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Losing the front?

That is where many lean angle explorations on the street lead - a crash.

“Learn how to crash a bike in slow mo” is a great analogy for the internet. Kinda fair too. It’s hard to translate tactile feelings into words that ppl actually understand. And explaining the physics or the “correct” way to do things will never be understood by everyone, and especially not in the same or intended way.
 
Agree 100%. The two differences between exploring on the street VS track are impact zone clearances and ability to repeat the same corner over and over with the same conditions. The actual learning happens in those corners with good instruction, which I'm sure you and I have both had. Makes a world of difference, IME.
 
Holeshot said:
It feels like we're trying to figure out the best way to crash a bike in slow motion......
Click to expand...

It reminds me of a saying by my friend Bob Hoover on the best way to crash...

Bob Hoover renowned aerobatic and test pilot

"If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible."

BobHooverReno99 (2).JPG
 
ThinkFast said:
You may know every pothole and tar snake, but you can’t know about the big rig that left a nice little line of diesel all the way around on the line you decided to ride that day
Click to expand...
So, so much this ^^
For me it was Jeep Grand Cherokee with a blown transmission cooler line on Mt Tam.
As you correctly pointed out, I knew about each and every rut, groove and imperfection on that road.....that weren't man made a hundred yards and 10 seconds ahead of me.
 
gixxerjeff said:
So, so much this ^^
For me it was Jeep Grand Cherokee with a blown transmission cooler line on Mt Tam.
As you correctly pointed out, I knew about each and every rut, groove and imperfection on that road.....that weren't man made a hundred yards and 10 seconds ahead of me.
Click to expand...

Did you died, I mean go down?
 
I should have. Not sure how I saved it. It happened too fast to be skill.
I smeared the front PAST the fog line. Caught it in the gravel with inches to spare. Yes, there was a cliff just beyond where the front re-bit again.
That was twenty years ago. I still think about that moment all the time.
It was the perfect storm. It wasn't too fast for conditions, until the immediate changes in those conditions.
 
gixxerjeff said:
I smeared the front PAST the fog line.
Click to expand...
Yikes😱.

I had a moment that way, where years later it still haunts me if I happen to think of it. It was Day 1 of our annual DV run and I was two up on my ‘04 Harley leading a group of four or five bikes heading south on PCH in a great stretch of twisties up on a cliff with no side roads somewhere down around Ragged Point I guess. The corners in this particular stretch are mostly marked 35mph and I’m comfortably running them at 50 without scraping any hard parts. We’d been through here many times, and this time was the same as always, just in the flow, feeling great. Until we came around a blind left hander to find a giant slab-sided Chrysler whale sideways across both lanes in the midst of doing a three-point U-turn from the gravel turnout on the right.

He had just come out and was trying to get himself pointed North. On seeing him I instinctively grabbed a maximum amount of front brake, bringing the big girl to threshhold braking (no ABS) and immediately realized there was no possibility of hauling our 1000 pound rig to a stop before hitting the Chrysler broadside.

I was wearing a full face helmet with a dark shield, so he couldn’t see my eyes, but I could see his - staring straight at me frozen like a deer in headlights. So I physically turned my head to the right, looking past the rear of his car, figuring that if I signaled my intention, maybe he’d know which way to move next to get the hell out of the way.

It worked. As soon as I turned my head he punched the gas on the mighty Chrysler with its front wheels at full lock and it arced out of the way into the northbound lane just as I came sailing through what would’ve been his trunk. This all happened in the space of maybe 50 yards and a matter of a second and a half or so. I really did think my wife and I were both about to go airborne and over the guardrail into the Pacific. Terrifying. I knew that road pretty well, too.
 
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Crashing with a passenger is even more the suck.

Got lucky on that one Tom!
 
Figure it out on a dirt bike first. The crashing takes much less of a toll.
 
I had a test yesterday, 89A thru Cottonwood is getting repaved, started last summer.
A govmt. spec rebuild of a state hwy, thru town.
Street is fully ready for a new layer, cleaned and prepped, base grind, then two inch jump to concrete guttering, sidewalk,
Right turn, up out of the street, had a truck waiting for me, got to watch,
Since I'm living' on knobs, kno problem.
Just as the front tire hit that concrete ledge, I gave her a little extra twist, into the edge.
I knew it would bounce off a bit, maybe slide down the edge, not climbing it, and push.
I set knobs into it, a bit of a bounce up, kno problem, , ,
I imagine fully paved, this morning.

UPdate, street is still tore up, and nobody is working on it.
 

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