last tuesday as i made a left turn into a local street here in miami,i was lucky that there was a car in front of me .
we were doing approx. 25 mph when at mid block or so a woman shot out in reverse from a driveway that was visually blocked by a suv.

the guy in front got hit on the rear rigth door and moved to his left about 6 feet or so.

i was 4 car lenghts from him and as i closed on the now accident scene i guess i must have locked my brakes and i found myself sliding and falling to my right .

as i hit the ground ,i slided on th epavement for about 12 feet or so and the bike likewise next to me ,except the bike kept sliding towards the car for another 6 feet or so and stopped just 2 feet from impact.

i wear armored/padded underpants and shirts from Knox and Dainesse ,and leathers or other on top.

my jacket and pants got rip and a hole . the sidi race boots have a tear ont he front toe.

the bike,
engine guard scratches

right footpegs mounting brackets bent upward 1/2 inch or so

muffler deep cratches

saddlebag has long scratch and deep.



so. -------------
my questions , why did the harley go down ??? what did i do wrong here ?

i know i should have been morealert and should have been more aware of the surroundings ,so,
for this i am at fault. i failed to ride with 100 % awareness and anticipation of the worst.

what i am trying to figure out is why did ,from a physics or mechanical aspect ,did the harley slide to the right and down ??

in similar panic stops with my moto guzzi lemans ,or duc ,or bmw , i have never gone down. but on the harley it was like it was engineered to go down. i still cannot understand why the bike went down .
i have been riding for over 45 years . and have gone down before but not like this .

any thoughts out there from you more experienced harley riders ??
i am trying to understand so that i can go to a parking lot and practice on this bike to avoid a repeat performance .

thank you for any input

ffb

 

Sounds like you locked up just one of your brakes. At 25 MPH and 4 car lenghts you should have been able to get that bike stopped safely with no problem.

 

you didn't say whether you used both front and rear or just rear. Sounds like you panicked and just used the rear brakes.

 

First off I'm glad that you weren't hurt. It sounds like the repairs are minor and can easily be fixed.

Not sure why it went down towards the right. Just speculating but maybe you reflexes had you shift your body weight to the right side when seeing the car in front of you stop to the left of you. That is the only thing that I can think of.

I wouldn't feel like you did too much wrong. You actually did alot of things correct. You missed hitting anything and were able to walk away from it. Good choice on riding gear too.

 

If you used too much rear brake in an emergency it could lock up. You have to find the right percentage of front and rear braking. It's a good idea to practice in a big parking lot for situations like that. I have locked up my rear a few times but not in an emergency.

 

True if he was actually apply the brakes with 4 car lengths but here is something to chew on:

At 25 mph he is riding at 36.65 feet per second (25 X 1.466 = 36.65) (1.466 is a constant when changing mph to fps)

An adverage person's reaction time upon seeing a hazzard is 3/4 of a second

This would allow him to travel 27.48 feet before even applying the brakes (36.65 X .75 = 27.48)

Now this practically covers the 4 car length distance at the time he is beginning to brake

Ah, it's been awhile since I used any of my accident reconstruction formulas. I enjoyed those days.

 

Its always good to look to oneself for improvement. Based on what you described, you may have locked the rear ONLY. The best product I have found out there for actually setting up a "course" for practice is the "Ride Like A Pro" DVD.

Cost about $30 and provides very good instruction/refresher information.

Keep the shiny side up !!

 

I think it just boils down to a panic situation. Doesn't sound like you had timeto react as you would normally. so yourvoluntary reflexes took over. No one likes to admit, it but as we get older our reflex and hand/eye coordination slow down.

Don't beat yourself (or the bike) up too much. If you ride long enough you'll havean avoidable accident. If you haven't yet you're over due. Looks like you got it out of the way with no injuries....you should be good for another 45 years. [sm=smiley20.gif]

 

That would explain why I smacked the jeep that cut me off and slammed onhis brakes... didn't have time for squat...

ffb, don't beat yourself up, at least your ok.... the bikecan be fixed...

[IMG]local://upfiles/11910/FBC5D56982B44585977C3AE3BC2A4586.jpg[/IMG]

 

Your math is all correct but, I think you went way short on "Car Lengths". I generally use one car length= 16 feet or so. 4 car lengths would then be 64 feet, more than sufficient to stop at 25 MPH. Then (If you were bored) you could figure stopping distance from 25 MPH, which assuming a f of .7, and an operator braking efficiency of .8 = a distance to stop of 37.2 feet. Add that to your reaction distance, and you have a total of 64 feet.

Ain't math fun !!