- Joined
- Jul 27, 2010
- Messages
- 5,497
- Reaction score
- 670
- Location
- Blouberg, Cape Town
- Bike
- KTM 890 Adventure R
Allow me to say at least this: that I love meerkatting. Wind in the face, feeling the bike between my legs only with a clear view ahead.
This morning at 08:45 I was riding to Cape Town city centre town from Table View - standing while lane splitting. Just before Boundary Road I clipped a mirror of a VW Touareg on my right. Ricocheting and correcting steering while keeping upright, I slammed into another soft roader's (VW Tiguan this time) right side on my left. I stayed upright, pulled off at the traffic light and all gathered to assess the damage:
VW Touareg mirror: no damage
VW Tiguan RHS: both doors dented (+-R30000 damage - both doors will have to be replaced).
F800GS damage: none but a scrape on the crash bar and broken Givi screen - does anyone have one lying around?☺)
I've been lucky, but what are the lessons learned?
You will most probably be able to add a few (and want to crap me out for meerkatting) but:
1. when standing, you might have the view ahead, but not seeing the handle bars you cannot see if you are going to clip that mirror or not
2. because I was standing and pulling upwards on the handlebars I could not control the handlebars after clipping the mirror. This caused the front wheel to go off course, changing direction and slamming into the car on the opposite side. If I had been sitting my forearms would have been horizontal and the left hand would have prevented the sudden steering effect of a mirror clipping the rhs handlebar. Expensive lesson learned!
3. I love my tool tube! Without a no.10 ratchet I would not have been able to correct the skew handlebars. Those handlebar clamps have to be very tight to keep the bars straight. Without proper tools to reset the handlebars and fasten them properly I would have limped home and missed my appointment.
4. ATTGAT. You never know when you will need it. This happened so fast - reactions were on instinct only.
5. I was going slow to match traffic speed (cars were going 20km/h, I was doing 30km/h if that fast) so did not hit the mirror or car at speed. I have a rule to slow down and match the traffic's speed - much safer that way.
6. And of course - don't ride without insurance.
This morning at 08:45 I was riding to Cape Town city centre town from Table View - standing while lane splitting. Just before Boundary Road I clipped a mirror of a VW Touareg on my right. Ricocheting and correcting steering while keeping upright, I slammed into another soft roader's (VW Tiguan this time) right side on my left. I stayed upright, pulled off at the traffic light and all gathered to assess the damage:
VW Touareg mirror: no damage
VW Tiguan RHS: both doors dented (+-R30000 damage - both doors will have to be replaced).
F800GS damage: none but a scrape on the crash bar and broken Givi screen - does anyone have one lying around?☺)
I've been lucky, but what are the lessons learned?
You will most probably be able to add a few (and want to crap me out for meerkatting) but:
1. when standing, you might have the view ahead, but not seeing the handle bars you cannot see if you are going to clip that mirror or not
2. because I was standing and pulling upwards on the handlebars I could not control the handlebars after clipping the mirror. This caused the front wheel to go off course, changing direction and slamming into the car on the opposite side. If I had been sitting my forearms would have been horizontal and the left hand would have prevented the sudden steering effect of a mirror clipping the rhs handlebar. Expensive lesson learned!
3. I love my tool tube! Without a no.10 ratchet I would not have been able to correct the skew handlebars. Those handlebar clamps have to be very tight to keep the bars straight. Without proper tools to reset the handlebars and fasten them properly I would have limped home and missed my appointment.
4. ATTGAT. You never know when you will need it. This happened so fast - reactions were on instinct only.
5. I was going slow to match traffic speed (cars were going 20km/h, I was doing 30km/h if that fast) so did not hit the mirror or car at speed. I have a rule to slow down and match the traffic's speed - much safer that way.
6. And of course - don't ride without insurance.
