A close shave, but a good week

wilbur-t

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Carthage N.C. U.S.A.
Got back home from our 9 day trip Sunday evening. We had a great time of it. Went 1800 miles, with over 1100 of them being mountain roads. West Va. is a beautiful state with some incredible roads to ride. A lot of gravel on some of them, though, thrown up by the coal and log trucks cutting the corners. Lisa did incredibly well for someone who has only been riding her own for 4 months. She even dragged a peg on her little 800 intruder! :bch:

We came back down to my Sister's place for the last weekend, and me and my buddy went out to play a little. I led him down a little back road near Stone Mountain N.C. that I had ridden before, but that was on my old Tiger about 2 years ago. The road is very rough and bumpy, with no warning signs about the sharp turns. We came out of a sharp left hander, accelerated hard to a right hand turn that I didn't think was too sharp. It turned out to be a wicked decreasing radius turn. I threw the ol R3 into it and about the time I was dragging hard, a hump in the road hit the frame so hard that it threw the bike straight up. [The impact broke the plastic clamps that hold the rear brake line to the bar.] I pushed it right back down, only to have it happen again. I eased off the throttle as I pushed it down into the curve with all I had. Another hump threw me up, and by this time I was almost off the outside of the curve. Finally got things under control with about 3 inches of pavement left. :eek: Thank God there were no cars coming, or I would have been toast. [The Lord was looking out for fools on this day!]
My buddy said he couldn't hold his FZ1 inside the yellow lines at the speed we were traveling. I can't tell you why I didn't crash, except for blind luck. [Certainly not driving skills, I probably did just about everything wrong.]

Moral of the story....Don't fly down roads that you really don't know. I should have traveled the road at moderate speed first, then came back for a low pass.
 
Kinda frightening even to read your typed words. Lesser riders would have given up on tackling the task of keeping at it and holding firm concentration while working through it.

Foolish: possibly. Skills just a little sharper now: you bet!

Good handling of the Rocket I'd say. Many may not have pulled it out, most likely me!

A good story to tell, and be proud of. Lessons learned, right?

YOU THE MAN!
 
Great tale, Wilbur.

The morale of it, should any be called for, is that he, like you and I, who occasionally gets his kicks enthusiastically going for leaning angles and deliberately draggin' and scrapin' them pegs (or some other undercarriage bits:eek:) has a much better chance to MANAGE the type of decreasing radius situations you describe. Hence my admiring :

:bch:

to you. Jamie:cool:
 
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I know how you felt

Saturday night when Joseph and I went riding off to find the town of Dickson (30 miles west of Nashville towards Memphis) we left at around 10:30 pm to find a helmet for Joseph. We got off at the right exit (as far as the directions we were given), which turned out to be the wrong exit (should have turned at the first Dickson exit...but we were told not to turn there). We got off of I-40, made our right turn and promptly saw a sign that said "Dickson...8 miles). I started up the road and immediately ran into a sharp curve in the dark (naturally), had to break pretty hard to keep from going across the road. From that point on numerous signs now appeared as we approached curve after curve after multiple curves. This was not fun, in the daylight it would probably have been fun, in the dark, all I was getting was white knuckles and a lot of anxiety while traveling those 8 miles...wasn't helping my blood pressure either I'm sure.

Wilbur T, you did good maintaining control like you did, I am envious and I think I can say I know how you felt...sort of.
Dennis
 
I was hesitant to post this, because I did not want anyone to think I was bragging, but I decided to tell it as a cautionary tale.

I can tell you that I did not feel like a ridin' fool after this incident, but rather a fool riding. I over stepped my riding limits, but lived to tell about it. The R3 is the most amazing handling cruiser I've ever ridden, but the lack of ground clearance is the limiting factor. I am still putting the pegs on the ground, but with a little more caution. :rolleyes:

Jamie, have you ever had a similar experiance?
 
Jamie, have you ever had a similar experiance?

Yes. I confess I have. And I don't want to brag about it either. In my case, that kind of **** only happens going DOWNHILL a bit too fast, on little known or plain unknown mountain roads, i.e. without ANY cornering clearance left. Exiting from such situations with grace (poor girl) requires both previous, deliberate experience "at the limit" (my earlier point to you all) and a cold-blooded attitude. Meaning no panicking and absolutely no violent braking.

And lots of luck:eek:. Jamie
 
Yes. I confess I have. And I don't want to brag about it either. In my case, that kind of **** only happens going DOWNHILL a bit too fast, on little known or plain unknown mountain roads, i.e. without ANY cornering clearance left. Exiting from such situations with grace (poor girl) requires both previous, deliberate experience "at the limit" (my earlier point to you all) and a cold-blooded attitude. Meaning no panicking and absolutely no violent braking.

And lots of luck:eek:. Jamie

Going downhill can be scary. I once came down a steep, one lane mountain road [Va. 620 from Piper's Gap on the parkway down, if anyone wants to ride a challenging road.] and came into a sudden off-camber left hander. everything under the left side was dragging and I slid over about half a lane before she caught traction again. I only try that road going UP from now on! :D Maybe the one thing I did right in both cases was to stay off the brakes.

Jamie, I think you are the King of the Corners. :bch:

I'm just a Jester!
 
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