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My first Motorcycle accident..

I’ve yet to get an estimate or final details with respect to overall repairs for my bike and was not going to comment until then, but I guess I’ll just provide the following comments and update.


I'm sure there will be those who will judge and have thoughts and affirmations for why getting a bigger bike too soon is the reason behind my recent incident. Perhaps there may be merit to that, considering at this moment my 250 is in great condition while my ZX6R, sadly has had better days. I'm not here to justify myself to anyone other than to those that are close to me and that I have caused great stress, worry and concern. There really are no words to express my apology for the pain I've caused and will continue to cause them every time I leave my home and make the decision to continue to ride a motorcycle.

Let me start by saying, IMHO what happened this past weekend could have happened while riding any large or small displacement bike. Without getting into all the details, I'd like to make a few statements and observations from my recent experience, that led to my incident. To name a few problems... being tired, lack of focus, decreasing radius, gravel, target fixation and overall bad decision to go riding in the first place.

I'm not trying to make excuses for what happened to me. What I am trying to hopefully point out to others is the simple fact that before getting on a motorcycle (more so than in a car) make sure your full attention and mindset are on the ride or the slightest error can make for a fatal situation.

In my case I made a decision to leave my home 7:30am to go for a ride. Probably not the best decision, considering just the day before I had 23 hours of commuting, flight delays and pretty much a crappy work day. I was looking forward to a nice ride and as usual the opportunity to meet good people and learn new roads. I did meet some good people who were very helpful, who I will continue to look forward to riding with in the future.

To be honest, the fact I was able to get up and walk away from this incident, despite being a small miracle, I thought I'd be a little more appreciative for being alive, fearful of riding again and all that. Alas that's not me and $_h!t(accidents) happens all the time, so whatever. Ultimately, I feel stupid for making certain mistakes and again for causing pain to people close to me.

The biggest learning experience I'm taking away from this is a bit of humility, only the slightest of course, :) and most important is the amount of focus and decision one needs to make before stepping onto a bike, especially when taking certain risks. I believe this could not have happened at a better time for me. My confidence was certainly rising and I made the cardinal sin of not listening to my better judgment and rode that morning with lack of focus in what I was supposed to be doing.

Luckily, things turned out the way they did and both me and hopefully my bike will walk away from this with only superficial cosmetic damage. I don't take anything back from what I've stated in the past and I strongly believe what happened to me that day, was not only a sign but could have easily happened regardless of which bike I chose to ride. Overall as with everything in life, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. I was told recently that the World whispers to us all and we need to take the time to listen. Every mistake should be a learning experience. Believe me I've learned some valuable lessons here.

If I can help any rider new or experienced appreciate the joys and pains of riding from my perspective, don't hesitate to reach out. What I can share in posts I will and what I cannot I welcome you to PM me.

Ride safe everyone!!!
 
Sorry to hear this Rogo, I am sure you'll get many "I told you so's" but what ever, Glad your ok.
 
Lesson learned. Keep safe. How did it happen?
 
ROGO said:
My first Motorcycle accident..

I’ve yet to get an estimate or final details with respect to overall repairs for my bike and was not going to comment until then, but I guess I’ll just provide the following comments and update.


I'm sure there will be those who will judge and have thoughts and affirmations for why getting a bigger bike too soon is the reason behind my recent incident. Perhaps there may be merit to that, considering at this moment my 250 is in great condition while my ZX6R, sadly has had better days. I'm not here to justify myself to anyone other than to those that are close to me and that I have caused great stress, worry and concern. There really are no words to express my apology for the pain I've caused and will continue to cause them every time I leave my home and make the decision to continue to ride a motorcycle.

Let me start by saying, IMHO what happened this past weekend could have happened while riding any large or small displacement bike. Without getting into all the details, I'd like to make a few statements and observations from my recent experience, that led to my incident. To name a few problems... being tired, lack of focus, decreasing radius, gravel, target fixation and overall bad decision to go riding in the first place.

