Modern Vespa

Yesterday after work, I was riding around and doing a few errands. There is a particularly nasty merge that occurs near my house. Everyone gets dumped into the left-hand lane of an expressway frontage road, and I need to immediately get all the way over to the right another 3 lanes. I managed to get in the lane just fine, but there is a light dangerously close to this merge. Someone must have stalled out briefly because the light was green, I was going at speed (55-60 MPH), and quickly realized this lane was not moving. I was boxed in by traffic and a curb. I proceeded to grab two handfuls of the beasts reins, and pull her back. The rear lost grip as I was screeching toward the car in front of me. I let the rear off, and brought it back on when under control. The two front wheels never even chirped, as far as I could tell. I left a nice long black mark from my rear tire, and stopped with about 5 feet to spare. It was insane. I'm pretty sure my adrenal gland called in sick to work today. I would have been angry, but the fault wasn't anyone's but mine. I should have been scanning traffic ahead better. Unfortunately, I was concentrating on getting over to the right.

Glad you got out of that one OK, Lux.

FWIW, my MSF course instructor said that if the rear tire locks up, leave it locked. If the rear end swings around even a little bit before the tire is released, a high-side will result.

Dan,

That is interesting. My MSF instructor taught me that, the second you feel the rear lose grip, you let off. Wait for the bike to stabilize, and mash it again. Obviously, mashing of the brakes is only condoned when stopping in an emergency. I can see how it would result in a "high-side" if the bike was turned say more than 10 or 15 degrees.

That is so strange, the conflicting instructions! Anyone else have an opinion on this?

Todd.

+1 from my MSF class. I think it is in the book too.

I am wondering if the Mp3 will highside in this situation,
like a 2 wheeled bike? Seems I read it did better.
Glad you are ok Lux!

Hell, I am impressed you had enough presence of mind to think thru it and make a conscious decision. Nicely done.

It is a blessing that the only problem was frayed nerves from this event. I believe the added safety of the MP3 may have made the difference. There would not have been 5 feet to spare on a 2 wheeler.

The mP3 is more stable than a conventional 2 wheeler but I would be careful on assuming it is totally safe from a high side or any other accident. Here is an explanation of high side from "Motorcycling Excellence" published by MSF on page 106:

"For example, if under hard braking from a highway speed the rear wheel skids and becomes substantially out-of-line ('sliding out'), then suddenly regaining traction on the rear wheel (by releasing the rear brake pedal) can have dire consequences. Upon regaining rear wheel traction, the momentum of the now sideways mororcyle can force it to quickly straighten up and 'high-side,' or crash by falling over in the direction of the skid. Not an ideal outsome!

"If you find yourself in this situation, keep the rear wheel locked (skidding) until the morotcycle has come to a complete stop."

Multiple things have to happen for the high side such as skidding out of align and having sufficient moementum. I don't see a down side to keeping the rear brake on and the advice from the experts is to do so. The challenge is to have the presence of mind to do so. Practice of emergency maneuvers will make the corect action a reflexe and the practice was strongly preached by my MSF instructors. At the top of the practice list was emergency braking. Wait until an actual emergency to practice and the reflex may be wrong.

When you have practiced enough and really know the limits of your brakes/tires, what Fuzzy did was the best thing, proven by the fact he had 5' to spare after stopping. If you aren't that good at stopping suddenly, then by all means keep the brake on(except then your rear tire is skidding instead of stopping you faster). An ABS system does exactly what Fuzzy did, back off and then reapply the brake ASAP. I'm talking from years of motorcycle road racing experience.

+1 on the skill application, but Lux is the one with hands on skill, I just shared some book learning.

Thank you all for the words of wisdom. I will be locking up the front from now on, and squeezing the rear. Most motorcycles have about 60/40 front/rear braking power. It seems on the MP3, that up to 3/4 of the braking power is in the front anyway. That is personal experience, not a scientific statistic.

On a completely different note, the next day (yesterday), I almost got hit by a cage coming into my lane. The only reason I mention it, is because I had to lock the brakes again, and it was my fault.

Remember: Stay out of people's blind spots even if the traffic is stacked up!!!!!!

Todd.