Hearing is one Thing, Seeing Another

[captainryder]

The reason I got into motorcycle riding was my two brother-in-laws. Well, I settled for something called a "Spyder" which is a roadster. Now both brother-in-laws ar H.D. people to the core. So this past satruday morning we all get together my Spyder, their H.D.'s and decide to go about 80 miles for breakfast.... Nice Ozark ride.

Lead bike - '05 Springer Heritage Softail ( just won "Best in Show" at a local bike rally last week, then there was an '08 Electra-Glide, and then my Spyder, followed by a Lehman Trike conversion.

We came over this hill and a man and women were driving down the road, and the lead bike comes up ( too close ). The man taps his breaks, turns on his blinker and then slams his breaks to make a left turn at a crossroad. Lead bike with my brother-in-law and his wife hits rear brake, rear slides to the left side, he counter-corrects with the handlebars, then manages to grab his front break lever and WIPEOUT. They go down on right side, wife rolls about 15 feet, brother-in-law rides with the bike a total of 30 feet off right side of road into a culvert where the bike stops spanning across the gulley.

It happened so fast, driver of vehicle made his turn and stopped. Brother-in-law (adrenaline flowing) gets up, and wife still laying on side of road. I come up on the scene and stop. We get the wife up.... luckily only skinned on elbow and right pinkie finger sprained. ( she's 52 years old) but really in good condition. Luckily both had full leather coat and chaps on !!!!

Brother-in -Law got punched by handlebar in chest, sore ribs, nothing was broken after we visited hospital E.R. later that morning.

The bike saved them ... crashbars kept it off of them, soft dirt on the side of the road helped also.

Bike damage, amazingly little. mangled left front blinker, both cruise pegs attached to crash bar twisted inside but fixable, and the front fender was dented. We pulled the bike out of the ditch, let the let it stand upright till oil drained back down, dusted off the carb intake that was full of dirt and it started right up, then went to breakfast, and finally insisted x-ray of his chest which showed nothing broken later that morning.

A blessing for sure.

 

[captainryder]

Road --- see the tire skid then the scrapes, eventually the bike moved into the culvert on the right.

Next picture is the turned in cruise peg, but crash bar never bent !

double click to enlarge !

 

[reinie]

Luck was with them

They were lucky. It could have been a lot worse. Since I wasn't a witness, I can't really say if anybody was following too close or going a little too fast. Those are things we have to use our own judgement for each and every time we ride. I'm glad it turned out to be mostly a harmless incident, and hopefully a learning experience.

 

[DynamoBT]

Glad no one was seriously hurt.

 

[bjt]

Glad no one was seriously hurt.

+1

 

[Dudley]

Thankfully no one was seriously injured. Things happen so fast that can change a great ride. Reminds us of how fragile and unpredictable life is. We hope you all have many more happy miles riding with each other.

 

[captainryder]

Yes, it was wonderful no one seriously hurt. Just called bro-in-law and both he and his wife are stiffening up.... to be expected.... but still nothing seriously wrong.

Glad they did not hit the car in front of them, that would have been worse for sure. The Highway Patrol did come, as someone that stopped had them paged..... no tickets since no collision, but truth is that the guy in the car admitted he was looking for garage sales, and saw the sign last minute and decided to turn left. ( His car is parked as seen in picture No. 1 on the crossroad going left) But brother-in-law was obviously a little close, as I mentioned.

Luckily, I was 2 bikes back and there is a slight dip in the road before this crossroad about 100 yards back to which as I dipped down just happened to see the car's red stop lights light-up and started decreasing speed. When I came up out of the dip in the road, I saw bro-in-law's bike starting to skid, and remember watching his wife fall off and roll. Luckily, she did fall or was thrown off.... and luckily into the soft shoulder dirt..... or she could have had alot more bruises.

My brother-in-law did say, if I would have had ABS, like you, I might have stopped ! Possibly he's right.

 

[Dudley]

Yes, it was wonderful no one seriously hurt. Just called bro-in-law and both he and his wife are stiffening up.... to be expected.... but still nothing seriously wrong.

