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Post Dates
Myth Exposed: “Avoid Using the Front Brakes Because it Will Throw You Over the Handlebars”
In reality, the front brake is responsible for 60 to 70 percent of the bike's stopping power and should be used. In emergency braking situations, the effective center of mass of the bike shifts forward toward the front wheel and tire, which creates a higher adhesion value to the front tire that tends to prevent the front wheel from locking unless the brake torque is extremely high. Another consequence is that the traction force in the rear wheel and tire is reduced, allowing the rear wheel to lock up and slide. With braking action on the front wheel, the rear wheel, even if locked, will not move from side to side and the bike will continue straight.
Myths Exposed: “Accelerate Around a Turn to Regain Control”
The safest way to approach a turn on a curve is to slow down before entering it. Acceleration should be undertaken only near the end of the curve. Rapidly applying the throttle in the turn, when the bike is in a lean could result in the rear tire breaking traction and the bike going into a slide. The same effect may occur with substantial rear-brake application.
Myths Exposed: “Lay it Down”
Instead of performing an evasive maneuver, the inexperienced rider will often lay the bike over onto its side as a last ditch effort. A sliding motorcycle has less stopping ability than properly braked tires.
Myths Exposed: “Speed up when bike Weaves or Wobbles”
In actuality the rider should gently ease off the throttle, place his upper body on the gas tank to effectively change the center of gravity and graduall slow down. Initially accelerating may slow the wobble or weave until the next oscillation occurs, but then the result will be a much more pronounced instability. Hard braking will alter the suspension characteristics and may likewise cause a crash.
Attitude
"The mindset you develop will shape your thoughts and guide your opinions. Developing the right attitude is both fundamental and crucial for safe riding."Stopping Distance Rule
Never ride so fast that you cannot stop comfortably on your own side of the road within the distance you can see to be clear.-
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6 responses so far ↓
Canajun // 11/18/2009 at 10:44 pm
Wow. My first reaction was “How dumb was that?” To park himself like that in the middle of a high-speed lane, with no ability to get out of the way quickly (i.e still astride his bike) seems to me to be asking for trouble. He gave himself no means of escape.
I assume the intent was to get traffic to move over a lane for the ambulance, an objective much more safely met by him parking the bike and stepping to the edge of the lane, and from there directing the traffic to move over.
AGreed // 11/19/2009 at 11:23 am
Right On Canajun.
That , or even point the bike back towards the direction he came, 1st gear clutch held in.. he could have zipped off into the grass to avoid
kathy // 11/19/2009 at 8:33 pm
Pertinent to both police and trainers.
First thing I saw was that he pulled into the lane right in front of a big truck – traffic behind the truck would not see what was going on – just that the truck suddenly changed lanes. I was also curious as to why the lead bike seemed to be so much ahead of the emergency vehicle? And there were two more escort bikes. It seems that the three bikes together could have cleared the lane for the emergency vehicle to merge safely.
I was thinking the same as Canjun – why not park the bike in the yellow area and direct from the side of the road where it’s safer?
I’ve been on group rides where the sweeps block traffic like this (albeit on side roads, not highways) for the group to stay together and I always worried about the kind of situation in this video.
Jay Green // 12/16/2009 at 10:23 pm
Just goes to prove that us mere civilians on bikes should not be blocking. It is illegal and dangerous. I feel bad for the officer who was doing his job.
Hawktane // 12/28/2009 at 8:28 pm
Oh wow, that was terrible. I would imagine getting off the bike would’ve been a better idea and maybe even using traffic flags or something other than just waving his hands. Poor guy.. I hope he’s okay but that was some hit he took.
Gary France // 01/12/2010 at 5:21 pm
“What was he thinking?” comes to mind.
I have often seen police motorcycle out-riders in London riding ahead and then stopping traffic at a junction by blocking vehicles with their bikes to allow a police convoy to pass unobstructed. However, they generally do this in slow moving traffic and never in high speed traffic.
Two things strike me as being very unusual about this video clip. First, I have never seen out-riders escorting an ambulance. This is normally not need as the ambulance has flashing lights and sirens and people generally let it pass ahead of them.
Secondly, why was the out-rider even attempting to stop vehicles on such a road? Almost every time you join a high speed road like this you filter into the traffic on the main road without even having to slow down – sure you might speed up of slow down a fraction to get into a gap, but this doesn’t need an out-rider to help you do this.
In my opinion, the accident was caused by a lack of training – the rider simply did not need to attempt to stop the traffic because it wasn’t necessary. He shouldn’t have tried to do what he attempted.
Hope he is ok though – that was quite a hit.