and Yada, Yada... I started sliding

[luckylindy]

Seinfeld reference...I'm going to yada yada over the details and let the pics do the talking.  I'll fill in the details manana..

[hppants]

Wow.  She was wiggling big time. That much be a very long skid judging from the flat spot on the Avon.

Hope you are OK.

[Falban]

Yikes!  Glad you're here and able to post about it Lindy.

[fishball]

Hope you are alright Lindy.

[Laminar]

Dang! Hope everything's okay.

[luckylindy]

Subtitle: Skid marks on the road and in my shorts!  Not hurt, just scared the living crap out of me.  My own forgetfulness caused this incident.  I made a gas stop 15 miles earlier and unhooked the bungee on the bag on my passenger seat.  It had some clothes, shoes, papers and vhs tapes in it.  After I retrieved something from the bag, I went to a h2o hose to wet my shirt for the coming 100+ heat.  Forgot to hook the bungee and failed to check it b4 leaving the gas stop.  I'm very fortunate the bag didn't fly off at 70mph.  It was an athletic bag with a long shoulder strap wrapped around my backpack.  This strap hung on to the backpack when it flew off, ripped my left turn sig then got into the tire, which jammed it under the fender and locked up the rear wheel.  I was coming from a 70mph zone into a small town and last I looked was at 50 mph.  At first I thought I had a blowout.  The rear started sliding hard to the right, so I turned the bars to the right, then did this fishtail left-right sequence for about 10 seconds(seemed like an eternity).  I estimate the skid was about 100'.   Started smelling the burning rubber near the end of the slide.  After a deep breath and thanking God for keeping it on 2 wheels, I dismounted and walked over to the lady 1st in the line of vehicles coming toward me.  All the cage drivers coming at me slowed and gave me room when they saw what was happening.  She asked if I was OK/needed help and I replied it's all good and thanks for moving over.  Thankfully, no one was behind me or even approached during this time.  The rear was locked tighter than Fort Knox.  Would not budge.  When the 1st cages approached from behind I was waving to make sure they saw me and NH.  First driver was an elderly man who asked if I was OK but couldn't have helped me pick up 500 lbs of mc.  Next vehicle was a PU with 3 big dudes, they pulled to shoulder and 1st guy to approach said he was a rider, looked at the bag and skid mark and said way to keep that bike on 2 wheels.  The 3 picked up the rear while I steered it to the shoulder.  Another old Harley cap wearing dude pulled up then and between 5 folks we got the bag out.  Bag, papers and vhs tapes chewed up, but clothes and shoes untouched.  Left the bag and move the clothes into backpack.  Checked everything on the bike over and looked good, just lost some rubber and chewed some tread.  I stopped every 30 miles or so to check it.  Had about 85 miles of riding left.  Lots of time to think how 1 careless mistake could have cost me a lot of pain or worse.  Man, we all make mistakes but 1 like this on a mc is inexcusable.  I'm still replaying it and it is still has me a bit freaked out.  I need to replace a turn sig and the rear tire has 5500 miles and a bit of damage to the outside left edge of the tread so no riding until I replace it.   Needless to say I'm grateful I escaped unharmed and will be more diligent about checking bungees and bags in the future.  During the ride home my mind drifted from getting out of street mc's to going for a sport tourer with factory hard bags so I would not have to deal with bungees, etc.  For now, it's still the trusty NH, it has held up to 2 incidents with little damage and behaved so predictably when the slide started.  I don't know how a 7 or 800 lb bike like an st 1300 or Goldwing would handle that.  Anyway, if you read this long winded tale just know that I'm unloading a lot and the telling of this for the  10th time(first written account though) made me feel better anyway.  Ride safe my friends.

[hppants]

During the ride home my mind drifted from getting out of street mc's to going for a sport tourer with factory hard bags so I would not have to deal with bungees, etc.

Hang on to next month.  Have I got a test ride for you!!!

[luckylindy]

 You sure you want a feeble old forgetful freak like me riding your FJR?

[roadrunner]

Wow LL!  That was a close call .. glad you were able to keep it upright through the skid! 

[Burgi]

 
I think my heart missed a couple of beats just reading that. So glad you're OK!!

[hangster2]

Hey LL , good to hear you didn't get hurt , you really should cancel your face plant club membership .

What were you doing with VHS tapes ? I thought they stopped making those 100 years ago 

[NHPep]

Very glad to read you are okay. You did a remarkable job controlling the slide!  I've been reading some of the other mishap reports on this forum and I'm very grateful to you and others for posting lessons learned the hard way.


 

[n5tbu]

Damn Lindy,that was a close one,glad you got out of it OK!
LOKi and or I can get you started toward some GIVI hard bags,cheaper than a new bike,and prob more storage room than a ST.

[fishball]

Way to keep your head and keep the bike upright.

[jerjohn]

Wow...glad youre okay. Way to keep the bike up and reamain cool in a tight situation. You should get a tattoo that reads badass.

[JB1290]

Glad you kept her upright, LL.

Something similar happened to my brother 2 weeks ago. He and his girlfriend were out riding on his bike and she had a shirt tucked in between her stomach and his back. Well, the shirt unknowingly came loose and fell down towards the rear wheel. At about 45 MPH, the shirt got wrapped up in the rear wheel locking it up and they went down. He sustained quite a bit of road rash on his right side (arm, rib cage and hip) and she broke a rib and got a small spot of rash on her hip. Luckily they weren't injured worse considering niether of them had any type of protective gear on. I gave him the usual speech about wearing gear but ultimately, I can't force him or her to wear it.


Anyways, glad you didn't get hurt.

[talespin]

Bag, papers and vhs tapes chewed up...

God's way of telling you it's time to switch to DVDs.  

Good job of staying upright, glad you're okay. All that other stuff can be replaced, you and your parts can't.

[talespin]

LOKi and or I can get you started toward some GIVI hard bags,cheaper than a new bike,and prob more storage room than a ST.

I'd love to hear more about that - I'd LOVE a set of hard bags on my NH, and can't find the mounting hardware. (not to jack the thread, of course........)

[LOKi]

OMG!!!!
.
..
....
.....
Still rocking the VHS tapes?   

[martian]

Glad you were able to keep it on two wheels!  It takes a lot of skill to scrub off 50 MPH with a locked rear.  A lesser rider would have laid it down.

Thanks for sharing your story with us - lots of good lessons here.

[ariwhiteboy]

Yikes!  Glad the bag took the worst of it and you were unharmed. Don't feel bad about forgetting...it happens to the best of them.

[jerjohn]

A lesser rider would have laid it down.

Yep. I hope I never have to find out if I measure up to you Luckylindy.You should measure the distance of the tire mark and put that number somewhere on your bike or gear as a good luck totem/reminder.

[hppants]

He and his girlfriend were out riding on his bike and she had a shirt tucked in between her stomach and his back. Well, the shirt unknowingly came loose and fell down towards the rear wheel.

Had to read it twice JB - the first time I thought it read "...she had HER shirt tucked in....  HER shirt unknowingly came loose...."  At that point I was thinking....     I had that happen on some dates back in my day.... 

Still sorry about their misfortune, but my mistake kind of made me chuckle....

[Laminar]

Man, the slide really did a number on your license plate.

[luckylindy]

NH's, vhs tapes, and record albums.  Old school for me.
Thanks for the good thoughts folks.