5 - Picos Day 1 This is probably the post you are looking for. I had an off. I’m a relatively new rider. We were in a section with extremely tight turns. There was a sheer rock face on the right and ravine with a river to the left. The floor was wet. As I followed someone round at slow speed I knew I was going slightly too fast. The turn was getting tighter. I’d never been taught to use the back brake in any situation other than emergency brake and I was looking at the floor rather than where I wanted to go. I dabbed the front brake and lost the bike The bike and I were sliding towards the ravine. Thank god for the Armco because we were definitely going down that ravine. The bike has spun and the tail tidy hit the Armco and bent. Amazingly the crash bungs protected the entire side of the bike! Other than damaged crash bungs the only damage we could find was a small scratch to the front mudguard and scratches to the exhaust link pipe. I’ve been incredibly lucky and I know that. I was embarrassed at what I’d done. I jumped back on the bike ASAP despite others wanting to check me over and telling me to relax. The pain and loss of confidence didn’t come until the next day.
FYI I’m fine. My knee and shoulder were really sore the next day and my confidence was shot.. completely! I’ll write the day up later but as I write this it’s a couple of days later and the confidence is 100% back.
Could have been much worse, at least you will learn from this, and the damage being minimal is a bonus
Bloody Nora Glad your ok That back break is important and they don’t teach you about the importance of it really.
Phew! I guess we all kinda guessed you'd had an off from the earlier (suspenseful) post, but that you must have been OK as you were still posting (and keeping the suspense up). It's understandable there was a gap in the posts as you collected your thoughts and wits and I'm glad to read a) you're OK, but shaken up and that b) the bike's not suffered any major damage. As Davebird says above, the back brake is important, even if it's a bit shitty on some Ducs, it steadies the bike in certain situations. It's also easily done, to grab a handful of front brake in a shitty situation, it's the natural reaction and we've all done it. It takes training (mental and physical) and experience to squeeze it progressively rather than grab, that way you've less chance of overloading the front and having it slip out from under you. Give it time and your confidence will be back, just take it easy, no-one will care if you're the slowest in the group, just ride at your own pace. Here's hoping the rest of your trip is safe and uneventful
It’s one thing that was never taught to me and that was how to save yourself going in too tight to a corner It’s where newbies usually fall down after panicking and pulling front brake
Managed to get out for a run before riding on day 1! Ran out 2.5 miles on roads and back 2.5 miles on trails. Lovely views!
