Bonneville America Forums Forums Rider Safety Forums Riding Technique Now let us count the mistakes made...

...along one of SoCal's best M/C roads by this Triumph rider here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up2UvuRLdTE&feature=fvw

Now, my first thought was the lousy line he took into this lefthand turn here. Yep, he should have been along the right side of road just before attacking it!

Doesn't that guy routinely set up his video cam at the Snake just to catch riders making poor judgement calls? And, yes, poor technique led to a bad line and the subsequent lock up. Ho chee mama, I'll bet he had a bruise the length of his thigh...

I think it was a mistake to dismount the bike while in motion.

Seriously, that guardrail had to sting on the hip. He was looking right at it, and that's where he went.

Yep! Jeff York, one of the Tech guys at South Bay Triumph sent this video to me. He knows the guy involved, as he's a regular at that shop. And Jeff said the guy broke three ribs and a collar bone on that guardrail, and that his whole right side is one gigantic bruise. BUT, he said the guy toughed it out and actually rode his bike home after that!!!

There isn't enough film here for me to figure out why. Now if you could back it waaaaaay up, you might find him coming out of the local watering hole. Or, maybe he just stepped out of the local Hardley dealership, having traded one in, and wasn't used to the handling of the new bike...

I wonder how long of a trip home it was for him cause I would think it would be pretty painful holding your arms up and leaning forward with broken ribs and such. Ouch.

Knowing where that stretch of Mulholland Hwy lies, and guessin' he lives somewhere in the South Bay area of L.A., I'd guess the guy had some 30+ miles to ride home, Chris.

(yep, that had to hurt too alright!)

Looks like he started to lean then got scared of a low side so sat up and locked up the rear wheel. Once he did that the ride was over.

Very, very lucky to be alive.

He had almost zero lean before he freaked and locked up the rear. Like Saxtron said "then it was all over". Must be a newbie - he could've taken that corner easily. The guy behind was going the same speed (or faster) and still managed to stop completely at the crash site.

If you watch his helmet he's not looking where he wants to go, he's looking at the thing he's scared of... object fixation. And as we all know, the bike goes where you're looking (most times). He also had way too much rear brake and very little (none?) front... there's no lifting of the front end as the front brake's released. Using the rear brake'll stand the bike up, or prevent it leaning in the first place. The one thing it won't do is slow the bike rapidly.

We all know what happens when we look at the hazard instead of the escape route. We all know we shouldn't do it. But I can tell you from experience - Sometimes its real hard not to take a look at that big tree, or car, or guard rail, or the gravel. Sometimes uncontrolled fright just prevails over proficiency or even experienced fear - and then BAM.

I just watched the slomo part of the vid a bunch of times
on full screen. He never applied the front brake at all.
Hard to believe he wasn't hurt worse.
Uncle Charlie

Looks like he leaned two, maybe three degrees before he locked up the rear brake and lost it.

A whole lot of inexperience going on there.

And yeah, I would have been way to the right at the start of that turn and hit the apex a little past where he hit the guardrail.

I just remembered Jeff(the Tech guy at SoBay Triumph) telling me that the crashee told Jeff that he remembers he might've been fixated on the rider coming up behind him on the right, and so he thinks that was maybe why he wasn't over on the right side before making that turn.

However, that is STILL a "rookie mistake" on his part, because he should have known that it's the responsibility of the ride behind to allow for any change in course by the forward rider. And if he WAS worried about the rider comin' up on him, he should have already been over on the right in order to allow the other rider coming up on him to properly pass on the left.

(BTW, Jeff also said that the crashee would often visit the shop and brag about what a "good rider" he is!!!...go figure, huh?!)

He was worried about the guy behind him?
That guy had plenty of time to slow down
and stop after he crashed. Looks like
the bike that came along next was going
a lot faster, and made the turn easily.
Slow down a**hole! said the bystanders.
Uncle Charlie

If he's the crashee, who's the crasher?
I guess the Triumph would be the crash victim, and we all saw the crash site.

( maybe, JUST maybe, three of the four are one and the same.)

Looks like his helmet saved him. In the slo-mo, you can see his head bouncing off one of the wooden posts behind the guardrail.

Whoah, that video hit home for me. Last summer my 24 yr old daughter totaled her 500 Ninja in almost the identical scenario, maybe a sharper curve (leading into an S-curve). She went into the corner, which was probably a 20 mph corner way too hot, left skid marks from both wheels. When she knew she wasn't going to make the turn, she laid it over. She slid into the guardrail wheels first, bounced off and back across the road. The front wheel took most of the hit. Somehow, she managed not to be thrown off, over or into the guardrail. Debris from her bike took out the windshield of the car.
Somehow, the bike flipped crossing the road and threw her off. She landed standing up on the shoulder of the road, on the other side.
She broke a bone in each foot, because she was wearing sneakers, which were torn off. She had a little road rash on her back/side where her jacket rode up. Her head bounced off the pavement, taking a good bit of her full-faced helmet.
Progressive wrote the bike off, she was a lucky girl. Unfortunately, my wife took one look at her and decided motorcycling was out for her.

WOW Al!!! Sorry to hear this, but of course am also relieved to hear your daughter came out of all this as well as she did!

Geeze Al, that is pretty scary stuff. I too am so glad your daughter came out of the accident reasonably okay. She musta been shaking like a leaf... a close call for sure!

Yeah Al, glad your kids ok.
At least she had the good sense to lay the bike down, sounds like it would have been a lot worse if she hadn't

I've forgotten to use the front brake in a turn before and locked up the rear wheel but it's because I'm used to riding choppers with no front brake. Having and using a front brake is definitely the way to go if you have to slow down in the twisties.

Using the front brake while the front wheel is turned can had bad results. Best to do braking before you get in the curb and keep power to the rear wheel all the way through the turn.

What he said.