By-pass

I received news the other day that a moto-acquaitance was in a pretty bad accident, leaving him with a punctured lung, broken ribs, and cracked vertebrae.  He is a very knowledgeable and experienced rider and part of a club that places great emphasis on safety and smart riding.  His story is a reminder that bad things can happen to anyone very quickly.

While participating in a group ride he stopped to make a minor repair to the bike and for convenience sake put the bike on the center stand after having put down his side stand.  When he finished the repair he pulled the bike off the center stand and started it up; putting it into gear he took off down the road, having forgotten to retract his side stand.  When he leaned into a left hand curve the side stand hit the ground and did not retract but instead bounced the bike along, in his words, "like a pogo stick."  After a few bounces he high-sided and smashed into a sign post, bending the post and leveling the damage on himself described above.  Needless to say his friends were terrified; they immediately called the paramedics and he was air-liftd to a nearby hospital, where he is now recovering and  awaiting further surgery.

Most modern bikes have a built in safety feature with the side stand: the engine will cut off if the bike is kicked into gear with the stand is down.  This is to help ensure that the rider will not take off with the stand down resulting in the kind of accident described above.  ANY bike can have a problem with the side stand down, the degree of which is determined by the design of the side stand itself.   Based on many engineering factors relative to the size and shape of the bike, some side stands tend to face more forward and are therefore more difficult to retract, while others angle more towards the center.  But to avoid any potential problem, more and more manufacturers are including the cut off switch in the basic design of the side stand.

 

 

My friends bike had such a cut off switch but as is wont with anything electrical, he had been having some problems with the switch engaging inappropriately and so had simply by-passed it.  A long time rider, he was used to not having such a device and had never had any trouble remembering his side stand or if so, the stand had merely retracted upon impact with the pavement.

Until now.  Probably because of the design of the side stand (not inappropriate for this particular bike), the side stand did not retract on impact but instead remained extended, causing the pogo stick phenomenon described and resulting in a very bad crash.

All of us forced into making complicated decisions regarding many aspects of life.  Often we attempt to avoid a particular problem through "by passing" the root issue with what appears to be a simple solution.  While the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) approach can often be effective in certain circumstances, one must ask if the by pass really works in the long run or does it instead lend itself to potentially more disasterous consequences?  At work or in relationship, as in motorcycle mechanics, the simple solution may not always be the best solution, if by choosing simple we ignore the root of the problem.  If we treat the sympton without treating the problem we can often create a bigger problem for ourselves, even if unintentionally.