I'm not trying to make excuses for what happened to me. What I am trying to hopefully point out to others is the simple fact that before getting on a motorcycle (more so than in a car) make sure your full attention and mindset are on the ride or the slightest error can make for a fatal situation.

In my case I made a decision to leave my home 7:30am to go for a ride. Probably not the best decision, considering just the day before I had 23 hours of commuting, flight delays and pretty much a crappy work day. I was looking forward to a nice ride and as usual the opportunity to meet good people and learn new roads. I did meet some good people who were very helpful, who I will continue to look forward to riding with in the future.

To be honest, the fact I was able to get up and walk away from this incident, despite being a small miracle, I thought I'd be a little more appreciative for being alive, fearful of riding again and all that. Alas that's not me and $_h!t(accidents) happens all the time, so whatever. Ultimately, I feel stupid for making certain mistakes and again for causing pain to people close to me.

The biggest learning experience I'm taking away from this is a bit of humility, only the slightest of course, :) and most important is the amount of focus and decision one needs to make before stepping onto a bike, especially when taking certain risks. I believe this could not have happened at a better time for me. My confidence was certainly rising and I made the cardinal sin of not listening to my better judgment and rode that morning with lack of focus in what I was supposed to be doing.

Luckily, things turned out the way they did and both me and hopefully my bike will walk away from this with only superficial cosmetic damage. I don't take anything back from what I've stated in the past and I strongly believe what happened to me that day, was not only a sign but could have easily happened regardless of which bike I chose to ride. Overall as with everything in life, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. I was told recently that the World whispers to us all and we need to take the time to listen. Every mistake should be a learning experience. Believe me I've learned some valuable lessons here.

If I can help any rider new or experienced appreciate the joys and pains of riding from my perspective, don't hesitate to reach out. What I can share in posts I will and what I cannot I welcome you to PM me.

Ride safe everyone!!!
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I think you got it right---never ride when you're tired. Similar thing happened to me once after riding for a few hours fast twisties without taking a break, and at that point I was repeating to myself to stop and rest, but I was "postponing" it always for the next minute, next minute... I was lucky though to have only grass, so I didn't drop it and just went back on the road.

As to your observations about the accident, may I add that the turn in question is not only decreasing radius and blind, but also downhill and off-chamber. Very treacherous turn, that's why I always ride unfamiliar roads with extreme caution until I know what I have there.

The key for that particular turn is to lean the bike as late as possible, and of course as quickly and swiftly as possible in the last possible for your speed moment. I guess apart from the target fixation that you had, a contributing factor could have been turning too early and hence running wide.

But it happened, and yes---every mistake should serve to teach us something, so you're on a good path, ROGO :)
 
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And now ... TAKE THAT ADVANCED TRAINING COURSE. I understand that there is one spot left for the next Level 1 Lee Parks Total Control course this Saturday. Or do the Racer5 course, or do the FAST school. Take your pick. But do it sooner rather than later.

It will greatly help with getting rid of bad habits and getting you started with GOOD habits.
 
How new is this guy BP?

I thought total control required a minimum of 5000 kms?
 
ROGO said:
My first Motorcycle accident..

I’ve yet to get an estimate or final details with respect to overall repairs for my bike and was not going to comment until then, but I guess I’ll just provide the following comments and update.


I'm sure there will be those who will judge and have thoughts and affirmations for why getting a bigger bike too soon is the reason behind my recent incident. Perhaps there may be merit to that, considering at this moment my 250 is in great condition while my ZX6R, sadly has had better days. I'm not here to justify myself to anyone other than to those that are close to me and that I have caused great stress, worry and concern. There really are no words to express my apology for the pain I've caused and will continue to cause them every time I leave my home and make the decision to continue to ride a motorcycle.

