2 Lowsides and 1 Highside in 1 year

[Djxinator]

Hey guys,

I've been on a 125 for around a year now, and I've managed to crash the thing 3 times...

First time was in the pouring rain, on the way to work, filtering traffic and someone didn't look in their mirror and pulled out. There was no grip and no hope, it was brake and lose it or hit the car.

Second time was on a roundabout on Black Ice. Self explanatory.

Third time was on a small road with cars parked either side. Only room for one car in the road (Residential area). A Car pulled out without looking, I was travelling around 30mph and it was really close. I panicked and slammed the brakes on, whilst simultaneously swerving, resulting in a high side. (I know that was retarded but my brain did not function when I saw the car pull out)

None of the above were painful, a bit of a bruised palm is the most I've had and the bike has only ever sustained small amounts of cosmetic damage.

Should I just give up now?
Am I a menace to the road and myself?
Help please

[Piggyfish]

Don't give up, but definitely consider investing in a bikesafe day or similar. Think of all those offs, and work out whether you could have done something about them all if you had thought "what would happen if he pulls across...." or "what would happen if that road's icy....." Chances are you'd have gone a bit slower and would have stayed upright. And that, my friend, is the difference between a biker and a donor.
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New Boy on the BCF Block.
Can be found @thepiggyfish which gives a big clue about me.....
My bike - '99 CBR 600FX. The "company bike" - R1200RT with a few optional extras.

[-Matt-]

Before doing bikesafe and so forth, something easier and perhaps more useful to do - I did this each time I got a new bike and personally feel it helped a lot. Head down a local empty car park/industiral estate etc, and do emergency stops/generally 'mess around' with the bike. It sounds obvious and basic, but realistically how often do you do emergency stops day to day, you do it on your test - and then... when you are about to have an accident.

If you can get comfortable and program yourself to know just how much you can slam the brakes on in various conditions it can make a big difference when something takes you off-guard on the road. Its not safe-proof, as I almost slid the rear out a couple of times but i'd rather risk a scratched bike in a carpark than a smash with a car and subsequent injuries on the road personally.

Don't give up though, the more you mess up the more you learn

[Tamsin]

The key thing about being safe on the road, be it in a car, on a bike (motorised or push) or even on a biddymobile is to anticipate hazards that are up ahead, look at junctions, see if there is something coming and think what they might do.

I agree with piggyfish, something like a bikesafe course might be a good idea

[Djxinator]

To be honest, each one of the offs have taught me a valuable lesson.

Filtering traffic in the pouring rain, downhill is not smart. Neither is riding when its Icy.

As far as the last one went, I dunno. Whenever I practice Emergency stops (At lights for example, when there are no cars infront or behind) I do it quickly and efficiently. You can't practice spur of the moment :/

[Teflon-Mike]

I doubt you 'high-sided' a 125; however... on the smiler scale, just 3 offs in a year isn't doing too bad.
I presume you are on L-Plates and not had any training above and beyond the 'first lesson' of CBT?
But, this is why they call it the school of hard knocks!
And it doesn't teach you what you should do... just punishes you for doing stuff you shouldn't.
Get lessons, learn how to do stuff 'right'.
Or... carry on in the school of hard knocks, and hope you are doing enough right, and don't get too much punishment.
Or give up.
Your call, at the end of the day. We cant tell you what to do, or what's best for you.
But three offs, is not astounding, there are folk on here that seem to crash that many times a week, and still keep coming back for more... some of them dont even have the excuse of being a Learner, and do it on big bikes! So if you have survived this far, you must be doing some stuff reasonably well.
Get lessons... then decide.
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[-Matt-]

[Djxinator]

Cheers guys for the votes of confidence and replies.

I'll be sticking around. My theory test is in a week and as soon as I have my (Pass) results I'll be booking training for my Mod 1 and 2.

I'm hoping to have a Bandit 600 for Mid June/July (restricted of course) and be ready to ride it straight away.

