Pay attention to the road!!!

[ViperRon]

First off rule number one look at the road because you never know who is in your lane comming at you. Second if you are in traffic and you can not stop in the distance you can see then pick an exit route before you enter like ditch, bank, etc. My prefference has always been if I have a choice lay the bike down and have it slide in front of me so I'd have leaned it to the right throttle up and pray it did not slide out from under me. I have found those brakes make you go straight front end down with loss of clearance to lean. A down hill problem is braking is severly reduced. If first impression is you can't stop you are right. You must act on instinct you do not have time to think. This guy survived and I am happy for that and my choice may have been the wrong one but my main worry is my (friend) the bike flipping and flopping and I want it in front of me not sneeking up from behind. I have laid down on 4 bikes includding ny XS11 and once with a passenger and other than a few bruises never got hurt.

Experience ridding even thousands of miles or years does not say you will have any more knowledge in dealling with this and if you are focused on the camera you are not ready to even deal with this.

[CRXSi90]

In picture 10, it looks like the front of the exhaust may have been dragging, but who am I to say.

One thing that I've been working on recently is shifting my weight like the "racers" do. You know, hanging off the seat toward the inside of the corner. In my mind, it makes sense that this lets you turn tighter while keeping your bike more upright, which prevents dragging stuff and keeps the contact patch at a better place on the tire. I even do this when I'm out riding my bicycle. However, having the presence of mind to do that in a situation like this is another thing.

[BA80]

In picture 10, it looks like the front of the exhaust may have been dragging, but who am I to say.

One thing that I've been working on recently is shifting my weight like the "racers" do. You know, hanging off the seat toward the inside of the corner. In my mind, it makes sense that this lets you turn tighter while keeping your bike more upright, which prevents dragging stuff and keeps the contact patch at a better place on the tire. I even do this when I'm out riding my bicycle. However, having the presence of mind to do that in a situation like this is another thing.

The XS has plenty of ground clearance, you have to just about lay it completly over to scrape anything. Unless you foolish enough to fool with the suspension and lower it.

I saw Jeff and Brent hanging off thier bikes like that in NC and wondered why.

I shift my body upright in the tight ones which probably has the same effect on on my lower end as hanging my tailpiece off the bottom of the seat

[madmax-im]

never ceases to amaze me how stupid some people are.....as for shifting your weight from side to side..it is quite advantageous to do so...for all the obvious reasons...and you need not really hang off the seat...I've found that shifting my butt to either edge of the seat to be suffiicient enough to negotiate a tighter turn...problem with me is that I am not consistent as evidenced by my riding the dragon on our last run thru there...however I was at least smart enough to pay close attention to where the road and I were going.
As for Jeff..I was right behind him running the dragon and my observation was that he never put his feet down from the hwy pegs to either shift a gear or apply the rear brake...or any brakes at all...If I can emulate that then i will really be in a happy place...the year before i did run the same roads and did them aa whole lot better than this year. I'm pretty sure i know why but i digress...

[jetmechmarty]

In the case of this accident, the poor fellow was probably lucky he ran into the car, considering the fact that the driver was unhurt and our biker friend suffered at worst, a broken wrist. Please don't think I'm condoning his action. He was just lucky. Not so lucky was the fellow who ran off the road after hitting the slick spot left behind.

[trbig]

I can't really say a thing. I've got a few miles under my belt and I've got three crashes due to target fixation. I KNOW exactly what to do, but when you are heading for something you know you won't be able to stop in time for.. that's where your attention goes. I know I have that problem and I've told myself a thousand times I'm an idiot, I'm going to look where I'm needing to go, and I'll do better next time. I started saying that after the first wreck.. I've made many turns way too fast and manuevered them successfully by doing the right things, but those few times I didn't, bit me in the butt. How can I make 10,000 high-speed curves, riding right on the edge just fine, and then crash in rediculous instances where I should have been able to make the turns? Probably this guy's exact same story that he's asking himself.

I've pulled out of some situations that I know I'd never have done if I didn't have as much riding experience. Some of them were just dumb luck.. but target fixation is a deadly thing and I've been pretty lucky, I feel, to escape with just bumps and bruises. Of course, I know better and it will never happen again...

Exactly why I've quit riding so aggressive.

[TopCatGr58]

I wasn't going to comment, but after reading the others I felt, what the heck.
It does look like he tried leaning, went too far, dragged, which set him back up. I'll need to re-review them to check the brake lights. But he may also not have been as well skilled in countersteering technique as well as braking?

I was having a little fun on the Dragon, but have SOLID 1/4" thick angle iron brackets for my forward controls bolted solidly to my frame, and on one tight left hander I leaned over a bit far and hit/dragged the bracket, but was able to get it back up enough to stop dragging at the same time hitting the brakes enough to be able to go back into the turn at a lesser angle and make the turn just fine. I know that if I had leaned too far the bracket could have lifted my front wheel and I could have slid right into the mountain side.
(I'll be removing them this year, rarely use them since I mostly trailer, that will increase my leaning ground clearance a bit).

We can't tell how fast he was going, but it didn't appear too terribly fast, but faster than his ability.

T.C.

[trbig]

What the crap TC!?!? I can't believe you said that! What is WRONG with you!?

Seriously.. chime in whenever. It's all good!

[DeanR]

Yep, target fixation can be a tough one Todd.

That stupid road won't ever see me. Skipped it when I was down that way a few years ago with no regrets, and had a great time on better roads without stupid and/or unskilled people coming at me.

[jetmechmarty]

That stupid road won't ever see me. Skipped it when I was down that way a few years ago with no regrets, and had a great time on better roads without stupid and/or unskilled people coming at me.

Come to XS Southeast. We'll get you on that stupid road!

We had a bunch of people and no incidents this year. I don't think anybody dropped a bike over the weekend. In the Gap there were probably a half dozen or more photographers on the roadside. In my case, I have a passenger who can ham it up for the camera while I drive the bike.

http://killboy.photoreflect.com/stor...&po=349&pc=912

[MPittma100]

The Dragon Won

A couple things come to mind about these crashes. First is a question: Shouldn't someone be responsible for having cleaned up this oil mess from the first crash? I mean, lets face it, the second wreck was caused by it. Surely the state of Tennessee has heard of "oil dry". It should definitely be a requirement on any wreck on The Dragon.

Secondly, where does one obtain training for handling a motorcycle in turns. I don't think that the m/c safety courses teach it. Is there other training such as tutorials or actual hands-on? It would be nice to have training prior to learning via "seat of the pants" especially for new riders.

MP

[MPittma100]

Crash Video

Here is the crash in video form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2R4D1vBOM8

MP

[natemoen]

A couple things come to mind about these crashes. First is a question: Shouldn't someone be responsible for having cleaned up this oil mess from the first crash? I mean, lets face it, the second wreck was caused by it. Surely the state of Tennessee has heard of "oil dry". It should definitely be a requirement on any wreck on The Dragon.

Cleanup is almost always the responsibility of either the wrecker crew (most of the time) or the fire department (sometimes). You can only spend so much time on scene and things like oil dry are not an instant fix, and often the absorbent material is left in place to do its work. Would they leave it on the road in a corner on the dragon? I don't know

[jetmechmarty]

Cleanup is almost always the responsibility of either the wrecker crew (most of the time) or the fire department (sometimes). You can only spend so much time on scene and things like oil dry are not an instant fix, and often the absorbent material is left in place to do its work. Would they leave it on the road in a corner on the dragon? I don't know

The eyewitness report said they used dirt from the shoulder of the road.

[natemoen]

The eyewitness report said they used dirt from the shoulder of the road.

That works too if you use enough.