I remember when I started riding I was crashing a lot. Me and my crashes became a joke among friends; and the anticipation about the next one provided lots of talk and entertainment. Then, one evening, lying in bed licking my wounds yet again, it dawned on me that there was a pattern. Until then I was blaming cars, road conditions, whatever. But one thing became clear, the accidents happened with a worrying, almost predictable regularity. There was a pattern.
Then I realised, thinking about my last accident; that it was entirely avoidable. If took a different action at a certain point, it would not have happened. I could then see how all my accidents could have been prevented; simply by me changing my attitude on the bike.
So from a bold, aggressive rider I became more circumspect and used my brains and eyes more; searching and predicting the behaviour of other road users. Needless to say, I haven’t had an accident again until early 2005, the first in probably 5 years.
I was accelerating hard on Riaan’s BMW R75, and made eye-contact with a Volvo S40 driver waiting to turn into my lane. I assumed he saw me, and therefor went for it, revving the tits of the bike.
To my disbelief he turned right into my path. I hardly had time to brake or swerve. In an instant I was on the ground, pinned underneath the bike, with the nose of the car on top. I was angry, but the horror on the face of the driver was something else. He really, absolutely did not see me, inspite of my headlight being on and the noise of the freeflow megaphone pipes.
The accident simply proved my principle that kept me from falling for 5 years. On that day I was cocky, showing off, and didn’t feel like backing off. I shouldn’t have assumed he saw me. And how lucky I was; I had no protective gear on (not even gloves). The boxer cylinder kept the bike resting of the ground, and I was pinned neatly into the gap. No injury at all. I picked up the bike, and went on, very slowly.
So, why have I started to crash now again, two years later? My feeling is that I allow myself to feel pressurized. I have to be able to push a bike hard, and way out of my comfort zone. As a journalist that is my job. I have been attending track days, and Philippe (my senior) made it clear that I have to be fast. How else can I give credible feedback, especially on superbikes.
I tend to agree, but I haven’t admitted to myself that perhaps it takes longer and is more difficult to go fast then I am prepared to admit. In other words, I haven’t mastered the technique of fast riding (i.e. cornering, as wide throttle has nothing to do with it).
But my old bashfulness has a role to play too. On the Pan-European ST1300, I simply forgot that I was on a tourer without adequate ground clearance. I saw a corner coming up, and got excited. I opened the throttle, and started leaning. Have a look.
The corner looks fast and wide.
Then, to my surprise, the Pan starts scraping. But I don’t worry, thinking it will stop any moment.
By now I realised it is not stopping, and I am running out of road.
It was too late to panic here. I knew I was in trouble, and was ready to crash. Big. Still, I kept the throttle pinned, and left the brakes alone, not wanting to cause an upset to the bike that will guarantee a crash.
The corner opened up without me having drifted into the oncoming lane, and I live another day. Was I lucky? Certainly! But not panicking helped. Was that because I was getting rather used to crashing?
Whatever the case; it is back to square one with my mental attitude. Keep doing what kept me alive so far; and don’t show-off my still developing skill. Leave that for the track, not the public road.
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