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Was heading down into a turn lane for a local bridge, slowing down, when I suddenly found out the turn lane had an oil slick about 50 feet long and the width of the turn lane. Straightened it out and hauled it down, overshooting the turn and coming to a stop about 5 feet before the curbstone on the on-ramp to from the other direction. The riders behind me saw my back end fishtailing and came in at very, very slow speeds (walking speeds). I wasn't even phased (I would have been if I had gotten much closer to that curbstone or tried to make the corner)... practice, training and pre-envisioning of possible scenarios came in. so that I didn't have to think about the right course of actions, just had to carry them out.
Unfortunately, a kid on a new Kawi had hit it about 90 seconds before I did (he was out of my view at the time) and went down hard -- crankcase broken, mirror & upper fairing broken away; he had only been doing 25 going in and went down about 15 mph. The good news is that he was fully geared and suffered no injuries. We stopped & checked on him, the bike, then I called fire-rescue to come spread some cat litter and the cops to mark out the lane; fire-rescue was there in about 90 seconds (wow!), but during the meantime, car after car was coming through the turn and losing the back end -- looked like one of the sliding videos you see on the net sometimes. Fire-rescue said it happens at that particular turn of the intersection all the time...
The worst part: several riders tried to tell me the best way to handle it would be to power-slide through on full-throttle. I don't like to argue with the mentally incompetent...
Be safe out there. Wear your gear. Think ahead. Practice your worst possible scenario solutions.
PS - I'm really glad I was in front of malloc by a 150 to 200 feet -- I suspect he would have bitten it otherwise.
Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet
Unfortunately, a kid on a new Kawi had hit it about 90 seconds before I did (he was out of my view at the time) and went down hard -- crankcase broken, mirror & upper fairing broken away; he had only been doing 25 going in and went down about 15 mph. The good news is that he was fully geared and suffered no injuries. We stopped & checked on him, the bike, then I called fire-rescue to come spread some cat litter and the cops to mark out the lane; fire-rescue was there in about 90 seconds (wow!), but during the meantime, car after car was coming through the turn and losing the back end -- looked like one of the sliding videos you see on the net sometimes. Fire-rescue said it happens at that particular turn of the intersection all the time...
The worst part: several riders tried to tell me the best way to handle it would be to power-slide through on full-throttle. I don't like to argue with the mentally incompetent...
Be safe out there. Wear your gear. Think ahead. Practice your worst possible scenario solutions.
PS - I'm really glad I was in front of malloc by a 150 to 200 feet -- I suspect he would have bitten it otherwise.
Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet
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