Cheriann dropping her bike

[dantama]

Cheriann talked about dropping her bike in a thread on the travel board. She said we could move it over here to get more opinions and information on the subject.

Originally Posted by CheriAnn

I have a confession to make too....I USED to be very proud of the fact that I had never dumped my bike....until now... :'(

I was following behind Chaz and the Road Captain when we approached a sharp left turn we were taking, the kind that is almost like a u-turn AND we were on an incline uphill. I was cruising along, following Chaz into the turn. However, after Chaz crossed over, a car suddenly appeared over the hill from the other way and I had to make a sudden stop. I KNOW that is what messed me up!!! So, then I had to go into the sharp turn from a stop. I didn't pay attention to my handlebar position and I must have had it too sharply turned because when I started to throttle for the turn, my bike went down to the left, almost in slow motion.....fortunately I wasn't hurt and neither was my bike. It just fell over slowly on the crash bar. The thing that WAS hurt, was my bruised ego!! The people there were GREAT! A guy ran over and lifted my bike for me, two other riders ran ahead of me and blocked traffic coming over the hill from the other side.

I am still SO MAD at myself!!!! DUMB, DUMB, DUMB!!!!!

Originally Posted by Dan Lund

Cheriann, this isn't to criticise you at all, so please don't take it that way, just a pointer.

I think (though I wasn't there to know) that is what probably made you go down was letting off the throttle, not turning the bars to sharply.

You can be stopped and turn the bars all the way to the stops, and pull away. It is a very uncomfortable feeling though. When the holy sh*t feeling hits, if you let off the throttle, you will go down; and letting off the throttle is probably the natural instinct in that situation. Letting out more clutch and giving more throttle is what really needs to happen in that situation.

When riding in a very slow uncomfortable situation, when the instinct to put your foot down or let off the throttle happens, the right thing to do in almost all of them is to let out more clutch and give more throttle.

I wasn't there, but that is what almost always will make you go down when in a tight slow maneuver.