I used to look at accidents on Youtube, trying to understand what went wrong in order to avoid doing it myself. Here is one video which I think is an excellent example of how there is often a chain reaction of events which can cause an accident....

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Here is my non-expert analysis:

1) Poor body position on the turn. He is riding 'twisted'. If you draw a line from his butt to his head, the line would be pointing in the opposite direction to the turn. If his head was fully leaned into the turn, the following events wouldn't happen.

2) Overreaction to foot peg rub. Stands the bike up completely, chops the throttle. Seems to panic and give up on the turn.

3) Target fixation. Notice that after the bike is stood up, the helmet is pointing straight on, in the direction of trouble. Don't let the panic take over!

Any experts, please feel free to add to this analysis and/or correct if necessary.

Be safe out there!

Cause: proximity of cameras. :)

Forget all of the BP issues, while accurate, it wasn't the cause. He was trying to get great lean angle for the camera crew that's always up there, scraped the peg which spooked him, and he ran straight off the road. And even then he might have saved it at that speed if he didn't hammer the front brake once on the dirt, which put him down immediately.

Newish rider, limited experience. Poor bike. :(

yeah and since he was more focused on his lean angle than his turn, his line suffered and caused him to lean further and touch the peg in the first place.

That will all buff right out.....


Once you watch one crash- you just wanna keep watching all the crashes on Youtube....great analysis Samer, Chris and Alex.

also poor, throttle control

correct me if I'm wrong but I think he wasn't rolling on the gas that much on that turn.
I read somewhere that rolling on the gas helps keep the bike up on suspension, and that improves the leanover clearance

yeah i know what you mean! i've wasted so much time watching every video from mulholland drive by rnickeymouse that i can. basically it reinforces slow in fast out in my mind and reminds me that even though i love riding and going fast, motorcycling is still an inherently dangerous activity

idk about the leaning clearance getting better from rolling on the throttle. but I do know that it keeps the bike balanced, even if just using small amounts of "maintenance" throttle to keep it from shifting mid turn

yeah i know what you mean! i've wasted so much time watching every video from mulholland drive by rnickeymouse that i can. basically it reinforces slow in fast out in my mind and reminds me that even though i love riding and going fast, motorcycling is still an inherently dangerous activity

I hear ya man- I've been watching for the last 15 minutes and so many things you gotta get right in a turn!!!!

well, like you said, slow in fast out.

unless the audio is out of sync, it looks like he lost his rear first and that caused the scrape

edit: nevermind the replay in slomo shows the scrape caused the rear to buck out

oooh jeez, ouch that sucks...thats painful to watch for both the bike and the rider.

I agree with Samer, he panics and gives up on the turn.
He could have still made the turn, but decided to stop at the wrong
place.

Omg, that poor bike :(. One of the main things we were taught in our msf course was, if you scrape a peg in your turn you finish out the corner at that lean angle and don't do exactly what this guy did. He was obviously inexperienced, after scraping peg, he freaked out and up-righted the bike while fixating on where he crashed instead of looking through the turn and staying down (leaned). He could have made that turn if he had his body position like a real track rider, body on the left side, knee down, head far away from the bike to maintain the best lean angle. Instead he sat on the center of the seat, head above the gas tank (center of bike), and used much more lean angle than he needed to which led to the whole incident. :2cents:

Ouch! Yep, he got spooked. Looked like he didn't make the best line choice either. It was pretty far inside. Poor guy. Some lessons are learned the hard way.

When I first began scraping my peg- it did and really does spook you because it sounds horrible!!! I could see why he flinched badly!!

You gotta get used to it...now I leave my foot slightly off the peg and can feel the road hit before I get to the peg.

His BP, while not great, wasn't that bad. All he ahd to do to save it was not target fixate on that mountain (it's a BIG mountain), and hang off a tad more and complete the turn.

The problem is that particular curve has a buttlaod of crashes, and not all of them are rider error. Because of all the crashes, there tends to be a lot of slick residue on the surface. Very easy to wash out the front or rear.

