Sooo... yesterday was a beautiful day in Pennsylvania.  It was about 70 degrees, sunny and the leaves were beautiful.  We went for a ride on the local twisties through the woods, alongside streams, over the hills, all along the way surrounded by amazing fall color.  I couldn't have asked for a better day or a better ride until the following happened...

We were coming through a nice series of twisties, the last one was a righthand curve up a hill.  Everything was so amazing and I was feeling so great on my bike that I forgot one of my cardinal rules of riding -- ride within your sight distance.  In other words, I was going TOO FAST because I had no idea what was over the hill around the curve...

...a stop sign!!!

I definitely did not have enough time to brake safely before the stop sign.  I tried though.  I was leaning heavily into the curve (love to lean), so the first thing that happened after I slammed on the brakes was that the bike stood up.  Next thing that happened was the rear tire locked up and slid out to the right; I let up on the brakes to unlock the tire and then braked again; rear tire locked up and slid out to the left;  let up on the brakes and then braked again; tire slid out to the right; released and braked one last time and ended up stopping before the stop sign but I was on the wrong side of the road (in the lane for oncoming traffic).  Fortunately no one else was in that lane.  I left some pretty skid marks.  The whole thing happened in a matter of seconds.  Shook for  a while.    

Hubby saw the whole thing.  Poor guy.  He was amazed I didn't dump the bike.  He said I smoked the tires twice.  Amazingly enough, even though I was scared, I never felt like I was going to dump it.

I am wondering if there is anything I should have/ could have done differently other than RIDING WITHIN MY SIGHT DISTANCE.  No question about it, I should have been doing that.

• Any other tips?  
• Did I lock the rear wheel because I used too much rear brake?
• If there isn't enough time to stop and so you are overbraking, is it a given that you will lock a wheel?
• Would it have been worse to lock the front wheel?

By the way, after I recovered, we kept on riding -- there was no way I was going to waste a beautiful day inside.  All in all I was lucky.  I relearned a valuable lesson and the only cost was a bit of fear.  

Another advantage of smaller bikes. They are more manageable in panic stop situations like yours. A heavier bike is harder to control and slower to respond in panic stops. I know some people even in my club who are new riders and get a fairly heavy bike to start out on and several have tasted pavement. Good job on your part. You learned a less you will remember.

Heehee, Glad to hear you stayed shiney up!
Anything but locking the front & flopping on the ground.  :'(

We've all gone in too deep or had some cellphone fool pull out sometime.
You ask your self what else could have been done? More frt or rear brake?
On a deal like that, you wonder if you could have improved on it.

I remember after 1st time I did something like that, I went out and intentionally experimented w/ locking the frt up, starting slow, riding straight up on flat pavement, applyng & releasing the lever at varing rates, short quick bursts 1st, then longer more progressive ( no stoppies, but close) until the tire just slid or complained to test that frt brake/ tires traction! ( this was w/ dbl leading frt shoes and thats when I swapped a disc on the frt!) Sure it was not the same as on off camber curves & such, but it gave me me more confidence in the front brake where most stopping happens and how much it would take. The 750 has twin frt discs and it's easy to lock up.  I think the Savage could use a larger diameter disc, I have not locked it w/ some experiments it's weight is a real advantage & it stops OK but under max braking is high effort/low feel compared to the 750 twin disc.  

i grew up on foot powered two wheelers and some of my fondest memories include being able to lay down the longest tire marks down one short but steep hill in the neighborhood...
so when i was in the basic rider class, i locked up the rear wheel once, and the front wheel once.
both times the instructors rushed up, all in a tizzy, worried that i would be upset. then they stated they were amazed i handled it so well. at 20 miles an hour it really was no big deal to me.

now, rear wheel skidding on the savage at a much higher rate of speed is a different and scarier animal. i've done it at slow speeds(again, no big deal), and at much higher speeds(avoiding a crash with some idiot who pulled out directly in front of me, therefore a MAJOR, shake-inducing deal).
the one thing i try really hard not to do is a front wheel skid. i am undoubtably going to need to do the rear wheel brakes before i do the front brakes, because i now have the habit of applying rear brakes first and then carefully applying front brakes.

I've had too many close calls on my mtn bike where a lady wasn't paying attention and decided to try to run me over (yes, every single darn time it was a woman driving...maybe it is a sign).  I have locked the front on my mtn bike many times and have come close to flipping over the handle bars a few times.  This sure came in handy the one time when a car pulled out right in front of me while I was cruising at about 35 down the road on the motorcycle.  I locked the front up and the rear of the savage came up off the ground a few inches...I've done this enough times on my mtn bike to just throw my body weight backwards "instinctively" but it scared the crap out of me (the Savage is considerably heavier than my mtn bike).  I was within a foot of a hitting the car that cut me off.  I personally don't recommend locking the front tire anytime soon because even a few inches had visions of me flying onto the top of the car...

If the front skids, let up or it will throw you.

If the rear skids, stay on it.  Letting up can throw you the other way unless you are on something loose.  

On early mornings when no one is around or sometimes in parking lots I practice:

1. Straightening up before braking (Braking in a lean can get you slammed)

2. Stopping with a rear skid up to 30 mph.  Work your way up, it is actually kind of fun.  

You must always practice emergency manuevers (like swerving, too).  During the bad situation is not the time to learn  

savagethumper wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:11:


Yep, sometimes being stupid but looking cool is the only way to do things    That's how I slid my first bike under the back end of a stopped school bus full of my peers....it just seemed right at the time.

sunny wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:11:


Yup.  That's the standard advice.  Let up if its a front skid and keep braking if its a rear skid.  

To me, it felt that if I hung onto the rear skid I was going down for sure.  Maybe I was wrong but that's just how it felt.  Hard to know since it all happened within a few seconds.