Anyone ever had to lay their bike down?

[poohbear]

About 20 years ago going around a mountain cruve in Colorado some bonehead in a car was cutting the corner coming into my lane, hit him or go off the side....i took the side. Went down on the gravel with the bike on it's side and me on top...still not sure how I got on top. Rode for only about 50-75 feet on it side and stopped...little damage, thank God. My buddies and me had a hard time getting it up the hill, ended up starting it up and with them on both sides kinda walked it up and by the way the car driver never stopped. Also had a rear tire blow out at about 75 MPH and just slowed down with the front brake...I guess when it happens you don't think you just do and pray that you are doing it right.

 

[trvlr]

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.

well, maybe I watched to many CHiPS shows as a youngster...but remember seeing sliding scooters somewhere. Maybe when you are getting ready to head-on a Semi, THEN an avoidance lay-down may be an option.

May have to agree here with the Doctor. From what I've gleaned from users responses, and thanks for the feedback btw - in this particular situation we were in, "situational awareness" was the order of the day. But man, it was a beautiful crisp morning, beautiful country road, and the guard was in stand-down mode. Big mistake. Probably best to have been aware that there was no ground to take if avoidance maneuvering was required, and needed to SLOW IT DOWN. We live - we learn. As Confucius say - If you lose, don't lose the lesson.

But we all had to stop and clean out our drawers on that one. Thank goodness that gal kept going. Thanks gents -

 

[Dr. Dolittle]

well, maybe I watched to many CHiPS shows as a youngster...but remember seeing sliding scooters somewhere. Maybe when you are getting ready to head-on a Semi, THEN an avoidance lay-down may be an option.

May have to agree here with the Doctor. From what I've gleaned from users responses, and thanks for the feedback btw - in this particular situation we were in, "situational awareness" was the order of the day. But man, it was a beautiful crisp morning, beautiful country road, and the guard was in stand-down mode. Big mistake. Probably best to have been aware that there was no ground to take if avoidance maneuvering was required, and needed to SLOW IT DOWN. We live - we learn. As Confucius say - If you lose, don't lose the lesson.

But we all had to stop and clean out our drawers on that one. Thank goodness that gal kept going. Thanks gents -

Trust me, we have ALL been there many times. Forums like this and threads like yours are invaluable for making us rethink certain things or just ponder stuff we've never really given much thought to. Thanks for bringing up such a pertinent subject!

 

[Porter]

One other note on braking from the advace rider safety course I took, and I specifically mention it because it was a bad habit that I had developed: Make sure you grab the brake lever with ALL your fingers, not just 2 or three. From driving cars (as most of us do) in a panic situaiton we have a lot of muscle memory that makes us stomp our foot, which doesn't help as much on two wheels, and causes the back wheel to skid. Most of us will hit the back brake before we grab the lever, as far as reaction time goes, so you are already later in the game than you want to be, and frictionally disadvantaged as far as the maximum amount of control (sliding rear tire). As you apply the front break, you get a bigger and bigger contact patch as the tire deforms under load, so you can progressively squeeze harder and harder to match the patch area as well has the reduction in speed. I was shocked at how much faster I could stop using my entire grip: much more control on the lever and obvioulsy a stronger grip. ~70% of our grip strength comes from the pinky and ring finger. (My habit was only using my first 2 fingers)

I agree with staying on the bike if I am going to play the odds. Even 5 mph less in an impact is a significant drop in energy. I would not try to stand up and "clear" the impact either. If you have that kind of reflex, you could have probably scrubbed 30-40 mph off your velocity anyway. The only other statistically relavant approach I have read is: (if you can actually think about an do this in a panic situation, and you are not a racer/professional) is:
Low side crash: stretch out to slow down and not slide into the bike/obstacle.
High side crash: curl into a ball to gain distance and not have the bike land on you.

Panic braking/evasion: Practice, Practice, Practice!

 

[RetiredJake]

Been down, but not by choice. Given a choice, I will try to slow as much as possible and swerve if I can to miss them. Otherwise, I'll T-bone them at as slow a speed as I can get down to rather than lay it down and slide into them a lot faster.

 

[trvlr]

Thanks for bringing up such a pertinent subject!

Doc - it was my pleasure. I'm thinking as a result of this thread, I may take an advanced rider course. I've only taken 1 safety course over the years, and that was required to get my M/C endorsement. I think I'm probably way over due.

And got to say, I love those northern mountains in that state of yours. Helen, Suches and all points in between...incredible riding.

One other note on braking from the advace rider safety course I took, and I specifically mention it because it was a bad habit that I had developed: Make sure you grab the brake lever with ALL your fingers, not just 2 or three. From driving cars (as most of us do) in a panic situaiton we have a lot of muscle memory that makes us stomp our foot, which doesn't help as much on two wheels, and causes the back wheel to skid. Most of us will hit the back brake before we grab the lever, as far as reaction time goes, so you are already later in the game than you want to be, and frictionally disadvantaged as far as the maximum amount of control (sliding rear tire). As you apply the front break, you get a bigger and bigger contact patch as the tire deforms under load, so you can progressively squeeze harder and harder to match the patch area as well has the reduction in speed. I was shocked at how much faster I could stop using my entire grip: much more control on the lever and obvioulsy a stronger grip. ~70% of our grip strength comes from the pinky and ring finger. (My habit was only using my first 2 fingers)

I agree with staying on the bike if I am going to play the odds. Even 5 mph less in an impact is a significant drop in energy. I would not try to stand up and "clear" the impact either. If you have that kind of reflex, you could have probably scrubbed 30-40 mph off your velocity anyway. The only other statistically relavant approach I have read is: (if you can actually think about an do this in a panic situation, and you are not a racer/professional) is:
Low side crash: stretch out to slow down and not slide into the bike/obstacle.
High side crash: curl into a ball to gain distance and not have the bike land on you.

Panic braking/evasion: Practice, Practice, Practice!

That's some good stuff in there Porter. 70% of power from pinky and ring finger. Interesting - thanks for posting.

 

[Dr. Dolittle]

Doc - it was my pleasure. I'm thinking as a result of this thread, I may take an advanced rider course. I've only taken 1 safety course over the years, and that was required to get my M/C endorsement. I think I'm probably way over due.

And got to say, I love those northern mountains in that state of yours. Helen, Suches and all points in between...incredible riding.

Yep, and if you go a little further up around Maggie Valley, NC or the Robbinsville/Fontana area it's the same or even better! Just spent 3 days up there for the first time and I will definitely be back!

 

[billyd1]

Been down, but not by choice. Given a choice, I will try to slow as much as possible and swerve if I can to miss them. Otherwise, I'll T-bone them at as slow a speed as I can get down to rather than lay it down and slide into them a lot faster.

My beliefs also. With practice you can really learn to scrub off speed and avoid or stop. I am also a true believer in the ABS brakes on my '09 Road King Classic!

 

[TQuentin1]

In a classic case of riding like a complete idiot, I did have to lay my bike down once. I was doing something COMPLETELY stupid by cutting through a gas station to the left to avoid the traffic light. There was a pickup truck in the furthest right, closest to the road pump. I could not see by him and was traveling about 10 mph as I rounded him on the right side. There at the curb was a small car with the driver using the pay phone. There was not enough room between the car and the truck for me to navigate through without hitting one or both of the vehicles. So I gripped the front and stomped on the rear at the same time. The ground was smooth concrete that was probably slick anyway. I leaned further left as my tires quit rolling and started to skid. This caused the bike to lose its footing and end up on its side, sliding until the tires hit the curb. I mashed into the concrete with my left hip/side which later developed into a pretty dramatic hematoma all down my left leg from hip to foot.

As I said at the beginning, this was completely idiotic riding. I had left myself NO out on a blind curve. NOT good riding skills at the time!!

BTW - the incline switch was activated and required the ON-OFF sequence three times to reset before the TSSM would let the bike start.

TQ

 

[Joyflyin]

Ha! If I would have had internet access last week to read this. I didn't lay the bike down as much as it threw me down. :bigsmiley15: Here's the story, we were at the farm in WV & I was on my dual sport, just going to ride it down the road to knock the mud off it so as to not get it all over the garage in OH. Well, our road to the farm goes through the neighbors pasture.

As you can imagine, there were cows in the pasture which happened to be standing broadside in the road. Now, I could have just stopped and tooted the horn to make the cows move, OR, I could maintain my 20 mph speed & buzz around to the left in the nice, flat, grassy area, short grass at that.

I chose option 2. I know from mtb days that tall grass is a no-no since you can't see big rocks, but in short grass I should have been fine.....except I could not see the ditch line.

I tried to cut hard right to get back into the road and avoid the ditch, but it didn't quite work out the way I had anticipated. I'm not sure exactly where I screwed up, except I know the front wheel washed out & did my first (and hopefully last endo on a motorcycle). (BTW, the ditch led to a metal culvert that went under the road)

End result, bike okay, Joy, trip to the ER, 3 stitches above right eye, 7 stitches in the right leg, just below the knee, a little 'grass' rash on the right shoulder, (I technically hit the ground beside the the road) lots of bruises, very sore, but I got out of the way of the bike falling on me.

Oh yeah, I'll need a new pair of Maui Jim shades here soon. LOL

I did go out & sit on the bike again today. She's ready to ride.

What did I learn? Just slow down, stop for the cows. My shin reminds me of that every time I go to move. The stitches are already out of my eye, so I'm healing nicely. The bone bruise on the leg is by far the most inconvenient injury. I'm glad I was on the grass, not the gravel road, and I'm glad I didn't land in a cow pile.

Best advice I've read, Slow Down. :s