A few of my coworkers and I went out for a 135-mile ride along some of Southern California's canyon and highway routes. At mile 40, I was taking a right uphill switchback, trying to follow my friend's line. What I didn't realize was there was diesel oil on the middle of our lane that he managed to avoid and I didn't, so down I went onto a low-side, 30mph crash - I can honestly say that I didn't lay down my bike since the bike decided to do it all on its own. A few important points:
- With MSF training and snowboarding experience, I managed to not hurt myself further by refraining from trying to further control the bike in the panicked situation and by landing on the pavement by tucking my arms in instead of splaying them out - a lot of snowboard mishaps has conditioned me to protect my arms. And God forbid I go high-side.
- Speaking of protecting appendages, I was wearing fingerless gloves, which is a bad call on my part. Luckily for me, I tucked those in during the fall. I think I managed to get a superficial scrape on the right ring finger knuckle from the throttle grip housing.
- The Corazzo Speedway jacket I wore worked well: the most crucial point of contact with the jacket happened at the right elbow with the Knox armor absorbing the impact and the textile holding up well against the abrasion; I didn't feel anything at all. The Kuhl Rydr pants I had on didn't do so well. My right hip took most of my body's impact and unfortunately, I also had some knickknacks in my pocket at the time. The pants are also of heavier textile, but is not rated for crash/abrasion. Luckily for me, I was wearing thicker thermals underneath.
- While in a state of disbelief, I wasn't really thinking about my bike being in the middle of the lane. A friend of mine that was trailing and saw me go down managed to pull over, check me once over, and help me get my bike up. I definitely need to practice on standing my bike up solo.
Moral of the story: ride safe and enjoy.
*including those with scooters.
