Ok so.........for background; I passed my DAS in March last year, so still a newbie. (Although working on that, have done a few specific extra training days and now signed up to start RoSPA in a couple of weeks)
Crash 1:
Tight bend, mid-morning, thankfully no other traffic - black ice on a bend - lowsided. (End of Feb/beginning of march..you can guess the weather!) Also - two days after finishing a custom paint job on the fairings...........
It was a road I had ridden many times before, in fact it was the first route I went out on after passing my test. I've ridden it on 3 different bikes, multiple times....which perhaps meant I was a little complacent.
The crash happened on a bend that tightens up quite a bit and is blind until you're basically in it. Also has a junction on it (to the left as I was approaching it). I know people coming the other way often cut across, so I slowed down to about 20. I had noticed the warning sign for ice earlier, but didn't pay much attention as I'd ridden it several times with that sign up and no sign of ice. Warning No. 1!
As I approached the bend I noticed a cyclist on the bend, covered in mud, inspecting his bike. Warning No. 2!
I rode past thinking...why is he covered in mud?
Lost the front end and down we went. Slid about 15-20 feet across the bend (thank god there was no traffic!). I was fine; bike gear wasn't even scuffed! Cracked engine cover, bent bars, utterly destroyed left fairing, bent nose cowl sub-frame.
Turns out the road to the left trickles water down continuously in winter, the bend is in shade and it's a black ice hot spot...or cold spot perhaps.
Lessons learned:
- Pay attention to warning signs!
- Pay attention when someone has clearly come off their bike on a corner!
- Pay attention to weather reports.
- Good quality bike gear is more than worth it's price and ATGATT is a good thing to do (Alpinestars Jaws textiles with full armour in this case).
- Maybe don't go for a ride on back roads when the weather is like that (freezing, wet etc).
- It can take months to get your head back in teh game after something like that (that's still a work in progress...but i'm getting there).
Crash 2:
About 2 weeks ago, weather good, late afternoon (so full daylight), didn't go down thankfully.
Approaching a small roundabout round the corner from my house. Careful approach, checked all lanes, no traffic coming except someone way up on the left hand entry (only vaguely aware he was there -can't see him in my helmet cam footage and that's pretty wide view)
Halfway across and the guy from the left hand had apparently hit the throttle rather than slow down. Saw him at the last minute, swerved as much as I could, collided with the front right wing of his car. Glancing blow mostly. My elbow went through the small window on his door, knee went into his wing.
Damage: Me - fine, just annoyed! Bike - Scuffed fairing (again!) bent left hand disc, bent caliper mount, scuffed caliper. (Damage to his car: smashed window, wing mirror and dented wing)
Thankfully - he was more of a gibbering wreck than I was after that and paid the whole cost of repair without question, straight away after I got the quote.....which the dealership then reduced slightly....so a win for me overall. Had both discs replaced, new pads, new mount and a full health check on the bike.
Lessons learned:
- Look further up the road to be aware of someone coming in and get ready on the horn just in case! I think blasting that would have saved the situation.
- Coming off due to black ice or other things outside my control like it, is scarier (long term) than being hit by a car (at least on this occasion!)
- Again..........good quality bike gear is invaluable. This time I was wearing my Ricah leathers; armoured outside and in and I felt a bit of a thump...as my elbow destroyed his window. That was it. No bruises, nothing.
Let's hope I can make it the rest of the year without incident! Twice is enough. I was *very* lucky on both occasions to pick myself up in one piece with repairable damage to the bike.
