Anatomy of the accident....

[Warlord]

What do you think of this?

He says:-

Over last few months I have re-edited this video many times. As much as I love motorcycles, riding and all that goes with it, seeing the video in fine detail over and over again would make me very uncomfortable. It's very expensive lesson I have paid - I hope many of you can benefit from my experience.

Some tips... If you can, on longer trips ride in the group.

Your phone - never keep in top box or tank bag, keep in next to you.

Full kit - I had BMW gravel boots, they have for certain saved my leg from being amputated, ride with proper helmet - I hate to think what would have happened to my head if I had something cheap made in China.

I had gone through many different scenarios after watching the clips. However, I was off guard completely and it all happened in 3 seconds...

Please comment and share, I would really love to hear what you think.

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[dubster]

Got to 0.15 and my conclusion was 'wanker'

But looking at the incident itself quite worrying. Or is there something we're missing?

 

[Giles]

I feel sorry for the bloke, because 'putting an accident to bed', so dealing with it emotionally and psychologically is hugely influential to getting back on and not loosing your confidence.

And the worst accident to have (taking injuries out of the equation), is one where you don't know why. If you bin it on a bend and afterwards you can say, I was a twat .... I was going too quickly and I crashed because I did xxx then you tend not to loose your confidence, and you jump back on and get on with riding again.

But those 'bin it and I don't know why' crashes ...... they stay with you for years!

 

[dubster]

But those 'bin it and I don't know why' crashes ...... they stay with you for years!

Jeezus... never realised it was a common thing

Did it happen to you? (if you don't mind the question)

 

[Warlord]

First thing I did when I crashed off-road was analyse what happened. I knew it was what I did, and not the bike.

So now I need to fix that and change how and when I use that particular technique, so I don't crash. It was a hard lesson to learn, as I had two fractured ribs, punctured lung, muscle strain and severe internal bruising. Took me 3 weeks to be able to even think about riding again, now 6 weeks in and still only just starting to feel better enough to ride. Menace..

All that at only 17 mph impact speed !!

 

[malcopopolo]

I had a tank slapper while accelerating hard with a top box extended to max.

Absolutely shit myself. Did not brake just rolled off the throttle and it settled down.

Nasty accident and reading the comments slot of people think it was the tk70 tyres

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[Warlord]

Well I have a theory on this.

He's turning the handlebars into the turn, not counter-steering.

He's also not light on the bars, he's got a firm grip from the pictures.

So if he's got to the end of the tyre grip, and forced the steering inwards for more lean angle, it's lost grip and all hell broke loose.

Once he stood it up, why didn't he throw it back into the turn once it'd stabilized ?? He could have saved that.

In my opinion.

 

[Tractors are go]

Nope;

Too high a gear for speed, wrong position for the corner, looks like they hit a worn patch of the road and it kicked back.

As for the tankslapper, if he'd relaxed a bit more...

The lack of brakes is caused by the tankslapper knocking the pads back in the caliper, couple of quick squeezes they'd have been fine.

If your pegs ain't touching the deck you can lean it over further, but by now it is target fixation.

Like everything a culmination of lots of small things making it a big problem.

It is all to easy to be wise afterwards or to try and apportion blame, changes nothing.

You're alive. Move on.

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[Blackal]

Seemed to make an almost ‘evidentiary’ check on tankbag and topbox

When he crashed he was unconscious from this point on, yet blacked out briefly during that? Does he know what unconscious and blacked-out ......mean?

Does seem to be a strange handling issue mind...........

 

[theop]

Weird, looks out of the blue. Would think wheels/spokes/front suspension....?

 

[Giles]

Jeezus... never realised it was a common thing

Did it happen to you? (if you don't mind the question)

Thankfully Ive never had a big accident, but ive had a few (35 years of riding) and most have them have been on a track. (reasonable one at Padock Hill bend at Brands on a track bike). When they are tyre related, (tyre runs out of grip) that can play havoc with your confidence.
The only bigish road accident I have had was in Belgium, and I know exactly what I did (rode like a cock!) and put it to bed straight away.

