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Embarrassing bike drop.
In the city monday, in a hurry for an appointment, looking for a parking spot near the eastern end of St Georges, I ended up turning left onto victoria ave (below the cathedral) where I saw what I thought was a free space on a kind of elevated parking spot. Golden. so i hopped up onto the space, where I realised it was a loading bay, 5 mins only. Fuck. so coasting slowly, I made to turn to the right and get back into traffic.
this part happened fast, so im not exactly sure how/why in retrospect. but basically, as I was turning right to get back onto the road, I must have seen a car coming, or realised that a car could have been coming that i wasnt aware of. so i hit the brakes, and lost balance. the bike did that agonising akward inevitable slow fall. I tried to stop it falling with my leg (which wasnt really effective because my right foot was on/down the kerb so too low), and by pulling up on the handlebars - thereby maxxing out the throttle (clutch in thankfully) for a good 3 or 4 seconds untill either I hit the killswitch or the bike did it by itself. then I stepped off to the right to try n save the bike, which is just about horizontal now, and a couple of fellas passing by came over to help me pick it up. No noticible body damage, the bike was never 100% ON the ground, just pivoting really close.
so anyway I composed myself (somewhat) and tried starting it again to make sure everything was hunkydory, the bike turned over, but didnt start. so I pushed it up onto the pavement in between a lamp post and the loading bay so it was out of the way to cool down and settle while i went to my appt. when I came back, it started pretty normally, and I only had a warning for parking on the pavement (no fine, thanks CoP).
Just a really embarrassing off. more angry with myself for letting it happen. could have been worse.
a similar (but much lesser) thing has happened once before. where I stalled when turning right, so my bike fell to the right, I managed to save it that time though.
Any advice as to what i can do to avoid this (ie. practicing my low-speed manouvres) and what I should be worried about re: damage to the bike from this sorta thing.
Also earlier on the same day i noticed the temp light come on a coupla times while waiting in traffic for mebe 5 minutes give or take. is this normal? coolant level is fine. and had a major service recently.
this part happened fast, so im not exactly sure how/why in retrospect. but basically, as I was turning right to get back onto the road, I must have seen a car coming, or realised that a car could have been coming that i wasnt aware of. so i hit the brakes, and lost balance. the bike did that agonising akward inevitable slow fall. I tried to stop it falling with my leg (which wasnt really effective because my right foot was on/down the kerb so too low), and by pulling up on the handlebars - thereby maxxing out the throttle (clutch in thankfully) for a good 3 or 4 seconds untill either I hit the killswitch or the bike did it by itself. then I stepped off to the right to try n save the bike, which is just about horizontal now, and a couple of fellas passing by came over to help me pick it up. No noticible body damage, the bike was never 100% ON the ground, just pivoting really close.
so anyway I composed myself (somewhat) and tried starting it again to make sure everything was hunkydory, the bike turned over, but didnt start. so I pushed it up onto the pavement in between a lamp post and the loading bay so it was out of the way to cool down and settle while i went to my appt. when I came back, it started pretty normally, and I only had a warning for parking on the pavement (no fine, thanks CoP).
Just a really embarrassing off. more angry with myself for letting it happen. could have been worse.
a similar (but much lesser) thing has happened once before. where I stalled when turning right, so my bike fell to the right, I managed to save it that time though.
Any advice as to what i can do to avoid this (ie. practicing my low-speed manouvres) and what I should be worried about re: damage to the bike from this sorta thing.
Also earlier on the same day i noticed the temp light come on a coupla times while waiting in traffic for mebe 5 minutes give or take. is this normal? coolant level is fine. and had a major service recently.
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