Motorcycle flip and rescue

[NWGlockgal]

While it's hard to see the flip itself, the rescue afterwards is what makes the drama.

Motorcycle flips over cliff in scary crash caught on tape

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[etrain16]

Wow! That is one luck SOB!

 

[NWGlockgal]

Yes he is!

 

[Certaindeaf]

He obviously needed louder pipes.

 

[Joe13]

Noobs


Every time I see these things I know exactly what they did wrong...

Noobs will slow down to try to make the corner.

An experienced rider knows you need to hit the gas and own the corner.

For anyone not familiar with bikes, you loose almost all of your turning ability when you let up off the throttle.

It's very counter intuitive but his buddies should not have been pushing him that hard if he didn't know that.

 

[mjbskwim]

Yes @Joe13 ride YOUR abilities not your buddies'.
He got so lucky there wasn't any cars coming and he hit those trees on the way down

 

[NWGlockgal]

Yes @Joe13 ride YOUR abilities not your buddies'.
He got so lucky there wasn't any cars coming and he hit those trees on the way down

I noticed a big SUV came by right after he flipped....lucky guy.

 

[AirResq]

Thanks for posting this, NWGlockgal. I had the pleasure of working with the LA County FD Air Ops and Swift Water Rescue folks a few times (back in the day).

 

[Dungannon]

Noobs will slow down to try to make the corner. An experienced rider knows you need to hit the gas and own the corner. For anyone not familiar with bikes, you loose almost all of your turning ability when you let up off the throttle.

Can't judge his speed or approach line but it sure looks like he left the road before the apex of the curve. I agree you don't drop throttle as it unloads the back wheel. All the same, if I thought I was going to run wide I'd maintain throttle and add more countersteer. Even drop my butt off the right side. My only bad day was finding gravel on an off-camber declining radius curve. Leathers, armored gloves and boots saved me from road rash but the bike didn't fair so well.

 

[Joe13]

. I agree you don't drop throttle as it unloads the back wheel.

I think you mean front wheel.

That sounds like one narly wreck.

 

[Meridian7750]

No, he means the rear.
When you drop (chop) the gas, it shifts weight to the front tire. That unloads the rear. Bad reaction...it stands the bike upright, in the middle of a corner. Recipe for pain.
Just as Dungannon said, steady (or slight increase, to settle the rear suspension) throttle and more countersteer is the answer. Hard to do though, in a panic. Should have gone into the corner "pushing" on the low-side bar.
Didn't see enough to be an internet armchair expert, but have 10's of thousands of miles on 2 wheels.
Dude got lucky.

 

[Joe13]

No, he means the rear.
When you drop (chop) the gas, it shifts weight to the front tire. That unloads the rear. Bad reaction...it stands the bike upright, in the middle of a corner. Recipe for pain.
Just as Dungannon said, steady (or slight increase, to settle the rear suspension) throttle and more countersteer is the answer. Hard to do though, in a panic. Should have gone into the corner "pushing" on the low-side bar.
Didn't see enough to be an internet armchair expert, but have 10's of thousands of miles on 2 wheels.
Dude got lucky.

Gotcha, it's getting late and I'm a little preoccupied - thanks for the correction.

 

[Medic!]

I think the guy blew his lane and then saw an oncoming SUV.
He knew he couldn't pull it back to the right fast enough.
So he took the only way out he could before the SUV hit him.

No matter how fast I want to drive. I always stay in my lane.

 

[rdb241]

This was all over ABC national news last night. This vid is from another rider farther back. On ABC they interviewed the guy just in front of this guy. The guy did 2 flips and landed 50 feet down the cliff. The only injury he had was a blown shoulder. The road they were on is the famous Mulhullend Drive in the hills east of LA. A lot of street squids go down on that road.

 

[RicInOR]

Noobs
Every time I see these things I know exactly what they did wrong...
Noobs will slow down to try to make the corner.
An experienced rider knows you need to hit the gas and own the corner.
For anyone not familiar with bikes, you loose almost all of your turning ability when you let up off the throttle.
It's very counter intuitive but his buddies should not have been pushing him that hard if he didn't know that.

