New Enough to Need Handling Wisdom - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

atweibel · 06-29-2009, 01:56 PM

I was out riding Sunday afternoon and pulled up to a red light to make a right turn. I stopped, checked and it was clear. Wouldn't you know that the moment I turned the corner a little old man pops out of the lot immediately to my right and pulls straight in front of me. I let off the gas and swerved left around him while honking. I'm pretty sure I scared the daylights out of him.

Trouble was, the left side of the lane near the center island was coated in loose gravel and rock. I was nervous about dumping the bike when I tried to recover out of my swerve, so I kept my M straight much too long and ended up scraping the bottom of the highway bar on the concrete curb

. I've only had her a couple weeks too, I am ticked.

To better my own riding and save my M further transgressions, I'm looking for advice from our more seasoned riders on how they would handle recovering a swerve on loose rock. I wasn't sure whether I should get on the power or pull in the clutch on that crappy gravel (stupid road construction).