Bellboy1

I have noticed this as well on a few riders lately. Maybe it was the way I was taught to ride, but I have to think about keeping my foot down. My automatic reaction is to pull it up to the pegs as soon as the bike starts moving. I'm partially afraid I'll catch my foot on the ground and pull it back into the foot peg and break my ankle. If my foot is up on the peg, that can't happen.

I ride that road almost every day on my commute. If you are positioned southbound, you have plenty of time to see those cars at the yield sign. They often do not look over their shoulder to see what's coming, so don't be afraid to come off the throttle and let them go. Also be aware that there is a daycare or something to the right, so they speed through the yield and then suddenly stop to pull into the center. They may be "wrong" for not yielding but you'd be hurt or dead. Always be ready to stop unexpectedly on that road too. I've seen plenty of times where cars slammed on the brakes for wildlife that wanders out onto the road. Finally, I always try to position towards the centerline to protect from those cars pulling out of driveways. Many of them seem to have poor lines of site so I pretty much expect the cars to pull out on me. As jblsser posted, use the SEE method especially when it is busy on that road.

Helmet, Gloves, Armored jacket(sometime leather,sometimes textile, sometimes mesh depending on weather), and armored boots for every commute. I change from boots to shoes at work. Also wear a high vis vest when riding at dawn or dusk. Don't know if it helps, but don't think it hurts. I have textile pants, but don't wear them very often on the commute. I do wear them for recreational riding and longer trips.

The highway patrol actually helped out on that. He wrote up the report that the road was unpassable for bikes and nearly so for cars. I guess by law they are supposed to sweep up debris at the end of the day, or post signs, or have flaggers. They did not have any of those. I did not get cited for anything and placed a claim with the insurance company of the contractor doing the construction. I did a phone interview with my insurance and their insurance on the line and was eventually reimbursed for everything, so I can't complain too much. Insurance actually totalled my ninja 500 because of the broken plastic fairing, so I bought it back and repaired it myself. (Sometimes its good to have a good cheap bike! ) Still need some fresh paint on the front, but otherwise it has been a joy to ride since I'm not worried about dropping it anymore!

I stopped by IP yesterday to pick up a filter and some oil. Thought about trying a ride, but had the family with me and didn't want to leave them while I was off playing with a bike I can't afford to buy right now anyhow. I still consider myself a new rider as well and was not sure of the " you break it , you bought it" aspect of these rides. So we know for sure that someone went down, we just don't know how bad?

I usually throw out the compliment if I see a well taken care of older bike or a unique bike. If it is something I am jealous of or would like to own, I usually start out with how do you like your........? It works pretty well as a conversation starter. On the recieving end I usally get," Nice bike, I used to have one of those I learned to ride on." " What a coincidence, I'm learnig to ride on this one."

I also live nearby and I'm not sure what was up last night but I drove by 2 or three times over a couple hours running some errands and too an fro from baseball practice with my kids. Each time I went by I saw flashing lights over around QSL, so apparently you were not the only ones they were talking too. A few years ago they had some squids racing down 71 from QSL on bike nights and cracked down on it, but since then I've never seen them patrolling like they were last night.

