Nearly bit the dirt on the Valkyrie last night!

[8Track]

Hi fellas,

Yesterday I went for a long ride up into the mid-north of South Australia with a very good mate of mine. He needed to go there to help out his intellectually disabled brother with a few things. He wanted to go on his recently completed '85 Honda VF500 rebuild, and asked if I wanted to ride with him. His wife was nervous of him going all that distance by himself so I agreed to go.

We had an early start, leaving at 7am and took an indirect route through the Adelaide Hills and up through the Barossa Valley wine region. Then through the Clare Valley and on to Gladstone to the brother's house. It was a fantastic ride in every respect. Light traffic, great sunny weather, and wonderful changing scenery.

The trip home however wasn't good. The forecast was for some rain in the late afternoon, but what came through was just short of a storm. Heavy rain, slick roads, and a strong cross wind. It made for some of the foulest riding conditions I've ever ridden in. We took it slow (80 km/h) most of the way back down from Clare to Roseworthy, covering about 120 kms without incident. By this time it was dark.

Just out of Roseworthy the road meets an expressway with a 270 degree on ramp. This is where the incident occurred. As I entered the on ramp, I cut the corner a little tight. A number of factors caused this. I was cold, stiff, and somewhat fatigued, the lighting was poor, the water on the road was reflective, and my visor was covered in water beads. Unfortunately I hit the white line markings. Both tyres lost their grip and the bike went sideways with the rear end sliding right out. Instinct kicked in and I steered into the slide dirtbike style, but I felt the bike was going down. I took my foot off the peg and stomped hard against the pavement and this brought the out of control bike back upright. By this time I had turned 90+ degrees and was heading for the inside edge of the on ramp, still fishtailing. I mounted the curb and found myself on a muddy, grassy verge with an incline in front of me. Somehow I rode up the incline, turned around and came to a stop back down at the bottom of it.

My mate was following behind me and saw the whole thing unfold. We stopped for a couple of minutes and looked the bike over. Wheels and tyres looked ok and I didn't feel or hear any sounds as I mounted the curb other than the two wheel strikes. There was no point standing around in the rain any longer so I jumped back on and completed the journey home without further incident. The bike showed some lumpy vibration to begin with, but it smoothed out straight away. Must have just been mud on the tyres. The bike tracked straight and true.

I guess I'm sharing this for no other reason than to get this off my chest and warn others that those white markings are treacherous in the wet.

This morning I'll be washing the bike and looking it over very carefully.


Cheers,

Mark

[Valkorado]

Whew!  Good descriptive writing, made my butt pucker.  Sounds like weather and fatigue got you into trouble, but good riding skills got you out.  Yes, those markings are slippery even when not wet.  Glad you're OK.

[cookiedough]

dozens of times I have pulled up too far at a stop sign and tried putting my feet down/tennis shoes onto the white line and slipped right away both feet, like said even when dry pavement.

But, never have lost it on the white line both tires when acceleration, I guess good point taken.

[Jess from VA]

Good save.   

The trick is, when things go wrong, never quit trying and never give up.  I've lost my rear end traction and been sideways several times (not on white/yellow lines, but on hot worn tires), and never went down but real close to a low-side/high-side get-off).  Planting your foot down hard is probably a bad idea and a good way to break an ankle, but nearly impossible to resist (I'm also an old dirt bike rider).  What happened to me was I jack-legged the bike (which helped straighten out), but ran the bag rail into the back of my calf, hard.  That hurt like hell and left a big bruise for a month. 

They say many accidents happen not far from home.  When making a long ride heading for a destination, sometimes it's a good idea to still stop and take a break when you are tired and cold.  A little rest and caffeine can be a good thing.   

[Big Al of Tennessee]

Good Save.

Ride On.

ROAD PAINT WHEN WET EQUALS ROAD RASH,,,,,,,,usually.

RPWWERR for short.

[Bonzo]

Glad you are ok

[8Track]

Thanks all! 

Bike now sparkling clean and no evidence of any curb strike to the underside of the bike. Wheels look fine. No cracks or deflections of the rims that I can see.

That was a close call that I never ever want to repeat!

[8Track]

If your interested, here's a Google Earth shot of the location.

Remember, here in Australia we travel on the left side of the road. So looking at the image, I was travelling in southerly direction (from top to bottom of screen), and entered the left turn slip lane you can see with the arrows painted on the road. Its quite obvious looking at this that the curvature of the white lines does not follow the curvature of the road and protrudes way out into the road in an attempt to make traffic slow down and not cut the corner. The problem with this is that as you can see, everyone drives over the white lines anyway, even the car in the photo is doing it.

There were no cateye reflectors, rumble strips or anything else to aid in night time visibility of the presence of this extended painted island.

No wonder it caused me problems!

[RDAbull]

Good save.  Except for driving in the wrong lane, that looks as if it could be West Texas.
I would love to ride across the country down there some day.
The last time I jackbooted my I/S I got my foot caught under the bag rails, bruised my Achilles and jammed my toes.  That almost took me down the other direction.  It's hard to stop reactions in a situation like that

[SpidyJ]

maaaaaaaaayan......breathing normally now?   ???

[Patrick]

Sure sounds to me like you 'done good'. Experience pays off once again.

[cookiedough]

wow, that is an awful lot of white stripes to avoid, never seen that much white paint sticking out that far.  Lessoned learned am sure and good advice to try to avoid white paint on concrete.  It seems in your area is hard to though do. 

[desertrefugee]

Agreed.  Good narrative of a dicey situation.   One I think most of us have experienced - or variants of it.

...that distortion of the space-time continuum where you realize you're going to be rolling out of control for a period of time, not knowing whether said control will be regained or if the machine will remain upright.

Not fun.

Nicely recovered.   I always thought (and benefit from) dirt bike experience that helps save even 700+ pound machines.

[8Track]

Thanks everyone for your concern and compliments on my riding ability. I do think there was a good dose of good luck helping me in the recovery of the slide just as much as my instinctive reactions.

Take it easy!