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Whoops I Fell Over

Blog Date December 2014

Well on my latest blogs I have even been known to give myself a little self praise. But this will not be one of those times.

Indeed this is a tale of a rather unexpected lie down in the road. Not something one should clap oneself on the back for but rather hang ones helmeted head in shame.

Everything ride wise up to this point had been going well. I set off with Ren to meet some friends at our usual meeting place for a ride out. The roads were wet and a little slippery but nothing I had not encountered on numerous occasions before. 

Up ahead I see a temporary traffic light on red. I can see the cars ahead rolling to a stop. I glance at the last as it comes to a stop and glance at Ren riding in front of me. In my head I have already decided that Ren will stop behind the last car in the queue. I have a look in my mirrors to check on the traffic behind me before beginning to slow down. So far so good, so far all is as it should be.

However when I switch my eyes back to the road ahead I find to my horror that Ren has stopped way closer to me than I had anticipated. Unbeknown to me Ren had spotted a sign that asked vehicles to stop at a point some way before the red light, to keep a junction clear of traffic. All the other car drivers in front had clearly not seen  this sign and Ren himself later admitted he only saw it at the last moment and therefore had to stop rather sharply.

So I find myself in an emergency stop situation. I am so close to Ren I am convinced I will bump into him. I do not lock up the back wheel, I do not skid, I do not hit Ren but somehow I do find myself on the floor with the bike on top of me.

How this happened I am not quite sure. At first I thought maybe I forgot to put my foot down at all. But then I recalled I was aware of being at the point of no return where for a split second you try to keep the bike up to no avail. So at some point I must have put my foot down. But this was either too late or maybe even too sudden and I may have stamped it down too hard before the bike had fully stopped. Truth is my brain had clearly gone into panic mode and my recall was knocked out of my head along with the poor bike hitting the tarmac.

I vaguely recall a concerned gentleman getting out of his car to see if I was ok, to whom I assured I was fine. I just wanted to jump up as soon as possible due to shame. But my foot was however stuck under the bike so I had to stay there for a second or two while Ren lifted the bike off me. Once up I pushed to bike to the side of the road to enable the traffic behind me to get moving again and for me to asses the damage. 

It was the usual scuffed and scrapped foot peg, bar end and snapped clutch lever. Now with the clutch lever having a special indent it snaps off only a third of the lever leaving enough to still be able to ride the bike. (Not bad eh for this cheap made Chinese bike I have). Which meant I could get back on the bike and still continue with the day out.

I was pissed off at myself and also a little shaken but no where near as much as I would have been at the beginning of my riding career. It was an error on my part. I made a presumption that proved to be incorrect. I could beat myself up like I used to and tell myself I could have, should have done better and yes this is true. But I know that this type of berating does no good. But neither shall I be blasé  about this accident. I will add it to my growing list of experience. 

I could say I will never presume what another vehicle will do. However you really do need to make presumptions a lot of the time while driving or riding. I could say I will now always expect the unexpected but the unexpected will always take us by surprise because by its very nature it is just that ....unexpected.

So I could have done better, I maybe could have been more aware and saw the sign myself. But neither did many other drivers see it. If it had been a dry day I maybe could have stopped the bike sooner. Maybe if I did put my foot down on a dry road it would not have slipped, so many what ifs and buts. No point in any of them, it was what it was. What it ended up as was a little unplanned lie down in the middle of a road in front of lots of drivers. Thank goodness for helmets to hide the shame. Luckily for me the only consequence was a dented pride and a snapped lever.

the end that snapped off the clutch lever
Doh...

Reader's Comments

Joe G. said :-
Hi Sharon,

Happened to come across this as a link from your review on your Shark Vision helmet, which I'm considering buying and so was doing some research on reviews and came across yours.

Regarding your get-off, sorry hear but certainly the outcome was about as good an one could hope.

Couple of things...

Regarding the situation where you fell, I inferred that you checked your mirrors while still in motion. If so, I'd highly advise against that, for the exact reason that you experienced: with eyes on the mirror instead of what's in front of you, that split second where things changed made all the difference and you weren't able to stop in time. Had you been looking ahead the whole time, this might have turned out better.

Secondly, I brake as a matter of normal course using both front and rear brakes (my bike doesn't have linked or ABS brakes). Certainly the front brake does the majority of the work, but in an emergency situation, the slight extra braking that the rear provides will help cut a few feet off the braking distance. Don't know if you used both brakes or not, but if not (and you don't have linked brakes), I'd recommend it.

You have a great, positive attitude towards riding so I know you'll introspect on what happened, learn the most you can from it, and get right back on your steed and carry on. And good on ya for that.

Safe riding.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
In rule 161 of the highway code regarding mirrors it states...

"Use them in good time before you signal or change direction or speed."

As Sharon was planning to change speed, ie slow down, she was quite correct to check her mirrors. This is to be aware of how close other vehicles are behind which may affect how you choose to brake. The notion of not checking my mirrors before coming up some lights would scare me.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC

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