Sticking With It

[Ray916MN]

Check out the photos through #29. Impressive job sticking with it. I wonder whether I would have abandoned ship or stuck with it till the medieval catapult was fully wound up.

http://wwc.photoreflect.com/pr3/Orderpage.aspx?pi=0QAK00SP0G0000

[Jared]

Wow.  When you said stuck with it I thought you meant he reeled it back in.  Then I got to picture 13 and thought um no...  Looks like his right foot might have been pinned to the rear brake lever?

[aschendel]

wow, cool sequence.  i wonder at which moment he wished he had his helmet closed.  it looked like he came out in pretty good shape, hopefully didn't get a ticket for his trouble.

a.s.

[KoopaTroopa]

That sucks! Not his best moment and it was all captured on camera. things always seem to go wrong when you have an audience.

[Joel S]

might be a dumb question, but what causes a low side like that ??  just trying to learn

Joel

[Elk]

My read is that hard parts started to drag - a bit too much lean for how the bike is set up - and the bike pivoted on the parts on the ground.

It was a low side until the rear started sliding, trying to catch the front.  Once the bike was sideways to the direction of travel it finally caught, resulting in a high side and launching the rider.

As mentioned above, he my have tried to tighten the turn with the rear brake and used too much.

There are others here much more knowledgeable than I however.

[Tim...]

As Elk mentioned, this is a typical high-side caused by the bike trying to "right" itself (in physics speak: Conservation of Angular Momentum).  

A lot of things are going wrong here.  Observing picture 19, it appears the rider came in too hot on a terrible line to a decreasing radius turn; locked up the rear on the brakes, and had too much lean angle for the bikes geometry, which caused some hard-parts to hit the tarmac and compound the incident.

As an academic exercise and for possible discussion (referring to pic 19)  I see two lines through this series of curves: a racing line with an early apex, and a street line with a very late apex.  Which one is better and why?

Tim...

[Aprilian]

This is a good example for our other discussion about body position.  Look how his helmet is on the upside of the bike which reduced his ground clearance.  This is what I was referring to in my post that many times you can succeed with poor body position, but eventually you may need every inch of clearance.

[Elk]

Great eye, Lloyd.  I had not noticed the sparks.

Tim, I like the late apex approach on the street.  I can see more around the corner and have my choice of exit lines.  With an early apex you are committed to a wide exit and the inability to avoid a vehicle crossing the center line, gravel, etc. 

That being said, I think most of us default to an early apex/inside line especially if we are a little nervous.  It's a bad habit which I think results from wanting to get the turn started.

[Aprilian]

I think most of us default to an early apex/inside line especially if we are a little nervous.  It's a bad habit which I think results from wanting to get the turn started.

And from lack of confidence in, or skill of, making a quick flick turn.   I like the phrase "lazy cornering" which explains some peoples' need to start turning early and take a lazy path around the corner.

[Aprilian]

We also didn't talk about how the rider's lower body wasn't anchored to the bike as strongly as his upper body.  Therfore, when things started going down-hill, he started sliding off with his lowerbody first and was hanging from the bars - making a bad situation worse.  That wasn't quick-thinking, intential steering into the skid, that was his body tension doing that.

Anyone else come to a similar conclusion?

[Ray916MN]

Boy you folks are a tough audience.

I thought the rider did a good job in a bad situation he got himself into.

When I think about the majority of riders who crash on rides, they crash on the brakes straight up and down trying to slow down to make a turn the perceive as too tight rather than following the old axiom "when in doubt, lean harder". The more common error is standing the bike up and getting on the brakes.I personally find this hard to resist sometimes.

While a better body position might have helped squeeze a bit more turning out of the bike, I suspect as Lloyd intimates, that by the time the rider realized he needed more, it was too late. I do wonder whether covering the rear brake and dragging it with the gas on to maintain cornering clearance as he realized the turn was tighter than he thought would have reduced his speed enough to allow him to make the turn. Of course the risk of this strategy is placing too much load on the rear tire and making it more likely to slide, but it also makes use of available traction at the rear and take it little bit of load off the front.

[Elk]

The more common error is standing the bike up and getting on the brakes.I personally find this hard to resist sometimes.

Done it.

Then yell at myself for being stupid.

[Tim...]

Where I was going with the "racing line", and early apex, is that if there is a site line, would you bypass the decreasing radius right-hander and hit the apex for the left-hand turn in the oncoming lane?

Tim...