Holy Mattress Batman!

[gtex1970]

I still consider myself somewhat a new rider. I've logged about 12,000 miles between 2 bikes. Albeit, those miles were mostly in Austin traffic on an R6 and now the FJR1300. So, good learning mileage!

So, today I'm heading home for some lunch. I'm on the on-ramp to the interstate. Some bozo in an Acura changes from the middle lane to the 1st lane where I'm trying to get (Why change lanes when you can see there's on on-ramp? Knucklehead). So, he's already crowded me a little. There's also another car in front of me trying to get on. So I do a good head-check to my back and left to see an 18 wheeler coming up quick. I give him another head-check just to get a good assesment of the situation. As I get my head back around to look forward, what do I see. A friggin' mattress almost in my lane. I didn't hit it. I didn't even have to panic. It was far enough to the right to not be an issue. But, if it were another 5 ft to the left, I would probably have been surprised by it and went right into or over it. I also had my left hand off the bars to get a good head check.

So, on a bike like the FJR, would it have been disaster or just some new fruit-of-the-looms if I had hit a mattress? Hypothetically, should I make ever effort to miss it, or just take it straight up and hold on?

I guess the real lesson is to keep some space up front so I can see the obstacle well in advance.

sorry for the novel....It just had me thinking.

 

[Shelby]

Glad you weren't forced to make a decision, but here's my .02. If you are faced with an object in your path, the most important thing you can do is "don't make it worse" by swerving into another vehicle etc. If you've been paying attention, your brain will process an amazing amount of information in 1 second - then you can make your decision. I generally see 4 possibilities when faced with hitting an object on the road.

1/ If you're able to "calmly" and "safely" ride around the object - do so.

2/ If riding around isn't an option, and nobody is on your tail - a straight line hard stop may be in order.

3/ If the traffic is tight and you're seriously concerned about being run-over in a panic stop, you may have to hit the object. In my experience, an object smaller than half of your tire height and softer than wood (ie gophers / retread) won't cause too much grief if you hang on and maintain your speed. It's really a crap-shoot with larger items but in a general sense - "keep on riding". It happens often that riders will hit small deer etc. and stay vertical because they "kept on riding" after the hit and stopped safely. There is a lot of physics at work that can lay you down or keep you upright depending on what you hit.

4/ You don't have enough time for any of the above and you simply hit something - "Keep Riding" as stated above and try to avoid imovable objects in your path. It's like jumping off a building. It's not the fall that will kill you - it's the sudden stop at the bottom!

A mattress....hmmmmm....I don't want to test that one out!

Just my .02

Cheers,

 

[moby one]

Matress or Box springs? I think that the box springs would raise way more havoc if ridden over. I would probably ride over the matress though. And if i fell down at least I would have a nice soft place to lay down and wait for the meat wagon.

 

[BULLIT MAN]

If possible ' when in doubt throtle out '.if you are kinda new to the scene or even if you want to just learn some cool information.i got a book by Lee Parks called total control.it has a lot of really good advice,presented in a very easy read.I have been riding for over 25 years dirt and street.you can never have the great insight that a pro does.give the book a try...happy fjr'n

 

[yamaholic]

when in doubt throtle out

I agree!!

the answer is maybe. Maybe you would go over it with a bit of a bumpy ride, probably thowing your butt off the seat. But probably, yes you would have bit the dust on that type of obstacle if you were not ready to react.

This is one area where I'm darmn glad that I ride off-road. It teaches you to react to obstacles, use just the right amount of throttle, brake, body english/position, and/or mental guts to implement a salvation plan.

What you want to do in the this case is:

 

[FJRPierre]

I guess the real lesson is to keep some space up front so I can see the obstacle well in advance.

I think that's really true. Unless you have bags of room between you and the guy ahead, even something simple like a shoulder check before passing can turn wrong, if the guy right in front of you decides to slow down for whatever reason, just as you take your eyes off the front.

Plus there are some ticking timebombs out there, like open pickup trucks full of furniture, ladders, wheelbarrows and old tire rims. I saw one old rim start it to wiggle its way to the back of an open pickup and finally hit the pavement and even though I was far behind it, it still managed to bounce its way towards me like a heat seeking pinball missile forcing me to either ride on and try to avoid it, or do an emergency stop NOW. I stopped...

 

[yamaholic]

Oops, damn laptop...

What you would have wanted to do is:

1.) Slow down as hard and as fast as you can, downshift 3 or 3 gears during braking.

2.) Stand up just before you hit it, as if you were snow skiing, bend knees and elbows. Get your ass off the seat!! Lean back!

3.) Give a lot of throttle, slip the clutch just as you hit the obstacle. You want to "attack" it. Think of it as a jump if you will.

4.) use body english to control the bike from wallowing when your suspension bottoms.

5.) ease off the gas about 3/4 across the obstacle then lean forward again. If the rear wheel slips out, ease of the gas quickly, then get back on the gas.

6.) Re-access situation after you clear the obstacle. Where's the boxspring? Any bungee cords laying around?

All of this will happen in the time it take to react to hitting the obstacle. Off-roading hones these skills and quickens reaction time as well instilling how to cross an obstacle without "thinking" about it. With that said, on a street bike, this is a terribly frieghtening experience. And there isn't 12" of suspension travel to soak this up.

