First Low-Side...

OK... I almost low-sided on the oiled gravel this summer, and thought to myself for a long while afterwards 'Hey, I'm keeping this bike upright forever!'

Well, so much for that idea.

I know they say, if you ride long enough, you're gonna crash, but I was hoping to get at least a couple years of riding under my belt before my first wheels-up moment. Was not meant to be, I guess.

First, the good - it was a pretty 'easy' low-side accelerating from a stop onto a mall-area street off a coffeeshop driveway. Since I was accelerating, the bike and I traveled quite a ways together until I kicked my trapped right boot out from under, then we both slid to a stop, probably 25 feet of 'sliding fun' in all. Luckily, I also didn't have to contend with traffic, I accelerated into a blank traffic 'pocket' and no cars really threatened me until I could pick the bike up (my Bandit 1250), mount, and paddle-walk to a nearby bank driveway - she wouldn't start back up on the street, I tried and tried.

I was also lucky that I was fully kitted out (ATGATT-promotors will smile) but really mostly because it was in the low 30's outside and I had layered up for a cold day of riding, not because I was planning any long trips or going any kind of distance on unfamiliar roads. I had ridden this same coffeeshop and mall run probably at least 50 times earlier this spring/summer/fall and I was only a few miles away from home. Those fancy new riding jeans (Bull-it SR-6 on clearance from Revzilla) now have a big hole ripped into them, and my riding boots took quite a grinding.

But again, all that better than my skin and bones doing the work of slowing me down. I got a mild road rash underneath where the riding jeans and "Bull-it" lining finally wore through to the skin, but nothing worse than if I had been sliding into home plate.

As for the Bandit, my favorite bike and the one I ride probably 75% or more of the time - she was thankfully sporting both her steel cruising pegs (engine-guard mounted) and her soft bags, so she came away with nothing more than a shredded and twisted up right peg and a busted right turn signal, even after grinding away on the asphalt for a solid 25+ feet.

Phew.

I'll diagnose what happened a bit later on, but honestly I still have no clue. One second I was accelerating onto the (clean/dry) street and starting to lean into an easy righthand turn, and the next second I was on my side with my right boot dragging me along for the ride until I managed to kick out.

I do know that as soon as I kicked out from the bike and was sliding to a stop above it, I could see the "FI" light blinking. I don't believe the motor ran at all during the whole slide, I just saw the back wheel spinning to a stop. I did eventually get the Bandit started after a whole lot of tries (full power-off & power-on tries) and then rode it home without further incident, so really, I have no clue why it went down at all.