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[Grizzly]

Watch the video and see if you agree.

This guy could use some stirrups to keep his feet where they belong!



http://hellforleathermagazine.com/2012/10/the-luckiest-harley-rider-ever/

[LovemyCVOgirl]

I don't know why his leg isn't broken 

[murphy]

Must not have been his bike... he walks away like he wasn't even involved!

Maybe he was riding that way cause he actually did steal it!

[muddypaws]

That had to hurt.

[Eagle Eye]

Dude's too cool to care...   Bet he was sore the next day, especially that left leg.  It got torqued pretty hard. 

[ultrarider123]

Watched it a couple time and while it isn't staged, the way the dude reacted, it was almost like he planned it.  Can't believe he slid the bike, it went tumblin', landed on his feet and was walking away as the bike was still a'going....pretty bike, too.  Whew.....

[Ironhorse]

Poor entry position.
Rolled off the throttle, you can hear the engine speed drop.
That caused loss of lean angle and he went wide.
The primary scraped and levered the bike off the ground.
His left foot caught under the saddlebag and frame.

But I may be wrong.


Next time he may think twice about lowering the bike. He may also want to consider engine and saddlebag guards.

[Wild Card]

That bike didn't appear that aggressively low to me.  I mean, no lower than our CVO's or what others do with an inch or so.  Also, he appeared to be going about 20 MPH.  That was a fairly smooth escape, I'd say. 

[Ironhorse]

WildCard,

You're right, he wasn't going that fast. I'm glad you brought that up because it shows that sometimes speed is not the issue. I watched the video a couple of times, and while I didn't study it in depth (the internet speed on base is is so friggin' s-l-o-w), here's what I saw.

He may have been entering the turn hotter than he felt he should have been. I use the word felt, because it's all relative to what the rider perceives. Two important factors come into play here. He positioned his bike to travel along the inside of the curve along side the yellow line, you can see that. He also rolled off the throttle, you can hear that. When he rolled off the throttle, he loaded up the suspension, meaning the bike squatted down. This happened as the forks and shocks compressed because they were no longer being elongated by steady or increased throttle. Riding on the inside of the turn along the yellow line, he had nowhere to travel but outside. With the suspension loaded up, the inside started to drop and he started to drift outside. He tried to compensate for that by leaning in. All that did was lower the bike more and the the primary started dragging. As he continued to drift outside the bike levered up on the primary and slid out.

A few things may have made a difference. It might have been better for him to brake and get his speed set before entering the turn. He would have done better to have taken an outside - inside -outside path of travel with a later apex. This would have given him more room on the exit. He also may have benefited from steady or increased throttle right after braking and continuing all the way through the turn. Not hammering the throttle, but steady or increased. This would have unloaded the suspension, stretched the shocks making the bike taller, and thus being able to lean over more due to increased ground clearance.

Those StreetGlides are pretty low. I had StreetGlide shocks on my Ultra and used to drag it all the time in turns. I finally switched back to stock height shocks.

But I could be wrong about all that.

[DJ56]

Looks to me like he took his foot off the boards when they started scraping and his foot hit the road and got sucked under the left saddlebag, yanking him off the bike.

[B.A.]

Good news. The headlight stayed on 'til the bitter end.  AFTER sparks flew out of it! 

[RayG]

Why didn't he react when his left foot was floating off the floor board.  I guess that's one of the things that can go wrong when you lower your bike to look cool while sacrificing the already poor cornering & clearance available.  Somehow it doesn't appear any lessons were learned from the people on the video.  I would think most of us would have ridden right through that corner without incident. 

[Robmay]

I think your pretty spot on Ironhorse. I thought he went in to low (inside) as well after backing off the throttle. My only change would be to take an Outside-Outside-Inside track.

[Ironhorse]

Looks to me like he took his foot off the boards when they started scraping and his foot hit the road and got sucked under the left saddlebag, yanking him off the bike.

Excellent observation. This is why I always preach feet up on the boards or pegs at all times. You don't see racers on the track dragging their feet in the turns. It was almost as if he tried to drop the inside foot like a dirt flat tracker. If he had had rear saddlebag guards, he probably would have broken his leg and ankle under those hard parts. From what I saw it looked like his foot caught under the front of the bag is what caused the saddlebag to come off the side of the bike.

One other thing not discussed. I know that turn, it's on Mulholland Hwy between The Rock Store and Kanan. That stretch of land has a slight negative camber to it which probably contributed to more loss of lean angle. Folks with cameras set there in lawn chairs all the time to catch the wrecks.

[catsnhogs]

I will give him a 9.2 on the landing.  The way he got back on his feet instantly and walked away was alright.  Could have been much worse.  Thank the Lord.