 

[Giles]

So now I need to fix that and change how and when I use that particular technique, so I don't crash....

What technique ...... ????

 

[tanneman]

MirageGP crashed on one of his Lowveld rideouts in SA. This has been done before on these pages or in the pub. Do a search.

 

[Warlord]

What technique ...... ????

Har har.....

 

[Tractors are go]

What technique ...... ????

Trading the AT for a GS......

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[earthmover]

Agree with Giles, if you can work out what went wrong you try not to do that again. If you don't know why, you always worry about it.
Thankfully I can explain all my "offs"
Not sure what happened in the video though.
Mark

 

[Andi_archer]

Nope;

Too high a gear for speed, wrong position for the corner, looks like they hit a worn patch of the road and it kicked back.

I may be incorrect here but the lean angle as he approach the corner may have caused either the foot peg or boot to collide with the tarmac too as at 01:30 it can clearly be seen to kick out which he pushes back against into the corner.

 

[Morety]

Inexperienced rider...I don't care if has 15 years behind him...his line into the corner was awful, gear selection poor (55mph in 5th when possibly 4th would have given better drive out of the corner with a slower approach speed in), he was tensed up and as soon as that tank slapper started he was fixed on the point he eventually crashed. Panicked, hit the brakes to find nothing there and then chose his line to crash into. I'd like to say that wouldn't have happened to an experienced rider and for the most part, it wouldn't, but these things sometimes happen when we least expect it purely because we're not switched on enough at the time and he clearly wasn't.

Those tyres are more off road tyres...if he spent more than 20% of his time off road, fine but I'd put money on him having most trips on tarmac. Use road tyres would be my preference (or at least adventure tyres which are more road biased). Point nr 2, anticipate the corner and choose the correct line and gear well before the corner and not have to correct mid corner. His line of entry ought to have been out towards the central line not tucked into the left where any increase in speed would have pushed him wide anyway into that long bend and not given any chance to correct had he needed to (as he found out). He couldn't lose any more speed partly as he had no engine braking = too high a gear.

Last point is don't panic. He did.

I also think he's over analysed the whole thing massively, possibly due to the severity of his injuries and he discounted the one thing from early on which I think is his main mistake. He discounted rider error. A combination of being on the edge of chunky off road tyres at high lean angle and possibly hitting a bad patch in the road or grounding something massively contributed to that accident imho but the main problem was his own riding. Until he can see that, he's never going to regain his confidence and the chances of him having another accident are higher than if he learnt from it, improved his riding and moved on.

 

[Lord Snooty]

I see the UKGSer accident investigation team are fully on top of the situation Has Bear rocked up with the sarnies yet?

Whatever the reason for his crash, and his injuries are pretty nasty given it initially looked as if he was heading for a soft landing, I hope that he recovers both physically and mentally. I've come off on a left hander quicker than that and binned the bike into the opposite hedge and flew over the bars and landed on my back on the grass and didn't have a scratch or a bruise, got up and walked away - bike was written off. Sometimes your guardian angel is looking over you!

 

[Morety]

To be fair, we have the benefit of that video so it's not just a case of "idiot must have lost it on a corner". It's pretty clear why he came off, just not apparently how it was triggered. Whatever the cause, his line in was a massive contributing factor as was gear choice, lean angle, loss of braking and control. 9 times out of 10 he might have got away with it, this time he didn't. I'm sure we've all cocked up in the past and thought ourselves lucky to have got away with it too, and videos like this just reaffirm the importance of defensive riding (even for faster riders), choosing the right lines, appropriate speeds and trying not to put yourself in a position where risk of accident and injury is increased.

Agreed, those injuries were surprisingly severe given the relatively low "off" speed but anyone flung into the air landing on rocks is going to hurt themselves badly. I did much the same on a MTB in Spain 10 years ago, breaking ribs and other bits of myself. Hope the guy makes a full recovery including his mental scars healing.