Lost my confidence.

[jadcock117]

Hi people.
I passed my MOD2 3 weeks ago and since have loved riding my CBF600 but my brother got knocked off on Friday and I have not been out since and am loosing confidence.
Someone decided to pull out from a side road and not check if it was clear making my brother hit the car at 55mph. Thankfully he is extremely lucky only having a broken wrist bone, damaged ligaments and tendons in his foot and bruising. The bike and the car are write offs. I know it could have been So much worse and it's a horrid thought.
Has anyone else been through this? What would you suggest? I don't want to fear biking as I was loving it up to now.
Cheers.

[angryjonny]

Get on and ride. The more you ride the more experience you'll get and the better you'll handle a similar occurrence, should it happen.

I'm of the opinion that the majority of accidents involving bikes whilst not necessarily the fault of the biker (as in this case) could have been avoided if the biker had an escape plan. If you ride assuming that the car at that junction will pull out you'll be better prepared to handle it if it does happen.

A complacent biker is a dangerous one. A biker who is a bit spooked (as you are now) and looking out for danger will be safer. Get out and ride a few weeks and you'll go from "spooked" to "aware" - which is about the optimum alert-level.

[dodgydog]

[jdm]

+1 for what he ^ said.

Always anticipate worst and makes you far more aware of surroundings, junctions etc.

Plus only slightly and not mean't in nasty way but if you were with your bro and that close, then law of averages should also put you bit further down the queue for anything similiar happening anytime soon.

Try riding some routes that are local you know would be 'safer' than average to build confidence up, but ultimately get out on bike and put miles in, longer you leave it worse it will get, all the best to you and your bro!!!
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Good women make me happy, bad one's even happier!
Current Bike = '97 YZF600R Thundercat

[Paxovasa]

Simple aswer is to believe that everybody elso on the road thinks you are invisble.

You could get extra training or go on a Bike safe course, usually held by your local police force
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Suzuki GSF600 K3 (in the fastest colour, black).

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

You lost confidence because someone else had an accident.

Man up.

Pat
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Singer songwriter, Artist and allround good bloke Listen to Andrew Susan Johnston here
The Harry Turner Project

[Gone]

[Wilson123]

Man it up you woman, bikes are as dangerous as the person on them

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Doug97 wrote: Fuck you, what they did was awesome. You just wish you had the balls to be like them, instead of being constantly afraid that there's a rule somewhere out there you might be breaking.

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

^^^Oi! Get yer own bandwagon.

wimpygimpywimpygimpywimpygimpywimpygimpywimpygimpywimpy
wimpygimpywimpygimpywimpygimpywimpygimpywimpy
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wimp
gimp.
____________________
Diabolical homemade music Bandcamp and Soundcloud
Singer songwriter, Artist and allround good bloke Listen to Andrew Susan Johnston here
The Harry Turner Project

[garth]

I've lost a bit of confidence of late.

Mainly because I keep on crashing.

Front end tucks are NOT nice.
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You ain't a has been if you never was

[P.addy]

Ive been wheelchair ridden, the second I got out of the chair and walked again, albeit with a cast on one leg and a support on the other... I was back on bikes straight away!

Yea your confidence is knocked...but you get back on the horse

I watched my mate die instantly after being smashed into at 70mph... I had to ride home afterwards, it was the hardest thing to do, totally devastated and had to pull over numerous times as my mind was overtaken with thought I wasnt concentrating and it could have been 2 deaths in one night.
Hes the only reason im still riding, he got me into it and made me buy my first bike, just so I could ride with him

tl;dr - man up

[pinkyfloyd]

[twostroketit]

I lost my confidence last year after an accident in the wet( i can't remember if i posted about it on here or not).
As my bikes are my only form of transport i had to keep riding and to be truthful i fucking hated it!
If it was raining i would mooch around the yard at work for an hour, plucking up the courage to go home
I've never lost my confidence before so it kind of threw me.
It was strange because i knew i wouldn't give up riding but i also did not want to ride.
Use the experience as a lesson to yourself to be a better rider,try and increase your hazard awareness when you do go out.
You might not enjoy riding, the first time or even the first few times but if you want to continue you will have to "get over it".
Remember keep youself relaxed.
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[stuartadair]

I know exactly what you mean about your confidence.

I was out riding yesterday, only doing about 30mph when a learner decided to reverse off her drive in-front of me. When she saw me and stopped in the middle of the lane I was in and closed her eyes. I hit the brakes and gave it too much rear in the wet so the back end came round. I came off the rear brake when the bike was about 20º out of straight and luckily the back end stepped back in and I was able to recover.

I pulled up about 100 yds up the road and had to get off for a few mins to calm down. But, I got back on and rode home - Very slowly

[Esti]

Im sure you're a brilliant rider!! keep going out on the bike and build up your confidence. i'm sure you've got a very supportive girlfriend who will give you encouragement!! good luck x

[Paxovasa]

[Rob W]

[pinkyfloyd]

[blinky]

@Jad. Ye sort of similar situation for me. 3 months after i got my full licence, recently then went and had a pretty nasty crash back in August. Broke my neck and was nearly killed on my quite-new beloved Hornet!

Just put it on the 2010 spill counter thread:
https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=189047&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=125

Was quite traumatic in the first few weeks, but have since just wanted to get back on my bike, so hope things get better for you in time.
Not that my family completely agree tho


Some good advice given on this thread tho, nice one guys, and condolences to @Paddy. Cant even imagine what it must be like to see someone killed right in front of you, let alone your best mate.

Ride safe
____________________
Better to ask forgiveness than permission!
Oh i miss my first love, the lovely lil CG!
Rouser 135 2012... Enfield 25... Hornet 600 2002... CG125 2000

[Teflon-Mike]

Theres all manner of car driver: good drivers, bad drivers, mad drivers, sad drivers, sunday drivers & Volvo drivers....

There's only two kinds of bike rider..... new riders & good riders.
New riders get good, get cars or get killed........

Which way you going to go?

You'll only get better, & progress from neew rider to good rider by riding, wont you? More you do it, better rider you'll become.

That means risk.

biking is not devoid of risk, if you werfen't prepared to take any you'd be riding the bus & collecting stamps.

Recognising the risks is half the job done. avopiding them the rest.

Do that & you can live a long time & enjoy a long and healthy biking career.

Get back in the saddle. Keep your wits about you. Try not to obscess about it all. Book advanced training.
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[robbieguy2003]

I'd keep riding, bad stuff happens all the time. Flying is safe and I do it a lot just for work, it could go wrong, it doesn't mean i dont get on a plane though.

Everything you do is risky, at the end of the day something could happen to you while you're doing something you dont like or care about.

Dont get rid of something you do like because it might hurt you.

As others have said, a bit of controlled fear can be a good thing on a bike.

It's worse when something like this happens to someone close to you. Rather than ignore it, take value in seeing what can happen and train yourself to avoid those accidents.

[Rogerborg]

Wear decent protective gear, hi-vis, a white helmet, ride with your lights on and change road position to make yourself visible. But assume that you're always invisible, and accept responsibility for avoiding the mobile hazards. Cagers will pull out on us. Pragmatically, it's up to us to avoid them.

If you can't accept that, then how much do you want for your CBF?

[angryjonny]

[G]

[Paxovasa]