WTF is wrong with me??

Well, as I mentioned I am usually a very proficient, skilled rider and have avoided many problems too. I commuted a lot and am very conscious of my surroundings, other drivers, blind spots, people turning left in front of me, etc. Also, I can keep up with the best of 'em in the twisties and do not push my personal comfort or skill to keep up with a faster, better rider than myself. I don't view riding a motorcycle as a "hobby" or I would have a Harley. I view it as a recreational sport as well as transportation. I like riding, but like many have said, get my head back in the game.

 

Thanks for the info on the particulars. I can see both areas in my mind and you can too---you obviously know these areas well. And of course that familiarity can add to the tendency to be a bit too complacent. I think you are a capable rider. Consider all the advice here and focus on your attention. Always remember that even when you are fully focused and conservative other people still can make mistakes and draw you into trouble.

 

I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I had three crashes in about the same span. The last one was bad enough to require some surgery and rehab. The first two crashes were my fault for going too fast for the road conditions. The last one was at a congested intersection. Supposedly I didn't see a car coming as I was making a left turn and I hit it (I say supposedly because I can't remember what happened due to the concussion - Helmet save lives!). Anyways, during my four-month sabatacle from riding, I too have been contemplating the meaning of all these crashes, and for me it's too much confidence manifested by going too fast and a lack of attentivenes.

Good luck.

 

Many of us have gone through this. I sat back for over a year after my "issue" before being sure I wanted to ride again. It is easy to be relatively safe and give up everything that has some risk. But, is that the right thing for your psyche? Only you can tell.
Let us know how this turns out.

 

It's hard to say why these things happen. Though, in my experience I've always been able to see where the fault lies or at the very least come up with a concise list based on the evidence.

I'm going on 26k miles on two wheels, I've only been riding for a year and a half. My worst mishap is my first turn on a public road I low-sided due to not looking through the turn and apply the front brake.

Though, I have to say.... when I first started riding near misses were a daily occurrence, maneuvers were a bumbling mess, most of the time I though it was other operators fault. Then, I noticed a trend the more miles I put down, I went from shit almost happening all the time, to once a week, at this point I'm down to a month or two at a time where nothing eventful happens.

Earlier this month a BMW nearly side swiped me changing into my lane as I was adjacent to him, though I must concede that I was passing him on in my lane (the lane to his left), I noticed that his lane was slowing down as there was a car entering a business driveway in the far right lane (the bmws lane). Now, I know from experience that in that situation, drivers 3/10 will try to enter the free-flowing lane (my lane) to avoiding being slowed down by the line building in the right lane. Yet... I didn't utilize that experience/knowledge to take the safest route and as murphy's law dictates, that's when that 3/10 chance came into play.

Given that same situation again, I don't think I'll make the same mistake. After I got most of my larger mistakes out of the way, I learned from them and kept them at the ready in my subconscious for similar queues to rise in the future and be prepared accordingly.

If you were making the same mistake repeatedly, I'd say you fall under the definition of insane and unfit to ride. Though, what you described to me are different situations each time... as long as you learned from them I wouldn't necessarily say there's anything wrong with YOU per se.

 

I've been down twice since I first began riding in 2006. The first accident occurred in 11/07, when I had ~21,000 miles of seat time under my belt. I was on a treacherous rural road that I'd been on many, many times without any problems, but on that particular day I never should've rode because I'd been having a lot of conflicts with a girlfriend; my mind was troubled, and my thoughts were racing.

That day, I thought that a good daylong ride on my new 2007 BMW K1200GT would clear my head. Big mistake. (I'd put 13,500 miles on this bike in just 5 months, including a 2000 mile roundtrip to North Carolina, Deal's Gap, etc. in mid-October that same year.) At any rate, my mind quickly awakened and snapped back into reality as I suddenly found myself entering a very unforgiving left-hander too hot and too wide. I ended up low-siding the motorcycle into a grassy field, and while I luckily walked away (ATGATT) with only a broken finger, bruises, and a sprained left foot, the motorcycle was destroyed. (While I was sliding on my left side, at one point I watched in slow motion as that 630 lb. motorcycle sailed right over my head within mere inches of my helmet and my body. Somehow, the bike ended up tumbling and cartwheeling over top of me without landing on me and crushing me. My Guardian Angels were truly with me that day.)

