As I said earlier in the thread, I did have a close call out there. I have the pictures* now to illustrate. First, a picture from a "good" run:
While my tuck is not the greatest, it is typical of the runs that I was making. We can start a tuck critique thread elsewhere.
Since I was struggling to get over 189 mph, I decided to change my windscreen to a lower one. At about this time a headwind came up. The next pass was a bad pass. The bike didn't feel the same because I changed my visual focus and body position slightly in order to compensate for the lower screen. It also meant that my view of the track was altered. With the change in the bike and the wind, I found myself focusing on the wrong things. That put me in a very bad position on the track. In the picture below, the bike is moving at 185 mph through the traps...and dangerously close to some stationary objects:
When I went past the cone, I knew I was in a bad spot. When I rolled off and raised up to take a look, I was on the lefthand side of the cones in the shutdown area. Even though the cones are spaced far apart, they were moving past very fast. So much so that by the time I thought about going back through to the safe area, the gap would close and another cone streak by. My mind was moving pretty quickly at this point and I made myself focus on the right side of the cones. I knew that I needed to get back over there as soon as the chance came. I resisted the temptation to get hard on the brakes, since the area I was travelling in is not maintained.
The other thought that crossed my mind was that if I needed to run over a cone, I would do so without hitting the brakes. I had thought about this in past (after Debbie's accident). I came to the conclusion back then that the bike could likely take some impact from a cone without crashing...but to lock the front wheel up would cause an instant crash. Even though it seems like that is more than I could think about in such a short time, trust me, those thoughts went through in a split second.
As luck would have it, by focusing on where I wanted to be, my mind, body, and the bike followed. I came through a gap in the cones and took long shutdown. It all happened so fast that I really didn't get scared. I went back to the pits and decided to take an hour off before running again. I didn't take the time off in order to calm down...I took the time so that I could think hard about what had happened and what I needed to do in order to avoid a repeat.
I am not an extremely experienced racer. In fact, I only use the term "racer" for lack of a better one. It is just my hobby and I only have about 30-40 runs down the concrete. But those runs allowed me to get comfortable enough to lose focus on something very important, which could have led to very bad results. I'm going to take the time to evaluate my mental/racing checklist and safety routine this winter. I encourage all of you to do the same.
Shane
*Photos purchased through
http://dwphotosonline.com/
