WTF is wrong with me??

I have had three accidents in the last 13 months! Last June I tried to stop in a pullout on my favorite mountain road and crashed into the guardrail totaling my beautiful 98. Two months later I got an 01 and proceeded to lay it down in corner filled with gravel. I fixed her up, repainted it and rode all year until two days ago when I was going on a ride and never made it out of town! I got some breakfast, got back on the bike and five minutes later I hit a car coming into the intersection. I was turning left and don't know if I just didn't see him or if I had a green arrow and didn't look. Regardless, I used to think I was a fairly skilled, defensive, rider for a few years. I learned to ride on the street about five years ago on an old Suzuki 400 and moved up the VFR and had about 23,000 miles of non problematic riding. That was four years of no accidents or even a fall over.

I am now thinking maybe I have a problem with staying focused, am too distracted, or too arrogant to be on a bike! I have gotten very lucky not getting too hurt in any of the accidents, but c'mon!!!!

I think when I finish fixing my bike (again), I need to put myself back into the beginning rider mentality and take the intermediate MSF course.

 

That's rough, but you are asking some good questions. Definitely the more aggressively you ride or even if you just push it a bit and ride tired, you risk making mistakes. I'm sure I have made more than three mistakes in the last year, they just haven't resulted in accidents though I know that in a least a couple of cases that was just luck. In those cases I was definitely pushing my limits.

 

Dude that blows! Well good news is bad luck comes in three's so you should be good now! Keep your chin up! I got a new truck last July and I have since banged it up four times just backing into shit and such. It happens!

 

threes 333

Well they say they come in threes. Aside from that, over the years the guys I ride with have had some wildly unfortunate years that made us all scratch our heads, I had one to. It happens . It will make you safer in the long run and you know whats at stake .PM fredsncoma and ask him about his bad year as his was the worst I can think of.It was a whopper.:biggrin:

 

Hopefully, your bad streak is over. But think about getting a full physical exam just in case, and work on reducing your stress level. It does sound like you're preoccupied.

 

Also, two things; one statement, and a question.

First, the question: :yousuck:? ........:jaw: :joker:

Second, seriously: I know that with many things, after you get really comfortable, you stop paying attention to the little things. You just stop focusing, and paying attention, next thing you know you're doing something really stupid, and you're like "HOW'D THAT HAPPEN? I'd thought I'd NEVER do that...", but it's not that your skills are bad, you're just not using them.

I also know that this can be compounded by being preoccupied. Now, I'm not saying this is what happened to you, I'm just saying it CAN happen...

 

Regroup. Is it written somewhere that you cannot re-take the basic course. That may help you re-focus, possibly loose some ebad habits you may have developed.

 

I normally take an inventory before I ride. Am I too tired, stressed, too focused on other things, if so I take the cage. Hopefully your streak of crashes will end now. Good luck

 

Sounds like you need to pick up a safer hobby like sitting on the couch and smoking pot all day long.

Regards,
Rollin

 

Our many enemies

The list of things out there to get us is long, as the reaper has many friends. The three that got you, gravel, left turns and cagers often succeed in their plot when we have let are guard down for just a moment. It appears that in your case, as in most, it was all caused by pilot error. Now you have to figure out if it was due to poor judgement (ie. going too fast), lack of ability(ie. little experience in emergency braking), or just inattention (ie. hotties). I'm sure we all have been guilty of these flaws, at one time or another. The battle to survive, depends on us to recognize and eliminate them, before they eliminate us.

Some may think that if all the ride safe rules are followed, the fun will be gone. I say, a safe ride is more fun than pushing the morphine button for the umpteenth time.

:crazy:

 

Sometimes we get complacent - I started riding in 1984 - I have been very lucky - only been down twice. First was just after I bought my first ride, don't laugh, Honda Elite 150 scooter - rode up the lane from the dealer, made a left turn - hit gravel and dragged myself 20 feet cause I didn't let go the throttle (okay - go ahead an laugh at the scooter and the dragging). Second time it wasn't my fault - was in a motorcycle rally called the numb bum 1000 - I was a passenger on a friends Goldwing - we were on gravel road and came up to a 180 degree turn to quick and went into the ditch (I still remember it took 4 of us to pull his Gold Wing out!) . Those were both in my first couple of years. The key is to not get complacent - enjoy the ride but always, always be prepared that someone (in those 4 wheeled vehicles) or something (deer) is going to cross your path...

