Lesson Learned

I'm a relatively new rider. Sure I had a couple bikes way back when but because I was self taught I never considered myself an experienced rider. This time around I took the Team Oregon course (which I highly recommend to everyone). It's a great course and my instructors were excellent.

One of the things they drilled into us was when coming to a stop making sure you downshifted into 1st gear. There are a few reasons why you want to do this and yesterday I got a first hand lesson on one of them.

At around 8:30 am I called a good friend of mine, Steve Ciccotelli, to see what he was up to. He told me to come over to his place. I got my gear on and warmed up El Duce. It was a bit nippy out but not too bad. Once warmed up I headed out to his place. Coming off a side street onto a thorough fare I had to stop then turn right. Well...I stopped and waited for an opening in traffic. I rolled on the throttle and let out the gas...

Next thing I know my bike is off-balance and headed for the ground. It was past the point of no return so I did my best to soften the blow. It fell on it's right side. I cursed, pulled off my gloves, helmet then huffed it back upright. I was able to plant the kickstand. There was no damage thankfully.

In short what had happened is that I had failed to drop it into 1st gear. As I attempted to take off the bike stalled. Because my front tire was pointed right and I was on the side of the road that was cambered right the bike was unbalanced. With no forward movement or gyroscopic action from the tires it laid right down.

This was my fault completely. My head wasn't fully engaged in the ride. This time the price I paid was only a bruised ego. The lesson is you have to constantly work on your basics and remain vigilant at all times while riding. The littlest mistakes have the potential to cost you.