Well, Its been a little over 3 weeks since I was hit from behind on my 09 heritage. I'm waiting for the parts at the dealership. Said the bike will be done in 1-2 more weeks. I want to start riding again but I have this nagging nervousness about riding in traffic again. The bike is in a suburban dealership and Ill have to ride it about 5 miles before getting out of the city. When I pick up the bike I'm going to have the Missus stay behind me with the pickup to run interference. For those of you that had an accident, what did you do to get your confidence back and settle the nerves?

 

I was in my car, October 1990. It was a quiet Sunday morning about 7am and I just picked up bagels to have breakfast with my folks. I'm driving all back roads from Princeton to East Brunswick and I mean theres no one on the road. Im on the main secondary road doing 30mph in a 30mph because there was deer everywhere.. I didnt want to kick it up.. The next thing you know my Pontiac had everything from the firewall forward torn off the car. Neither my wife or I saw a car coming. We didnt even know we we getting hit, there were no skid marks. We find out a kid, no license was coming home from a party from the night before, drunk off his ***. He nearly wiped out a police cruiser. He was clocked doing 72 in a 20. At a blind intersection where he had flashing red lights and giant stop signs he blew threw, hit us, lost control and went into the woods. There were a lot of f'ed up people in his car. My wife walked away. I didnt.. I had a totally f'ed up back injury and I couldnt move I was in total pain. I couldnt get behind a wheel for a reallllly long time. I couldnt drive with someone else driving.. Every time I saw someone approach from the left i'd jump... So to answer your question, it may take a while...

My only advice (not that you asked for it), ride with your head in the game even if you have to find a nice country road and ride 40mph...

Sorry for the long winded reply..

 

Thanks Uncle Kebo...I am looking for advice. Sad part was I saw this old guy coming in my mirrors and flashed my brake light at him. Light turned green and I thought I was safe moving away. Apparently not fast enough, was hit 10 ft later.

 

My advice would be to NOT do this again. Be an offensive defensive rider. It sounds like you were paying attention, but just failed to act quick enough and appropriately. I don't care if you're lit up like a Christmas tree, if someone is coming at you from behind, don't wait to see if he notices you, just get the hell out of the way NOW. Imbed that thought in your mind and getting back on the bike should be no problem.

 

Just man up. Or quit.

 

Couple years back my wife and I had a bad accident, I had two bikes and started riding the next weekend, you will have apprehension, and be bit hypersensitive. On your initial rides set a goal how far and be familiar where you are going and just try to enjoy. Keep you head on the ride. If you have a riding buddy the better. I would not avoid the city traffic because that is part of the process of getting back in the saddle. It will take time.

On a safety note about your wife behind if she is not experienced with following/escorting you could be setting both of yourselves up a another issue. She needs to vigilant on her driving not playing interference for you and you need to paying attention to your riding not her behind you.

Take care

 

All I can say is, take it slow. Give yourself some time to get used to everything around you...sort of like starting over from the beginning. In time, you'll get back in the groove.

 

Forget about it. Just do it. It's no big deal.

The more you think about it, the more likely you are to have a re-issue. Pretty soon you'll be having the bike delivered to a place where nothing can happen.

That place is very far away.

 

Just turn your apprehension into something positive, like heightened awareness. You're not scared to ride, you just want to make sure you're visible to everyone around you and as safe as possible. Then go find your favorite riding road and just feel your head clear.

 

I was hit from behind very very hard about 11 months ago and if I had not been on a bagger with a trunk I most certainly probably would have been killed. I love riding and I really questioned whether or not that I would ride again, not only because of that wreck but because it seems like I am almost being taken out by cagers (probably texting) on a fairly regular basis. Anyway after laying on the couch recuperating for about a week my neighbor was over seeing me and we were talking about it and he said "I'm not going to be using my bike this week, would you like me to bring it over and put it in your garage and you can ride it if you want?" I said sure, and I took it out and realized that I couldn't give up riding and went and bought a Street Glide after riding his bike for about 4-5 days. I am however now having back issues with sciatic nerve problems that started about 7-8 months after the accident and it sucks, I hope this doesn't happen to you.


Riding is so dangerous these days because of everyone being on their cell phones and truthfully you are really putting yourself at risk everytime you get out on the bike, but it is my passion and I love to ride so im not going to quit. I think you will be better than what you think, just watch your mirrors and stay back from cars at red lights so you can get out of the way in case a car is going to hit you from the back. Riding is dangerous and I wouldn't blame you if you do quit because I know what you are feeling right now, but if riding is your passion like it is mine I don't think that you will. Good luck and be safe!