By Scottaride on Sunday, December 22, 2002 - 05:12 pm:

I crashed my RSV this weekend while riding (racing?) a mate on his tricked up Ducati 748 Senna. We were out on the back roads with about 15 of us, most of them from the triumph club, and I was out in front having a good old fang through a particularly good stretch of twisty B back roads.

I was taking it (relatively) easy down the straights and going hard through the corners and one of my 'mates' on his Duke 748 Senna came flying past me on the straight. He very kindly gave me "the Bird" with his index finger, in a traditional Ducati versus Aprilia gesture of goodwill.

Naturally I felt compelled to return the favour and gave him a nice 'two fingered' salute as I passed him while he was under full acceleration down the next section of straights.

Now I'm sure this has never happened to any of you before, but all of a sudden things became very competitive (surprise surprise!). Anyway, this twisty section of road is about 25 km long and has very little traffic, so speeds were rather excessive and I was now riding at about 95% of my limited and talentless ability.

I slowed down to let him past me because I wanted to past him again as it had been so satisfying. I then tucked in behind him through the next section of twisties. But I noticed that every now and again he would brake mid corner trying to scrub of speed.

On one occasion I almost went up his rear and had to go quite wide to avoid him. This was particularly dicey because he continued to run wide under brakes, forcing me even wider. I just managed to avoid running off the opposite side of the road and made a mental note that I would not try and pass him through any tight corners and that I would not sit closely behind him through the corners as he was a little unpredictable. This simple solution was all that was required to avoid disaster....

But unfortunately I am not particularly smart and it wasn't long before my feeble brain forgot to keep my distance. So there we were, halfway through a lovely set of uphill S bends and I found I had closed in behind him and was sitting almost on his tail. Unfortunately he decided he was going too fast for the second half of the S bend and braked quite hard mid corner. This was despite the fact that he could have carried another 10 or 15 kph faster through the corner if he had just leaned it over a little further.

The predictable result was that I couldnt slow in time and my front tyre clipped his rear tyre and the rest is history. So the reality is that it was my own dumb fault for following too close.

Fortunately the gods were smiling on me and the damage to bike and body were very minimal. (Though when I think about it, if the gods were really smiling on me I wouldn't have crashed in the first place?!)

A minor graize on my hand and a few bruises was all I sustained.... Except for my badly crushed Ego. And I can assure you that everyone on the ride gave me plenty of shite for falling off (once they knew I was okay). All the bike got was a broken indicator and some very minor grazing on the belly pan and side panel. Which probably would have been avoided altogether if I had installed the crashed protectors that I have been meaning to order for the past month. Actually there would have been a lot more damage to the paintwork except that I had the clear 3M tape (for stone protection) on much of the fairing.

So all in all I am not a happy camper, but am pleased that the damage to bike and body was so minimal. The lesson to be learned here is that we should not follow too close behind others. In fact even if we are totally familiar and confident with their riding style it is still likely that at some point the person in front of you will end up braking mid corner due to potential obstacles on the road ahead, and chances are by the time we realise it will be too late. I for one will certainly be maintaining a much bigger following distance.

Cheers

Scott the dumb arse. New Zealand. 

By Exdukenut on Sunday, December 22, 2002 - 07:37 pm:

Hey Scott, the dumb arse New Zilander, in those immortal words of Homer Simpson "Doh".

Brain fade is setting in quicker than you thought!

Glad it happened at a "relatively" slow pace - bugger those Ducati riders that can't ride through a corner (I see it all the time over hear).

P.S. You should leave all the heroics/speed/ego for the race track by the way!

Glad to hear you are OK. Have a great Xmas. TTY in the New Year.

Have a few for me, and extend Brian a few cokes as well  

By Scottaride on Sunday, December 22, 2002 - 07:44 pm:

Hi leigh

Have a good xmas yourself.
It was Brians mate that caused the drama...the bastard

You are right that I should leave it for the track, but its suprising how many people get taken out by 'bunnies' at track days. Especially those who over cook it trying to out brake others into the hairpin at the end of the Pukekohe straight.

But it is still safer than the road. Are you heading over this way again at all?

Hows the Falco now it has that new front end?

Scott 

By Exdukenut on Sunday, December 22, 2002 - 07:50 pm:

Probably won't be able to make it over till mid year, when my wife get's back to work after the new baby and she has to do her Jim Beam trip, so will probably be coming with the whole family this time. But I'll certainly keep you posted.

The Falco with the wheels and front end is absolutley SUPERB, well worth the money and eeffort to put it all together.

PS Extend the xmas wishes to Vix for us as well, even though we haven't met. 

By Racerxlilbro on Sunday, December 22, 2002 - 10:07 pm:

Sorry for your accident. Glad you're more or less okay.

I learned that lesson early on, when on my Honda CB750f, following my father in law on his portly cruiser...he grabbed a bunch of brakes mid corner and I almost DRILLED him... Note to self...LEAD. 

By Rca on Monday, December 23, 2002 - 02:50 am:

Glad to hear your OK you stupid $%&*er. What about the Ducati rider. How did he fare.  

By Geo on Monday, December 23, 2002 - 08:10 am:

I'm really glad that you're ok!! You got away with it cheap.
How about the Duc rider?
Hopefully now you've learned that when you see a guy can't handle it, you stay the F*** away from him! -or even better, you pass him safely on the straight and never look back.
Me, when I see someone getting in over his head I try to slow him down instead of egging him on.
I can laugh at close calls that end with a bit of road rash but I've had to call emergency rescue for my friends too many times recently -3 times in the past 18 months!
The last time was in August at Deal's Gap. We spent all afternoon waiting with our friend's dead body for the coroner to finally get there.

Same thing that happened to you went on at our local "private track" yesterday, front rider panicked and hit the brakes to a stop, the dumbass behind him t-boned him at 40mph.
Both bikes were totalled but worse both guys were taken to the hospital, one with very serious injuries. I'm glad that I didn't know those guys.
The track is of course now closed down by the police.
That place was the safest too, with no trees, cars or curbs the only solid object to hit was each other so of course....I've pulled off the circuit and waited more than once when the local hot shots started getting too agressive for my taste.  

By Falcofreak on Wednesday, December 25, 2002 - 04:11 am:

Hey Scott,
Glad to hear you are O.K., and thank you for letting us know how it happened.
I think it is a very good idea to send a post when anything goes wrong. We can all learn from others bad experience.

Drive carefully in the new year and have a merry christmas.  

By Richandall on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 05:23 pm:

DOn'T Hit ma frends cos doN't havent aNy.

But glad you're OK.

How about the Duke - you don't say where it ended up!

- Rich  

By Scottaride on Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 05:07 am:

Fortunately the Duke didnt crash, in fact he didnt even realise I'd hit him. He didnt beleive me at first until he saw his broken rear indicator and scuffed hugger.

Also, I got it wrong...it was a 916 Senna, not a 748.