I stared Death in the face...and pinched his nose

[craigs23]

Jeez, after my last accident involving the front passenger of an Audi 4x4, I'd hoped that my gripe with death had been shaken from my system....apparently not though.

It was about 4pm and the roads were dead, so I fancied a ride on my CG125. There's some awesome back roads where I live and no traffic on the B2186 what-so-ever (the scene of the incident). It's an awesome stretch of road, with the ability to take corners at anything from 15mph to 35mph (indicated mind). I came hooning around one particular bend (50mph, well over what's feasibly possible on this road) cranked right over with my foot scrapping the floor (I can't get my knee down for the love of God y'see), when I realised, after exiting the tight corner, that there was a tractor plodding along at 5mph, with another couple of cars trying to overtake it.

Bare in mind I'm doing 52mph cranked right over at this point (I picked up a couple of mph once I'd exited the corner) and it continues turning right (there's no straight road at all). Braking will be extremely difficult and the corner was so sharp that I wouldn't have made it as there's a steep grass verge either side (and I also couldn't see if it was free as the first vehicle in the jam was the tractor described earlier).

Absolutely slammed on my poorly serviced, in-need-of-a-new-brake-shoe squeaky front anchor and the front, being fitted with a tyre made in India several years ago, let go. I immediately let go of the lever to amazingly save the front end before braking with the rear drum brake, re-appling the front and just breathed in like a fat person at weight watchers.

The back lost traction and came right out sideways; my steering was on full lock doing well over 30mph with the rear wheel locked, billowing smoke from the overloaded rear tyre. The front was skipping about everywhere due to the torrents of gravel on the road but it was too late... I was nearly mounting the cars following the tractor and still going far too fast for the bike to cope. They had come to a stand still as the tractor was turning into a field so I let go of the back brake and the back snapped back just in time to filter through the tiniest of gaps between the baffled vehicles; still at the dizzying speeds in excess of 25mph whilst also braking as much as I could without loosing the front.

I hit my previously crippled mirrors twice; one on the mirror of the car at the front of the que, and then again on the spinning 6ft high rear wheel of the tractor as it turned. There are even marks on my Arai of smudged rubber. On the way through and I honestly thought that was it - I've never crashed whilst gunning it (I've not even come close) as I very rarely crash at all.

The moment I knew I was safe was such a relief. I've been in the position a few times when I knew there was no-recovering (like last week with the Audi driver as some of you may have already read) and it normally involved me having an extra sugary cup of tea after, but I was more certain about crashing there than I've ever been before. I can't believe I made it through.

I had to pull over and just go mental for a bit. I wrestled a bridle path sign, shouted at some passing ramblers, threw a coca-cola can at a cyclist, tore down a tree branch and everything. The cyclist, having got back on his push bike pulled up in confusion and I was trying to explain what happened but ended up completely stuttering like one of those chaps from Big Brother (sorry, can't remember which series). I went sideways in-between cars at 20mph for Gawd's sake.

Be careful out there people, lesson learnt for me today. If you can't see round the corner, never presume it's going to be clear, no matter how clear it looks at the time (especially when you can't see round it, hmmm, hang on, that's a contradiction - just be careful, yeah). Words of wisdom - never go around corners you can't see around. No, wait, that's not right, never....erm, you get the idea...

P.S. The post isn't an attempt to boast or brag or anything like that, neither is it similar to anyone else's post recently added to the forum. I've been riding for nearly 10 years now and should know better. It really happened, someone else I know will be along shortly to confirm all details are correct (I later made friends with the cyclist y'see, who'll be registering on the forum later) - it was a very silly error I made and I've learnt from it.

[Cannon]

Stick to polishing fella - you'll be a lot safer
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Staffs Riders Forum

[lllN30lll]

LMAO @ the PS bit.

I was just about to say it sounds just like Luke's story
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Turbo R1
CRF450R

[MaybeGuy]

coke cans chucked at cyclists should be a given... you dont need to blame it on distress.
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[duhawkz]

have some old bean

[D O G]

What a crock of shit.





















































It's a piece of piss to get yer knee down on a CG - clearly you are just a ATGNI sunny sunday Power ranger type who cannie ride for shite. No wonder you nearly ended up as a greasy smear in the road. If you had, you would have deserved it and no mistake.

[MarJay]

[Graham88]

[Fnatic]

It's Luke's story but 100mph slower.

Glad you didn't crash though

Service your brakes. I was going up a motorway slip road last week with such little brake fluid that when I was going uphill I had no front brake. First time I've used my back brake

[tutton]

Mega quality.
Next time take the corner at 5mph.
much safer...
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Past: '05 Peugeot XPS '99 Aprillia RS125 '94 FZR600R
Current: '02 ZX636 A1P '51 CCM R30

[Cannon]

[Mac_Black]

[MinhDinh]

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Hit the G spot.

[craigs23]

[MaybeGuy]

lance

the cyclist


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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith