I was that guy!

[lofsfire]

Well this weekend on Trail 7 in Gaylord on Saturday night after allot of sleds up and down Trail 7. Our group was heading to dinner, and I was that guy, that cut off another rider head on. It could have been really bad but turned out, nothing hurt but my own pride. And I sure once he caught up with is group he had a few thing to say about me.

So, as I was heading south on tail 7, I hit a bump that sent me right at an oncoming sled and then to about as far left up a steep side hill, and lost my grip with my left hand as I tried to regain control I end up putting my sled on its side. Lucky there was quite a bit of space between us and he was able to stop 15' before me. But seeing someone at you head on look to close no matter what the distance is. I got up not really sure what happened righted my sled, said sorry but it was so fast I'm not even sure he heard me. As I left I was now having some problems with my left hand grip something did not feel right, once I got to a place I could check it out it turned out my left grip slipped off 90% of the bar. I think this is what made me lose control in the first place. Has anyone ever lost a grip like this before? The grips have been on my sled since I bought it back in 2001.

So, if it was you that I cut off on trail 7, I'm truly sorry, I was not trying to be Ricky Racer or anything like that. Obviously, no one was going fast down that trail, that night. And again thanks for stopping and coming to help me right the sled.

 

[windingtrailgal]

Obviously by you posting this you aren't part of a bigger problem! I totally understand stuff happens in the trail - it's how a rider responds AFTER that makes all the difference!! Cool of you to post and apologize! I'm sure we've all had close calls in the trails - not being ricky racers, just riding...

 

[hudman]

Not saying this was the cause of you losing your grip, but this the reason I hate hand signals. I do like to know how many sleds are behind the leader, but not at the cost of one losing control of their sled. Jusy say'n.

 

[dcsnomo]

http://www.baggersmag.com/tech/0608_hrbp_motorcycle_hand_grips/photo_11.html

This, or something similar, will help

 

[durphee]

Glad to hear you are alright. Kind of freaky losing a grip, never had that happen before. I might just check mine before I sled next time, it's never been on my "safety" checklist.

 

[fusionfool]

Have never had a grip come off that far, but when we rode Polaris, I did have one of them slip when carving. After I notice the grip had slipped it was a scary feeling they were going to come off. I just used a heat gun on the grip for a while to get the adhesive to re-flow a bit, and that corrected the problem, never had it loose again.

 

[timo]

slow down!! if you a hit a bump in front of on coming traffic that you saw it sounds like you were going to fast for your own abilities so slow down. if you say you hit a "bump" that threw you off you had to be going pretty fast. i would of run you over instead of endangering myself for your own stupidity.

 

[jonesin]

slow down!! if you a hit a bump in front of on coming traffic that you saw it sounds like you were going to fast for your own abilities so slow down. if you say you hit a "bump" that threw you off you had to be going pretty fast. i would of run you over instead of endangering myself for your own stupidity.

you never had a bump suprise you and throw you for a loop? i would have to call bs on that one. run him over? give him a break and get off your pedestal!

 

[nutt2butt]

agreed! the guy apologized! how many people do you know, that can swallow their pride like that and admit it, AND apologize. jeez....

 

[Cat Woman]

I think we all can fess up to having misjudgements on the trail now and then. We're only human.

 

[danschevyv8]

Shows a lot of class. dan

Obviously by you posting this you aren't part of a bigger problem! I totally understand stuff happens in the trail - it's how a rider responds AFTER that makes all the difference!! Cool of you to post and apologize! I'm sure we've all had close calls in the trails - not being ricky racers, just riding...

 

[polarisrider1]

slow down!! if you a hit a bump in front of on coming traffic that you saw it sounds like you were going to fast for your own abilities so slow down. if you say you hit a "bump" that threw you off you had to be going pretty fast. i would of run you over instead of endangering myself for your own stupidity.

Really?

 

[timo]

lets see if i can follow this story. he saw oncoming traffic and was going fast enough that he he a bump that threw him so hard his sled ended up on his side?? i dont know about you pr1 but when i see oncoming traffic coming i can pretty much steer with my feet im going that slow. i think speed was a factor here and thats why im calling bs.

and yes really?? swerve into the trees and kill myself or run him over....not a tough choice.

Really?

 

[polarisrider1]

lets see if i can follow this story. he saw oncoming traffic and was going fast enough that he he a bump that threw him so hard his sled ended up on his side?? i dont know about you pr1 but when i see oncoming traffic coming i can pretty much steer with my feet im going that slow. i think speed was a factor here and thats why im calling bs.

and yes really?? swerve into the trees and kill myself or run him over....not a tough choice.

I see your point. There are so many variables of what can happen.

 

[blkhwkbob]

lets see if i can follow this story. he saw oncoming traffic and was going fast enough that he he a bump that threw him so hard his sled ended up on his side?? i dont know about you pr1 but when i see oncoming traffic coming i can pretty much steer with my feet im going that slow. i think speed was a factor here and thats why im calling bs.

and yes really?? swerve into the trees and kill myself or run him over....not a tough choice.

