Would A B S have saved her?

I am in the maybe camp, on whether or not ABS would have made enough difference in available traction to complete the turn.

People who have learned (ingrained, muscle memory etc.) that the proper reaction to the front washing out is to gas it, often don't remember that a noob has the opposite natural reaction.

As for why she gets hurt when she falls and you don't, that's simple. You know how to fall and she doesn't.
IDK what your backgrounds are athletically, but you may have participated in a sport (judo, football, soccer) that taught you how to fall. Even growing up on dirt bikes does a pretty good job of it.
Which brings me to my last point. If you are riding on dirt, especially if you are learning on dirt, you are going to fall. It's a given, you see it on this website over and over. Whenever number of crashes are discussed everybody says dirt doesn't count.
Maybe she has osteoporosis issues, and that is causing the breaks. Or maybe some judo classes are in order to learn how to fall.
Or maybe she just has to accept that the risk of a break is the result of an error in judgement, and that riding is worth it. We all are still learning, and if we are honest with ourselves we have made that decision.

Maybe.

But unfortunately you can't do it for her. As a husband it is hard to accept that sometimes when we are trying to help, we are actually making things worse.

She has DEFINITELY been doing much better. It was very frustrating for both of us when she took over the XT last year that she was struggling to do the same things she used to do previously. Sometimes even on the very same routes that she used to take. She used to ride better than that. It was like she forgot how to ride. Maybe she did.

Yup. Although she is athletic, as with most women in her age group, her main sports were non-contact, tennis and swimming. Though she did ski for many years and fell down a lot doing that (she quit skiing after knee surgery). From the skiing I thought she would have had better falling reactions.

Right after this crash she said to me "I remembered how you said not to put my hand out" so at least she retained that. This time she fell onto her armored forearm and elbow pads instead on an outstretched hand. She didn't have as much as a scratch or bruise on her upper body.

Unfortunately the reason she had a leg injury is that the swingarm landed on top of her boot and pinned it to the ground. That's how she was still lying when everything came to a stop. She had a little forward momentum when she hit the ground and her body wanted to roll to absorb it, but she couldn't roll because the swingarm was pinning her foot.

The direction of her injury was the foot rotated inward in relation to her body. Because her body wanted to rotate outward but the foot was pinned. This was an unfortunate random outcome, if she had separated from the bike more she would likely have just dusted herself off and rode away.

I get the idea you guys are pretty well off. Throw some money at the issue. Send her to some riding schools. BMW runs a school down in South Carolina. There's a school called Rawhyde in SoCal that people talk highly of. Colin Edwards runs a school in Texas where they ride 125s in the dirt all day long. Do a weekend with Keith Code at the California Superbike School. Nick Iaentasch (sp?) runs the Yamaha Champions School in Vegas and at Miller. It's supposedly awesome. Make a vacation out of it.

She will learn things in all of them, even if the school itself is not exactly her cup of tea.

Bingo!

This is my wife exactly.
I sold her bike before she hurt herself, it was the best thing to do.

Some of us just are not meant to ride motorcycles.

You said she took the MSF class, then said she took the dirt bike class. Did she take the standard MSF class? Sounds like she had a temporary lapse of memory and forgot the "slow, look, press and roll" technique. It happens with more than a few riders. Suddenly braking hard and turning sure didn't help matters any.

This is pounded into the students head during class. Braking in corners=not good. Before I get some idiot arguing that is BS, remember, we're talking beginner riders, not advanced/expert technique.

If she still has her MSF class book, she should re-read the book...and maybe enroll in another class...and not follow you so closely(or at all) if you're going to be making sudden moves.

Riding a motorcycle requires 120% of your attention. Having the slightest distraction, be it on the road(not watching where you're going) or in your head(daydreaming) can be disastrous/deadly.

IMO its best to let the less experienced rider lead so they can go at THEIR pace and not trying to keep up with the faster rider(s)...which for some reason a lot of new riders try to do.

Maybe because it's not the first time we have to endure his endless posts where his wife can't learn from her errors (or where he doesn't help her with his attitude) and also where he doesn't really seek for advices but only wants to argue endlessly.


http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=808963

Why do you have to endure them? When I come accross a thread that I have no interest in, I simply ignore it.

Faith!


Edit: Nevermind, I think you're right. I'll stop reading viverrid's threads, it's not worth it



There're things that never change I guess.

ROFL

Really, if you don't like that one doesn't take everything serious some guy on an internet forum says, without questioning it, leave the internet.
It's waaaay better to discuss than to believe every bullshit.

Since you are in MA, I can get a way with this.

To paraphrase Larry Summer, "she does not have the aptitude because she is a woman."

Please, no flaming. I am a feminist.