Comments on: Crash Analysis

By: www.citybikerblog.com » Blog Archive » Bad Turning Habits

www.citybikerblog.com » Blog Archive » Bad Turning Habits — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:50:11 +0000

[...] Crash Analysis [...]

By: Leo

Leo — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:48:17 +0000

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!

By: Subaruzi

Subaruzi — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:10:31 +0000

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.

By: Leo

Leo — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:35:33 +0000

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.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:05:37 +0000

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.

By: s0meguy

s0meguy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:53:19 +0000

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.