Track lowside, meh

[Sirref]

0 injuries, minimal damage to the bike with a new bar and a new rearset on the way.

Went off in T4b (T5 in my eyes) at VIR North (the tight left followed by a right flick)

There was a myriad of reasons why I went off, the main one being I went in crazy hot and smacked my exhaust on the inside curbing lifting the rear off the ground with a wide open throttle. My knee and foot/peg were already on the ground so I didn't really have far to go to start sliding. When I went off i was about to make a pass into the next right hander before the esses with the momentum I had. Had I pulled that off I'd have closed the gap to the lead group by the time we got to the straight since I was pinned all the way through the roller coaster and none of the riders in the main pack were.

My airbag vest deployed and did a great deal to protect me as I rolled rather than slid which is exactly what it is designed for, it also was undamaged (none of my gear was damaged except the suit a bit but it's still usable) so it's reusable. Well worth the investment.

There were a few points before then that were sketchy so I got and ignored the bike's warnings in an effort to get more speed out of the bike (would not happen in a normal track day environment) I was clearly dragging my lower fairing before the crash at some point, likely multiple times as I know it dragged in the first apex of the hook at the bottom of the roller coaster going onto the straight since there's a bump there that compressed the rear shock. I was dragging my peg and knee through the same 4 corners every time I went through (this is with rearset risers) including the one I went off in.

I do believe something may have been slightly off with my BP as I was dragging knee but in a different spot than normal. Normally I drag at the top of the puck but yesterday I was dragging the bottom of the puck as well as the top. My upper body was the same as usual and I had the same amount of my body off the seat, I may have simply not put my knee out at the same angle but I'm not sure.

TL;DR I had the time of my life racing at VIR last weekend and my only regret is that I couldn't ride more

VIR S is amazing, and terrifying, but mostly amazing and VIR N is hands down the best track I have ever ridden (Mid-O is very close behind)

gonna have to podium at summit main on the 15th to stay in contention after this ****, man on a mission

[csmith12]

Sorry about your off mang, better luck next time and glad you're not injured and ready to ride again.

Originally Posted by Sirref

I do believe something may have been slightly off with my BP as I was dragging knee but in a different spot than normal. Normally I drag at the top of the puck but yesterday I was dragging the bottom of the puck as well as the top. My upper body was the same as usual and I had the same amount of my body off the seat, I may have simply not put my knee out at the same angle but I'm not sure.

You noticed the bp difference too? It took me a while to figure it out but maybe it's linked to vision and hip flick. If your vision is way out in front of the bike then you may lift up your head some. This slightly changes bp enough to touch the slider in a different area. Basically, all within about 150ft, there is 5 visual markers. I found that I was looking at the apex of 4b while exiting 4a about midtrack. The markers were all in straight line aside of the apexes. lol

Hip flick can be more subtle as you might be doing it and not even know it. In chicanes and other sections of track where the turns come back to back like this, you may move your bum over to set for the next corner while the bike is still leaning for the previous. I take it as a good sign as long as you do knee to knee or don't disturb the bike by being smooth about it.

See you in a week yo!

[Sirref]

I believe it's hip flick related, not sure about vision related. I'm moving my vision the same way as you are there though, it's a pretty natural progression there despite being such a quick progression

I time my side to side lower body transition with my upper body like this, as I bring the bike up I bring my upper up first and when my upper gets to the tank (I'm basically straight up and down at this point) I flip my lower to the other side (never sitting in the seat I always have my lower off to one side unless it's a straight) and move my upper in as I turn in. You'll see at palmer in the afternoon after I learn the track

I was dragging both knees through there

[cbinker]

always gotta listen to the signals that you are getting tired and losing focus. my worst crash happened because i thought "just 1 more lap", even though i blew a couple corners before thinking that. once i start to blow corners its time to take a break.

[Sirref]

Originally Posted by cbinker

always gotta listen to the signals that you are getting tired and losing focus. my worst crash happened because i thought "just 1 more lap", even though i blew a couple corners before thinking that. once i start to blow corners its time to take a break.

warnings weren't me being tired, warnings were from the bike dragging. I was pretty fresh going into the race. I wasn't blowing corners so much as I was taking them fast enough to drag more and more of the bike and myself on the ground.

[dcj13]

Originally Posted by Sirref

0 injuries, minimal damage to the bike with a new bar and a new rearset on the way.

My airbag vest deployed and did a great deal to protect me as I rolled rather than slid which is exactly what it is designed for, it also was undamaged (none of my gear was damaged except the suit a bit but it's still usable) so it's reusable. Well worth the investment.

Glad you're OK.

How many revolutions did you roll with the vest? Is it really better to roll? Was it a fast roll? I'd be concerned about scrambling the brains...

[Sirref]

Originally Posted by dcj13

Glad you're OK.

How many revolutions did you roll with the vest? Is it really better to roll? Was it a fast roll? I'd be concerned about scrambling the brains...

brains don't scramble like that from rolling, there was no head impact of any kind so that's all fine and dandy

it's better to slide, the airbag vest is designed for rolling the suit is for sliding. I'd say it was a quick roll as I went off at somewhere between 60-70mph (rough estimate) I rolled maybe 10 revolutions. Without the vest the roll would have probably lead to some sort of injury

[greenaero]

I'm glad you are unhurt and your moto suffered minimal damage. Thank you for sharing this experience as it shows the difference between pushing things to the limit on the track vs on the street. A 60-70 mph getoff on the street would not likely end well.

[cbinker]

Originally Posted by Sirref

warnings weren't me being tired, warnings were from the bike dragging. I was pretty fresh going into the race. I wasn't blowing corners so much as I was taking them fast enough to drag more and more of the bike and myself on the ground.

i got caught up in that too, turn 2 Motorsports Park Hastings, long right, could hear the pegs grinding, cool lets do it again, and again and again and crash.

[Sirref]

Originally Posted by greenaero

I'm glad you are unhurt and your moto suffered minimal damage. Thank you for sharing this experience as it shows the difference between pushing things to the limit on the track vs on the street. A 60-70 mph getoff on the street would not likely end well.

The difference in safety is unbelievable, though not every track corner is safe it's generally much much safer than street. I have a group I used to ride with way back that always has someone in the hospital or worse for street crashes then I go to the track and it's like "oh 2-3 people went off before lunch, we got them back on the track with extra parts so they only missed one session or so" that's a huge difference.

Originally Posted by cbinker

i got caught up in that too, turn 2 Motorsports Park Hastings, long right, could hear the pegs grinding, cool lets do it again, and again and again and crash.

It's an easy trap to fall into, you do it a few times and you think you're good to do it every time but you're really not. Granted what got me was a line difference, the same lean angle and speed would be fine if I were a few inches farther from the apex with my knee on the curb rather than my exhaust

[alex.s]

video doe?

[Sirref]

no video unfortunately

here's some from one of the guys in front of me though (in clear sight up til I wiped out)

Link to original page on YouTube.

@gogodre probably has some video from the weekend too but I haven't seen it, he was clear ahead of all of us