Don't read temp road sign in corners

[Lefty]

Went for a quick 60 mile ride this afternoon after scoring some leather riding pants today at CG's one day sale. No traffic, familiar twisty road, feeling good, riding well within my skill, until...coming around a fairly quick corner on the edge of a drop off I spy a temporary road sign on a sandwich board with a lot of writing on it. I see that it has something to with a road closure but unfortunately by the time I got to the second sentence I realize that I've committed the proverbial riding sin, going where you're looking! :spank: No time to correct for the turn and I had to make a split second decision that I was going to have to go straight ahead in to the runoff and do my best not to go over the hill or spill the bike. The good news is that I did everything right after making the first "not looking where you want to go" mistake. Judicious use of both brakes until I left the pavement and then just feathering the brakes on and off until I can to a stop before going over the edge or dropping my bike on it's side. What lesson did I learn from all this? DON'T READ SIGNS WITH SMALL PRINT IN THE MIDDLE OF CORNERS! Just thought I'd share my experience and hopefully someone can avoid doing the same after reading my story. A special shoutout to Wavex and Red Wazp for their riding tips that I've been practicing. Thanks guys, you're experience saved me today. :thumbup:

 

[Kazza]

God, Lefty - you are a very lucky man :thumbup:

Good riding.

 

[deeptekkie]

Went for a quick 60 mile ride this afternoon after scoring some leather riding pants today at CG's one day sale. No traffic, familiar twisty road, feeling good, riding well within my skill, until...coming around a fairly quick corner on the edge of a drop off I spy a temporary road sign on a sandwich board with a lot of writing on it. I see that it has something to with a road closure but unfortunately by the time I got to the second sentence I realize that I've committed the proverbial riding sin, going where you're looking! :spank: No time to correct for the turn and I had to make a split second decision that I was going to have to go straight ahead in to the runoff and do my best not to go over the hill or spill the bike. The good news is that I did everything right after making the first "not looking where you want to go" mistake. Judicious use of both brakes until I left the pavement and then just feathering the brakes on and off until I can to a stop before going over the edge or dropping my bike on it's side. What lesson did I learn from all this? DON'T READ SIGNS WITH SMALL PRINT IN THE MIDDLE OF CORNERS! Just thought I'd share my experience and hopefully someone can avoid doing the same after reading my story. A special shoutout to Wavex and Red Wazp for their riding tips that I've been practicing. Thanks guys, you're experience saved me today. :thumbup:

I LMAO at your post. I did the same thing about two weeks ago, except there was no sign - I knew what I was going to do on a slightly-too-fast left turn off, but I had one of those STUPID second thoughts and took a millisecond to have a second glance to make doubly-sure no car was approaching. (Stupid, stupid, stupid - go with your gut!) That split second glance cost me all the time it took to draw my line. To my personal embarrassment I did get straight-line stopped right at the edge of the pavement. Between laughing at myself, being proud of my very nimble bike, and being aggrivated at myself for being "too safe", I had to sit there and statically go down through all of my gears so I could pull out again. I'm just glad I wasn't drinking a Pepsi - it would have come out of my nose!
(BTW: There was no car coming!) If there had a been sign with fine print instead I guess my Fazer would now be a stripped-down off-road moto! Thanks for your thread!

 

[Red Wazp]

Good on you Lefty for sharing you story. After 9 dirt and street bikes with over 150k miles of riding I am still learning too.

 

[Lefty]

Thanks Karen, deeptekkie and Red Wazp. It was a stupid, stupid mistake but one a lot of us have made or will make at some point in our riding careers. I didn't mention in the OP that just this last Thursday I took a couple of hours away from work and went on a two hour ride in the same general area to work on my riding skills while keeping my normal speed to about 60-70% of what I normally ride at. I mainly concentrated on rear brake scrubbing, corner lines and both brake application in emergency situations. I also adjusted my rear brake lever Friday night to make it at the perfect height and thus improve it's usefulness. I think that I'll be spending more days like last Thursday practicing my skills in the future. :thumbup:

 

[jrevans]

Good save!

p.s. - What did the sign say? Was it an ad for progressive motorcycle insurance?

 

[Lefty]

Yeah it might have been, kind of like the tv commercial where the squirrels would wait for cars to come by and then run out in front of them to make them crash. But I only made it reading though the first sentence that said the road would be closed sometime this week with the date, after that all I could see was the gravel and dropoff.