I've been riding for over 12 years with minimal incidents on a variety of bikes. But a couple of months ago I had a two minor drops at initial take off speed on a new bike luckily with minimal damage. At first I thought it was me not understanding the new bike but after taking it back to the dealer I soon found out it was a mechanical issue. The mechanic wondered how I could have ridden it the way it was. The point is that even though this information helped my ego I still questioned my ability and started re-thinking the events step-by-step to see if I did anything wrong.
I reviewed riding technique books along with my memory to figure out what things I could have done better to avoid the situations. In reviewing the books and my memory of the events I did find a few things I could improve on but they likely had little to do with the minor falls.
Several years ago and a couple of bikes ago I had two drops, one on the track and one on a mountain road during a too spirited ride with friends. Both were low sides, both due to overconfidence, and both were avoidable. As a safety conscious rider the mountain road ride occured during the late winter months on a nice day. I should have realized that road debris (gravel) could be on a turn even if gravel wasn't on other previous parts of the road. A friend of mine also joined me on the low side crash but luckily we weren't injured and the bikes suffered minor damage. I learned some great lessons that have helped keep me on my toes. Confidence is a fragile thing, do what you can to ride with it but not too much as it can get you in trouble.
I reviewed riding technique books along with my memory to figure out what things I could have done better to avoid the situations. In reviewing the books and my memory of the events I did find a few things I could improve on but they likely had little to do with the minor falls.
Several years ago and a couple of bikes ago I had two drops, one on the track and one on a mountain road during a too spirited ride with friends. Both were low sides, both due to overconfidence, and both were avoidable. As a safety conscious rider the mountain road ride occured during the late winter months on a nice day. I should have realized that road debris (gravel) could be on a turn even if gravel wasn't on other previous parts of the road. A friend of mine also joined me on the low side crash but luckily we weren't injured and the bikes suffered minor damage. I learned some great lessons that have helped keep me on my toes. Confidence is a fragile thing, do what you can to ride with it but not too much as it can get you in trouble.
