DerekClouser

Couldn't have said it better myself. I'll be back on two wheels. This won't deter me just makes me want to get better. Just goes to show you that no matter how good you think you are you cAn always be better and safer. Hopefully I'll be back for the fall epic ride, otherwise, they'll have a full organizer lol

I am incredibly glad that Ray and I both are in decent shape considering. The best thing I can hope is that people can learn from my mistakes. Some things that stick out to me are the following. I got on the throttle to hard before I saw the exit of the turn. Especially not knowing the road, would have gave me more time to adjust. As a result of anticipating what the corner was going to do, I came in way to low before the apex making the decreasing radius turn even more difficult. Then came the gravel. Because I was so low into the corner I only left myself one direction to go and that was up into the corner. Had I been on the outside of the corner like I like to be, I could have dove her down low, solving two birds with one stone. Before the turn, I wouldn't say speed was much a factor, I was relatively taking a moderate pace. The corner advised 25 and I think I was going about 55. I will say I did get a major case of target fixation when things got bad. Had I managed to stay looked through the corner I might have made it through. Hard to say if any of these things would have avoided the accident, but in combination I would have definitely increased my chance of making it through. I just feel bad because part of me knows that I pulled Ray into the corner and may have contributed to his accident. I know he won't let me take any responsibility for his accident cause we both know we are responsible for ourselves but when you are the lead guy, you have some responsibility to not over due any corners and I did just that.

The Crash

Just my leg. As I watch the video of the accident I realize I could have probably just stuck it out and rode it through and been fine. Lesson learned. Video incoming.

I could afford the insurance. I just chose not to because it wasn't worth the value to me.

Liability only. They wanted 1900 a year with 1k deductible on a 5k bike for full coverage

Forks and frame seem untouched. So might be able to bring her back to life.

Good news. Ray is being released tonight. He had some rash on his knee, elbow, and Palm. He was wearing a textile jacket, gloves, and jeans. Broke a minor bone in his back which doesn't appear to be anything serious. They are releasing him tonight so we are going to pick him up shortly. Ray's bike is for sure totaled but my bike may be salvaged. Frame and forks seem good but that's still to be determined.

I'm a bit sore. Basically coming through that corner and had it leaned well over tried to change lines to avoid a ton of gravel. Back tire slid out, tried to counter steer out of the high side and ran out of real estate on the road. Grabbed all front at that point and bike endo'ed and I flew over the handle bars and in to a 20 foot rivine. Ray low sided in the same corner. He was unlucky and hit a tree at the top the rivine. Looks like he will be okay just a broken back bone that seems minor and some road rash. I'm just a bit sore. I was recording so when we get home I'll look to see if the camera footage withstood the accident.

While Saturday would be better, I'm still very interested in Sunday. Did you have a route idea planned?

Well there just might be a second time around

Just to verify, you mean for this to be Sunday?

I had the exact same problem. I felt incredibly comfortable on right handers and felt nervous on left handers which caused me to have more problems. The three things that I realized that cause this. I wasn't looking far enough through the turn which hurt my confidence and sped things up. Remember to look through as far through the turn, it takes some practice, but with time you'll be able to look through the corner and maintain good corner positioning with your peripheral vision. Second thing, when you go right you can easily relax your left hand because you are using right hand to throttle, but when you go left, you have to use your left to counter steer but maintain your throttle hand so it's easy to be too firm with the throttle hand which makes it feel harder to go through the corner going left. Relax your arms and make sure they are loose. That really helped me going left and right also, but more so left. And the final thing I noticed when I struggled left was my body positioning. I was able to get a comfortable riding position through right corners which gave me extra confidence in case of a road hazard I could get lower or maneuver quickly, but going left, I struggled getting into the correct body position, so I didn't feel that same escape position in case something happened. Changing those three things for me allowed me to feel much more confident going left.

Let's get a date finalized for the Summer/Fall Epic Ride 2014. Date selection will end August 8th. Details will be the same as it was for the Spring ride, just finalizing the date and I'll post a separate thread with all those details.

I'm just curious? How does one get so lucky as to receive free pipes in the mail? I need to have your luck!

Where in NEO are you at?

I told you from the start that your suspension seemed superrrrrrrrrrrr soft in the front.

And not to deter from the original poster, but, I meant each specific years details. So the route/meet etc can change from year to year, cause quite frankly, we have nothing better to do over the winter, but between spring and fall for each year will be identical.