This happened on April 16- my first real ride of the year. The next day, I was supposed to start a Route 66 road trip. A month later? A 5-day private bootcamp with a motor officer and another road trip. I had 15 videos planned. I filmed one.

I got caught in a death wobble.

Before every self-proclaimed expert on the internet input their analysis, I found out about the Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstruction, or ACTAR. It’s a task force of accident reconstructionists, engineers, police officers, educators and attorneys who met and developed a report entitled Minimum Training Criteria for Police Traffic Accident Reconstructionists. They created a certification board to accredit accident investigators. So I sent my footage to one of those investigators, and he said:

“The stars were all in alignment to cause this crash.”
Albert T. Baxter ACTAR 116
Suncoast Collision Analysis

***Hematoma & De-gloving effect***

I had a hematoma, which is a pool of blood trapped under the skin, like a giant internal bruise that just keeps swelling until your body finally starts to break it down, and a de-gloving effect, which is where your skin and tissue rip away from the muscle underneath, like peeling a glove off your hand.

Based on the video and the information he had from me, he contributed the cause of this wobble to a combination of things:

Reduced Front Tire Load at Critical Moment while at top speed, slightly accelerating, shifting weight rearward and lightening the front tire’s contact patch
being a lighter than average rider on a lighter than average bike
Tire Tread design matching the width of the bridge’s grooves, creating a lock in effect, similar to getting stuck in a railroad track
the Raised Bridge Deck Surface causing further front-end lightening and unsettlement