Lay down your bike

[sinfull]

No worries mate. Just attend, as spectator, any track-day which Sinfull is riding. You'll get heaps of first-hand experience.

Awww Now David, i do have to wonder who your planning on blaming for all the bins you've had while your not trying to keep up to me ?
I have yet to see you bin mate but it's pretty obvious why, part moggy aint ya ? Cause ya sure as hell spend a lot of time scratchin around in the kitty litter !

[Mystic13]

I did this once and I'm pretty sure it saved me a lot more pain. I was following a car along Tuam St, Chch. He starts slowing under braking and pulls up left in a line of empty parking spaces. No indication of course, brakes to an almost standstill. As I am about to ride passed him he swings out to do a u-turn (don't you just love u-turns). I was an idiot, I should have realised that they were his parents standing on the other side of the road and he wanted to swing around to see them. Totally my fault not picking that up.

I hit the brakes, instant lock up of the rear. Didn't matter, I knew I only had less than 2 seconds before impact but I did manage to swerve across the centreline hopeful that he would hear my tyres screaming and stop before completing turn - the opposing lane was clear. He did make eye contact as I was about to hit his door pillar- gave me that "oops, my bad look ".

Anyway I knew from that first instant that a crash was 99% certain and I was looking for anything softer than the side of the car to hit. The clear blue sky above his roof looked decidely attractive, so I just pushed upward with my legs. friends saw the crash and later told me I got some real good height, well over the roof. Could become an Olympic event that.

But the best laid plan cocked up on landing. As I went over his roof I remember thinking, well done man, that's clever, now just land and slide. I went head over heels though and lost any idea where/when I was going to hit terra firma. The road pointed out to me when contact had in deed been made. Pushed my legs well up towards my chin and broke a leg..again, bloody bikes! The prick got done for careless driving and slapped quite hard with that damp bus ticket.

But back to the subject. YES, I think when it's all pear shaped and you haven't got time to veer left, right or stop, then find a clear trajectory and aim your aerodynamic bod at it.

That half second can be pretty subjective, mind you. The one time I highsided on the road it felt like I spent about a full minute going sideways before I got spat off.

Imagine how long the crash would have lasted if I'd been baked!

Yep, that's what I'm talking about. Time slowing down and you seem to have all the time in the world to think about what you're doing in fractions of a second. It's an amazing experience.

Imagine if you could do that in real life when ever you choose. Actually there are many sports people who do and they seem to excel. I remember John McInroe commenting about the ball taking forever to come over the net and he couldn't understand why other players weren't responding to it.

I'm guessing really good racers do it as well.

[Oscar]

Having crashed a fair few times on-road and off, I have to say that the option of "laying 'er down" never, ever occurred (and caused me a fair bit of mirth the first time the principal was explained to me).

Crashes come in two varieties - the unexpected / "never saw that coming" variety, and the (more common) "opps, this is gonna hurt" / time slows down flavour.

So therefore the only common thoughts were either: a) shock, as I slid down the road, wondering what the fuck had just happened, or b) "I can save this..." my throttle hand is usually the last to part company with the bike..

The latter appears to be common, as the number of hand injuries suffered by top racers will testify. Guys like Doohan and Slight suffered injuries to their throttle hands based on the theory that "..if my hand is still on the throttle I can still save it...".