Patty:
Glad to hear you're healing well. Sorry for your mishap. I'd like to share an experience and suggest a hypothesis:
Several months ago I was riding my Honda 919 around a local lake. It was a very warm day, pavement was hot and I was riding in what I believed to be a reasonable fashion. I entered a left-hand turn - not a corner, but a fairly tight turn. I wasn't going particularly fast, perhaps 25-30mph, which I didn't believe was too hot for this particular curve. Nonetheless, midway through the curve I felt I was going a bit fast and applied some brake. Immediately, my rear tire starting skidding, washing out. I instantly applied more brake - both front and back - trying to get the bike shut down, as I was drifting quickly toward the shoulder. The bike would not regain traction and I made a split-second decision to straighten up and leave the pavement in an upright condition. There were tall weeds beyond the curve and I didn't think it would be too bad. Unfortunately, just beyond the weeds was a washed out ditch. The bike dropped into the ditch and I went over the bars. I had nothing but a few scrapes and bumps, the bike a few as well.
I gathered myself, got the bike out of the ditch and walked back to try to surmise what had caused my loss of traction. Sand? Gravel? Oil? No, nothing there to suggest the cause. I rode the bike home and this issue haunted me for months. It was the first time I'd dropped a bike since the late '70's.
A couple of months ago I ran across a video from a motorcycle racer that talked about losing control on curves just like this. He illustrated a phenomenon that I believe explains my debacle, and perhaps yours too. When I perceived too much speed in the curve I hit the brakes - not hard, but hard enough to compress the front suspension. When this happens, the weight shifting forward essentially unweights the rear wheel. This can cause the tire to loose traction (which it did). I had to decide whether to deal with an impending low-side or straighten up and go off the road upright (as stated, I decided on the latter). Logically, my brain was telling me to wash off as much speed as I could by applying more brake. In fact, this was exactly the opposite of what I should have been doing. Continued braking only aggravated the stituation, unweighting the rear wheel even more and exaggerating the skid. What was the solution? In what seems very unintuitive, I should have gotten off the brakes and rolled on the throttle. Doing so would have shifted momentum back to the rear wheel which likely would have regained traction. Then it would have been a matter of trusting the bike and lean far over and make the turn.
In effect, I had violated one of the basic precepts of riding, braking BEFORE the turn rather than in the turn. And although I didn't think I was going fast enough for it to be an issue, it obviously was, as there was enough pronounced unweighting of the rear wheel when the forks compressed to cause loss of traction. I compounded the problem by braking harder. And the final insult was in not trusting the bike's ability to lean hard into the turn and track me out of trouble.
This realization was a real blow to my ego, as I perceived myself to be a capable rider, perhaps more so than most after 40 years of riding. But, I learned that I am never too old to learn more. Perhaps this has no validity where your particular get-off was concerned. But, I am convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that my crash was self-inflicted. Now, the best I can do is, 1) be grateful that I wasn't injured to any large degree, 2) learn from the experience, 3) hope I never have to deal with it again, and 4) hope nonetheless that if I do, I'll be better equipped mentally to deal with the situation.
I hope my testimony and assertions help you in some way. But, most importantly, I hope you heal completely and quickly.
Ride safe.
Steve
