Anyone ever had to lay their bike down?

[Dr. Dolittle]

I'll try not to come across as "holier than thou" but here's my opinion. The recurring theme in almost all these stories is "I had no where to go" or "I had no other option." In that case, you were probably going too fast for the situation or allowed yourself to get into a lane position or blocked by another vehicle which eliminated one or more options. A lot of mentioning of the speed limit, too. Doesn't matter. There's lots of times where the safest, prudent speed is well below the speed limit. Lonely, 2 lane country road? Wrong! There's always a dog, deer, or little old lady waiting to appear from nowhere.

Does all this mean I putter around at half the speed limit all the time? Nope. But these are the types of things you discuss at length in any kind of rider education course. They teach you ways to avoid ever "having to lay it down." But then again, motorcycling is more dangerous and inherently risky than driving in our cars and nothing you do can ever totally eliminate that fact.

 

[Jonas]

and just to further give a visual, this was a 2-lane country road out in the middle of nowhere. There was no escape route option on this particular road that I remember. IIRC, there was a drainage culvert to our right immediately off the edge of the road, and i can't recall if there was a guard rail on the other lane edge, but it was a nice drop off on the other side. If there wasn't a guard rail, there probably should have been. There literally was no where to go in this particular situation. So, the question is if your reactionary time would have permitted you to lay it down..is that what you do? Or do you curl up and go the t-bone route? No good option that I can see.

Grab as much front brake as possible. The slower the speed at impact the better. Just my opinion. Interested thread

The pickup was moving away from me as I slid up to his right rear wheel and then bounced off the curb. The cage driver behind me stopped and stopped traffic then took off and caught the pickup and brought him back. I had some road rash and a large bruise on my back from the curb. The guy in the pickup made the usual remark,"I never saw the motorcycle" but he paid for all the repairs to the Z1B.:34:

Glad to hear a semi happy ending to the story.

 

[cambridgehd]

Now I never said that I laid her down, I said I put her in a power slide, still under full control and upright when I came to a stop. Defending your self is the most important aspect in crash avoidance. There is nothing you can do when some one does some thing like I explained ,willfully. That is when you got to know if that is your only resort ,and a riders coarse will help you to determine your actions to defend yourself.

 

[mustang27]

Never intentionally.

 

[Safehaven]

Cool thread this, I like reading as much stories like this as they provide a great deal of info about what to watch out for...

All with the hope that they become routine thoughts so that when I'm driving I don't have be surprised when something happends.

A last note, whatever tactic anyone used at the time must have been the right one, either way, I'm happy you all are still here to tell the story and make all of us better drivers for it.

Ride safe,

 

[sworrub]

The only advice I got for an impending head-on with an object ( this only really applies to bikes where you sit below the tank, like sports bikes) is to stand up on the pegs to avoid neutering. But the best course of action is to not intentionally lay it down as other posts have pointed out it can lead to greater consequence injury wise for other people and damage to other vehicles or property all of which could cost you more financially or worse.

 

[biscuit]

It's interesting to note that by definition,"laying" a bike down,is considered to be an accident anyway:thus defeating the original purpose of the manoevure.At least over here it is.

I'm sure we've all been taught that to steer and stop,we need wheels on the ground for traction.You can't do either if the bike is on it's side,plus it will actually slide further than it's stopping distance on two wheels.

Like most riders,i too have been down the road,but never deliberately.I'm not saying this concept is wrong,but if you have time to consider the fact,maybe you could stop in time or avoid the problem anyway.Or maybe not.

 

[Breeze3at]

I had a very similar experience. Blue Ridgeparkway (four or five friends on bikes behind me). Lady pulled right out of one of the overlooks(she freaked and stopped. I locked up both tires, noway to stop. (Thought I was dead, slow motion episode in my mind). She stopped right in my lane, I took my eyes off her car and looked around the back of it. Got off the brakes and Somehow rode the bike around the back of her car on the shoulder. Could hear brakes screeching behind me. No one dumped their bike. What a feeling of relief, after I made it around the car. It was the start of a four day trip too. Put a damper on things for me.
I was leading the group and speeding 55mph. Bad idea on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I highlighted what I think is probably the best and most difficult thing to do in an emergency situation. Taking your eyes off the point of impact and looking for the escape route. It's nearly natural instinct to focus on poi, while your mind is going "oh,oh, this is gonna leave a mark". I practice NOT looking at obsticles, potholes, bumps in the road (once I identify them), and looking where I want to go. I hope my mind remembers to do it in the next emergency.

 

[NEWHD74FAN]

1++on what Breeze said and nice SAVE Jonas...had a similar experience fortunately early on when I was riding a Sportbike with gal on the back....frontend diving, long squeal and skid, but no Emeril Legasse *BAM*, somehow was able to skirt the stopped vehicle ahead and onto the shoulder....nice to know when your a young buck you had the presence of mind...! Now with Coline on the back, I CONSCIOUSLY make the decision to use more following distance, we both know were older (she even gave me a compliment saying nice turn, but tells me she notices that my motions have slowed down a bit...so more caution and never-ever rely on "crossed fingers" just no time to give up for that!

 

[Jonas]

1++on what Breeze said and nice SAVE Jonas...had a similar experience fortunately early on when I was riding a Sportbike with gal on the back....frontend diving, long squeal and skid, but no Emeril Legasse *BAM*, somehow was able to skirt the stopped vehicle ahead and onto the shoulder....nice to know when your a young buck you had the presence of mind...! Now with Coline on the back, I CONSCIOUSLY make the decision to use more following distance, we both know were older (she even gave me a compliment saying nice turn, but tells me she notices that my motions have slowed down a bit...so more caution and never-ever rely on "crossed fingers" just no time to give up for that!

Thanks

but

I attribute my near miss,more to someone watching out for me, not my riding skills. Things really slooowed down. I had time to think about what was going on and knew I had to move my eyes from the car. My friends were in disbelief that there was no collision.

Target Fixation
You have to look where you want the bike to go. Like Breeze said; potholes, debris on the road, sharp S turns. You have to look around and through them.

Kinda like marching or mowing grass in a straight line.