Close Call - Looking for Critiques

[cb400four_imp]

Jared,

It is great to know that it was a close call and no contact was made.

First (possibly least important), it might be that the tip over switch killed the engine, since you mention that it was listing to the right after you came to a dead stop (I had the tip over switch kill the engine when I was stopped at a stoplight and the bike unexpectedly tilted a bit too far, I'm pretty short so the bike leans over quite a bit on me before I can get a good leg down). Maybe not having the clutch pulled just stalled the engine though (didn't sound like it).

Second, I believe your bike is a non-ABS model (if I remember correctly) and you seemed to be really 'on the brakes' after you straightened out to minimize the risk of locking up and lowsiding; do you think you still had enough traction at that point when you were on maximum brakes to make use of aftermarket brake pads as you suggest? I guess I wonder if the relative weight of the CB1100, combined with relatively standard suspension and somewhat narrow and standard tires, might be close to maxed out by the OEM brakes and pads (although better pads would definitely guard against brake fading, which probably isn't relevant in this case). Maybe other people could comment about the tradeoff between unmodified CB1100 capabilities and aftermarket pads. I think the fact that you successfully completed an emergency stop while rounding a curve without lowsiding is very skillful.

I think it is great that we can analyze this and all improve our skills in this fashion (and practicing in controlled environments helps as well obviously).

Thanks for the post.