People learn from making mistakes, you can be told not to make those mistakes but the only surefire way to learn how to not make them is to make them and learn the hard way.

Hopefully next time I post on here will be when I've got my A2.

[bladerunner]

Agreed 3 offs when it's wet or icy or someone pulls out in front of you causing you to brake to the max ain't bad...it's lack of practice or experience...... Practice emergency stops .....put a foot down on a wet road and feel how much grip there is, this lets you know...some offer good levels of grip when wet....some are like a bloody ice ring at least this takes the guess work out of what's available at the time! Me...I crashed little bikes a lot more than I ever have big bikes even after 30 years riding I still learn every day...because every day the grip and conditions change and at least if you know how much grip is available you can adjust your braking and vanishing point distances to suite
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Current bikes...cbr929, KDX200's, Rd125lc mk2, RGV250's

[Llama-Farmer]

What happened in the third crash?

High side is where you get thrown off the high side of the bike... towards the outside of the corner. Usually happens when the rear tyre goes from losing traction to suddenly gripping and violently rotating the bike before you can react. Spinning up a rear wheel on a powerful bike, or locking the rear whilst turning then releasing the brake would do it, in most cases you'd need warm grippy tyres to manage it.



I'd suggest you get some lessons under your belt. (I assume you're riding on a CBT?) There's no rule that says you can't have lessons once you've passed your test though... a lot of people, most in fact, could do with at least a few hours with an instructor to sharpen up their weaker skills.

(When reapplying for photo card, I don't think it'd be a bad idea to have to complete at least 5 hours with an instructor in the previous 6 months to show competence recurrent training. instructor can fill in part of the form that gets sent to DVLA with old licence. could also have part for GP and optician to fill in saying that you are in acceptable state of health with adequate vision [corrected or otherwise] to be driving. I don't think 5 hours recurrent training every 10 years is unreasonable.)
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Current Bike: 1999 Honda CB600 FX Hornet
Next Bike: I want a CBR-RR. And I want an F800 GS-A. And a VFR 800. Can I have all 3?
Dream Bikes: Honda VFR750R RC30, Honda NSR500, Ducati 996 R

[iooi]

[JP7]

Crashes can happen to the best of us, and luckily for you none of them caused you any particular injury. To walk out of three of them with no injury is very lucky indeed. Don't stop biking, but do look at extra training, and learning from each one to see what you could do differently. As you get miles under your belt, you'll learn to react to this stuff.

I was told not to think about whose fault a collision was, but whether you could have done anything to prevent it. For example on the residential street, a car pulled out in front of you. Not necessarily your fault, but were you riding to the conditions? Were you looking down the junctions as you approached, and were you looking into the parked cars for occupants? If you see someone sitting in a car as you approach, consider whether they're going to pull out, or whether they're going to fling their door open. Could you have stopped in the distance you could see to be clear? In this case you couldn't.

[P.addy]

I had 7 in one year, you are doing fine buddy

[thepuma]

Dont give up...but you seriously need to increase your awareness whilst riding..

Ive been riding 2 years (daily) and not been even close to having an off...thats mainly down to road awareness and anticipating dangers.

The BEST thing for you is to get a bike with ABS next time. This 'may' have saved the bike from falling in 2 of your 3 incidents.
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YBR125 (SOLD) - CBR250R(SOLD) - CBR650F(SOLD) Current - Street Triple
765 RS

[esullivan]

My advice is just to lift that chin.

Seriously, I notice this with the hooligans in the neighbourhood on scooters and small bikes. Their heads are almost tilted forward, because they're focused on what they are doing and the road in front of them (and trying to look cool). I'm not saying you are a hooligan, but they're making the same kind of mistake and crash three times a week.

Lift that chin up and scan further down the road. You might have spotted and anticipated some of those hazards earlier (e.g., noticed the exhaust plume from the car on the side that was about to pull out or a reflection on the road from the ice).

