My turn; slow speed crash in traffic

[ChloroFiend]

May as well put up my story.

Rush hour traffic, roughly 9am. I'm in Lane 2 (middle) of 85 Northbound, just before Fremont. Not lane splitting. Traffic is moving maybe 10-15ish.

A Yellow Triumph (Street/Speed Triple) is lane splitting between 1 & 2 and pulls up next to me and begins to pass. This spooks me a bit as i wasn't expecting it. It seemingly spooks the work van in front of me two, who hit his brakes and begins to slide right.

My on-edge self hits my brakes, probably too hard and my front ends goes wobbly. I may have attempted to go farther right, to lane split around him but truth be told it happened so fast I'm not sure. Lay it down on the right side, pinning my R leg under the bike. The dump truck behind me, the van in front of me, and the rider to my side all stop to assist. My jeans have a small hole in the knee, my A* boots took a good scrape (saved my foot/ankle). Jacket and gloves have minor scuffing.

So, my own post-mortem...

1.) I shouldn't have been on my bike at all that day. I'd just been in a car accident that Monday and was on edge. That led to:

2.) getting spooked grabbing too much brake. Rookie/newbie mistake.

3.) Road selection was also poor. Normally I go East on side streets (DeAnza). Why I chose to use 85 in heavy traffic was definitely a mistake.

4.) For months, I'd been contemplating redoing my front suspension. Stock, the Sprint 955's suspension is very mushy and not set up for a rider of my weight. Had i had a properly set up bike, my front end may not have dove as much leading to the loss of control.

5.) Wear the F&$@ng riding pants. I'd had em in my hands but decided to go with just jeans.

anything i've missed?

 

[kongjie]

Were you following the van too closely?

 

[clutchslip]

It sounds like you have a pile of lessons learned. Fortunately, things were not that severe. As I mentioned in another Crash Analysis thread, I think planning escape routes is part of good motorcycling fundamentals. The more you ride with continuously looking for exits, with or without brakes, the more options you have to escape. The more you do this planning the faster and more natural it becomes, until braking almost becomes a second option.

Sorry that you are having a tough go of it. Things will get better.

 

[tzrider]

1.) I shouldn't have been on my bike at all that day. I'd just been in a car accident that Monday and was on edge. That led to:

2.) getting spooked grabbing too much brake. Rookie/newbie mistake.

3.) Road selection was also poor. Normally I go East on side streets (DeAnza). Why I chose to use 85 in heavy traffic was definitely a mistake.

4.) For months, I'd been contemplating redoing my front suspension. Stock, the Sprint 955's suspension is very mushy and not set up for a rider of my weight. Had i had a properly set up bike, my front end may not have dove as much leading to the loss of control.

5.) Wear the F&$@ng riding pants. I'd had em in my hands but decided to go with just jeans.

anything i've missed?

Glad you weren't hurt badly.

One item on your list above really has anything to do with the crash, that being #2, grabbing the brake.

The rest of it is just the environment and you couldn't have changed any of it in the moment. You can't always count on being in the perfect state of mind, on the perfect road, riding the perfect bike, wearing the perfect gear. Those things won't make you crash, but you may have to take them into account as you ride to allow some extra margin.

That said, what could you realistically change if you went riding tomorrow if you were on the same bike, road and situation? A previous poster mentioned following distance; do you recall about what the distance was? Was it appropriate for the speed? What were you looking at when the rider pulled up beside you? How long had you been looking at that? Do you regularly check your mirrors? Did your lane position allow you to see the space between lanes behind you? Could you hear your surroundings? Those are ideas that come to mind as primers. Other things might occur to you that would make a difference if you had to relive the situation over again.

Did this experience expose any weaknesses in your riding skills? Just like the choice of road, the bike condition the gear you wear, you can't suddenly have skills you don't have, but you can take the lesson (if there is one) and make a plan to beef up that skill. Have you practiced stopping quickly? Are you comfortable braking and turning at the same time?

 

[danate]

Did you grab a handful of front brake or did you hit the rear? How was your following distance to the van in front of you?

This was mostly a hard stop scenario, as trying to swerve and lane split is a bit of a reach if you don't have enough distance to do it. You need to practice your hard stops and emergency techniques. There are a lot of good classes for that.

 

[ChloroFiend]

Lots of good stuff here people, thanks.

I think my following distance was fine, but increasing distance may have helped.

I didn't actually look at the rider. I think I was target fixated on the van in front of me in order to maintain appropriate distance/speed, due to the heaviness of traffic....which also means I was not scanning mirrors nearly enough. Hearing was fine.

Front brake was what I grabbed. Im not sure i hit the rear. My basic skills could definitely use a refresher and I intend to take MSF BRC again. I'd even been contemplating that before the crash. It's been a while (~10 years) and I hadn't been riding regularly very much in the last few years

 

[danate]

I think it really comes down to one of the primary fundamentals: vision. You were startled by the situation and that sets off your body's sympathetic response, making you less coordinated and level headed. Practice using your mirrors even while going slowly in traffic (very important if a car aside you decides they want to be where you are). Also practice your lower speed cruising so that you are comfortable at lower speeds. Lower speeds require more balance and can be harder than traveling fast.

I recommend these highly over the BRC:

https://www.sheriffacademy.com/class.php?id=103
https://z2trackdays.com/ti/z2/content/RR20.html

I'm sure there are more, but these are two I've taken and can highly recommend!

 

[Archimedes]

3.) Road selection was also poor. Normally I go East on side streets (DeAnza). Why I chose to use 85 in heavy traffic was definitely a mistake.

This for sure. I live near there and I absolutely hate riding my moto northbound on 85 between 280 and 101, particularly during rush hour. Just a massive cluster fuck of idiots jumping lanes and speeding in close quarters.

