I went out for a real ride today with a couple of friends and one of them dumped his brand new '05 Ninja. Luckily he wasn't going too fast so he walked away with some scraps and bruises but otherwise okay. What happened to the bike is pretty tragic though, since it wasn't even a month old and still under 1K. Hopefully it's all just cosmetic damage. What happend was that there was a sand patch on the road and his bike slid on it. Needless to say he wasn't very happy and that made me even more shy about attacking those corners for the rest of the ride. I am not a really skilled rider and so I tend to fall behind.

Though I think what happened today was just a freak accident and none of my riding friends are guilty of this, I would just like to say that everyone, please, ride your own ride! If your riding buddies are really your friends, they'll wait for your slow but safe butt. Don't ride with people who get's pissed off that you are lagging behind and don't get pissed off at riders below your skill level slowing down. Everybody has their limits and those who doesn't know theirs are the dangerous ones.

wrecking on sand isnt really a freak accidnet, it happens all the time, and i picked up my fair share of people wrecking from it. but what did happen sucks really bad, my friend went into a turn at 15mph and someone was driving at him so he hit sand on the edge of the rd and layed it down, he was scraped up but ok. best of luck to you and your friend though

pavement good, sand bad. ive almost went down on a patch of loose rocks on the road on a corner before, not fun. also those little black tar strips they patch the road with can be mighty slippy too, lost the ass end on one of them, when it caught i came so close to high siding that i had to pull over and just slow down the ol heart rate for a minit.

Ive been there

Laid my brand new R6 down at 60 + miles per hour.
Gear saved my hide but the bike is pretty rashed up on the left side.

A 4runner full of high school kids brake checked me in a pretty high speed corner( I was 5 over the speed limit at about 60-65 mph) so I leaned as far as possible to pass on the inside lane and hit some gravel wash in the slow lane and lost the back end. I almost caught it and it slapped over to the left.

Takin a few pennies to repair :?

Ride aware of your surroundings and expect the worst and you will be ready to react :wink:


---JD

I think 99% of us have to drop it sooner or later, it is sad but it happens as far as falling behind that happens too you cannot feel presure to keep up, just think the slower you go the faster your freinds feel like they are going. By the end of the summer you will be in the front.