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Glad your ok Jarrett, remember my motto: “if you ain’t crashing your not riding!” :)

I do think the tc on the twin would have helped, but you still might have laid it down.


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Jarrett said:
It's tough to believe that standing would have changed the outcome of this situation.
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You can't say for sure if it would have saved you, but in general standing will help in most dicey situations. When you stand, you decouple your CofG from the bikes CofG (not 100% though), letting the bike move more freely underneath you. Even with the rear sliding out from under you, you are better able to shift your weight back over the top of the contact patches, allowing you a better chance of riding out a slide. I have had numerous times where the fact that I was standing saved me in cases where I would have definitely gone down if I had been sitting. Wet wood is a tough one though because it can be as slick as ice, especially if it has algae/moss growing on it. I had an ice patch in Utah take me out and standing made no difference. One second things were great, the next I was sailing through the air like a drunken superman... :doh: Like you though, the gear did its job and I was able to ride back to the hotel, pop a few advil, have dinner, and call it a day.
 
My feet never go down unless I am going REALLY slow, like crawling. Even then, I try to keep them up. I never put them out flat track style.
 
TM's explanation for why you stand off road is spot on. The rider needs to be able to adjust the bike's COG and being on the seat limits that. The reason I mention feet is because sitting and dabbing naturally go together. Even with your feet up, sitting can result in some unpleasant experiences. I was following a friend out at Terlingua Ranch and as she crossed out of a wash the back springs compressed. As soon as she was on the other side of the embankment the springs expanded and bucked her off.

BTW, the guy in the film was lucky in that he was riding with a couple of very experienced guy, one of which was a surgeon.
 
I’ll just add one more thing about standing. You can drive your weight to the outside or high side peg effectively transferring weight to where the contact patch of the tire is. This will increase traction and slow or stop the slide. In the seated position you just pull the bike over and your body mass acts in the direction of the slide.

The good news is you live to fight another day and you are wiser. Remember experience is a tough teacher, she always gives the test first and then the lesson.
 
Well I’m no expert to give comment on standing on wet slick wood bridges, but glad you walked/rode away from it. Note to TWT, in 10 years when jarret is ready to sell don’t believe the “ clean one owner, never been dropped “ story !
 
I've learned the correct way to ride these adventure type bikes is on the pegs and using your feet to control the bike. Put the bike in tension by applying brake while at the same time adding a little throttle with clutch. You'll find when you do this you're in complete control of the motorcycle and it's totally predictable in it's response. It's a good idea to practice this with handlebar locked figure 8's in your driveway or yard after every ride. The same skills - traction control and foot peg weighting - required to do figure 8's apply at speed. To ride an adventure bike fast you 1st have to be able to ride an adventure bike slow. You'll be amazed and what these heavyweight bikes are capable of.
 
Also betting it was your front wheel that lost traction on that bridge, not the back wheel, and if that's the case traction control would not have helped.

Mike P.


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Birdman44 said:
To ride an adventure bike fast you 1st have to be able to ride an adventure bike slow.
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That is just as true for street riding. If you want to go fast, you first have to learn to go slow. However, on dirt, there are times when faster IS better than slow just because it makes you more stable. That is where being committed and confident comes into play. That said, it is no coincidence that the most successful extreme enduro riders are often successful trials riders.
 
Meriden said:
Here's why...

http://www.twtex.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1326695&postcount=2007
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That is a good example of why you stand and why you never put your foot down. OUCH!

I also don't think anything would have helped you on your down. Sometimes even the best riders go down, even with all the safeties. Somethings just happen. I don't think it's really the tires either. I put 4k on the stock DR650 tires, 6k on the stock AT tires. The only downs I had weren't tire related. In machining we call it "operator error!"
 
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I'm nowhere near as good a rider as most folks posting on this and I'm sure experience played a part, BUT just like a slick low water crossing, when it goes it happens fast. Standing, sitting, riding backwards. Slick crossings can get you. Even Tourmeister messes up once in a while. lol. Just not as often as the rest of us. Not sure there's a "great" tire for slime or wet wooden bridges. Being setup before hand and steady throttle is best to me. Sounded like this one caught him off guard.
 
woodsguy said:
just like a slick low water crossing, when it goes it happens fast. Standing, sitting, riding backwards. Slick crossings can get you. Even Tourmeister messes up once in a while. lol. Just not as often as the rest of us. Not sure there's a "great" tire for slime or wet wooden bridges. Being setup before hand and steady throttle is best to me. Sounded like this one caught him off guard.
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This. Slickery will get even the best riders occasionally.
 
woodsguy said:
I'm nowhere near as good a rider as most folks posting on this and I'm sure experience played a part, BUT just like a slick low water crossing, when it goes it happens fast. Standing, sitting, riding backwards. Slick crossings can get you. Even Tourmeister messes up once in a while. lol. Just not as often as the rest of us. Not sure there's a "great" tire for slime or wet wooden bridges. Being setup before hand and steady throttle is best to me. Sounded like this one caught him off guard.
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Agreed. Sometimes it just goes south and no matter how good you are, you aren't going to make it.

But... experience, technique and skill can make it possible to get through some situations where someone that doesn't have as much of all of those might not. In fact, I'd bet that Jarrett himself would probably have a much better chance if he approached that same bridge the next time it was wet because of this experience. The experience of just knowing that wet wood can be really slippery, like ice, can be the difference as you know to prepare for it.

There are also techniques and skill that can help. For example, you come around that corner and see a wet bridge where your experience tells you it might be slick. Using good braking technique, you straighten up the bike and you brake and slow before you get to the bridge while you have known traction. The bridge is out of a corner so you don't have much time to do this so you straighten the bike and slow it down. Applying that braking technique in a short space with no warning takes skill. Probably skill developed over a lot of prior practice with that braking technique. After shaving some speed, you resume the turn and get perfectly square to the wood so you do not have to do any turning, accelerating or decelerating while going across it. Newtons law in work here, an object wants to stay in motion and go straight. It takes traction to turn but not to keep going straight. You know that if you go over that bridge perfectly straight, standing so the bike can do whatever it wants, and with neutral throttle that is just enough to combat engine braking so that you are neither accelerating or decelerating, the tires will have a very good chance of just rolling across it and not sliding out.

Anyway...experience is the best teacher. Sometimes you can learn from others, and sometimes you learn by crashing. The latter hurts more but is really effective.

Jarrett....sorry you went down but I'm guessing you just became a better rider in that situation and a wet wooden bridge will never surprise you again.
 
I think it was the speed that got you Jarrett. I've rarely seen anyone with the stones to take a KLR above 35 mph where it's known to suffer high speed wobble. I think this was first discovered in Bonneville when it was used as a pit bike by Rollie Free (1948?) If you'd had a milk crate on the back as Maximus suggested earlier, aerodynamics likely wouldn't have let you go that fast without the 685 kit. (all in good fun my friend) Seriously, glad you're okay.
 
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