 

[RightCoastBias]

Do you think you would have been better off lane splitting in this situation? If I understand correctly, you're a newer rider. So perhaps you're not comfortable with splitting. But in 10-15MPH I always feel safer splitting.

 

[ChloroFiend]

Do you think you would have been better off lane splitting in this situation? If I understand correctly, you're a newer rider. So perhaps you're not comfortable with splitting. But in 10-15MPH I always feel safer splitting.

I'd been lane splitting on 280 prior to the drop. I'm not 100% comfortable with it but do it from time to time.

Would it have been better? Hard to say. Potentially. Often I bypass splitting because my split speed is slower than many others, and I don't want to cause a back up of bikes. I should probably get over that.

 

[MCSFTGUY]

I have to agree with Andy... I think the only thing that matters here is that you grabbed too much front brake... from all that you describe it sounds like you locked the front wheel brake, the front tire washed out and you went down at a low speed.

Also you say that you laneshare but are not comfortable with it... very good that if you are not comfortable with it that you don't do it. However, a recommendation for future riding... which I hope that you will choose to do.... is move as far as you can/are comfortable with to one side of the lane or the other...... In this case I would have considered moving to the left edge of the lane... this would prevent another rider who is splitting from sharing your lane... and in this case rather than grabbing a handful of brake you would have already been in a position to move down the side of the stopping van.... You said that you think that as you were braking you were trying to move to lane splitting long the side of the van... take away the move part... in heavy traffic already be there so that you can move past the vehicle without effort or having to take the time to change your lane position. This also takes away the "need" for heavy braking.

Glad it was an ego bruiser rather than a really painful experience

 

[LectricBill]

Glad you’re not hurt, relatively speaking.

I always figure if I hit a vehicle in front of me, I was too close. I try to maintain a 3-second following rule, at least. Would that have helped you?

Since your grabbing your front brake put you on the ground, I’ve got to assume that you were also turning while you were braking.

I grabbed some Brembo’s with everything I had one time at 50 mph. A limo driver was trying to kill me (really) and had stomped on his brakes in front of me for no apparent reason other than to chew up my bike. The front tire chattered across the asphalt, the rear tire hopped/skidded straight, and I stopped about 10” away from his bumper. Upright. But I had no place to veer, so I couldn’t turn at all. Worked. Even without ABS.

One time, when studying my dash instruments on the rush hour 101, I looked up to see a pickup truck suddenly stopped in front of me. I grabbed my brakes and it became clear I wasn’t going to stop in time. I let go of both brakes and split lanes without time to do a head check or even look in the mirror. I really hugged that truck as I heard the horn of an adjacent car. At least I didn’t eat trailer hitch. The point is, unless you’re an accomplished track rider, I find it safer to either brake or steer, not both, hard, at the same time.

I generally feel safer in lane 1: car entering from one side only, and often a left shoulder as an escape route.

I lane-split quite a bit, but it took me a long time to get comfortable. Now I feel much safer between the cars in stop-and-go or slow-and-go traffic. I suggest you try it, when traffic is stopped or under 20 mph, AND when you feel comfortable. Your comfort zone will naturally expand. But don’t push it.

And absolutely don’t spend ANY time worrying about being slower than other splitters. It’s easier to see behind you when you are splitting too and if a fast-splitter comes up on you, you can easily pull over to the far side of your lane. I usually kick my leg out to signal them to pass. Even if you don’t see the other rider approaching from behind, it should be no big deal for him or her to hang out until you DO see them and pull over. And if they’re in more of a hurry than that, they can work their way into the next lane over to pass. It’s not a racetrack and we’re all taught, “ride your ride.” I’m faster than some; slower than some; so what? Main thing is to enjoy another day! And it’s totally OK to never split.

 

[Yakoo752]

I ride through there everyday on a yellow triumph :| ...

but this wasn't me (I went into work at 630am for a conference)

Nothing to add regarding crash analysis but lane positioning and lane determination is important.

That is not a stretch of road that I would want to be in the #2 lane at 9am. Too many people changing lanes and shifting around playing leap frog.

If you got spooked by a rider lane splitting you probably were sitting on the left side of the lane as well... sitting in lane 2 at 9 am, you should be expecting a motorcyclist to come up on your side

glad it was minor and it wasn't me who helped cause it

 

[tzrider]

I always figure if I hit a vehicle in front of me, I was too close. I try to maintain a 3-second following rule, at least. Would that have helped you?

From his description of heavy traffic, it might not have been practical to leave that much space as it would invite adjacent cars to cut in. Normally the above is good advice, but heavy traffic makes it problematic sometimes. Nevertheless, leaving as much space as you can buys you as much reaction time as possible.

 

[ChloroFiend]

I was in the R track of Lane #2 when this happened.

As far as following distance goes, as someone else commented its a fine line between allowing plenty of stopping room and letting someone try to cut in and block me off worse.

Black Speed/Street Triple, not yellow, so definitely not Yakoo

Thanks for all the insights crew. It's much appreciated.

 

[Britsimon]

Sorry you had an off - rolling around on the highway is never fun. A couple of comments for ya (meant as a constructive crit - not trying to make anything worse).

1. Really, nothing should have spooked you about the yellow bike. Traffic happens and you need to be more aware of what is coming up behind you, regardless of what you were planning to do.
2. It really doesn't matter what the reason is - you can't get spooked - even if Godzilla jumps out in front of you.
3. It is up to you to create the safe zone you feel you need around you. Leave more space in front, let people go around you, don't be close to the splitting lane - whatever it takes.
4. Take the suggestions above to get some more training and in particular pay attention with how to brake without causing your accident. Experience is the real cure of course - so hopefully some training will get you feeling comfortable enough to get back on a bike and get more experience.

Take it easy!