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I'm in the garage wiring up the turn signal integrator on the 748 and one of the local neighborhood squids drops by. About my age, '05 GSX-R1000 but actually belongs to a club. You know, a "riding club", like with tee shirts and everyone sporting the same color rim stripe kit, secret handshakes and gang signs. He limps over with the left pant leg drawn up high.
me - "What did you do?"
he - You know this turn up by the airport?"
me - "yeah"
he - "I don't know what happened, maybe I shifted up or down but the bike came straight up and over before I could do anything."
me - "You were wheelie'ing?"
he - "No, just like 30-35mph. I don't know what happened."
blah blah, "look at this" - flash to showing me his badges of crash honor etc... broken wrist, broken foot, rashed butt and lower back. "Helmet saved my life."
***important part coming up***
me - "How did it happen?"
he - "I don't know."
A couple of years ago I lowsided at Jennings T1 at approx 85mph. It was just beginning my 3rd lap after coming on with cold tires. I was about 100' behind my buddy who got started earlier in the session and I wanted to catch and play with him. Usually I warmed up cold tires for 3 or 4 laps but knew I could catch him by T4 if I didn't baby my way through T1 so I made the conscious decision that the tires were warm enough and went for it. Approaching the apex maintaining steady throttle the front end simply washed away and I was sliding into homeplate.
He asked me afterward...
him "How did it happen?"
me - "cold tires, I should've given it an extra lap to warm them up and should've started accelerating earlier to shift the weight. Too much push on a cold front. Wont happen again."
I knew what I did wrong, when I did wrong and analyzed the entire sequence of events before returning to the track 1 hour later. Until you're forced to understand & explain each nuance of contributing factors and accept responsibility you'll never get it. A month after his getoff and he still answers "I don't know."
Know what you did wrong, understand it, analyze it and maybe you wont repeat it.
me - "What did you do?"
he - You know this turn up by the airport?"
me - "yeah"
he - "I don't know what happened, maybe I shifted up or down but the bike came straight up and over before I could do anything."
me - "You were wheelie'ing?"
he - "No, just like 30-35mph. I don't know what happened."
blah blah, "look at this" - flash to showing me his badges of crash honor etc... broken wrist, broken foot, rashed butt and lower back. "Helmet saved my life."
***important part coming up***
me - "How did it happen?"
he - "I don't know."
A couple of years ago I lowsided at Jennings T1 at approx 85mph. It was just beginning my 3rd lap after coming on with cold tires. I was about 100' behind my buddy who got started earlier in the session and I wanted to catch and play with him. Usually I warmed up cold tires for 3 or 4 laps but knew I could catch him by T4 if I didn't baby my way through T1 so I made the conscious decision that the tires were warm enough and went for it. Approaching the apex maintaining steady throttle the front end simply washed away and I was sliding into homeplate.
He asked me afterward...
him "How did it happen?"
me - "cold tires, I should've given it an extra lap to warm them up and should've started accelerating earlier to shift the weight. Too much push on a cold front. Wont happen again."
I knew what I did wrong, when I did wrong and analyzed the entire sequence of events before returning to the track 1 hour later. Until you're forced to understand & explain each nuance of contributing factors and accept responsibility you'll never get it. A month after his getoff and he still answers "I don't know."
Know what you did wrong, understand it, analyze it and maybe you wont repeat it.