Most of rnickey's captured crashes are the result of improper speed relative to rider skill level.

I know you aren't supposed to brake in a turn but I practice it all the time for when I need to. I made a scary left turn once where, for seemingly no reason, the rear tire locked up for a moment, causing me to drift right, let go, regain traction, and find myself now going too fast and needing to reapply it more than ever, which caused it to lock up again (I was already at the maximum front brake I was comfortable with mid-turn). This cycle happened a few times until I had to drift out of my turning lane and into another. Luckily, the cars in that lane were attentive and allowed me in without incident. I was blipping my horn, just to be sure. :)

I probably had oil on the side of my tire somehow. Now, I only practice mid-turn braking when there are no cars around. :)

I know you aren't supposed to brake in a turn but I practice it all the time for when I need to. I made a scary left turn once where, for seemingly no reason, the rear tire locked up for a moment, causing me to drift right, let go, regain traction, and find myself now going too fast and needing to reapply it more than ever, which caused it to lock up again (I was already at the maximum front brake I was comfortable with mid-turn). This cycle happened a few times until I had to drift out of my turning lane and into another. Luckily, the cars in that lane were attentive and allowed me in without incident. I was blipping my horn, just to be sure. :)

I probably had oil on the side of my tire somehow. Now, I only practice mid-turn braking when there are no cars around. :)

scary. trail braking lets you brake mid turn easier since your front is still loaded... you don't wind up see-sawing the bike. of course you have to be going faster than you need to into the turn in order for the trail brake not to slow you down too much that you have to adjust your lean angle which jacks with your front traction

scary. trail braking lets you brake mid turn easier since your front is still loaded... you don't wind up see-sawing the bike. of course you have to be going faster than you need to into the turn in order for the trail brake not to slow you down too much that you have to adjust your lean angle which jacks with your front traction

trail braking makes for sharper turns

when in doubt, power out :thumbup:
:confused:

the cause for the riders mishap was plain and simple
he realized mid turn that he couldve saved a bunch of money by switching to geico

Ouch this one hurt me!

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And I just went on this today!!! :P

^^^i aint canyon carving till i get pants now

^^^i aint canyon carving till i get pants now

crazy enough, the cop that pulled me and adrian over did mention this guy going down

No way! What did he say?

that poor buell!

I know what an :asshat:!!!

Cause: proximity of cameras. :)

Forget all of the BP issues, while accurate, it wasn't the cause. He was trying to get great lean angle for the camera crew that's always up there, scraped the peg which spooked him, and he ran straight off the road. And even then he might have saved it at that speed if he didn't hammer the front brake once on the dirt, which put him down immediately.

Newish rider, limited experience. Poor bike. :(

+1 to the camera guy! More people wreck on that turn because they want that sweet pic with there knee down, Problem is he is so far down the turn that to get your knee down so soon you are at full lean, its a decreasing radius turn and you have to lean just a bit more during the turn. The guys that know what they are doing tend to low side if they loose it, newer riders try to stand up and brake and either high side or hit the dirt/over the guard rail.

Love the way that tennis-shoed foot bends the way it's not supposed to on mr. buell

Double ouch!

Seeing that reminds me why I wear my knee/shin guards every time I ride. Now to get some real boots for when I commute so the foot thing doesn't happen if ever I should be so unfortunate as to not be able to maintain control of my valiant steed.

Poor R1, looks like he busted the crank open.

Can someone explain what the rider with the Buell did wrong there?

He grabbed the front brake hard enough to immediately lock the front tire long enough for it lose grip and wash out. You can't nail the front brake after you've already started to turn in.

Oh I see.
I thought it was some kind of a countersteering problem but I was way off lol

Can someone explain what the rider with the Buell did wrong there?

Body lean opposite of bike lean, should have been hanging off the bike with upper body closer to the pavement, rather than away from the pavement shown in the video.

Should have been on the throttle at the point where the front wheel washed out, not on the front brake.

The left ankle looks busted.