I diagnosed: Failure to Counter Steer.

For non-riders that means you PUSH the bar AWAY from you in the Direction you want to go.
Need to go right, PUSH right. Curve tightens, PUSH HARDER.

And Joe is right, you must be on the throttle, or the bike is out of balance. If you break you go up, which makes the bike tend to go straight ...

Works for fully dressed thumpers, and for 50cc scoots.

Only one place this does not apply - parking lots - at really slow speed, under 5 mph. It is hard to ride that slow. And if you are, typically your feet are down and your head is looking around.

For more riding tips see Twist of the Wrist or Twist of the Wrist 2
both of which come and go on U-Tuby.

Yes this is dorky

Want to see more people nearly die on motorcycles, and occasionally in a car?
Celebs and Instant Karma?
On the same road ?

U-Tubey: RNickeyMouse ( see rnickey looks like mickey - cleaver huh )
RNickeyMouse

 

[Certaindeaf]

Target fixation.. you go where you look. And his rear tire slipped on the turd he laid.

 

[Joe13]

For non-riders that means you PUSH the bar AWAY from you in the Direction you want to go.

I was very fortunate to have a good friend who was an experienced dirt and road rider who was able to teach me tricks of the trade so to speak, just like the one you described - it's very unnatural unless you know to do it.

Target fixation.. you go where you look. And his rear tire slipped on the turd he laid.

Another great point, it happens in cars too but not to the point it happens on a bike... you look at the pot hole, you hit the pot hole

 

[rdb241]

When I raodraced with OMRRA & WMRRA from the mid 90's to the mid 2,000's. One of the very first things they taught you in novice class was "rider fixation". It is so true! When you see a rider go off the track, you have a tendency to follow them. You have to purposely look away as you go by. Then once you are by, then you can look back up the track. In this case I don't think this was the problem. I see three things that accured to cause this. As a novice rider that has not yet built up the confidence to lean hard. When you enter a corner to hot. A novice guy wants to slam on the brakes and stand the bike up. Rather than lean a bit more to make the turn. In the two separate vids of this story I have seen. It did not look like he was leaned over far enough to loose the back end. I did not see a slip or jerk from the back of the bike. I did see his brake light come on. Which makes me think he was way to hot entering the turn. It could be that the SUV caught his eye and distracted him for a split second. But nobody has brought up the tire factor. Street rubber is a much harder compound robber than a race tire. Meaning the rubber is harder so you can get street mileage out of them. That also means for a street tire to get good grip, the rubber need to be warmed up. Street rubber takes longer to warm up. A race tire on the on other hand is a much softer compound and warms up much quicker. with the soft warm rubber the tire sticks much more. I am sure the guy was on street rubber and maybe did not have the greatest grip on the road. Also I saw a lot of dust before he went over. Maybe there was chit on the road to make loose his grip. Just my opinion from the things I have learned racing and riding.

 

[CountryGent]

Holy crap. Yah, he's lucky to be still among the living.

 

[The Heretic]

My computer won't play the vid, but yeah - I agree with what has been said. I don't ride street bikes any more, I have much more fun going slow off-road and I don't have to worry that I will lose my license, wind up in a wheel chair (BTDT) or worse, hurt/kill someone else. More than once I have come around a corner on my Ducati MTS and found someone backing out of a driveway or stopped or something like that. I sold the Ducati because every time I rode it I always took it over 100 MPH at least once and once I got my Husaberg I just wasn't riding it anymore - not to mention I was not a skilled rider, although it was the most fun street bike I ever owned.

I've had a number of rider friends killed or put in the hospital riding bikes due to either normal road hazards (not the least of which is deer) or their own risk taking. It is a lot of fun but you take risks and if you are not willing or able to learn how to ride safely then you probably shouldn't ride as sooner or later you will go down. There are better places to go fast than on public roads.