Glad they did not hit the car in front of them, that would have been worse for sure. The Highway Patrol did come, as someone that stopped had them paged..... no tickets since no collision, but truth is that the guy in the car admitted he was looking for garage sales, and saw the sign last minute and decided to turn left. ( His car is parked as seen in picture No. 1 on the crossroad going left) But brother-in-law was obviously a little close, as I mentioned.

Luckily, I was 2 bikes back and there is a slight dip in the road before this crossroad about 100 yards back to which as I dipped down just happened to see the car's red stop lights light-up and started decreasing speed. When I came up out of the dip in the road, I saw bro-in-law's bike starting to skid, and remember watching his wife fall off and roll. Luckily, she did fall or was thrown off.... and luckily into the soft shoulder dirt..... or she could have had alot more bruises.

My brother-in-law did say, if I would have had ABS, like you, I might have stopped ! Possibly he's right.

On our first demo ride on a Spyder, Jennifer and I were going into an exit with traffic. I suddenly realized that the traffic was stopping really too quickly and I was too close to a pickup ahead of me. I applied the Spyder brakes, then knew there was no way. I did a quick right, left maneuver and stopped next to the truck's passenger door. Had I been on a 2 wheeler it would have been a t-bone. That sold us on the Spyder!

 

[sabunim5]

I am very glad that everyone is all right. If your description is correct your brother in law needs to do some braking practice. The front brake has 70% or more of the stopping power on a 2 wheeler. Both brakes should be applied for the shortest stopping distance possible. The amount of force applied to the front brake should exceed that of the rear brake. Good braking skills have to be practiced in advance and with some regularity if they are to carry over to a real life emergency braking situation such as he experienced.

 

[FANG]

Glad no one was seriously hurt.

ditto the above

 

[mjw930]

I am very glad that everyone is all right. If your description is correct your brother in law needs to do some braking practice. The front brake has 70% or more of the stopping power on a 2 wheeler. Both brakes should be applied for the shortest stopping distance possible. The amount of force applied to the front brake should exceed that of the rear brake. Good braking skills have to be practiced in advance and with some regularity if they are to carry over to a real life emergency braking situation such as he experienced.

ditto the above

I'll third that. Locking up the rear is common among Harley riders. I've talked to many that either never use the front brake or are so afraid to use it for fear of a washout that they always overuse the rear.

Practice, practice, practice AND spec ABS on the next bike. I have ABS on my V-Rod and that "event" would have been a high pucker factor but the bike would have stayed upright. I which I had ABS on my Wing but I wasn't going to pay Honda the $3000 in extortion for it (additional options I didn't want).

I"m just happy to hear no one was seriously hurt.

 

[Don in E Texas]

Me, too.....glad no one was hurt too bad (of course they hurt after the accident - normal feelings)..

I just came back from my friends house.... he dumped his Harley yesterday... broken leg, two cracked ribs, bumps on his head (helmet came off)... his wife wants him to convert to a trike....:clap:

Ride safe, guys/gals

don

 

[NancysToy]

Me, too.....glad no one was hurt too bad (of course they hurt after the accident - normal feelings)..

I just came back from my friends house.... he dumped his Harley yesterday... broken leg, two cracked ribs, bumps on his head (helmet came off)... his wife wants him to convert to a trike....:clap:

Ride safe, guys/gals

don

:yikes:

 

[Smylinacha]

I'll third that. Locking up the rear is common among Harley riders. I've talked to many that either never use the front brake or are so afraid to use it for fear of a washout that they always overuse the rear.

Practice, practice, practice AND spec ABS on the next bike. I have ABS on my V-Rod and that "event" would have been a high pucker factor but the bike would have stayed upright. I which I had ABS on my Wing but I wasn't going to pay Honda the $3000 in extortion for it (additional options I didn't want).

I"m just happy to hear no one was seriously hurt.

I'll 4th that! Front brake stuff always scared me but it works.:shocked:

 

[0228lisa]

Glad no one was seriously injured for sure. Could have been much worse. I rode a Harley for 2 years before getting the Spyder and at first it was really weird not having the hand brake. Some folks on here have talked about adding a hand brake or have already done so. What does that do to the ABS system on the Spyder and/or does adding the hand brake reduce the braking performance or safety at all? :dontknow: