometime after our trip and he looked down to fiddle with something–I can’t remember what now–and when he looked up a couple seconds later the car in front of him had come to a sudden stop. He rear-ended the guy and went flying. Todd totally gave up motorcycles after that.

So fine, we’re not perfect. But we have to try to be perfect, because the penalty is too great. Back to that conclusion up top, you could paraphrase: If you have full control of your motorcycle, you will not crash. Because no one chooses to crash. If you do crash, you were not in full control. Stay in control.

Biker Quote for Today

A motorcycle coming down from 30 feet at 70 mph gives you a terrible jolt. — Evel Knievel

This chart from the report shows how much certain conditions or actions increase risk. (Source: Motorcycle Safety Foundation)

As noted previously, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) has released the results of its naturalistic motorcycle crash study. Here are some interesting items from that report.

I would guess that the findings the MSF considers important to work into their rider training curriculum could be considered the most relevant. Toward the end of the report there is a section, “Application of Findings,” where they briefly state the issue and then list the finding that suggest more emphasis might be needed in training. I’m going to abbreviate this considerably. If you want to read it all you’ll find the report here.

• Changing direction requires special attention / Riding in a right curve doubles the risk of a crash or near-crash compared to riding on a straight roadway.
• Emphasis on the importance of appropriate speed in curve maneuvers / Study results indicate that excessive speed is a factor in 45% of the events.
• Crashes, if they ever happen, occur mostly in curves and at intersections / The risk of crashes
  and near-crashes are increased at various types of intersections: traffic signaled intersections (nearly 3 times), parking lot/driveway intersections (8 times), and intersections uncontrolled in the rider’s direction (40 times).
• There is rarely a single cause of any crash / Factors that increase risk include locality, intersections, the type of road surface, traffic flow, roadway grade, and roadway alignment; practicing under these conditions, riding with extra vigilance, or just avoiding the risky situations will decrease one’s chance of being involved in a crash.
• Use your eyes and mind to determine how and when to adjust position as situations unfold / having to maneuver to avoid an object increases the crash/near-crash risk by nearly 12 times.
• Running off the road accounts for many crashes / 67% of all single-vehicle crashes and near-crashes involved curve negotiation, and 63% of those were run-off-road or lane line crossing cases.
• Special consideration for starting on a hill / riding on an uphill grade doubles the risk of crash/near-crash, and riding on a downhill grade increases this risk four-fold.
• Types of road surfaces to be aware of, and how to react to them / Riding on a gravel or dirt road is related to 9 times the risk of crash/near-crash involvement than riding on paved, smooth roads.

Of course, we already know these different situations involve greater risk but this study puts some numbers to them as to just how much riskier they are than just going straight on a smooth road under good conditions. All good information to factor into your riding strategy.

Biker Quote for Today

A bad day just makes an evening ride feel that much better.