How I Crashed

I was out to lunch with my best friend, Dennis and decided that I ought to be driving my car instead of the bike because I was going to have an ingrown toenail removed that afternoon. So while Dennis rode back to work, I rode home to get my car. As I was passing I-70 where I would normally turn, I saw that it was backed up pretty bad. So I kept rolling with two more exits that would get me home quickly. I decided to take the third - Peine road - because that route has more turns! Just as I got there, a cement truck was turning onto Peine. I turned in behind it. After turn two, I passed the cement truck, which was doing about 20 MPH.

I slowed down from my pass as I was approaching turn three and entered at about 35 MPH. Halfway through it, I saw that my line was going wide.

Now it's time for a confession here. For the last six months, I've had a very bad habit of braking to correct my line. Usually I use the rear because Honda's linked brake system makes the bike so forgiving under these circumstances, and a little drag on the back end just makes it comfortable.

A lot of drag on the rear end, on the other hand... Well, I don't know if I mashed the brake too hard or if the 40 ºF temperature cause the rear wheel to not stick right, in fact - I thought I had hit some gravel or sand in the road. Regardless, the rear wheel slid out and once I hit the edge of the road, the bike fell into a narrow ditch and launched me. I passed through a barbed wire fence, which my leather jacket protected my torso from. The jeans didn't help my leg at all, though. Once through the fence, I tried out the old plow the field with the helmet trick. The 300 pounds of flab behind my head didn't do much good for my back. Lots of pain there.

There was one more complicating factor, and that was that my mind simply was not on riding my motorcycle.

But, that's not exactly why it happened, but rather more of how it happened. Why did it happen?

Because I hit the rear brake in a turn.
I was traveling too fast for the road conditions (cold road).
My line was wrong.
I was not paying enough attention to my driving.
So that God could be glorified! (I'll be putting more up about this soon!)

Of course, the Wentzville Police Department does have their version...

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