REAL glad you missed it as this could have been a bad wreck no matter what you did!!!

 

[Bike Effects]

Don't forget the basics! If you have to ride over the obstacle, get your ass off the seat and stand (knees bent) on the pegs. It lowers the CG and gives you some spring so that you are not bonced off the bike.

 

[gr8eyes]

Thats some good sound advice. Especially getting off the seat a bit. Picture the front wheel going over the mattress and curling up a bit and wedging between the wheel and swing arm. OOPS. But you would have a better chance riding over it attacking so to speak dirt bike style.

Speaking of riding dirt bike style. Is there anyone here who has ever had both wheels off the ground jumping it?

I have by accident initially, then started to like it so I kept on.

Glenn

 

[smthng]

Speaking of riding dirt bike style. Is there anyone here who has ever had both wheels off the ground jumping it?

Once on the FJR - accidentally. I used to do it all the time on my YZF. Then I nailed a whoop in the road once and didn't get off the throttle quite quick enough. Back end spun up then touched back down before the front started dropping. That instantly caused the wheelie from hell, major testicular pain when I slammed the front down and almost a new pair of underwear. I'm now officially skeerd of getting that rear end off the pavement. :S

 

[twowheelnut]

There's a little bridge here in town that I can catch air over if I hit it at about 60 mph. I don't get much height mind you, maybe 2 or 3 inches. The bike settles nicely back to the road without much ado.

 

[Maddog]

I think the responses above are excellent tips. One point I would make however is don't underestimate the damage a small piece of debris can do. One night I ran over a small piece of debris that I didn't see until the last minute. I think it was a piece of tire tread. The front tire kicked it up and it hit my left foot. The bone in my big toe was shattered and the flesh torn open. I was wearing motorcycle boots which have since been replaced with heavier boots.

The injury to my body was nothing compared to my wife's reaction; which was, get rid of the FJR. Fortunately she calmed down and I still have my FJR.

 

[gr8eyes]

Thats been my experience too, TWN, I was on a trip to the Big Bend area of TX about 1 1/2 years ago. We were staying in a little town called terlingua. Anyway we took 170 to presidio,(54 miles of twisties along the Rio Grande river). Then left presidio and headed NW to a town called Candelaria. That my friends is the end of the world. 5-6 houses, shacks really and a few goats and the road ends. Sorry, I'm off topic, anyway the road is as straight as an arrow but it is nothing but huge whoops for 50 miles. My dad counted 134 of them. Up and down, up and down. They are 3-4 feet high and 20-30ft long. They just gently roll along. Well of course being out in the desert there are no officers of the law so Petey,another FJR rider and I wicked it up to about 80. Well much to my surprize I became airborn like TWN about 5 inches is all. But did it several times. The FJR handled beautifully. We had a free rollercoaster ride for 50 miles

 

[yamaholic]

We have a lot of whoops here in Ohio to jump. I DO NOT like jumping these on a 640lb street bike. Sure, I've done it on accident, and on purpose, but don't make a habit of doing so. On my YZF250, sure--bring 'em on!

Then again I can also also power slide the YZF, lock the rear brake to make sharp turns, and generally speaking do just about thatever the hell I want to with it (wheelies, stoppies, etc) . Dirt is forgiving. Asphault isn't.

 

[moby one]

Speaking of riding dirt bike style. Is there anyone here who has ever had both wheels off the ground jumping it?
I have by accident initially, then started to like it so I kept on.

Glenn

Cought some air on accident about two weeks ago over some RR tracks. I said to myself "self, don't do that again". It ended up being a ball crusher OUch!

 

[Showbart]

I live in Austin too. Let's go ride FJRs!

 

[SickDog]

Lot's of good advice. Swerve to avoid the obstacle is a wise first choice if the space available permits. Otherwise, for an obstacle like a mattress, riding over the obstacle is not too technically difficult. The advice given about rising off the seat to allow your legs to operate as shock absorbers, blip of throttle just before the front tire makes contact with the obstacle and throttle off afer mounting the obstance is the standard technique; however, let me add that one should always approach an obstacle like this perpendicular to it... meaning staight on as much as possible (if the obstacle is at an angle in your lane, then swerve to be able to ride straight onto the obtacle - your approach should be at 90 degrees to the oncoming edge of the obtacle).

The last thing you want to attempt to to rider over the mattress while braking and while approaching the mattress from an angle! High probability that the obstacle could slide sideways while you lose traction due to braking! Wrong technique and bad.

Friendly advice from an MSF instructor!

 

[weekend rider]

Another technique to use that I use when riding gncc and going over trees or limbs is too load your front end. remember this all takes place in a matter of less than a second if, if you see the object stand up and tap your front brake load the front end it compresses the front fork than right before you get to the leading edge pull back and up on your bars and roll the throttle on front end up you are in the air than let off throttle hopefully you clear most of the object . A 600lb. bike is no easy task to get off the ground. this is one technique used for riding in the woods glad your ok happy trails

weekend rider

 

[deanw]

Suggestion for practice- around here, they put speed control bumps in neighborhoods to slow cars down- big ones, probaby 8-10 feet wide and 6-8 inches tall. If you can find one, use it for practice, starting slow and working up to speed. Brake before, stand, get on the gas, try to let the bike do it's own thing going over.

I've heard of people successfully clearing mattresses before- it's the box springs that get you.