Crash Analysis
Jun 4th, 2009 by Leo
One of my favorite parts of the BARF site (there’s a link on the lower right) is the “Crash Analysis.” So in that spirit…here’s a guy who was good enough to document his crash on Youtube. Let’s first say that he’s obviously a skilled and experienced rider, and that’s a big part of why he could just get up and walk away from this. It would have been a different story if there was a car coming in the other lane or if he wasn’t wearing proper gear…
Having said that he blames the lowside on his fixed and lowered foot pegs (the kind that don’t fold up). But it seems like there were at least two other crucial and common mistakes (that experienced riders make)… And since he was good enough to film his crash, why not learn from it?
Instead of me telling you, why don’t you tell me: what did he (possibly) do wrong here? What kinds of things should more experienced riders look out for? Cheers!
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His form was solid and it sounded like he had steady throttle control, although maybe he chopped it a little after contact. That wasn’t the cause of his drop because he would have high-sided if speed reduction were to blame.
Modern street tires have limits, it’s just rare that a mortal rider can find them on the streets before he kills himself.
From the video, if I had to guess, I think he turned in too early.
It looked like he had plenty of room on the outside of the lane. If he had waited to turn in, he wouldn’t have had to lean over so far. Just a guess.
Well here’s another thought: Maybe it wasn’t a tire traction problem, but a lean angle problem, the pegs hit the ground and caused the bike to lift. That’s what he says anyway. I think one problem has to do with the tendency for people to increase lean angle in the second half of a turn…
So this guy turned in – but he doesn’t crash until he’s half way through…and if you look closely, it seems like he’s turned in all the way, but then he tries to turn in a little further. He does this on the second pass where he doesn’t crash too, so it’s probably a habit.
You see this on track days too… people turn in as far as they think they can, and then when they get to the apex they turn in a little more… Whereas the goal should be to turn the bike, and then leave it alone through the apex, until you pick it up again.
I actually lowsided the other day and totaled my Speed Triple. I was fine. Full leathers that day. I was going into a turn fully leaned over and A guy coming down the mountain was running a bit wide. I rolled off throttle and the rear tire broke loose. Looking at it now, I could give many reasons why I crashed but it all boils down to me doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. Should have opened it up a bit more to push wide. Also shouldn;t have been hugging the middle like I was.
Hey Subaruzi, that stinks! But glad you’re fine.
I’m guessing it was a left turn and you were going uphill… In which case you could have straightened out a little and taken a wider line. But it could have been a rock or sand that cause the rear to slip (usually chopping the throttle leaned over means going wide or losing the front) so there’s no guarantee things would have turned out differently from that point even if you did…
But you already made the smart choice before you got on the bike by gearing up…so three cheers to that!
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