Let me start by saying, IMHO what happened this past weekend could have happened while riding any large or small displacement bike. Without getting into all the details, I'd like to make a few statements and observations from my recent experience, that led to my incident. To name a few problems... being tired, lack of focus, decreasing radius, gravel, target fixation and overall bad decision to go riding in the first place.

I'm not trying to make excuses for what happened to me. What I am trying to hopefully point out to others is the simple fact that before getting on a motorcycle (more so than in a car) make sure your full attention and mindset are on the ride or the slightest error can make for a fatal situation.

In my case I made a decision to leave my home 7:30am to go for a ride. Probably not the best decision, considering just the day before I had 23 hours of commuting, flight delays and pretty much a crappy work day. I was looking forward to a nice ride and as usual the opportunity to meet good people and learn new roads. I did meet some good people who were very helpful, who I will continue to look forward to riding with in the future.

To be honest, the fact I was able to get up and walk away from this incident, despite being a small miracle, I thought I'd be a little more appreciative for being alive, fearful of riding again and all that. Alas that's not me and $_h!t(accidents) happens all the time, so whatever. Ultimately, I feel stupid for making certain mistakes and again for causing pain to people close to me.

The biggest learning experience I'm taking away from this is a bit of humility, only the slightest of course, :) and most important is the amount of focus and decision one needs to make before stepping onto a bike, especially when taking certain risks. I believe this could not have happened at a better time for me. My confidence was certainly rising and I made the cardinal sin of not listening to my better judgment and rode that morning with lack of focus in what I was supposed to be doing.

Luckily, things turned out the way they did and both me and hopefully my bike will walk away from this with only superficial cosmetic damage. I don't take anything back from what I've stated in the past and I strongly believe what happened to me that day, was not only a sign but could have easily happened regardless of which bike I chose to ride. Overall as with everything in life, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. I was told recently that the World whispers to us all and we need to take the time to listen. Every mistake should be a learning experience. Believe me I've learned some valuable lessons here.

If I can help any rider new or experienced appreciate the joys and pains of riding from my perspective, don't hesitate to reach out. What I can share in posts I will and what I cannot I welcome you to PM me.

Ride safe everyone!!!
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As long as you walk away, sometimes it can be a blessing in disguise, some of us get alittle too over confident and then get the humility knocked back into us proverbially and literally and are better rider's for it. Glad you are ok. Sorry about the bike - but it's just a bike at the end of the day. I will be taking Brian's advice and taking as many advanced rider courses as I can. I've heard nothing but good things about them.
 
you certainly need to be sharp riding a motorcycle, it only takes a split second to misjudge your entry speed and theres a hell of a lot less room for error then when you have 4 wheels. The biggest reason not to start soon on an SS imo is that the handling is less intuitive, and if you dont have the skills to make it do what you need an accident is far more likely to occur. Doing some instructed track days would fix that, i know the skill building through that pretty much saved me from crashing, as i really had no clue what i was doing.
 
Jayv said:
How new is this guy BP?

I thought total control required a minimum of 5000 kms?
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I don't know how much he put on the 250 Ninja (aside from "not enough"), but going ahead and buying this bike despite what people were telling him put him on an accelerated learning curve, and now we've seen where that went. He needs to un-learn some bad habits (front to rear brake balance being one of them - too much rear, from what I saw) and start learning some good habits (where to turn in - where to look through corners - judging entry speed - "slow in fast out" - "late apex" - body positioning) and it needs to happen in a big hurry.

There are plenty of other people in that very same situation, who bought too much bike too early and got their confidence ahead of their skill level ... but this story was out in public, and now how the story went all wrong is out in public, too. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. If someone else gets the message TAKE A TRAINING COURSE and then does it, that's a GOOD thing.
 
ROGO said:

In my case I made a decision to leave my home 7:30am to go for a ride. Probably not the best decision, considering just the day before I had 23 hours of commuting, flight delays and pretty much a crappy work day. I was looking forward to a nice ride and as usual the opportunity to meet good people and learn new roads. I did meet some good people who were very helpful, who I will continue to look forward to riding with in the future.
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In case my statement was missed or understated I'd like to point out again...


