Modern Buddy

Two Saturdays ago I left for what was to be a 4 day trip across Western PA and Northern NY. 5 hours in, on the PA Trail of the Dragon, I took a curve too hot on the Stella.

The curve had a steep bank to it, but then while maintaining the curve, transitions to a flat section. The Stella was pushed up and over the curve. I veered over in the other lane, and fought to get the Stella over to the right side of the road.

All I remember after that is thinking "Oh crap" and the odd thing where my handlebars were shaking back and forth like a "tankslapper". At that point, the Stella and I separated and we both landed hard and skidded down the opposing traffic lane.

Thank God, I walked away from this crash with just some serious bruising (which I still have. Rib bruising is the worst!) There was no traffic on the road, which deserves another nod to the Man. The Stella was rendered inoperable because the clutch side of the handlebar was twisted down. The cowl was dented and scratched slightly.

My question- In the interests of trying to figure out myself what I could have done to get out the handlebar slapping around, and to educate others, what should be done in the above mentioned scenario to get control, what would you have done?

Todd...glad to hear that you came out of it OK buddy! Bruised sucks but it is better than a lot of other things! As for the bike...yeah it sucks to slide a bike...but you coming out of it ok is the important thing.

So what to do when it happens. I can remember twice that I have gone into a turn too hot or run into an unexpected decreasing radius turn. I know that I have done it more than twice...but these are the two that I really remember.

Some of the things are counter intuitive...and there is little time to think about what to do.

Once was on a Burgman 650 on a left hander. Went in too hot so what did I do? I shifted my weight into the turn...to the left...stuck out a knee, a little more throttle to increase traction and leaned it over until the stand scraped.

The second time was on a vintage 67 GT during CBR 2012. Too hot into a right hander decreasing radius turn. Some was the same...roll on the throttle, lean hard. One advantage of riding vintage is depending on the rear brake more than the front. A slight trailing rear brake compresses the front suspension decreasing the rake angle. It's a tricky move and you REALLY need to know your bike to pull it off. I still wound up with a little front end wobble but it was "minor" and I was able to hold it up.

Here is a link with some info.
http://www.motorcycle.com/how-to/negoti ... us-corners

No matter what..you did good!