CRASHING DOWN
UP FRONT
EDITOR'S LETTER
THAT MOMENT YOU REALIZE YOU ARE NO LONGER RIDING THE MOTORCYCLE
As both my profession and a primary hobby, riding and living motorcycling occupies a huge portion of my brain space. Long stretches of my life have included riding more than 30,000 miles per year on motorcycles, most often going as fast as I thought was prudent. Foreign lands, foreign racetracks, jet lag, Los Angeles freeways, late nights, early mornings, and many other influencing factors. Improving my riding is one of my life’s works.
You get to feel pretty good about your skills after all that. And when you recall your last street crash in regular road riding was circa 1994 on a Suzuki GSX-R1100, well, you begin to think it won’t happen again.
But I lost the front on the brakes during my commute home recently. As luck would have it, I was riding a 2011 Harley-Davidson XR1200X borrowed from my friend Bill Getty and crashed it within too miles of picking it up. My wife, Jen, wanted perhaps to buy the bike, and Bill offered it to ride while we thought it over.
So I ride an easy half-million miles over the last 20-plus years testing motorcycles owned by impersonal corporate entities that build crashed bikes into the budget, and my first dump since ’94 is on my friend’s pristine XR with 2,500 miles on the clock. Thumbs-up! Hey, I’m willing to cut our offer in half...
Since I never want to stop learning what I can do better on a motorcycle, I’ve been thinking this one over quite a bit.
First thought: Blame the tires!
Well, blaming the tires is an external factor, a factor I was aware of. While I hadn’t checked the date code on the front Dunlop,
I knew that this bike, with its low mileage, had a very strong likelihood of still wearing the original equipment front tire. I should, and could, have modified my riding behavior to accommodate it. Instead, my exuberant desire to get home after work dominated and I went too fast for conditions.
Second thought: Blame bad drivers! Yes, other drivers are also an external factor, one we know less about. Even still,
I watched the scenario unfold. I was filtering through cars that, up to the point of my arrival, were just beginning to move, allowing me space to safely pass. A driver in the lane to my right decided to turn right across a bike lane and into a dedicated turn lane but was halted abruptly by traffic. The car accelerating directly behind suddenly cut left and the gap I predicted was gone.
I really did have time to react to the chaos unfolding ahead, but I chose not to moderate my pace or alter my path, thinking that I’d still have that gap. When my prediction turned out wrong, I applied the front brake with some vigor, locked the wheel, and was no longer riding the motorcycle. If you want proof that this was my mistake and mine alone, consider that I didn’t hit any of the cars ahead of me—using only my leg, hip, elbow, and much of the XRi200X’s metal parts as “braking material” while on the ground. There was room and time to stop using the tire, even if the aging rubber wasn’t at its best.
I was lucky the lesson was just a few bruises and bent motorcycle parts. I jumped up, looked the bike over, and rode it home crookedly, still in time for dinner. Wounded far more on the inside than outside.
There are lessons big and small. I was fortunate to learn a lot from this while giving so little.
THIS MONTH’S STATS
160 MILES COVEREDTESTING THE 2017 GSX-R1000 AT COTA
zero NUMBER OF EXPLANATIONS WE HAVE FOR EL SOLITARY'S CRAZY WAYS
13 ACE OF YOUNG AMERICAN ROADRACER DAMIAN JIGALOV
MARK HOYER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
