A new hater of sand

[timebombprod]

Today was my second crash, my first one being licensed and knowing how to ride. I just took a quick ride to oriellys to pick up a few things and on the way back in a neighborhood I took a right turn I'd say under 15mph, before I took the turn I could see either dry dirt sand mix but I never had an issue so I didn't really take any precaution, and well that was a bad idea for me, sure enough I started to slip and I went down, bike slipped from underneath me mid-fall and I kept my hand on the throttle so that motor was revving very loud, the bike was downed and back up and riding in under 30 seconds, pulled it up and did a quick check for damage and didn't see anything and just rode away, that's when I realized my front master cylinder was pushed very far down, when I got home I did a quick check of myself and the bike, a dime size hole in my pants, ripped shoe lace, some minor road rash, and some scratching on my right side mirror. There was 3 people who seen it but I was gone as fast as I was there.

I'm just happy I didn't land with the motor on my leg or anything and that there was no serious cosmetic damage or anything like that, I might go by the house and let them know what happened because there's a big dirt patch right on the corner of there lawn and I'm guessing that's where the dirt on the road came from, I'll even sweep it back for them just to save me and other people from having that happen again.



If anyone's interested, my first crash was the day after I got my bike, I rode onto basically a highway, came back, I was one left turn from being safe in a neighborhood street, my bike shut off on me once at one light, shut off again at the light I was gonna turn at, and right when I turned it back on the left arrow just turned yellow, my helmet was also completely fogged up beyond being able to see, I gave it a bit more throttle than I should've but I was in a bit of a panic and I went straight into somebodies curb, bike did a huge stoppie and I launched into some nice soft grass, the front forks and triple tree were screwed but luckily somebody who was my friend at the time was behind me and rode it to his house and said ride his bike, yeah I wasn't gonna ride his bike so he came back on a bicycle and I chose that instead. Call me superstitious but with the way it happened, how my bike shut off at that moment and right when I got it going the left arrow simultaneously turned yellow, my helmet was fogged up to where I literally couldn't see, and I landed in grass, it's one of those things were everything went right even though the effect was "bad" thing, I say bad because if it didn't happen then I would've kept riding the bike and it needed a bunch of work that was soon found out and well I'm sure if it wasn't that time it would've happened later on and probably not so gracefully. I was just going 70 5 minutes before that. About two months later I got my license and about a year and a half later I was able to ride the bike problem free.

[steve murdoch]

Another road hazard riding lesson.
Off road riding in the early days has been a life saver for a lot of us.
Glad there wasn't a lot of damage to you or the bike.

[Baatfam]

Today was my second crash, my first one being licensed and knowing how to ride.

First...Glad you're OK...

Second...There is a difference in knowing how to operate the vehicle, and knowing how to "ride." Knowing how to ride takes time (experience), and knowledge (training).

No offense meant, and again, glad you're OK.

[timebombprod]

No forsure I'm still learning alot, I guess it's really knowing the basics and then not even knowing about counter steering and not trusting the bike.

[bwringer]

Sand, dirt, cow poo, horse poo, gravel, mud, grass, spilled grain, cooking grease, assorted household and industrial waste products, garbage, tar snakes, potholes, tractors, farm animals, wild animals, domestic animals, roadkill, buzzards, and other less identifiable traction hazards are just a normal everyday feature of the twisty roads in southern Indiana. And that's not even counting the wily Buick and the murderous Ford.

I mean, yes, that all applies pretty much everywhere. But we seem to have a lot worse than average pavement hygiene here. And it's bitten attendees at the Brown County rally several times.

We natives have to learn to cope or we can't ride anywhere interesting at an interesting pace.


Anyway, glad you're OK, and PLEASE get some advanced training! It is quite possible to learn, practice, and improve your survival skills for coping with traction hazards and all the other stuff that's trying to kill us.

