First time down...

[skywalker18]

So, on my way home from work, on the bike, I was coming up to a intersection (doing 30ish)......... next thing I see.......freaking mounds of gravel in the middle of the road. I tried to swerve, but it was all over the road. With no where to go, I had to try to break before it. Next thing I know, I am getting tossed off the bike. I hit the road with my left elbow first and slid for 5 yards, then tumbled a couple times.

After collecting myself, I got up and thought, thankfully I wear gear!!!!

2 cars next to me asked if I was ok. I replied, "more or less," as I was trying to lift the bike. After several failed attempts at lifting the bike, and several cars passing by, I finally got the bike up and rolling. As I was pushing it (with a nice limp) into a nearby parking lot, two guys in a truck get out and help me push it the rest of the way to a spot.

Now I started to feel some pain!!! I rested for 30mins and let my nerves settle, in that time I called my Dad and he brought me some bandages and water.








Swing arm slider saved the swing arm!!!


I am definitely sore today!!! I knew it was a matter of time to go down, it is part of the biker life. Bike isn't that bad, thankfully Yamaha does their fairings in 3 pieces. Only the mid got damaged, and the part by the headlight can be sanded and painted.

As soon as the bike hit the gravel, the bike stopped and just fell down, from the looks of the damage. I got tossed off the bike, and tried to be like superman.

I will be back in the saddle, nothing like the freedom a bike gives you. I can only learn from this situation.

[Travissrt]

That sucks man. Lesson: Never use the front brake in heavy gravel, also avoid unneccesary steering input. You should have broke as hard as you can before hitting the gravel then just let engine braking and rear brake do the rest. Anytime you transfer the weight to the front in gravel/grass/dirt whatever you usually will tuck the front.. Glad you are relatively Ok, looks like the bike faired pretty well with nothing more than cosmetic damage.

[mark06r6]

Glad you are ok.

[dHanoon6]

Originally Posted by Travissrt

That sucks man. Lesson: Never use the front brake in heavy gravel, also avoid unneccesary steering input. You should have broke as hard as you can before hitting the gravel then just let engine braking and rear brake do the rest. Anytime you transfer the weight to the front in gravel/grass/dirt whatever you usually will tuck the front.. Glad you are relatively Ok, looks like the bike faired pretty well with nothing more than cosmetic damage.

basically what i would have said. Glad you made it out ok though man. Usually when im about to run into some gravel and there's no time to slow down/stop, i'll usually just pull in the clutch, avoid turning or any kind of braking and just pass through.

[skywalker18]

Thanks for the pointers!!! I will definitely keep that in mind for the future.

[pr0jectezek1el]

glad your ok bro...

[Gold Coast R6]

Glad your ok but who the hell left gravel on the road? Work man?

[skywalker18]

It was like a dump truck just dropped it there, that's how much there was.

[TarzanBoy]

I too have had gravel scares. I usually brake as much as I can *before* I hit the gravel and then ride through it as best I can.

Dump trucks around here are always dropping it all over this one intersection/turn on my route to work so that I have to watch out for loose pieces mid-lean.

There are few things scarier than running over a freakin rock mid-lean that upsets the chassis of the bike. Dirt-bke technique will only take you so far with a heavy-a55 streetbike!

(Besides that, people drop their dirt bikes all the time!)

[Gold Coast R6]

Here where I live they have a duty of care! and so if they drop stuff near a work site then they usually have someone to clean it up or someone to stop and direct traffic. I believe that from what my father in law tells me the road transport guys in Queensland Australia do spot inspections on the side of the road for trucks and if they are dropping sh!t they are fined on the spot $300.00 for what they call loose load. Also they have to have covers over their loads to stop crap from blowing out on highways.