Never ride anywhere that your mind hasn't been three seconds earlier.
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Current: '14 VFR800X Test passed 31/10/12.
Previous: '12 NC700S, '11 CBF 125, '04 SH 125.

[arry]

[MarJay]

All sounds like a case of poor observation to me.

You need to adjust your riding to the conditions. This includes cold weather, wet weather, traffic conditions and the whole shooting match. If you can't make sensible judgements on adjusting your speed, road position and attitude to suit the conditions then you shouldn't be on the road.

However, it's not something that comes naturally to everyone. It's a learned thing and you need to practice. The key is really to know you need to try to improve and to continuously reflect on your riding and always think about the following things:

What could I have done better there?
What did I do well there?

It sounds like you won't have many "what did I do well?" answers for the first bit of your riding career, but being self critical about your riding is the only way to survive on the roads IMO.

I've been riding for 15 years and I still examine what I do every day. Perhaps not as in-depth as I used to when I rode a 125 but I still do it, and I still learn from my successes and my mistakes.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F; Cheap project: CBR900RR FireBlade
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Shinigami]

I'm currently at 1 each year, hoping 2014 will be different
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Current: Honda City Fly CLR125 2003 Honda CB600F Hornet 2008 Yamaha FZ6 S2 + 1991 Kawasaki GPZ500
"Once you realize what a joke everything is, being the Comedian is the only thing that makes sense.

[dydey90]

I know a bloke who got himself a 'bike' (...50cc Peugeot) and every week he'd turn up at the pub with some tail of how everybody in a car hates him and keeps trying to kill him and how he'd been thrown off twice that week.

Then I saw him on the road once and damn he could not ride his way out of a wet paper bag. He didn't seem to realise the throttle wasn't an on/off switch.

I thought this was going to be a similar story but black ice, fuckwits in traffic and SMIDSY are generally unavoidable. Just use common sense. If traffic is stationary and you come through at 40mph somebody is going to get hurt.
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This post is probably not serious and shouldn't be taken literally.
Past: CBR125,ER6f NINJA 650, ZZR600 Current: VFR750

[Easter Bunny]

Quite simply you are riding over the imaginary limit for the conditions, the limit where you either can't stop before hitting something or go down as soon as the wheels slip.

Riding within this limit comes with experience, as an all year rider there's been many times I've felt the wheels slip on a roundabout (I live in the land of roundabouts) but not come off as I have considered the possibility of such, what happens if someone switches lanes etc.

You need to begin to ride well within this imaginary limit before you progress to upto it also get some braking training if you lock up at the mere sight of someone pulling out on you.

Ride on just ride more cautiously


I haven't been off for 6 years ( or approx 200K)
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The light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train!

[Rogerborg]

[DrSnoosnoo]

I may be the first one to say this and may sound like a k n o b.

Get yourself licensed up, you're currently on a CBT, seeing as your theory is coming up. You've been taught how to make the bike go and stop.

Get some training perhaps with tips on how to read the road and judge other situations. I just hope your 4th crash isn't a bad one!
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I'm Sam; Northern, Ginger, Lover
Did have: '95 ZZR600 '83 CG125 '97 ZZR1100 '15 Hypermotard 821 SP Do Have: '10 ZX10R

[Sabs]

[Teflon-Mike]

[Dalemac]

For what it is worth, the YBR125 I had as a first bike was the most unsafe bike I have ever owned. The problem is the tyres. Tall, skinny tyres are shit for grip. Lose traction and there is a much higher chance of lowsiding than on a bike with a wider tyre.

It felt like every time i went round a corner in the wet i would fall off the thing.

My off count is:

YBR125 - 5 in less than two years.
GPZ500 - 0 in over 3 years.
SL1000 - 1 in over 4 years. (diagonal across a downhill carpark in the snow)

So, this, with a combines lack of power from a 125, is why they are the most dangerous bikes on the road.
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YBR125 -> GPZ500S -> SL1000