My First Motorcycle Crash

Ow. And did I mention, OW!

What happened?
It all happened so fast, and was so unexpected. I was starting my tip-in to turn 9 at Spokane County Raceway and all of sudden it felt like the front wheel locked up completely. The front-end was pushing out toward the edge of the turn, and I'm still trying to lean it over, to get it to turn. Then BAM I'm on the ground. Then I'm tumbling, rolling. Like I said: Ow.

I'm okay. Nothing broken. My left hip is poofy from the impact and my right foot from being slammed during the tumble. I landed on my left side and my arm gave my ribs a good whack too, but they're just a little bit sore. So far a big dose of Ibuprofen is all I need.

The bike held up really well too. The left exhaust can is pretty bashed, but usable, the frame slider derlin puck is rubbed down and the bolt is bent (easily repaired). The clutch lever and handlebar bar-end are bent, but he handlebar is fine. The windscreen is scraped badly from its stint in the gravel, but salvageable. The tank is fine other than a ding and scratches. The tail just has some scrathes, too. That's it. Mostly because of the frameslider. If I didn't have those, the bike could have been totalled!

The bummer about this whole thing is that dad's SV650 is due out here any day. And the idea was to make it a dedicated track bike so that I wouldn't have to worry aobut crashing the SV1000...Oops.

So, what was the lesson here? Other than the obvious, "don't crash...it hurts!" Well, I have a few and was given some good guidance.

1) Equipment:

* My foot is hurt mostly because of a feature on my boot that actually caused more harm than good. I'll be grinding that down. Sadly this feature is common on virtually all Sidi boots.

* One piece is better than 2 in leathers. The zipper on my Teknic Violator jacket tore from the lining and gave me a bit of a scrape (no road rash though!). I would recommend attaching the zipper to the leather, not the lining.

* Anyone not wearing leather above 40 mph is crazy.

* Frame sliders that use a single bolt through the frame are a must! If it weren't for those the bike would have been in much worse shape. If this had been a simply bolt-to-frame on each side, I probably would have damaged the frame.

2)Riding

* Okay. I am now a believer in smooth riding meaning, the transitions in downshifting, braking, applying throttle, tipping in to the turns. I was overriding my traction. Failing to be smooth. I had the lines down right, but I was struggling with the flow of the track. Meaning that my braking and throttle inputs were jerky and upset the bike's composure. In this case, I came in and grabbed the brakes hard, downshifted and tried to be smooth on the release of the clutch. But between the engine braking and the brakes and then tipping-in to the turn, I used up all my traction and just like that, I was down. It wasn't that I was going too fast, it was that I was using too much of my traction on the wrong activities and at the wrong time.

The rub is that one of the instructors, Bret, had just come to me after the second session and talked to me about that very subject. In fact, I was trying to be more smooth on the clutch release, but didn't put the timing and sequence of actions together in the correct order.

So Now What?

Well, I'm going to try to buff out the scratches on the tank and tail, replace the exhaust can, bar end, clutch lever, frame sliders, and think about either repairing or replacing the windscreen. There's also a bracket that should also be replaced. Depending on how successful the buff attempt is, I may have the bike repainted next winter...Hmm, options and more options.

I still plan to make the SV650 a dedicated track bike. For this year I'll stick with the handlebars, rearset risers, new tires, frame sliders, and suspension setup. Over the winter I'll be probing around for suspension bits, and plastics. Next summer - more power from the SV through tuning and exhaust.

Aren't you Afraid to Ride the Track Again?

Absolutely not. I was going to have a crash eventually, I had hoped it wouldn't be on the SV1000, but what can you do? It's part of the game. I have good equipment so I wasn't seriously injured despite falling at what I would guess is about 50 mph. I have a feeling I'll be a bit timid my next track day, but that will wear off before the end of the day as I get over any residual hesitancy due to my incident or adapting to a new bike. I also want to focuse on being smooth and clean and get my speed up the right way.

See you at the track!