A little food for thought

[DEK]

Keep in mind I'm almost 50 yrs old and not a young kid anymore but here goes. Yesterday I was just out cruising around and looked in my mirror to discover an R1 right on my tail and I mean right on my tail. Well instead of just continuing on and letting him pass like I should have I deceided for some reason that I was going to play a little cat and mouse with this guy. Now I've been riding street bikes since I was 16 yrs old and can hold my own pretty well but I'm on a ZX14 and this guy is on an R1, made to carve the road. Well I would lead him a good 6 bike lengths on the straights but he was right there back on my tail at the start of the turns and out of the turns again I would lead him 5-6 bike lengths. Well we came up on a real sharp left hander that switched back pretty quick to a sharp but sweeping right hander. I made the quick left no problem but when I went to make the switch back to the right I was either going in too hot or either did not have enough time to make the transition I don't know but I ran clean out the apex of the turn and into the grass. Lucky for me there was no traffic and I did manage to keep the bike on two wheels and get back into the road. I felt so damn stupid for making this move and felt bad all that evening. But tonight it hit me that I should not have felt bad for making a stupid mistake but instead I should have felt bad for doing such a stupid thing on a public road to start with. Myself or even worse some innocent person could have been killed by my stupidity and that started to dwell on my mind all day today and I felt that I needed to share this with everyone here. I have three sons and a wife that depend on me and now that I think about it I was being very selfish to them. If nothing else maybe someone else will read this and think about it next time they are out and think about doing the same thing as I did. It only takes a split second and it's too late. Trust me this will not happen to me again while on a public road. And I do apologize for my stupidity.

[ZX-10R]

It happens, everyone gets a little stupid at times.. Just be glad that you rode away from it.

[1882]

I had the same thing happen a few weeks ago except it was a CBR600RR and the road was VERY tight & twisty. The 600 had the advantage no question but I gotta say, the ol' 14 held her own and when the road opened up even just a bit the 600 was just a distant headlight in my mirror. After the encounter I felt quite juvenile and looking back it was one of the dumber things I have done in quite a while. Now if I was on my CBR1000RR that I had before the 14 things might have turned out differently. Still senseless nonetheless...

[DEK]

Well I can say one thing for sure and that's anyone that thinks a ZX14 can't handle the curves all I can say is get behind one with a decent rider on it and you shall see the truth. They will hold their own pretty darn good. And the Pilot Road II's do have some serious grip.

[immtbiker]

I'm 50 too, and I can't count the times I've done stupid things on bikes, with or without the wife on the bike and the kids at home.

It's the nature of the beast. The thing that gets me, is living in a metro area with constant traffic, and lane splitting.

[OldPete2112]

I think we have all done that, and thankfully you just get to sit at home and regret it, and now have to sit in a hospital and regret it.

Thanks for posting that up, I for one think that I need to think a bit more before doing things like that. I am just as guilty as anyone. Glad you kept it on two wheels and nothing worse than a bruised ego came out of it. It sure could have ended otherwise.

OP

[jollyroger]