My 2nd low-side was quite trivial compared with the first. In brief, I used the insurance money on the Beemer to purchase a new 2007 VFR 800A, which I began riding in 4/08. At around 800 miles, I rode 2-up on the VFR with another girlfriend (both of us totally ATGATT). We'd previously rode ~7000 miles, 2-up on the Beemer with one another, so we were a team, and as with the Beemer, we had 2-way communication through an Autocom rig on the VFR.

Once again, I was on a road that was very familiar (for both of us in this case), and while we were traversing a very slow speed, Z-shaped, 10-15 mph zig-zag in the tiny town of Malta, OH (going no more than 10-15 mph) the rear tire stepped out as I was negotiating yet another left-hander, and down we went. We slid along on our left side maybe 20-30 feet before the bike came to a stop, and we were uninjured other than our pride.

The left legs of our First Gear textile riding pants were kinda chewed up, as were our left-side leather riding boots, but the riding gear did its job well and we were unscathed. The only damage to the bike was mostly cosmetic-- scratched left fairings, bent clutch lever, and that was it. We had some help getting the bike lifted (she was pinned underneath the bike but was otherwise uninjured). The local sheriff arrived on the scene, and he determined that the accident was most likely due to unforeseen road hazards beyond our control (antifreeze on the road was suspected), so thankfully I was not cited for failure-to-control...

In hindsight however, when I replay this accident in my mind, I was in fact guilty of failure-to-control because I think that I leaned the bike a little too far over to the left (with a co-rider's weight added to the equation) while failing to simultaneously apply sufficient throttle in order to keep the suspension stable and to then 'walk' the bike through that slow, 90 degree left turn. Live and learn...

ZonaMan (perhaps not the best choice for a username!), it sounds as though you've pretty well identified the primary factor for your troubles over the past 13 months, that being a tendency to become inattentive, complacent, etc., which includes entering a curve too hot. I can obviously relate! That said, I offer the following reminders and ideas, which I'm saying to myself as well as to you!

1) We must always keep in mind one of the basic and undisputed tenets of the Basic Rider Course, "the Hurt Report", etc., which says that the vast majority of motorcycle accidents tend to occur within a fairly short radius of our homes, as well as on roads we feel to be most familiar. For example, ZonaMan, you said that one of your accidents occurred at a local and highly familiar intersection which you estimate that you pass through ~300 times/year. We can become unwarily complacent and inattentive within this self-perceived "Zone of Comfort", and this includes roads that may be far from home, which we think we "know", including examples such as your favorite pull-off along that mountain pass that you described in which you ended up hitting the guardrail.

2) The 2 most common accidents in which motorcyclists are injured or killed are (a) A 2-vehicle collision in which an oncoming vehicle makes a left-hand turn in front of the path of a motorcycle; (b) A motorcyclist alone, without any threatening oncoming traffic, who screws the pooch by entering curves, particularly blind curves, too hot and/or too wide. When approaching curves, slow down and scrub-off speed while the bike is still more upright, and well before we enter the curve.

3) Going down on a bike more than once should be a sure sign that we need to slow down, take it easy, pay closer attention, and just enjoy the ride without pushing ourselves well beyond our skills. Going down really sucks, and in many cases there may be no do-overs.

4) I wear a Shoei TZR helmet (which is a very quiet helmet) along with earplugs, but one thing I've noticed is that when my mind and my mental focus begin to wander, it seems as though my brain tends to tune out auditory inputs, which then lends itself to daydreaming, etc. I don't know about you, but I find that I can be in (for example) a busy hospital ward at work with all kinds of noise and people talking, but when I'm mentally engrossed in thought and reading and thinking about a clinical problem, or even just reading something engrossing , I will unconsciouly just zone out, tune out my hearing, and be in my own world. My coworkers even joke about this.

My point here is that one of the ways I've found that I can snap myself out of this mindset while I'm riding is to focus on my hearing as well as my vision. I try to listen to the bike, the engine, etc., as well as sharpening my vision.

5) When riding twisties, I've learned to stick to lower gears, while keeping the revs up. One of the surest ways to find yourself entering a curve too hot (especially if you're momentarily spaced out) is to be in too high a gear, since this invites speed. By sticking to a lower gear, engine braking can be your good friend, and it can help keep you from quickly and suddenly finding yourself in waters that are over your head.