I know this is easier to write/say than it is to actually do, but if you truly can't avoid a hazard/obstacle like that, try to keep your arms & shoulders loose & relaxed; and don't lock your hands solidly onto the handgrips in a death grip due to panic! Basically, don't tense up, just let the Spyder, it's suspension, & the Nanny take care of you!
hyea: :thumbup:
Even without the Nanny, your Spyder is
MUCH more stable & capable of handling that sorta stuff than
any 2 wheeler, so you just need to let it do that while still gently guiding it in the direction you want to go, without fighting it or trying to brute force it anywhere!! Your main aim should be to
look at where you want to GO (& not at what you want to
AVOID) while you use your knees/legs to hang on to the Spyder and not letting your upper body &/or tense arms/shoulders plus a death grip on the handlebars feed in anything but gentle directional guidance - the moment you tense up & let that death grip transfer all the negative & unnecessary control input into the handlebars that might come from you getting tossed around like a rag doll is the moment it'll start getting
REALLY scary!! :yikes:
This's a saga I know
but please, bear with me for a bit - Very early in my Spyder riding experience, I had reason to discover that while initially travelling at something like 80 mph, the Spyder & the Nanny can & will work phenomenally well together to keep things upright & stable on a suddenly very rough & degraded road surface, even if you savagely haul in
HARD on the Right handlebar then immediately reverse that & haul in
HARD on the Left handlebar at the same time as slamming on the brakes.... it was an aggressive & extrordinary ask, such that the most important thing for me to do was to use my knees & legs simply to
HANG ON so that I wouldn't part company with the Spyder; but between them, the Spyder & the Nanny bundled it all up & managed to keep things upright & both pointing & going where I was aiming! :shocked:
The Police Motorcycle Rider Instructor with a couple of decades of experience who was following me was absolutely astounded; he said afterwards that from the moment the oncoming speeding car lost control on the washed out road surface & spun sideways into my path, the Spyder just seemed to be a living thing that virtually jumped sideways in it's own length to get out of the way of what should've been a really messy & fatal collision. One moment it was tracking straight & true around a gentle uphill curve, and the next it hit the washed out road surface & became this blur of motion in a way that he'd believed was completely impossible for a motorbike of any sort to move; virtually jumping out of the way of the out of control car; first hauling one front wheel a couple of feet into the air then the next grounding that wheel and hauling the other front wheel even higher into the air as it leapt across a lane, moving around & out of the way of this madly spinning car so closely & in such a way that he felt sure it passed
UNDER each of the lifted front wheels in turn and then just as quickly, instead of being smashed to smithereens between this car & the hard shoulder barricade, it was all back on three wheels calmly coming to a halt one lane across and just a few
feet clear of the spinning car as it slammed into the bank & disintegrated!! :banghead:
Bear in mind that this was very early in my Spyder riding experience, so there was
no way it was attributable to any particular skill on my behalf - quick reflexes, maybe; but not any advanced Spyder skill or experience; just sudden & appropriate reactions on the control inputs that the inherent stability of the Spyder and the advanced capabilities of the wonderful suite of stability control systems that we affectionately call the Nanny teamed up with & stepped in to keep things upright & stable, all working to allow the Spyder (with me astride & hanging on with all my might like the rider perched on top of a bucking bronco) to neatly sidestep to avoid an out of control car on a badly degraded road surface!! My take from it was that the Spyder itself and the Nanny will look after you to an extent that'll astound you,
IF you'll let it! :lecturef_smilie: Oh, and it did confirm, to me anyway, that adrenalin
really IS brown!
pps:
It was pretty much pure fluke in my case ^^, but you can learn a few things from that as I did:
1. you need to hang on tight from the hips down, while being light & loose enough from the hips up so that you don't feed in any control jerks & bumps as you get tossed around;
2. always use a light hand/grip on the handlebars to provide the gentle guidance necessary to to steer down your chosen path; and
3. look where you want to go and not at the things you want to avoid (look at it & you WILL hit it! :banghead: )
Trust your Spyder and the Nanny; cos together, they'll look after you in almost all circumstances
if you can stay onboard - altho temper that by remembering that they still can't protect you from your own stupidity, so try to avoid those choices if you can!
And whatever you do, don't forget to.....
Ride More, Worry Less! hyea: :yes: :thumbup:
opcorn: Pull over & inspection. Looked like just another patch no massive ramp or anything. U turn get some pics & information to share & warn buds. Having had fair share (if not more) freaky events just be aware & maybe slow down:thumbup:
