In my younger days I was in a hurry to adjust the chain on my CB650 and didn't adjust the rear brake to compensate for the adjustment (drum brake). I was buzzing down the road, topped a hill to find a car sitting in the raod waiting to turn left. I hit the brakes and the rear locked immediately, bike went down, and I have a pretty good idea of what to diff on a '77 t-bird looks like. I had a guy pull right out in front me two-up on my Ultra and I locked the front and slid it out 10 feet. Scared the **** out of my wife and I have no idea what kept it from going down. Glad you're ok.

 

Good additional info! It's been over 10 years since I used any of this and I couldn't remember the formula for stopping distance. Didn't feel like digging up my books.

I do remember minimum speed for skid to a stop but it doesn't apply here.

We are go good team. [sm=smiley32.gif]

 

VOW, YOU GUYS ARE GOOD AND FAST to react to this post.

yes , i have to agree that i locked one brake. i think ?

i have found that in my other bikes i usually brake hard with the front brake and slowly apply rear .even in panic.

then ,when i git the harley 6 mohts ago ,for reasons that i do not understand ,i found myself using the rear brake most of the time during the first 2 months or so,and i did about 4 or 5 fishtails during this period until i trained myself to apply front only and slowly rear,

but in this accident i have no recall whatsoever of what i did. zero recall.

therefore i will have to assume that you are correct and that i locked the rear brake thus causing the fall.
i wonder if the extra weight in the back ,the bags may have contibuted.

i have a friend from a riding club in conn.where i ride also that tells me that i probably locked the front brake ,thus unweighing the rear end causing it to lift ,and then when i applied the rear brake with force i brought the inertia forces to bear on the rear and causing the rigth side slide .

well, for whatever reason, mostriders sometimes when we go on a short ride to the supermarket ,etc, only go in jeans and t-shirts......

please learn the lesson ,even on a 2 block ride you can go down.

i am not in the hospital today undergoing skin grafts,etc because of the armored clothing that i wear even im the hot and humid florida weather ..i will not ride if i cannot go out fully dressed.

i am not preaching , only ilustrating a point based on a 5 mile ride i took .

 

Same sort of thing happened w/ my Deuce. I paniced, locked up my FRONT wheel, and went down as if a magnet pulled me down - instantaniously!

Glad your okay

 

I took a motorcycle safety course on the Military post I worked. They require it to ride on base. Anyhow, we watched endless riding videos (boring!) but we also practiced maneuvers, figure 8s, hopping the bike over a 4x4 post. Hopping a 01 FLHT over a piece of wood was not something I wanted to do, but it was fun in the end. We also did controlled skids... got up to 25 mph and locked up the rear brakes so that we could see what it was like.... Kool! I can burnout and skid now. Man, am I gonna go thru some tires!

Rear brake makes you skid with control... front brake makes the handle bars roll to one side or the other! In an emergency, give me more brake brake any day!


Glad to hear you turned out safe!

B

 

Hang in there! You were bearing down even at slow speed on a confusing crash in front of you and stuff just happens. Keep up the practice... and maybe try more practice with cones using the front and rear combinations and the no-no's in the video.

For years after I started riding, the urban legend back then was that front brakes will crash you in panic stops cause the shocks supposedly would bottom with such rotational force that you would end-oh onto your head. We all removed our front brake levers!!! Nutso we were!

 

As others said, too much rear brake, most people tend to rely too much on the rear, some say its from a mindset of old pictures of dirt bikes and guys going over the bars by grabing too much front brakes. This wont happen on a big bike, most of your stopping power is in the front. Dual discs on big harleys will bring her to a safe stop when used with some rear brake pressure in most cases with no loss of controll.

 

You "steer where you look", and with that said, you were looking at the car going to the left after impact and were steering to the left when your skid started kicking rear out to right.(At brake application)

Once your mind "felt" the skid, your instincts took over and you started a counter steer into the skid, and applied morefront brake.

Front wheel is now truned to right, bike sliding right, front brake applied, over on the right side, she went.

 

The bottom line is that you are OK and the bike is repairable. That is first and foremost. Take the driving course and see if old habits don't change.. Mine have after taking it..

Glad you are OK..

 

For what it's worth.......
I was riding two up last summer coming north on 301 in Virginia approaching the Potomac river bridge, I was in left lane as I knew everyone had to merge to left at the bridge. I always leave a lot of space in front, but a Suburban decided to speed pass me and move over into my lane, soon as he did he jams on the brakes. For what reason I still don't know, couldn't see what was happening ahead of him. Anyway I braked hard front andI'm sure tohard on the rear, the rear of the Ultra slid to the right also. Luckythe Suburban got off the brakes andI let off the front brake and somehowgot straight after easing off the rear.
I think riding two up on a top heavy bagger is a lot differentthan your average street bike.