Javier et all - I have and do practice emergency braking. the problem stems from about 15 years if road and mountain bike racing. From about 15 to age 30 I raced competitively first on the road and then in the mountains. About 1/2 the time I brake with both hands and forget about my right foot in panic situations. after almost 5 years of daily riding I think I've finally retrained my muscle memory.
I also ride in the 3rd worst traffic in America - down one spot from 2nd worst last year. Plus we are a very big melting pot of people from all over the world. Me next door neighbor is form rural India, he drove a ox pulled cart before coming here. I'm amazed on at least a weekly bases at what people do while driving here. It allot of ways its less crazy then Manhattan, Tokyo, Rome or Seoul but the problem is that you have people who grew up driving in all of those places so you never really know what to expect. Having said that - no place is as crazy as Boston..... I'd never get on a bike within 50 miles of that town. Sean On Friday, May 31, 2013 10:09:30 AM UTC-10, Javier Garcia wrote: > > Sean, > you might want to also consider practicing panic stops. Notice that in all > these incidents the common thing is hard front braking. I am not saying > these falls could being avoided (we will never know), but you see how front > braking is crucial. I have done from time to time. Get into an empty > parking lot, and choose a mark. Drive at low speed (say 15 mph) and > practice slamming on the brakes, and see if you can safely reduce the > braking distance. Then repeat at higher speeds as you feel more confident. > Believe, you will be surprised with how good you can get after a few > trials. > > Javier. > > > On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 3:54 PM, Hawaii Sean <[email protected]<javascript:> > > wrote: > >> I've been kind of hard on my bike: >> 1 - Too much front brake at about 20 and went down on the right side. >> Tank dent, right mirror, exhaust scratched - had to replace the brake >> lever. I'd only been riding for about a month then - complete driver error >> and I've had closer calls sense and not gone down. >> 2 - Traffic jam passing on the shoulder that was covered with gravel. A >> jeep decides he wants to drive down the shoulder and almost takes me out. >> Front brake and down I go. Had to replace the brake lever and the mount >> for my Givi box. >> 3 - Heading too fast into a U-turn as the light turns yellow - front >> brake and the front wheel washes out. This time I went down on the left >> side of the bike. New dent on the other side of the tank and broke the >> clutch lever. >> 4 - Riding out of my parking lot and the guy in front of me decides to >> bang a U-Turn. Slam on the brakes and a slow fall over as I'm trying to >> keep the bike up. The bike didn't hit the ground hard at all but bent the >> heck out of the brake lever and bars - must have been a perfect hit. Brake >> lever replaced, new bars are in my garage waiting to be installed. >> >> I'm very conservative on my bike and consider myself a decent rider. >> However, all of these are because I was doing something I shouldn't have >> been doing. Even the last one I was following too close. Safety 3rd but >> it's really up to the rider to be safe. >> >> Sean >> >> >> On Friday, May 31, 2013 3:06:37 AM UTC-10, aspork42 wrote: >>> >>> So the other day I was moving my bike out of the garage and putting it >>> on the center stand. My back had been bugging me and right as it was >>> lifting up on the stand I got a big shot of pain and I dropped the bike :( >>> It bent the brake lever on the right handlebar, but that was the only >>> real damage. I tried removing and straightening it, but it snapped :( >>> So I ordered a new one, along with a new Dunlop for the rear. >>> >>> Anyone else done something like that? >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] <javascript:>. >> To post to this group, send email to >> [email protected]<javascript:> >> . >> Visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en-US. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> >> >> > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
