My first crash and first real lesson

After deciding on and buying my 1983 Honda CB550 Nighthawk, a friend from work helped me bring it home.  I rented a Uhaul truck and we rolled it up inside, tied it down and brought it back to my apartment in Vancouver, WA.  My garage was a 1 car garage, but it had stairs to get up to the apartment, and right by the stairs was a nice open area where I could keep the bike and I still had plenty of space for my car.  Once the bike was home, I would often go down and look at it, sit on it, and sometimes start it.  I was really getting excited about taking the MSF class, learning to ride and actually getting out on the road on two wheels on my own.  Occasionally, I would wheel it out, and just ride it very slowly in the complex, staying in first gear.

Me in 1996/7, age 29 on my first bike, a 1983 Honda CB550 Nighthawk

The week before my MSF class, one of my co-workers who had a motorcycle offered to come by with his motorcycle and give me some tips and possibly even ride with me.  So, he came over, gave me some advice about shifting, braking, etc., and suggested I go for a ride like I had been doing, and he would follow me.  I was a little nervous about having him watch me, but at the same time, having another person there gave me a bit more confidence to try taking the next step.  As I was coming down a long straight street, I decided to try shifting into 2nd gear.  I did, and was amazed at how much easier and smoother it was to shift than a car.  I was very excited about being in second gear and the smoothness and extra speed this brought.  Then, I saw the stop sign ahead, and I knew I didn't really want to stop or downshift to first again.  So, I slowed down, looked quickly both ways, did not see any cars and just rolled through the stop and made a right.

I can still remember the feeling I had in that turn.  I was leaning the bike, and I was looking all the way down the street to where I was headed.  It was as perfect as a turn could feel going slow in 2nd gear, and I felt like I was flying for a second.  Then, for some reason I noticed a pickup truck parked on the left side of the road.  I took my eyes from the end of the street where I was going, and kept looking at the pickup truck.  I started riding towards the truck, and no matter how badly I didn't want to go towards the truck, I couldn't stop it.  My bike and I ended up going into the side of the truck.  The bike's wheel got stuck between the truck and bumper, and I went over the handlebars, headfirst into the side of the truck and landed on the ground next to the bike.  Thankfully I had my helmet on, and since the bike was stuck, it stayed upright instead of landing on top of me.  I got up and started trying to pull the bike out of the truck, and when my friend came over and realized I was okay, he said he couldn't believe how fast I got up.  He said I barely hit the ground and I was up again... it looked like I bounced! 

That was obviously the end of riding for the day.  My friend helped me to remove my bike from the truck, the owner of the truck came out and I gave him my insurance information.  I don't really remember what ever came of that... I guess the insurance company handled it.  We got my bike and all the pieces back in the garage.  The whole front end was gone.  I would need a new headlight, blinkers, instrument cluster... and somehow the bracket that kept the seat on the bike broke off, so I needed a new seat as well.  I'm sure it should have been totaled.  Once we got the bike settled, we headed inside to check out the damage to me.  I took off my boots, rolled up my jeans and found my left leg that I landed on, was swollen, bruised and very tender.  I don't know if my boot got caught on something or it just scraped along the pavement but, the strap around the boot was ripped off.  I was very glad I had the boots on or that could have been my ankle that got ripped up!!

I laid on my couch with my leg elevated and had ice on it, and did my best to keep ice on it overnight while sleeping.  The next day, Sunday, the pain got worse as the swelling went down, so I decided to go to the hospital and have my ankle looked at.  They did an X-ray and told me it was not broken... thankfully!!  I walked out with my leg wrapped in an "immobilzation brace" and got crutches to keep the weight off of it.   Monday came and was a typical Monday for me.  My boss picked me up early and took me to the airport.  I was flying down to San Francisco to work with one of our clients.  Most of my time was spent in San Francisco and I had some regular clients there.  I was in San Francisco so often, I felt more like I lived there then Vancouver.  The people at the hotels knew me well, and I even had a chiropractor on California Street in the financial district.

Monday after work, I went to see my chiropractor for my regular visit.  He took one look at my leg and asked me "What is that?"  I explained, and he said "We are taking that off."  He said immobilizing injuries like mine was the worst thing that could be done.  He said I needed to keep the leg moving to pump out the fluids that are keeping it swollen and not let the muscles atrophy, which is what immobilizing it would do.  He took of the brace, used some ultrasound on my leg, and gave me some exercises to do, to keep the foot and leg moving.  He suggested that I still use the crutches, but not keep my foot up while walking.  He wanted me to use my leg to walk, so I would keep it moving, but use the crutches to keep my full weight off of it.  He also suggested alternating ice and heat as often as I could.  I went back to see him Wednesday and Friday before heading back to Vancouver for the weekend, and he did more ultrasound each time to help swelling and prevent scar tissue from forming.  My leg was already feeling much better.  I was very happy about this because my MSF course was the next weekend.

The company I worked for, always made sure we were home and not traveling one week a month, so this next week coming up was my week to be home.  I was happy about that, as it would give me a little more time to heal and be ready for the course.  Friday night came and it was time to go to the classroom portion of the MSF class.  There were 10 students, 4 women and 6 men.  The instructor was a hardcore biker, and pretty cool.  I could tell he had alot of experience riding motorcycles.  He taught us about motorcycling basics as well as the controls on a motorcycle and what those controls do.  Saturday, we were on the motorcycles, and the first thing they had us to was sit on the motorcycles and do an exercise so they could see that we could balance the bikes before allowing us to turn them on.  We paired off with someone who was close to our size and partner A sat on the bike while partner B pushed them down the range and back.  Then partner B sat on the bike while partner A pushed them down the range and back.  When it was my turn to push, it was all I could do to not scream in agony each time my left foot hit the ground.  I was still limping quite a bit, and the effort it took to push a rider on a bike put a lot of pressure on my foot and leg.  But, I was determined to make it through the class and I did not want to let the instructor know that I was injured, especially from a motorcycle accident!  Plus, I figured most of the time would be spent on the motorcycles with our feet up.  I just needed to get past this portion of the class, and thankfully no one noticed my "disability".

I was able to make it through the rest of the class fairly well, and I passed the final test.  Out of the 10, only 6 of us passed.  The other 3 women and one man didn't make it.  Two of the women and the one man were having some real difficulties early on so were asked to leave, and the third woman had dropped her bike during the test, so that is an automatic fail.  At the end of the class, they handed out our MSF certification cards.  I couldn't wait to get to the DMV and get my motorcycle endorsement added to my license!!  These cards acted like waivers for the riding test at the DMV.  I would still have to take the written test, but not the riding portion.  If you decide you want to use the MSF certification to waive your test, you should check with your state.  Some waive just the riding portion while other waive both written and riding.

The biggest lesson I learned from taking the class was that "you go where you look".  I realized that this is why I rode into that parked pickup truck.  Having experienced that first hand, then learning the lesson, has helped me be a better rider and there have been many times where I've felt I may be in trouble and I force myself to make an exaggerated head turn and look where I WANT to go instead of where I'm going... and I save myself.  This is always the most important thing I try to convey to new motorcycle riders.  If a new rider completely loses control of their motorcycle, they can avert real tragedy by looking to an open area.  It is much easier to go down by yourself in an open area, than hit other riders or cars/trucks or even buildings and boulders.