Part 3 MOA and RA Rallies

[suecanada]

I attended the seminar at the RA given by Dr. Don Arthur on Fatigue and Long Distance Riding. I had figured I would be the poster child for his talk after my accident last year. So I told him the details as I saw them or remember them. He didn't figure that I fell asleep!! I thought i had a micro-sleep. He said I could not have gone around a curve successfully and hit gravel without being awake or at least woken up! Hmmmm. I am not so sure. There are 3 possiblities I suppose, fell asleep, catastrophic mechanical breakdown of the bike, or I lost control somehow. We'll never know.

I didn't take many pictures at all. The group photos are by the other guys. Even Aida got all the same pics as me. Monte...pls, be gentle!!

I should have gotten a pic of Tillie and LRB together. It was love at first sight! Both red with white wheels soooooo, who knows maybe we'll have a slew of LS's in red in 9 months time for the "For sale" thread.

Some of the riding was a bit too curvy for me at the stage of healing I am at...I was a bit overwhelmed and feeling a huge lack of confidence (teary). The accident has put me back I'd say about 4 years to my early 2nd year "feeling". And that is taking into account that i got my license in 1970 and had ridden many years before. Also, the accident has stolen a bit of my joie de vive and a feeling of well-being which I fight to retrieve so be careful out there; the consequences are deeper than some broken bones which heal. The beer garden and R65 friends made me feel almost normal again!

All in all a grand time proving once again that this forum is full of great people and an R65 can go the distance with aplomb!! Now I wait to see if those newly met R65 owners show up on this forum.

[msbuck]

OK, are you saying I should stop bothering you about your pics?  

I still vote for mechanical failure...  :-?

Give it time and you'll get better everytime you venture out. (I think I said this before...I wasn't expecting three different threads!)  Those curves get to be too much for me and I get to them three or four times a year!  They are definitely more challenging in the mountains with the TIGHT twisties.  I think I prefer the long sweeping curves of the Blue Ridge Parkway...


Again, Welcome home Sue and I'm glad you had a good trip.  

[suecanada]

I am very glad to hear it again even if I've heard it before that tight curves can get a bit overwhelming for others as well. Maybe I just moved up into another level of cautiousness which will serve me well. Just like to get rid of the wanting to cry about it!! Yeesh!!
I do want to thank Graham again for giving me some advice on the possible future bike that LRB will actually like!
How was Willville on the way home??

[msbuck]

Willville was relaxing...  8-)

[k_enn]

I attended the seminar at the RA given by Dr. Don Arthur on Fatigue and Long Distance Riding. I had figured I would be the poster child for his talk after my accident last year. So I told him the details as I saw them or remember them. He didn't figure that I fell asleep!! I thought i had a micro-sleep. He said I could not have gone around a curve successfully and hit gravel without being awake or at least woken up! Hmmmm. I am not so sure. There are 3 possiblities I suppose, fell asleep, catastrophic mechanical breakdown of the bike, or I lost control somehow. We'll never know.
<snip>

I am somewhat new to this board, so please forgive my lack of knowledge about the details of your accident.  But I would tend to suspect "road hypnosis" may have been involved.  While less likely when riding a motorcycle than driving a car, it is nonetheless possible on a motorcycle (happended to me once on the motorcycle, without at crash, a number of times in a car).  

Basically, your mind just goes into a state where you are doing things automatically, without any conscious thought, as if you are in a complete trance.  You are still pretty functional, but not alert or acting consciously.  When that happened to me, when I came out it I realized was a a number of miles and several exits down the road, with no memory of what had happened in the interim. For me, a sign that it may be coming on is a feeling of sleepyness and yawning, and sense of nodding off for a split second.  When it starts coming on, the only thing for me to do is stop immediately and take a stretch.

k_enn

[suecanada]

To fill you in a bit k_enn, the accident occurred in the Prairies in Saskatchewan after travelling 9 days straight after the Gillette WY. MOA rally last year. Mountains and hills most of the way, then flat, flat, grass and prairie rural road for one day only.....nothing else...no trees, houses fences, ditches, telephone poles, scrub brush...zilch. So you also may have a name for what happened.Wish I knew, but it sure is a case for making sure we have a means to shut our bikes off after they fall over and no one is around to shut them off! Is it true that the leanover angle of say the real tight twisties and switchbacks eliminates the use of a mercury switch?? What does work?

[Bob_Roller]

For a shut off capability, I've seen a lanyard attached to a riders wrist on snowmobiles, and personal watercraft, and if the operator and vehicle part ways in some sort of 'incident', the lanyard pulls a pin out of a switch, and kills the ignition .

Don't know of any motorcycle, or ATV that have the same capabilities .

For your lack of memory of the 'incident' like I have said before, I was involved in a 'crash' on my first motorcycle, a '79 Yamaha XS 400, 29 years ago yesterday .

I missed a turn off, hit the brakes hard, also had a friction lock on the throttle set .

All I remember, is hitting the brakes, then the next thing I remember, is sliding to a stop on the right side of the bike, with my hands still on the hand grips, and feet still on the foot pegs .

No memory of about 5-6 seconds what so ever .