Bit of a Spill

[fuzzygoth]

Well I had a little bit of a tumble this morning, I took the

wrong lane on the central ring road and had a mini adventure

resulting in my approaching a set of traffic lights in the

city centre about 7:20am. It was a little wet and while

slowing at the traffic light I skidded a little but recovered.

Unfortunatly, My motorcycle luggage that I got last night from

freecycle had slipped down (obviously not secure enough) and

that whole combination pulled the bike down.



Fortunatly I was going very slow in first gear so it litterly

just fell over but both rider and bike where fine, picked it

up and assured pedestrians that I was okay and rode off. I think

I now understand the in's and outs of the clutch so no more

stalling (we'll see on the way home) once I understood I didn't

stall on the way in.

Comments

[korndolly666.livejournal.com]

Claire's got a bike and passed her test now so was wondering what kind of bike you got?

[fuzzygoth.livejournal.com]

Kymco Hipster 125cc 2005 plate

[korndolly666.livejournal.com]

cool. Hope your ok after the incident yesterday.

[lazken.livejournal.com]

Are you using a tailpack? I hate those bloody things, the amount of faffing around to get them secure isn't worth it i find.
Get a decent tankbag and be done with it. Oxford sports humpback ones are ace :)

[fuzzygoth.livejournal.com]

yeah but until I can afford to buy something new I'll just have to make
sure I secure it better. Done it better on the ride back, mainly because
I didn't want to fall off again.

[red-phil.livejournal.com]

Apparently badly secured luggage causes a lot of problems.
Imagine a pannier strap getting caught in the rear wheel at 50 and pulling the pannier into the rear tyre.

Bad Ju-Ju

[mandalorean.livejournal.com]

Yarp. Cannot stress enough that luggage needs to be extremely secure. I use Oxford Sports Panniers, tail pack and tank bag (used to before I got the BMW specific tank bag). Many bungees and tie downs and cargo nets are used to secure them for no movement what so ever.
As for clutch control, nothing beats practice.

Glad your okay mate, and at least you have one crash story now ;-)

[fuzzygoth.livejournal.com]

yeah I stalling less, but I think on the way back I was still a little nervous because it had been raining all day and I could feel that the wheels had a little less traction at some points

[fuzzygoth.livejournal.com]

Everywhere I go in inner city so its all 30 zones, not even hit 50 yet
but yeah I was non-chuffed about it and was much more carefull on the way
back

[miss-corinne.livejournal.com]

Why are there no pictures yet, young lady? :) Hope you're ok!

[fuzzygoth.livejournal.com]

young lady? do I look like a girl :P

yeah I am fine it wasn't bad or anything and good motivation to be more
bloomin carefull ;)

Might get some at the weekend :)

[miss_squiddy]

Eeep! Be careful out there! Rush hour traffic isn't fun at the best of times. I'm glad you're OK and don't get squished!

[fuzzygoth.livejournal.com]

It can be a bit nerve wracking at time essecially as I am not the most experinced rider (a whole 2 1/2 days now)

not getting squished ++

[miss_squiddy]

Just take it easy and don't plan any massively long journeys!

[fuzzygoth.livejournal.com]

not that brave yet, might pootle up to nottingham at some point thats only 30 minutes. Fortunatly my bike is very comftable :D

[bridd.livejournal.com]

Glad you were ok dude -take care out there!

[fuzzygoth.livejournal.com]

I keep ending up in the wrong lanes in the central ring road ... *argh!*

[bridd.livejournal.com]

I think that happens to *everyone* :D

It's a bit like Chess -you have to think several moves ahead so you don't get messed up before!

Introductions

[glensc.livejournal.com]

Fuzzy, Tarmac, Tarmac, Fuzzy.
OK now you've been introduced feel free to ignore one another.

Tips for riding in the wet :
Try to
Keep off the white lines, keep off the manholes covers, keep off the dark rainbows.

Make sure you never have to brake on any of the above.
If you take off just a little speed before you have to and you find yourself unaviodably about to be on any of the above it gives you a little time to let off the brakes as you go over them and re-aply once clear.