Thursday 3/5 Ride

[desmo2]

Originally Posted by stoked44

Thanks devo and desmo for taken it easy so I could keep up. I know if you wanted to you could proabably leave us all in the dust.

Actually, I was running a bit too fast at times for my own comfort level for street riding. The school bus was a BIG exclamation point on that fact. My bad.

Originally Posted by stoked44

I don't know how you two managed to not hit the ditch. I saw you two breaking into a corner and if not for that I probably would have been in the ditch trying to avoid you two and the bus.

I applied a whole lotta thresh hold braking, and even found myself 'backing it in' a bit! I was just coming in too fast, and committed the cardinal sin of crossing the center line to avoid the bus and Devo. Kudos out to Devo, though, I have no idea how he managed to prevent becoming a Blue Bird bumper sticker!

[earz]

Anyone get video?

[ryoung57]

I've got the vid for you D

first this:

[Scribz]

Thank god it didn't turn out like Ryoung's version! But yes, that was a little too close for comfort. I noticed as I crested that corner -zixxer- was in the left lane so I grabbed a whole handful of front brake and stomped on the rear. That is exactly why I try and give myself plenty of room between me and the guy in front of me. Like Desmo commented on today, When you are riding well within your abilities, there is nothing worse then having the guy behind run up on you too fast and ruin both your days! There is just no need to be bunched together, and if we had been today then there could have been 6 riders in the ditch!

[Devo]

2 words for how I avoided it. Yamaha Brakes! Knowing how much you can grab before bad stuff happens and holding it just about there can get you stopped fast. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have practiced hard braking on my bike. Today, I'm glad I had that knowledge of my bike's braking ability.

[ryoung57]

Devo makes a good point. EVERYONE who rides should take the time to gear up and go to an empty parking lot, stretch of road, racetrack, etc and learn the limits of their motorcycle. You should know exactly what's going to happen in virtually every situation, especially panic braking. We don't crash because of normal circumstances. These bikes can handle just about anything we throw at them until you add in a dog, or a car, or gravel, or oil, or a school bus, or a painted stripe (you get the idea). The difference between crashing and not crashing is this little bit of experience and the ability to keep calm and react accordingly when the road throws these curveballs at you.