But wait, when you see an oncoming sled you do slow down so you wouldn't be in that position, right?

 

[lofsfire]

Not saying this was the cause of you losing your grip, but this the reason I hate hand signals. I do like to know how many sleds are behind the leader, but not at the cost of one losing control of their sled. Jusy say'n.

I can say it was not hand signals. I had both hands on the bars, until the grip came off.

http://<wbr>www.baggersmag.com/tech/0608_<wbr>hrbp_motorcycle_hand_grips/<wbr>photo_11.html

This, or something similar, will help

I put the grips on back in 2001 when I bought the sled, I bought them from my dealer asked them what I needed do to install them and they told me about the glue and then said that they would just recommend using the hairspray trick. So I did and up till this weekend I have never had any problems.
Would the glue have last longer? I don't know but I know it will be something I check more offend.
Will checking it more offend help? Not sure either, I had put on 150 miles at that point with no problems and have had no problems 8,000+ miles with these hand grips.

Have never had a grip come off that far, but when we rode Polaris, I did have one of them slip when carving. After I notice the grip had slipped it was a scary feeling they were going to come off. I just used a heat gun on the grip for a while to get the adhesive to re-flow a bit, and that corrected the problem, never had it loose again.

Funny you say that, normally we trail ride, but the trails where getting rough and we knew it was not going to be a high mileage day. So we went a road the forest roads and a few spot that we could play in some of the deep snow. Had my sled covered in snow more than once that day and most likely I was pulling harder on the bars turning the sled in the deep stuff. Maybe it lessened up then...

slow down!! if you a hit a bump in front of on coming traffic that you saw it sounds like you were going to fast for your own abilities so slow down. if you say you hit a "bump" that threw you off you had to be going pretty fast. i would of run you over instead of endangering myself for your own stupidity.

lets see if i can follow this story. he saw oncoming traffic

True

and was going fast enough that he he a bump that threw him so hard his sled ended up on his side??

There was alot more to it an maybe I did not do a good job of explaining myself.

i dont know about you pr1 but when i see oncoming traffic coming i can pretty much steer with my feet im going that slow. i think speed was a factor here and thats why im calling bs.

and yes really?? swerve into the trees and kill myself or run him over....not a tough choice.

I did hit a bump, but I think the hand grip sliding 90% of my bar had more to do with lost of control then the bump. (if not what about the last mile that I had ridden with much larger bumps?) By my grip sliding off I had nothing but the rubber grip to hold on too, therefor expecting equal down pressure from both arms, on the bars, but I only got pressure from my right, making me turn left sharply. I never said I was not at fault, whether it was a mechanical problem or something I did during my ride, it would have been my fault if we hit. However we did not hit, the other rider stopped 15' before me. I did not send him in the trees or make him change his line of travel, he just stopped. My guess is that since he was able to stop with as much room as he did, it looked worse from my perspective b/c I was sure we were going to hit. Once I looked up he was allot farther away than I thought. Everyone on the trail was going slow (15 to 20mph), in fact I was 3rd in my group with at least one other group in front of us. The last guy in our group asked me why I took a hard left all of a sudden. Until I saw my grip, I was not even sure, I know dam well it was not my intended path of travel.
Plus if you have ridden this trail you know on a normal weekend it sees heavy use and can get beat quick, also it has allot of bottle neck areas. If this would have happen 30 or 40 foot down the trail it most likely would not even had been an issue b/c it is so wide in that area. The bottle necks are not created by trees but steep embankment on each side, kinda like riding in a really big ditch.

Also I did not write this post for you, or to hear from everyone how nice I was to post it and say I'm sorry, although it was much nicer reading those post, thanks for the support! It was encase the guy I did do it to was on here and did see it, I could admit, I was in the wrong, and say I'm sorry! And also give my side of it to him.

I do take pride in the fact that I'm normally a safe rider with many miles of 0 problems. And after taking my kids with me the last two years on trips I'm hope by the time they can ride they will be safe and courteous on the trail too, but stuff can happen even to the safe of us, so be careful on the trails!

PS After 18 years as a firefighter, and currently holding the rank of Captain for the last 5 years, and every rank below. I know first hand what happens when to bodies of mass try to occupy the same space at the same time. The outcomes normally are not good!

 

[jonesin]

swerve into the trees and kill myself or run him over....not a tough choice.

then you would you stop to see if he was ok i'm sure, what a guy
i'm so sick of people preaching
no ones perfect, sometimes @!#$ happens, hindsights always 20/20
by the way, he didn't say he saw the bump, hit it, and then lost control - he hit a bump at night and lost it

i know i did a superman once entering an open field trying to catch up to the leaders and hit a bump i didn't see. funny thing was, they were stopped a couple hundred yards a way watching, they both did it too but didn't try to warn me, thought it would be more entertaining to watch the carnage i guess. if it was boring riding sleds it would only leave the "sight seer's" and sleds would only go 30