I did meet some good people who were very helpful in getting my bike road worthy so that I was able to ride home safely and who I would be honored to go riding with in the future. You guys know who you are and I truly appreciate your help and can't thank you enough.
 
There are plenty of other people in that very same situation, who bought too much bike too early and got their confidence ahead of their skill level ... but this story was out in public, and now how the story went all wrong is out in public, too. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. If someone else gets the message TAKE A TRAINING COURSE and then does it, that's a GOOD thing.
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exactly
 
ROGO glad to hear that you came out okay and walked away from the accident which is the main thing...

I had the opportunity to ride with you briefly once probably about a month ago.

Before the ride, I beleive we had a brief discussion about our riding experiences. When you told me that you upgraded from your 250 to your ZX6R within a few months...I was like wow! I was impressed but at the same time I was a little worried. I did not say anything because I'm not the type of person who will judge and stop people from what they want to do...it was like more power to you and your decision...

But on the other hand, I also remember telling you that I have been riding for years and to this day I still have the jitters and the butterflies before I hop on my bike. I also mentioned that if this is what you really want start looking into taking courses like FAST...

I guess it was my way of saying take it easy out there, take your time and learn.

Hope it all works out and ride safe once you're back on the road...you know where to find us...

Peace

Mike
 
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Hey Mike,

Yup I recall the conversation and I still plan to take a course, go on the track and all that. We aren't playing patty cake so I understand why you get butterflies. I'm still riding my 250 so will prob see you on the next meet. :)

Peace Bro!


darazcal said:
ROGO glad to hear that you came out okay and walked away from the accident which is the main thing...

I had the opportunity to ride with you briefly once probably about a month ago.

Before the ride, I beleive we had a brief discussion about our riding experiences. When you told me that you upgraded from your 250 to your ZX6R within a few months...I was like wow! I was impressed but at the same time I was a little worried. I did not say anything because I'm not the type of person who will judge and stop people from what they want to do...it was like more power to you and your decision...

But on the other hand, I also remember telling you that I have been riding for years and to this day I still have the jitters and the butterflies before I hop on my bike. I also mentioned that if this is what you really want start looking into taking courses like FAST...

I guess it was my way of saying take it easy out there, take your time and learn.

Hope it all works out and ride safe once you're back on the road...you know where to find us...

Peace

Mike
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It really sucks that it had to happen the way it happened - but look on the bright side >

You are one lucky dude:
1. You learned invaluable lesson which I am sure you will remember for the rest of your days
2. You walked away, alive.
3. You have another bike to ride while your supersport is getting fixed
4. Cool story to tell your kids/grandkids (I am sure you'll edit it to be cool story by the time u r 80 :D)
 
Totally! When I tell the story it will involve crocodiles and fire pits and how I did a super mario style jump and flip to narrowly escape the immovable objects in my path and deaths grasp. Not that what I just stated is far from the truth. Lol

mongol777 said:
It really sucks that it had to happen the way it happened - but look on the bright side >

You are one lucky dude:
1. You learned invaluable lesson which I am sure you will remember for the rest of your days
2. You walked away, alive.
3. You have another bike to ride while your supersport is getting fixed
4. Cool story to tell your kids/grandkids (I am sure you'll edit it to be cool story by the time u r 80 :D)
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I'll be there, providing I've had a full nights rest of course. ;)

darazcal said:
Rogo we are riding sat...same time and same place...come out if you can...

Mike
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ROGO said:
Totally! When I tell the story it will involve crocodiles and fire pits and how I did a super mario style jump and flip to narrowly escape the immovable objects in my path and deaths grasp. Not that what I just stated is far from the truth. Lol
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I was thinking zombies chase but crocodiles sounds good too :D
 
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