I'm 56.Yep-glad it was okay-this time.When I first got my zx14,I had just broke er in.She was running awesome.I had to take some treatments for my liver for a year prior ending at just around the time that the roads got nice and the weather cleared.Gotta say-those treatments almost killed me.But I made it through just barely.So...two weeks out from treatments I'm feeling "pretty good"(compared to what it was before).I'm thinkin,ya I can go for a ride with my bud-he's got an 08 Busa-very fast and nice bike.So we set out.I'm doing some "attitude checks" inside to see how I actually DO FEEL.Anyway.I convinced myself I was fine-ya-it's cool-nice little ride for a "reward" so to speak.I'm doin okay(I thought).He takes off.....ya-he's haulin azzz.I gotta keep up,right?WRONG.Way wrong.He makes his right hander fine-he's ahead of me by about 60 yards or so.I'm on the gas tryin to catch him.It's a 15 MPH curve-ya-big fun now.Before I could say JACK DIDDLY-I'm hittin like 70ish comin up on this deathtrap(he knew the road-I had never been on it before)He makes it through-ya-good on him.Me-not so fortunate.Hit my brakes and downshifted to scrub off "some" speed(which was virtually IMPOSSIBLE by this time).You guessed it-yep-rear end skidded-I let up,TOO LATE-NO MORE ROAD.Aw shit....Grabbed some front brake as well...slowed me pretty good for the distance I had left(10 feet or so).No way-there was no leaning in or anything else I could do-BOOM,hit the shoulder(oncoming lane)Bike flipped first on her right side,then back up and HIGH SIDED me over the bars,and onto my head."woke up" flat on my back-stunned of course,but feeling no pain.Bike-well let's just say I could have cried right there.Virtually totaled it looked to me.(it wasn't thankfully).Moral of the story-have yer head on straight before you launch yer spaceship into the wild blue!Learned my lesson THAT morning.RIDE MY OWN RIDE.And remember-"she'll accelerate A LOT faster than she'll STOP!LOL!!!!"Had there been a car coming(which one did just as I "woke up")I'd be a goner now.No doubt about that.Definitely a wake-up call for me.Now I only "push er" on roads I've at least BEEN ON before.And I listen to that inner voice that says"ease up now-live to ride another day".

[mad]

Of course, then there is a buddy of mine's story a couple of months ago. He rides a Goldwing, is an excellent rider, and he's had it's suspension completely reworked by Traxxion Dynamics to the tune of $2500.
He was solo hitting some Alabama twisties when some guy on an R1 blew by him on a straight road. He thought, "some fun!" and immediately twisted the grip. Into the twisties they went...right by the R1. The R1 gave chase and a few corners later my buddy witnessed the R1 leave the road at high speed in his mirrors. He turned around to render aid and the guy had some broken ribs, etc.
I'm telling you, as stated above, the rider's ability is the biggest factor. We've all been "stupid" but being smart while being stupid is keeping the ride within your own abilities.

[JBearSVT]

Well Dek, anytime you're feeling like Captain Stupid for your behavior on a bike, just pull up one of Kawiforlife's topics and read through it. Always works for me.

[185EZ]

Originally Posted by JBearSVT

Well Dek, anytime you're feeling like Captain Stupid for your behavior on a bike, just pull up one of Kawiforlife's topics and read through it. Always works for me.

Some kids never learn.^^^

Usually when my wife is with me, she's sort of like a human stupid meter. The harder she taps me on the shoulder means the stupider I'm getting.
So I'm by myself the other day and every cager out there wanted to play. At one point when I was trying to get around some slow cars and the car in front of me insisted on staying ahead of me. We're already over 100mph and he's still weaving in and out and passing cars. I felt this mysterious tapping on my shoulder and decided I had nothing to prove.
Glad you're OK, DEK. Don't feel bad. You learned a valuable lesson and got lucky so it was a good day. Hopefully someone else will read this and think twice before getting into the same situation.
BTW, almost 50? You're still a kid in my book.

[BULLDOG]

Stupid is when you don't recognize your stupidity.

[jollyroger]

Well Said!!!

[tampastockman]

There should be an age limit on buying the 14. I am too tempted too ofter, and damn it I am 42 yrs old. Plenty old to know better. Raced some Japanese hot rod car and damn it if 150 didn't come up real quick. Stupid stupid stupid. At least it was on I-4 and not too crowded. Crazy part is that Japanese sports car hung right in there pretty good. I am guessing turbo and perhaps a little NOS.

[jollyroger]

Be careful what you wish for youngster!

[mad]

Age limit. Any age limit is at best about like out speedometers. Anywhere from 5-15% off...just like me.

[185EZ]

I guess at my age I'm allowed to buy anything I want.
I just have to figure out where the wife hid the checkbook.

[JBearSVT]

If you've got it in the account to write checks on, you're way ahead of most of us already.