[rphillips]

"Before I took the turn" I could see either dry dirt sand mix. Let me be harsh & realistic, If it slips up on you before you see it it's an accident. If you saw it ahead of time & still crashed, you just screwed up... Glad it seems it was pretty minor to you & bike. Anytime anything in, or near the rd., you've got to know what precautions to take. Good luck.

[chuck hahn]

Its WINTER. They throw salt and sand at EVERY intersection and you already know this. You SAW sand and you arent on a dirt bike with dirt bike tires. Nope no sympathy from me.

[timebombprod]

I'm in Florida, I wasn't looking for sympathy lol I was just putting up a post

[Baatfam]

Ian, don't forget, there are very few of us here, who haven't done something similar. It's what you learn that is important.

For me, it was junior year of high school. I was 17, only had my bike license a few months, and was riding a Suzuki TS185 to school, (a 1970s dual sport for you young kids). One nice day leaving the student motorcycle lot, (yes, we had one), I decided to gun it out of the lot, onto the street. I very quickly learned that trials tires don't work that well on pavement. After picking up my bike, in front of my fellow students, it was a long ride home.

[timebombprod]

Yeah I figured it was only a matter of time before something like that happened and now I just have to prevent the same thing from happening again, I always watched out for grass clippings, I wasn't thinking that dirt.or sand would do the same but it was a very thick layer, I guess I didn't think twice because I never slid out like that, lesson learned.

[chuck hahn]

Problem is it ground to a fine powder by cars and its all the more slick. Think sand versus talc powder

[bwringer]

Ian, don't forget, there are very few of us here, who haven't done something similar. It's what you learn that is important.

Agreed. Plus, most of us live in the frozen hellscape of the US northlands, and maybe some of us are bored and cranky right now.



Very early in my riding career I learned the hard way about freshly seal-coated parking lots and morning dew. My mighty GS400's copious torque spun the rear tire when I was pulling out to go to work, and whoop, there I was on the ground in an instant.

I picked myself and the bike up, determined that no one saw me (very important), and continued on to work at the mental hospital. When I went on the unit, the nurse kindly pointed out the bloody rip in the knee of my pants and handed me a band-aid.

A little later I had stepped up to a KZ650. After getting fresh Kenda tires, it took countless slithery butt-puckering moments and ending up sliding along on the ground for no good reason three times for me to realize maybe there was a problem. A set of Bridgestones took care of the issues, and I could actually ride with reasonable confidence in the rain; those damn Kendas were (and are: they're still selling these horrid things) like soap bars in the wet, and not much better dry. How I did not get run over or killed, I still do not know.

[timebombprod]

i have a pair of shinko tourmasters on the bike, ive rode in the rain plenty and while i definitely dont have the same confidence as on dryland ive never had a slippage issue with them, ill get a better set possibly when needed unless shinkos are fine for just mainly normal riding.

im glad that most of the road here is fine and theres not much things to watch out for but at the same time it makes those moments where there is something to watch out for a bit more risky. the good thing is im prepared for the next time i see that cursed sand or dirt patch on the road.

[bwringer]

The Shinkos (both the 230 and the 712) are perfectly fine tires for a GS.

I am... let's just say that I am, uh, decidedly ungentle, and I've abused the absolute wee out of many sets of Shinkos. They're fantastic bang for the buck.


Here's my detailed review from 2012. They work great in all conditions, but don't last as long as some expensive stuff, especially if you ride like I do.

https://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?200977-Shinko-230-Torture-Test

Since I started that thread nearly ten years ago, I've started putting a lot fewer miles on my GS and a lot more on my other bikes. So I've used only Shinkos for the last four or five years. That way, I get a fresh set of buns every year.

If you ride a lot of miles in a year, then a longer-lasting tire might make more sense. All the math is in that thread, and still mostly applies even though tire prices have gone up a little since then.

[timebombprod]

Thankyou a bunch! I'll have to read it, I still have most of the last row of those rubber bristles on my front so I wouldn't say I've been riding too hard, maybe in the straights and stuff but I have not got the bike that low yet, I am hoping one day I do in confidence.....soon