Down at 65mph (AKA Draggin Jeans, Alpinestars Leather field test)

JM, Glad you survived the get off on Southfield. I grew up there and remember when it [Southfield Hwy] was built. Remember riding my bicycle on it before it was open, as it was on the way to my cousins house.

MI drivers are fast, but roads are better design than ones in WA.

I have a pair of dragging jean, but favor my CE pants. I't be good to see the photos when posted, so please do!

We had a bad run of bikers getting killed ever other day around the Puget Sound in WA about 2 weeks ago. It has cooled off and that has stopped.

Glad to hear that you and your bike aren't too badly injured.

I must say that whilst I don't know the layout of this Freeway I can only guess that there aren't sharp turns on it. I would therefore conclude that this slow car should have been in your view before it went over the brow of the hill, if it caused such a drama once you crested the hill it can't have been that far ahead of you. Perhaps some advance planning may have helped prevent this from happening.

All the best

Very glad you're okay, but curious:
Did the homicidal motherphucker that nearly killed you bother to stick around to see if you were alive, or did he/she just continue on their merry 100mph way?

Good to hear you're ok! There's no reasoning with the Southfield, kinda hard to enforce the limit with nowhere to run radar or stop drivers. Now, running with lights & siren at 0400 when it was empty wasn't so bad

Situational awareness doesn't always trump the amped up driver that wants your lane more than you unfortunately. A crew I worked with witnessed a fleeing guy vault over a retaining wall from the service drive along there, apparently expecting to land on the sloping weedy transition and not vertical concrete with a drop to the roadway. That would mess up your motorcycling day too... :eek1

Sorry for the delay I'm moving out of my apartment this weekend. Here are the long awaited pics!

First the hole in the knee of my Draggin Jeans:


The arse end:


The hole in the knee is about the size of a quarter through the Kevlar. I have a rash the size of a silver dollar on that knee. Once again I was not wearing the knox armor included with the pants, had I been I'm confident I'd have no rash at all. There is no other damage to the pants, the arse end did not wear through the back pockets into the second layer of fabric or Kevlar.

This is the only damage to my Alpinestars stage jacket. The hole is in the upper armpit/back area but there is zero damage to my body there. I think the hole might be a result of the leather folding up some as I slid. No damage to the jacket other than some very very minor smudging on one arm not worth photographing.

My Corcoran 1941 paratrooper patern leather boots look trashed but saved my feet from any damage at all.



Overall I had a compromise of gear that allowed me comfort on and off the bike and gave me good, not perfect protection in the event of a pretty serious slide. I think that if you are going to travel over 75mph for any period of time you need to be wearing Kevlar or leather gear that is race quality if you want to walk away from a slide with zero damage. Oh and wear your knee armor.

Handlebar and clutch lever:


Scratched up engine case and exhaust:


Aparently Triumph designs these bikes to slide on the parts easiest to replace. I'm amazed at the minor damage sustained in that kind of slide. No damage to my custom paintwork! (It's Mini Cooper Green : )

:eek1
Glad you're OK.
Thanks for the report, very informative and concise.
Happy riding!

No one talks about why you went down. You said, "I touch the brake with one finger out of panic and down goes Frasier" You locked up a wheel in a panic situation. If you had a bike that came with ABS brakes you would not of had to post this story.

siclmn is probably right about locking the brake. I don't know if ABS would have saved me, I have a feeling it wouldn't have but who knows. I'd love to have ABS but my bike cost me under 5 grand. Unless I could have found something that I liked as much with ABS for around that price I couldn't have had it. Not everyone on this site is a 65 year old retired architect with a midlife crisis fund bigger than my yearly income. I kid I kid.

Thanks for the replys all, ride safe.

Glad you are OK. Now you have an excuse to buy Staintunes for the Thruxton, or at least the TORs.

I don't know why everyone is harping so much on getting ABS. I guess they're just trying to prove to the world that the extra money they spent on ABS is justified. To me, more practice at emergency braking and situational awareness would have prevented this accident. Sure, ABS could have helped, but striving to become a better, safer rider helps more.

ABS is a band-aid for poor rider skill.

+1

On consistent dry pavement in good conditions then you might have a point. Except that nobody requires you to activate the ABS every time you use the brakes. And if you don't trigger the ABS, the skill level you employ is no more or less than it would be if ABS wasn't fitted to the motorcycle. If you consistently brake on the street at a level where locking up one or both your wheels is a regular risk in good conditions then you are pushing the envelope far too hard for the unpredictable street environment and will surely pay for it soon.

Meanwhile, in an emergency, I'll take what works every time. When I need to stop right now, I don't want a merit badge for rescuing a tucked front and still stopping before I hit whatever it is I'm stopping for, I just want to be stopped.

These days motorcycle ABS systems can outperform even expert riders on unknown good quality consistent pavement. Give the expert rider a couple of 'practice' emergency stops to suss out how much grip is available under their wheels and they can equal and very occasionally slightly exceed the performance of the ABS. First time out, the ABS wins. And tell me about poor skills when you are highly skilled and embedded in the door of a dumb cager, and I am stopped just short of the same dumb cager with my 'band-aid' ABS.

And if ABS beats expertise in an emergency on a good surface, by how much does it beat it on a badly maintained road you don't know, at night, in the rain, when you don't have the luxury of knowing what is under your wheels?

From experience, a hell of a lot. On an ABS equipped bike you can just throw the anchor out the back and let the ABS deliver levels of braking that you would simply never be able to match manually without ending up on your head and still sliding at speed...

By your post it's obvious that your bike has ABS. Good for you.

I'm not saying that ABS is a bad thing - I'm sure it works great. What I'm saying is that too many riders, instead of refining their safety skills, depend on gadgets like ABS. ABS will not maintain a safe following distance, provide you with situational awareness, make you look further ahead, scan your mirrors, maintain safe lane position... IT WILL NOT THINK FOR YOU. Braking is only a small part of the picture.

If you're depending on ABS to keep you safe on a motorcycle, then you may as well give up now.

Jake:

EXCELLENT report! Thank you!

I think we all received a fine visual of your wreck, and will be extra careful. At least I will!

Man, that was some crazy chit. I'm glad you walked away to share the story.

Dave

i've ridden the southie from lincoln park to ford R and E on oakwood. luckily for me it's not a very long ride. but when i need to go north... especially since 75 is shut down... good god. i HATE the southie. the most aggressive, stupid, and openly hostile drivers i've ever seen. the closer you get to 8 mile, the worse it is.

sometimes 94 can be bad, but jeez.


congrats on making it through alive and it's amazing that your ride can be fixed with nuts and bolts. good on ya.

Jake,

Thanks for the report. I try to learn from all these I read. I pop in here, read a couple, get queasy, and stay out for a few days... rinse and repeat.

I might suggest you get checked out anyway. I know a dude who went down in a seemingly less evasive way and bounced right up. Later, several months, he begin having low back issues. Disc issues...

Earlier treatment would have been easier on him than waiting till the ouch phase.

Just a thought....

Glad you walked away from this one. How many things could have went so much worse??? Second thought, don't think about it!!!!


Nice bike man!!!