First off let me stress this was not me, although I imagine it possibly could of been. This happened to a friend of mine this afternoon, and I'm trying to go thru in my head what if anything I would/could of done differently. It's been awhile since I'd taken my MSF class, but thought you should NEVER try to stand a bike up that's already in a curve? Was his only error going in too hot?


Getting off Turnpike at Galdes in Boca. Started to slide a bit. Stood her up to take some speed off. Headed for the grass. She bogged down at the bottom. Just steped off as she went down. No problem!! Some one called 911 and the Boca Fire dept. showed up and helped me get get it up. (didn't know they could do that and asked if they made house calls). Started it up and rode home. This is like the coolest Jet Ski ever.

 

The Glades entrance and exits on the Turnpike are very tight turns with double apexes, with the posted speed limit of 25mph. Roads were wet today, slower in and more lean - your friend sounds like he was really lucky.

 

Well, I can say, if he was trying to stop, he definitely needed to pick the bike up. However, otherwise, I have read, if you do need to apply any brake while leaned over, use the back brake. But, any time you start scrubbing speed in a curve I think you are asking for trouble. I think the biggest mistake he made was, as you said, going into the lean too hot. Slow down before the curve and then accelerate through the turn. The acceleration actually helps keep the bike upright.

 

I live near you. Know the exit well.

If he wasn't scraping and pushing a low side my guess is he got spooked and
looked outside the curve and went where he looked. Classic mistake, especially for inexperienced riders.

My other guess, and one I am guilty of, is speed. After long runs on an interstate, I lose perception of speed and I tend to hit exits too fast. Could be he lost his perception of speed and exited too fast. But if that was the case he should have recognized it quick enough to get hard on the brakes before the curve.

 

Our Friend-

 

I think Jonesee hit the nail on the head.

 

Exactly the answers I was expecting. Yes he is a very new rider and becoming a good friend, so I'd like to able to communicate to him just what he might of done differently.

Thank you for the insight-

 

you can tell me who on FB messenger.

 

It's smart to always error on the side of caution on roads (and/or turns) that you are not completely familiar with.

Standing a bike up to slow down is logical. That way all your force goes into braking, versus cornering. The problem comes in where there's not enough room to get slowed before you meet up with the shoulder/dirt/gravel/grass/etc.

Once you're in a turn too 'hot' it's too late. The best you can do is keep your head and hope you've got the skill/experience to ride it out.

If you want to ride a stretch of road aggressively, first become familiar with it. But even then there are so many variables on the street, e.g., other vehicles, animals, you-name-it, the street is not the place to exercise the limits of your skill.

Apologize for all the cautions. It's just I've done everything the wrong way at least once, and I've been there/done that (getting into a 20 MPH corner too hot).

The best thing to do in such a case is…don't get into the corner too fast in the first place.

Have your friend take an advanced riding course (MSF offers a couple of variants) and/or take a racing school like California Superbike School (Keith Code). Any of these will teach the techniques for optimal cornering.

There's three things we need to survive as a motorcycle rider on the street: Good training; Proper gear; The right attitude. It's up to each of us to define these for ourselves (the thought being, anything we're aware of in the way of safety we'll be prudent enough to use for our benefit). In fact, that's the biggest part of the equation of surviving on the street…not so much knowing what's smart…but practicing it.

Alan

 

Acceleration while in a turn will NOT stand the bike up, it will make it lean more into the turn. And if you are hot in a turn, the best thing you could do is to try to lean it over more into the turn and try to get through it.