Kneedragger said:Dang, the fairing damage is almost exactly like what I got lowsiding this past winter. My left signal folded up against it, making it crack around/above the mounting point. But the signal itself only got scratched on the underside where it can't be seen. Looks like yours may have made out similarly.
Great you and the bike made it relatively unscathed. Lucky to have the camera just then, thanks for posting all those great pics and sharing your experience. What a valuable lesson for us all.
FAZR6 said:You have a good head on your shoulders and I'm amazed at your maturity for 17 short years of existance. Live and learn and never think you know it all. Confidence is an important part of motorcycling but it can also be a bad thing in excess. I bet you won't make that mistake again, ever. The best part is you got off very easy.
I was looking though the turn until I realized that I hit the apex way to early. The turn decreased radius so I needed to lean even more. I looked over at the gravel to see how much room I had and I pretty much knew I was going to crash. I just stayed leaned over because I thought I would have a better chance of not getting hurt lowsiding than highsiding.scorpion12 said:Important thing, you're ok. the bike can be repaired/replaced.
You're right, that curve looks pretty severe if it's only 1/2 way in the photo...
Something you've mentioned: You looked away from the curve... look where you want to go. Could it be that you target fixated on the gravel, and the bike followed where you were looking?
Were you looking through the turn? Or at least as far through the turn as you could? That should help for the next time you're riding a road like that...
What was your lane placement? Were you right next to the edge of the asphalt? Closer to the center line? To the right of the grease strip?
Skaggs is an AMAZING road. I've never been on a road with curves anything like that ever before. Road is smooth as silk and the coners are non stop huge sweepers. Just turn around once you get to the tight part. Funny thing is that I saw tons of bikes on the wide sweeper part but none on the tight part. Everyone just turned around.fraggle1 said:Glad to hear you're okay, FZSilver! I'd like to ride Skaggs some day when I make it back to CA with my bike.
You can get some of the benefits of hanging off just by moving your upper body to the inside of the turn. "Kiss your mirror" is one way I heard it described. It also has the benefit of looking less agressive to any cops that might be driving by.
Maybe it's just because I'm slow, but I've never had a problem with steering inputs while hanging off the inside of a turn. My arms stay loose enough that I can still move the bars around if I need to. Even if my tankbag gets in the way of my outside arm, the inside arm can still move the bars whichever direction I need to.