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Re: [ST] Grace's Really Bad Day [longish]



Firstly, sympathies and glad it turned out as well as it did for your other
half. Sounds like a pretty horrendous few minutes, and something that I
don't think I know how well I'd handle if it was my beloved who had stacked
it in front of me...

Secondly, it looks like you had the whole thing under control from the
post-accident perspective and handled it all really well.

Thirdly, would you mind if I made some observations from my perspective on
what you say was going on prior to the accident? You may disagree with this
stuff, but here's something from an English perspective anyway...

 > I catch up to Grace, who is riding really well, I'm thinking as I follow
 > her - she's anticipating the changes in the road surface (road is quite
 > broken up in places), setting her lines well to the inside on the blind
 > corners to give the potential oncoming cars room, etc. etc.

This is the opposite to what I would do, and what the IAM, RoSPA and the
Police teach motorcyclists in this country. If you are out wide in your lane
on the entry to blind corners, or even where safe and the road markings
don't preclude it (in the UK, this is - US traffic laws may not allow this)
in the other lane, you can see much further round the corner, and equally
importantly, any oncoming traffic can better and earlier see you and is less
likely to cut the corner. It means you get round quicker as well...

 >
 > We pass a subdivision behind gates, and head up into the hills. About two
 > miles later, there's a sharp downhill righthander, followed by an uphill
 > lefthander. All across the lowest point in the road is silt and gravel, so
 > I move hard left to ride squarely across it, and as Grace hits it I see
 > her hands seesaw back and forth, then the rear wheel step out and then out
 > again.

It kind of looks like she braked on the gravel, doesn't it. This looks kind
of like it locked the front and the rear, and... well, you know what
happened next. I guess you'll be saying something about that to her when she
gets to 'so what happened and how do I stop it happening again' stage...



 > At this point, I decide that she's crashing, and move my attention
 > _away_ from her, and do a max braking stop (across the gravel...uh,
 > interesting...),

I'll bet. Might have been easier to wait until you were clear of the gravel
before trying that :-).

Can I recommend a little light reading for Grace while she heals?

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ts/book-glance/011341143X for
details of a guide to riding on the road briskly and safely. Not the same
kind of thing as the Code books - they tend to deal more with the dynamics
of the motorcycle and how to physically make it go round corners, racing
lines etc. It's a bit po-faced - it's written by and for British police
motorcyclists after all - but the advice in it is all solid gold, and well
worth reading and evaluating.

Ken Haylock - Sprint ST - MAG #93160

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