And that time is now - I hope you guys like AAR’s!
I was out enjoying a spirited ride on a road that I know pretty well, it leads up to a trail for hiking and cycling that I like to go to - so I have been down this stretch of road dozens of times. I’ll take the motorcycle out there and use the parking area as a rest stop too.
Early in the ride near home, I was practicing some hard stops (there wasn’t any traffic with me - so it was safe) and I managed to brake hard enough to trigger rear ABS and the loading went very heavily to the front. This is OK, near my own driveway I practice with stamping the rear brake and letting ABS do it’s work so I know what it feels like when it intervenes. This will be key later.
In the lead up to the trail there is a small valley, followed by a rise in which a stop sign and intersection is on the far side of. I sometimes forget how close the intersection is to the crest of the hill, but that usually isn’t a cause for alarm as you can see the stop sign before you crest the hill as it pops over the crest into view.
Here is the view - the street view image isn’t stellar but I added a orange rectangle there inside of which you can just see the stop sign. Why a rectangle? Well it just so happens the home’s driveway that is right about there had their garbage bin out that evening, perfectly blocking the sign.
So I didn’t catch the sign until over the crest of the hill.
The approximate distance from the crest to the sign is 300 feet. A quick search shows the stopping distance of a sport type bike is 175ft at the 80km/h I was doing, factoring in the time it takes to start braking and the time to stop. I wasn’t in peak concentration either, this sparsely populated area has a housing development finally going in and I was enjoying some music on my headset as well.
So hard braking ensued, but to ice the cake I have recently adjusted the adjustable levers on the Versys, to allow for 2-finger control on the front brake and the clutch (I could not do this on the Ninja, with it’s OEM levers that were too loose for that). Full hand control uses a lot more travel, so habit had me put more into the front brake then was needed for two-finger control. Weight shifted forward, and the front lost traction, ABS kicked in and the bars started to wander - tank slapper style! I am not sure what played the biggest factor, but I have dealt with that effect in violent form on a bicycle as a kid going down a muddy hill - and luckily managed to stay upright, but the Versys has wide straight handlebars so it was a very muted effect, and took no real “muscle” to contain. ABS kept the front wheel from sliding out, and I knew to ease back and stamp the rear - let ABS handle that and I stopped just past the painted stop line (again - no traffic! phew!).
That really sums it up. I haven’t been caught out like that before, so that really got me alert. I rode the last hundred meters or so to the trail, took a few minutes to reset and continued my ride - with a focus on safe, controlled front brake modulation practice so the next time I need that skill it’s tamed.
I try to do a lot of practice, and I have watched DanDanTheFireman’s channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1iNF4BnIucCD7J2QGZYkjg) for his accident AAR’s as well. Learn from my mistakes, and others too!