A Bit of Eyebrow Surfing

Monday I was riding home along N. Air Feild Drive (DFW). I glanced to the right to watch a big jet touch down. When I looked forward again there was a pair of bright Mercedes Kompressor tail lights stopped in front of me.

Having been very negligent about practising quick stops, my body reacted in the worst possible way. I squeezed down on the front brake and rammed my foot into that big automotive style rear brake pedal on my R3 Classic.

Needless to say the bike went into a skid with the rear tire locked up.

When the fish-tailing started I committed the next unpardonable sin by taking my foot off the rear brake pedal.

Executing a perfect high side, I flew up and over the bike, then did a swan dive face first into the concrete. From there I tumbled some 80 feet while BB (my R3) slid along a short distance on her left side, then stood up and rolled along some distance before finally falling over on the right side and sliding to a stop. She had enough pity not to run over me ---somehow.

I only know the maneuvers the bike made from witnesses; I was busy trying to get air back in my lungs and wondering if my back was broken because none of my appendages wanted to obey brain signals as I cart-wheeled to a stop on the shoulder.

It seemed like mere seconds before first responders arrived. They cut off my Tour Master Intake jacket, jeans, shirt, and gloves, duct-taped me to a sheet of plywood, loaded me on a whirly bird and flew me to the Harris Hospital Trauma center in Fort Worth.

I spent some time lying in the ER naked except for my helmet, undies, and boots. After a battery of x-rays, blood tests, and lots of poking and prodding they finally decided I would live and sent me home in a pair of paper pants and hospital gown.

The doctor was practically ecstatic that I had been wearing a helmet and at least a modicum of body armor. He told me he was glad to free up the room so fast for someone who wasn't smart enough to wear a helmet or motorcycle jacket.

I'll be posting a few pics and the entire story in a bit more entertaining fasion at 4fraziers.com soon, but I'd like to admonish everyone out there to wear the best safety gear you can afford and to practise evasive manuvers and quick stops whenever you can. I knew what not to do, but my body did it anyway because I hadn't trained it well.

BB's damage looks pretty minor, considering. I'm hoping to get her out of the shop in a week or two.

So glad to hear that you made it through relatively unscathed. It's amazing what a little common sense protective-wear will do.

On another note, I assume that you are still running the stock Metzler on the rear since you descrbed a classic rear lockup and highside. Frankly and with all sincerity, I consider the Metz a safety hazard on a Roc since it is waaay too easy to produce your accident scenario. I was fortunate the 2 times that I had significant lockups on the rear when running the Metz. Both ended up with near-highsides but, again being fortunate, did not end up that way.

Since I have gone darkside on my Roc (14k miles), I have not had a rear lockup. Since you are obviously safety conscience, you may want to consider making the switch ASAP.

Here's to wishing you and BB a swift recovery.

Glad you can tell the story! Good ( and amazing) to hear your ok.

Man that scares the sh!t right out of a fellow to hear or read when this happens. When my sons went down last summer in their little accident and all 3 of them were wearing thier gear and ol dad wasn,t, I started wearing my helmet most of the time now. It is amazing what the humane body can take if equiped right.
Glad to hear that it wasn't any worse than it was and that you and BB will soon be on the road again. But I didn't follow what caused you to go flying over the handle bars. Did you rear end the the car?
I, like tdragger ride a car tire and I find that I have more confidence in the stopping ability of my bike. I do try to go over in my mind what I should do when this happens so that it will be a natural response. I've had this happen twice and both times on a Harley and both times the rear came around on me and both times I was able to let off the brake and swirve around the car. I have been riding on nothing but a car tire since 02 when I purchased the Boss Hoss and with the Valkyrie and now the Rocket. Yeh, they aren't canyon carvers but they aren't suppose to be. Plus, I live here in the flat lands where their aren't many canyons to be carved anyway. The safety and added stability that a C/T gives me far offset any handeling issuse that it may cause. Once you get used to it, it just feels natural but I have logged many a mile on a C/T.
RIDE SAFE.