First accident(and only so far) was last July. Coming into a group of sweeping turns that I go over every day, I noticed something looked wierd about the surface. I slowed way down but as got into it I realized it was fine loose gravel spread all the way across the road. I tried to look through the corner and apply gas to get through, but the bike never hooked up and I just drifted all the way the lane over to the ditch beside the road where I finally low sided and broke some plastic on my fairing. I had all the gear on and only a bruised hip where I landed in the ditch. Lady behind me said she thought I was drifting on purpose until I went into the ditch. From there it gets a little wierd. I get up and there is a highway patrol man already walking towards me from the little park where I went off. He helped me push the bike out and checked me over to make sure I was OK. Turns out I was bike 3 to go off that corner that morning and the only one able to ride away. An R1 that had gone off ahead of me endo'd in the ditch and the rider was on his way to the hospital with a concussion. That bike was almost unrecongizeable. A cruiser had gone off too at lower speed but had snapped his left side handebar clip off. The highway patrolman had just arrived to take care of the earlier two crashes when he saw me go off. Turns out construction on the road the previous night had ironically laid down this gravel with a resin to make a high traction surface in the northbound lane the night before. However they did not sweep the gravel out of the southbound lane(the one I was in) or put up any signs. Lesson I learned from this is not to get complacent. I am just thankful I slowed down when I didn't recognize what was wrong with the surface or I could have ended up like the R1 rider. I went from maybe 50 to below 30 before I hit the gravel. I rack a great deal of that accident up to stupidity for not recognizing the gravel for what it was. Another 5-10 mph drop in speed and I would have made it through.

Been a long time since I've seen one that bad. 15 cars, instant red flag, and three drivers sent to the hosptial plus Dan's loss. I did not get to meet him personally, but I have worked around the sport for many years and this is devestating because he was very well liked. Much like Scott Brayton years ago. RIP Dan. I pray for his family and those he left behind.

I've always had to sign a waiver both on race days and open practice. They have been very good about that when I'm there. I'm seeing both sides of this story. Turns out the kid's Dad is in SCCA and is a regular club racer at Mid Ohio. The family is aware of the risks that go with motorsports but that does not make it any less trajic. I did not know them personally since we mostly autocross, but I would probably recognize them from working days up at the track. The people who run Circelville have been very good when we are down there. I hate to see this at a track where so many people have so much fun.

I feel so bad for all the parties involved. My kids started running karts at 6 down there and you never ever think anything could happen that would be fatal.

Thirty years ago when I was a kid I learned to ride a motorcycle on a neighbor's CR80. My Mom still does not know how much I rode that bike. Last year I bought an 82 750 Virago to learn to ride street which promply broke something in the engine and locked up on me about 2 weeks after my msf class. No harm, no foul for what I have in it and it did get me hooked on riding. I still intend to rebuild the motor. That prompted me to buy my 2008 Ninja 500 which has been ultra reliable and very easy to learn how to ride on.

While learning to ride this spring I accidently rode down a no outlet gravel road. Not quite wide enough to do a u turn, so I tried to back the bike around when my boot slipped on the gravel. I basically did the splits trying to hold the bike up and retain my footing. I realized I didn't have enough leverage to get the bike back up so I succeeded in very gently laying the bike down on its side. Didn't even scratch the paint on that one but pulled the hell out of my groin muscle!

^This So much more enjoyable to ride over to 315 or Riverside. Its 15-20 minutes out of my way but much less stressful from a traffic viewpoint! When I ride I get to work in a cheerful mood, when I take 23 in the truck, I am usually pissed off by the time I get to work!

I would guess the OP had enough room for the situation. As I said, I have been doing this commute for over 10 years. Normal scenario on that part of 23 is that the right lane backs up between 7:15 and 8:00 in the morning as everyone tries to get to work. Last part of the road before getting on the outerbelt and 315 is a fairly steep uphill run with several traffic lights. The road rage occurs when traffic in the right lane has been sitting there for 30 impatient minutes of stop and go and then cars from the left lane jump over to the exit between the last light and the exit. This is not illegal, most people do it OK but certainly some believe they have more of a right to get to work faster than you! I have seen some really pissed drivers in the right lane when people do this to them.(I have been one of them depending on if the asshat forces his way in front of me without signalling or anything!) Trucks are rowing through the gears just to get moving at that location so they are pretty slow at that point and then a bunch of vehicles jump in front of them for the exit and kill any momentum they do have. Once they get moving they usually don't let anyone in for the exit. I probably witness that scenario play out once a month and there is usually a fender bender there every 2 weeks when 2 cars go for the same gap at the same time. Some drivers handle it better than others but that is why I don't like to ride the motorcycle over that section on a morning commute.