Target Fixation

[Bob]

It was 6:30 PM on Tues. March 11. Brick had just finished leading us on a GREAT long day of mostly uber-twisties, and I was heading back to Charlotte on Old 18 by myself. I had left home at 8:30 that morning and had been on the bike for 10 hours at this point and was running on adrenaline--my body was, anyway--but my mind was obviously fatigued. Approaching a "moderate" left-hander, my gaze shifted from 'look-thru-the-turn' to looking at the road shoulder mid-way thru the turn, and I thought "Damn, I sure don't wanna go there." My gaze never got back on track as I rode off the edge onto the shoulder and into a shallow ditch. After riding another 75 ft or so in the ditch I tried nursing it back up onto the road and was able to get the front wheel on pavement but the rear didn't wanna make that hop over the 6" drop-off, and the bike went down hard on the left side. We slid out into the road for maybe 25ft. before stopping. Laying there, still half way on the bike and dazed, suddenly out of nowhere someone grabbed the bike, pulled it upright off of me and started rolling it off to the left into a gravel driveway. I drug myself up and immediately knew I had buggered the shit out of my left knee, as the swelling had already started. Limping over to the bike, I met my samaritan, an extremely nice young guy named Rob Griffith, who lived right there on Old 18, and had been in his yard and heard and saw me sliding to a stop. The bike was practically untouched--the huge ugly Jesse pannier touched down (just the front corner) along with the 2 hex bolts holding my highway peg to the crash bars touched and slid, and that was all. Nothing left of the bolt heads now and the pannier is now a mm thinner in that spot but it did not bend one bit! And suddenly I realized just how fatigued I was, standing there talking to Rob--and wondered out loud why I had taken Old 18 instead of just slabbing it back home. Hell, I was having a blast and didn't wanna stop!

After chilling with Rob for 20 minutes (he rides dirt bikes and also has a DRZ400!) I proceeded on towards home. It seemed surreal. Could only shift by lifting my leg, as flexing at the ankle no longer worked, but I made it. Dismounting and re-mounting the bike in Gastonia for gas was "interesting" in a painful sort of way. I iced my knee at home as the swelling and pain started to increase. The ortho doc says I tore my MCL (medial collateral ligament) and it would take 6-8 weeks to heal. I had twisted my foot/lower leg 90 degrees to the right of my knee. And he was right--today is 7 weeks to the day and I am at about 90%. The first 4-5 weeks were no fun, on crutches, cane, and leg brace off and on. Riding jacket, pants, and boots all suffered abrasions but nothing with a hole in it. Road rash on back of helmet. Gear did its job. (Olympia)

It knocks you for a mental loop when you feel you must review your MSF 101 lessons about target fixation, lol. I learned a lesson: I will be dialing it back a notch later in the day. Riding out there on the edge of your abilities after 10 hours of twisties is not real smart. No wiggle room left. I am gonna start leaving a little wiggle room.

[Yarbi]

I was wondering how you hurt you knee? Sorry to hear you wrecked but glad it wasn't any worse. Get well, I miss riding with you. Don

[Broz]

We are all very happy you were not seriously hurt. What's the difference between major injury and minor injury? Major injury is when it happens to you minor injury is when it is someone else. All kidding aside you were lucky. Sounds like someone has a horseshoe up his ass!
Broz

[Brick]

Ouch! And Bummer! Yes glad you were not injured more severely! Also looking forward to riding with you again.
You guys who live down there in city land do ride a longer day than I do here in the foothills and thus might need to take that into consideration. I think Broz mentioned the other day that his total miles for the same ride I took was 140 miles more than mine.


Brick

[Bob]

I think Broz mentioned the other day that his total miles for the same ride I took was 140 miles more than mine.
Brick

More like 180 miles!

[Broz]

its about 82-85 miles from my house to The Gate so that makes it at least 160 extra miles for me .
Broz

[Bob]

OK, I thought it was a few miles further for you than for me but maybe not. Its 86 miles from my house to the Gate so thats 172 miles round trip.

Anywayz, I have *really missed riding with you guys and hope to be back in the saddle next week.

[LeeDavis]

Just saw this - dang forum only occasionally notifies me of new topics. Sorry to hear about the crash, Bob. A thing that'll get you late in the day is dehydration. I'm sometimes amazed what a big gatorade will do for me in the afternoon. It's like I was in a fog and everything suddenly clears up.

[Bob]

Just saw this - dang forum only occasionally notifies me of new topics. Sorry to hear about the crash, Bob. A thing that'll get you late in the day is dehydration. I'm sometimes amazed what a big gatorade will do for me in the afternoon. It's like I was in a fog and everything suddenly clears up.

Lee, you are so right. And as you age your sense of thirst diminishes some and you just don't feel thirsty like you used to. It can catch you for sure.

FYI, re. the forum not notifying you, I have found that if you don't clik the link in the latest notification you received, it won't send you any more notifications until you do that. It was happening to me also and I realized I was disregarding some of the notif's and just going into the forum on my own. Somehow that doesn't trigger the proper response for the forum to "know" you've been there. I found that once I cliked on an old notif and followed it, I would then start getting delayed notif's of other postings.

[007]

Sorry to hear, Bob. Hope you are healing up. I had a similar incident riding the BRPW late in the afternoon this past week. My mind started drifting and a BMW car (who knew they made cars?) was drifting in my lane. With all the drifting going on, I started drifting away and ran off the road into the grass for about 20 yards. The K12S adventure tourer. Complacency is the enemy.

[Bob]

Hope you didn't go down too..? Doesn't sound like it but it can be hard to move back onto the pavement from a grassy shoulder without sliding down.

[007]

I kept it upright. It did serve to wake me up the rest of the ride. I am glad there wasn't a huge lip to the curb. My front tire was triangulated after many miles of sport riding, making re-entry onto the road much easier. We had navigated hundreds of miles of debris strewn roads prior to this. Looked like a hurricane had gone through with gravel, dirt, sand, and exploded tree branches everywhere. The well manicured Parkway grass was pillow-comfortable by comparison.
Anybody want a Q2 190/50 rear that looks like a track day take-off?

[007]

Riding with good technique helps to avoid target fixation.

[Ed]

Riding with good technique helps to avoid target fixation.

...although I'd note that where we often ride, shading the double-yellow that much can yield encounters with mirrors coming the other way.

[007]

I could see the entire corner and the path was devoid of oncoming traffic. This picture was taken just before I adjusted my line to run it wider. If I had seen any traffic, I would be hugging the white line, especially on the Dragon, where I expect at least two wheels in my lane if not four.

[Ed]

if not four.

If not eighteen

[007]

if not four.

If not eighteen

I make a U turn if I see 18 coming at me on the Dragon.