His accident is a classic example of a "highside". It occurs when a locked up rear tire begins to slide out to one side or the other. In most cases on the Roc, it is the right side. Once the rear brake is released, the tire immediately re-establishes traction. If the brake is released quick enough, the angle of rotation of the tire will allow for a full recovery. However, after a certain amount of deflection, the tire will regain traction at such an angle that the forward motion of the bike and rider will be too great to follow the direction of the now rotating tire. In other words, the rear tire goes left while the rider and the rest of the bike wants to continue going forward. While in the slide, the bike usually leans to the left so when traction is regained it rotates to the "highside" or to the right. The rider is thus launched off the "highside". Often the feeling is that you have gone over the handlebars which in some cases is exactly correct but most of the time you will go off slightly to the right of the bars.

btw, don't ask me how I know all this...

Here's a video example of another type of "highside": YouTube - Mis Adventures of Cavman

Glad you are OK.

Glad to hear you came out O.K. Just wondering tho. Did the Mercedez stop in the road to look at the same plane? It sounds like you are willing to take the entire responsibility in your version of the story and from my limited experience, Although I make plenty of mistakes myself, usually the close calls with an auto can be attributed, at least in part to, what we call in the coffee and donut business, D.W.H.U.A. or driving with head up ass. Whichever the case, thanks for sharing the story. I will be thinking about the braking issue, I just don't know if I am comfortable praticing it on my Rocket. Considering the outcome, I think your reaction paid off, could have been alot worse.

Wow. Glad you're OK. I have fish tailed the rear end many times. If it doesn't straighten out, my instinct is to lay it down, although I haven't done this on the Rocket. The urge to stomp on the rear brake is strong but most stopping power is from the front brake - 90% front, maybe 10% rear. I took a safety class 5 years ago after 35 years of riding. One really good piece of advice was to avoid locking up the front disc brake, hit it lightly, then lean on it for all it's worth. And downshift. Very quickly. I've practiced this and it works - only when the bike is upright and going straight!

Very happy to hear that you got through this scrape with your body and your sense of humor intact, Mr. Frazier. Shame that you had to suffer the indignities of clothing shredded by the first responders and then, even worse, the paper replacement garb from the hospital!

The only close calls I have experienced in nearly 45 years of riding have been from inattentiveness and daydreaming while "enjoying the scenery", thus leading to a small handful of near- souvenir in the shorts kinda' moments. It is very easy to get one's head in the clouds while on two wheels, because of the openness and freedom of riding a motorcycle we occasionally get caught up in our surroundings to the detriment of keeping our eyes busy on the road ahead or our brains factoring the numerous other hazards which generally abound.

I am not preaching, but I do advocate that smart riders dress for the fall, not for the ride and that they wear the best head protection that money can buy. Aside from your attitude or psychological approach to riding, the only other things that afford a rider any protection at all are luck and protective gear. As for me, I'd rather not place my physical well-being entirely in the hands of lady luck or the fickleness of fate, so I wear a full face lid and full armor every time I ride.

As for what others choose to do, that is entirely up to them, however I will say that I do alot of praying for those who do not do as I do because I, too, have learned the hard way. Wearing the full face absolutely saved my life when I T-boned a deer at 65 mph three years ago and it prevented significant head injury when some idiot made an improper lane change in front of me three months ago. My first accident ever on two wheels left permanent marks on my body because I wasn't wearing leather or armored uppers or lowers. The second, more recent one, left no marks at all because I was in full armor. Had I not been fully geared up I would have been spending some unpleasant time in the hospital instead of walking away and returning to my home. Both of those two accidents, the only ones I've ever experienced in all these years of riding, totaled two different 750-800 lb. Honda VTXes and in the first case, particularly, miraculously did not total me!

Please, everyone, be careful, protect yourself and enjoy your happy trails responsibly! I hope to meet you out on the road...

Looks like another good reason for that extra 100lbs (of course we all know it doesn't weigh that much) of ABS on the roadster. If Triumph comes out with a retrofit system I can afford, I want one.
Thats alot of bike to be slip sidin' around on and I don't want to be next.

I had to lock up the rear once for a short distance during a panic stop and the resulting metzler flat spot is another reason for the car tire. I was shocked how quick the rubber vanished during the short slide, too much weight and too little a contact patch I guess.

Glad to hear you came out OK.