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Old 01-01-2011, 01:30 PM   #80
Amber Lamps
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 14,556
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Aha I found this thread....

Okay, well first, I'm really glad that you are okay-ish and will make a full recovery. Second, I always love all of the post-crash analysis, especially by people that can't ride at 60% of the speed that you do. In my experience, it's usually a combination of factors, little minute differences from the last time you took that corner, that caught up to you. Temperature, tire pressure/wear, road surface, new forks-springs/oil/settings/height in triples, speed, etc. BTW, here's my PC analysis. It'll be hard to judge now but any chance one of the forks slid in the triple? That would do what you described. Also, an incorrectly re-assembled fork after a seal/spring change. You got the forks from someone else. Do you know their exact history? I had that problem at the Gap, Rally before last, and almost lost it. Quite frankly though, my honest guess is that you fucked up...rider error, it causes crashes every once in a while.

As far as you, "giving up street riding and riding track only". Well, that sounds like the pain, your wife and fear talking to me. Seriously, one crash and you're done? Wow, I'm surprised you ever learned how to walk, dated more than one woman, etc with that attitude. One failure/mishap and you quit? Sounds kinda weak, dude.

I gave up street bikes for a season after my '01 GSXR1000 was totaled and bought a DRZ400...Yea, that didn't last long. That might have worked for Brandon but it wasn't cutting it for me. Besides, getting injured on a trail doesn't feel any better than getting injured on the street. Besides, you wear a hell of a lot less gear so it's actually easier to get hurt.

You do realize that people get hurt/killed on the track as well right? One of my worst get offs ever occurred at the track. Being afraid of crashing is going to make going to track just as miserable for you as riding on the street. IMHO. I think that you rode around thinking that you couldn't get hurt because you wore all that gear. Well, that bubble has been burst. So now you're going to be "track only" because you think that you'll be "safer" there... Maybe, but if you keep riding at the limit, you'll end up crashing, and we'll be seeing a thread about you giving up riding all together soon.

I know how you feel, bro. I've totaled 7 bikes and have been in over a dozen street crashes in going on 30 years of riding. I have pins, scars, limps, pains, aches, etc to prove it too. I love it, so for me it's worth the risk. You are going to die, man. It's just that simple. Today, you give up riding and tomorrow you get hit by a bus or find out you have cancer. I'd rather go out happy, smiling with the ground rushing by than any other way.

I don't believe you when you say that you can't have fun unless you take that corner at 120. That same corner at 100 would be pretty damn thrilling IMHO. If you take it down to 80-90% of your potential on the street, it can still be fun. You'd probably half the risk if you slowed down 10%. I can't count the number of times I've heard this crap from people. Heck, I had a friend give up riding after he crashed doing a wheelie... I'm like, "Um you could just stop stunting..." I ride A LOT slower than I used to and quite frankly, I have MORE fun now because I have less to worry about. Yeesh.

You have to do whats right for you, bro. I do respect that but I just hope that you don't make a decision out of fear that you'll end of regretting later. Oh well, take some time off and see how you feel once you are all healed up. Try not to make too many promises to your wife that you'll have a hard time keeping in the coming years. I did that in '02 and ended up having to break up
with my GF when I decided to buy my '03GSXR1000.... It was either "her or the bike"....
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