Like I said, I started on a Scooter, then I bought a 1985 Honda Shadow 500 - had that for the longest time - then when the kids came - I had to give up the bike (wife was worried)...Now I ride a 1999 Yellow VFR - and loving it - I love the speed and response and the agility of this bike - but it is a powerful machine - one that can not be taken lightly. No one - no matter how long they have been riding nor how skilled they are can never be complacent when riding a bike.

 

Complacency is the only word that comes to mind. The military is a perfect example of what happens when complacency becomes routine;

1. a seasoned 30 yr old First Class Petty Officer (E-6) fell off of the flight deck of the USS Shiloh during preperations to pull back into home port. He was never found.

2. a seasoned 35+ year old Chief crossed the foul line while an F-18 was in tension on the catapult, just as the button was pressed to launch. he was decapitated.

These incidents aren't meant to be doom and gloom on your situtaion,but to highlight one thing. You need to learn from your mistakes and recognize the trend. The trend I see is a lack of vigilance. An MSF course is never a bad thing, but getting your head in the game and keeping it there is totally on you. Don't ride distracted, angry, sad, etc. ride just to ride and remember to enjoy it. Also try to think back as to what is different from when you were riding crash free and now. What has changed, what are you doing differently. one of the things that I think helped me recover from my crashes was going to a track day. you would not believe what that does for your own confidence and understanding of your capabilites and limitations for your bike and yourself.

Take your time, focus, and remember why Motorcycling is important to you, and then pay attention to the hazards. You will recover- just learn from the trend.

 

Also, as an MSF RiderCoach for Basic and Experienced, the Experienced rider course has much more to offer and does focus a bit on how you ride and the hazards out there.

You already know how to operate mototrcycles, the Basic Course won't benefit you as much.

 

sorry if this is too personal but I know its similar to a problem I had. sounds like all of these incidents are related to a lack of attentivness. Have you ever been tested for ADHD, how are your math and note taking skills?

 

Interesting thread. thanks.
I just had my first "caused" accident in a long time & it was definately from lack of focus.

Some emergency braking practice would certainly help me as well.

 

Yo, Zona! Nung checking in from your town. Since I know this town it might help for me to know more details of WHERE these happened. The first incident was on Mt. Lemmon, right? (I thought I remembered that from a previous post.) So where was the gravel-corner and where was this last incident? You KNOW how bad Tucson drivers are. But of course, it is wise to look at all the possibilities. My biggest concern is that 2 to 5 year experience level since it is easy to fall into complacency. It is easy to over-stress one's experience and underestimate the potential for the road and other drivers to present problems. Focus is key. Let me know...

 

Valencia and Nogales highway. Go figure, I go through that intersection about 300 times a year. I think I just had a brain fart this time. The Lemmon crash was poor decision making and the one two months after that was in Arivaca a few days after it rained. That one was a combo of going too fast and incorrect avoidance. I knew the corner was coming (that usually has gravel in it) and started to slow down way too late, put the bike upright a little to get through the gravel, got through the gravel, was off onto the shoulder before I could get it laid back over and the deep shoulder gravel ate my front wheel and down I went.

 

Howdy ZM, Sorry about your lack of good luck, I have been riding since the mid-sixtys,so
suffice to say, I have probably slowed down quite a lot compared to how I
used to ride. What ever advice that I give,I am not sure that it will be
helpful,but the first thing that I do is ride very defensively;a couple of
examples are as follows; If you are going thru an interesection and you
have the right of way and the other guy has the stop sign, I will slow
down in the expectation that the guy will run the stop sign. If I am
going into a set of twisties, I will probably pre -ride them due to the
fact that something on the road may have changed, like gravel
being some place that it wasn't the last time. One last thing that I
may suggest, Have some" responsible" rider buddy follow you at a distance
for the purpose of evaluataing your riding decision making.
Possibly he may pick up on something that he feels you are
doing incorrectly,not so much skill wise but decision wise.
I hope that I have been helpful and not just silly sounding,
Good Luck, eddie

 

at least ur conscious of the problem. Changing your riding mentality, not getting too comfortable in the saddle, will help... I find that every single time I make a mistake, even a minor one, it's because I've gotten overly confident...