Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Laid her down

Well folks,
brand new rider and guess what? Yep, I laid her down in traffic. I had someone tight on my tail during everyone's rush to get home at the end of the day. Instead of not worrying about the vehicles to my rear, I closed the gap with the car in front of me. The car in front of me hit the breaks and I could not react fast enough to get the bike stopped correctly. Went too hard on the front brake, and laid her down. My gloveless hands lead the way to the pavement. OUCH!!!!! My hands look like straight hamburger due to the fact that I was not wearing gloves. I was wearing the kevlar draggin shirt from dragginjeans.com and my arms and elbows show very little if any marks at all. The kevlar did its job. Bottom line.WEAR YOUR GEAR!! If I had on my leather jacket and gloves, I would have almost no marks on me whatsoever. I got very lucky, and did not have to even go to the hospital. Someone was looking out for me from up above. The bike looks a little rough, but there is actully very little damage due to the fact that it pretty much slid down the road. Looks like I will heal up and try it again at some time down the road. Learned a valuable about what not to do, and what to do better next time.

http://www.bonnevilleamerica.com/forums/...ge=0#Post159441

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!!

Crashing sucks. What else is there to say. But now that you have that out of the way, get back out on the bike and you will find that you are now a much better rider. I've been down a few times (fortunately nothing severe) and found that each time I had gotten careless and wasn't really thinking about what I was doing. So at the end of the day, this may be a good experience - at least that's what I tell myself.

We all learn the hard way, and the majority of mistakes are at at a slow speed. Take the MSF course it will hopefully give you some idea of what not to do should this arise in the future. Finally glad you are not so bad, the bike will mend, your hands may take a little longer..

Thanks for sharing your story. I have fallen down many times but only once on the BA in wet grass. My wife used to dump her Bonneville every time we stopped and blamed it on me. IMHO, falling down gives you a tremendous amount of experience. Fortunately, mine was on dirt bikes as a teenager.

It's been said many times that there are only two kinds of riders. Those who have been down and those who haven't been down yet. Welcome to the been down club and heal soon.

They say that every biker eventually has a wreak. I had a really bad one in '71. Let's hope that it for both of us and you got out ok.

I had several bad wrecks over the years but was lucky and never had any more than some road rash. All happened before I quit drinking but only 1 was related to drinking.I quit drinking 22 years ago and hope not to crash in the future.

Glad you are ok, some consider taking a fall a rite of passage. It happens to everyone sooner or later.