Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I recently was talking with two of my motorbike friends and the subject of motorbike crashes came up and one friend tells me he has always heard if a rider crashes, he should try to stay with the bike while crashing
My other friend says he was told to get off the bike and try to push it away from you ASAP! Duh!?..... Who is correct ? Seems like when you're going down you would have time to do either, especially when it's unexpected. Can any body give me their input because I've haven't crashed yet. Thanks

If you crash, you really really really have very little control as to where you are (or end up) in relation to your motorcycle. All the advice in the world isn't worth a nickel in a crash situation, EXCEPT wear your gear.

If you lowside, you will follow the bike. If you highside, you will lead the bike (get tossed off). If you get HIT by a car, etc. you'll go flying.

You can't fight the laws of physics.

P

Depends entirely on the situation. I think there was a thread on this somewhere on this board at one time, but I might be mistaken.

Basically, stick with the bike until your control over the wether the impact happens at all OR impact speed are reduced to practically nothing. You've got more control over what happens the longer you stay on the bike.

That being said, if you low-side in a corner and the corner has a curb... get away from the bike. If those tires hit the curb while sliding out from under you, chances are you'll change from a low-side to a high-side, and that could be nasty.

There's a post somewhere around here on this topic. In a nutshell, there are too many pertinent circumstances that can differ from crash to crash. It would be really hard in the moment to determine which way to crash. In some crashes, you're likely to black out just long enough to wake up on the side of the road, with it all being done and over.

My suggestion is to avoid crashes as best as possible. Then if a crash is eminent, do your best with whatever the situation entails (but you just might not be able to do anything). Some folks on the forums have suggested uttering some sort of colorful language - maybe that will help as well.

NO CRASHING!!

Cheers,
Loonette

It is highly unlikely that you'll be able to hang on to the bike in an accident. They're called accidents for a reason - they happen unexpectedly and you usually have no control over the circumstances or outcome. If you've ever watched motorcycle racing you'll see what I mean... when they wipe out it takes them by surprise, they'll slide for at least a couple hundred metres before trying to direct their body out of harm's way - and even then they don't have much control.

And you'll never see them try to hang on to the bike and ride it out. A bike weighs a lot more than a body does and it will take longer to slide to a stop than you will - if you insist on hanging on you're going to prolong the event and increase the chances of injury, especially if you end up in front of it. The last thing anyone needs is to be used as a cushion for their bike's bodywork. And if by some miracle of physics you do manage to grab onto the bike after it high/low sides, chances are your hands will come in contact with hot exhaust or engine parts, not to mention spinning wheels and chains. You'll need your hands undamaged in order to smack around the cager that caused the accident, right?

I've been involved in both high-sides and low-sides and I've yet to be able to hold onto a bike in a wreck. In each incident, after everything stopped and all the dust cleared, the first thing I noticed was that I had to get up and walk over to the bike. Those steps toward the bike are always in agony because you're worried about the extent of the damages to it. Never mind the physical pain you might be suffering... the adrenalin usually masks that, for the time being at least. You just need to find out how the bike is. That's been my experience, anyway.
Nevertheless, being a foolish optimist, I think I'll always try to regain control as long as there's a chance I might save it, but there comes a point in every crash where there is absolutely nothing you can do.
Thank God, my last "OH, #%^&" was a long time ago and I've never been involved in a bike accident with another vehicle. That's really scary to think about.

Ride safe out there, and wear all your gear. You never know...

Even though I'm a new bike owner, I do practice safety issues seriously and read all that I can absorb and have gotten a lot of info right here, such as all of your replies. My riding gear consists of a Fieldsheer textile jacket w/armor padding on the shoulders,elbows,forearms and a back protector. My boots are Alpine Stars which protect the ankles and my helmet is a Scorpion EXO-400.

All aside I want to thank all that replied and to all who helped answer my question. Is this a great bunch or what.

Wear your gear is the best advice, you can slide about 10 feet in bluejeans before you start to wear off your skin, with decent leather you can slide 100 feet before you wear off your skin!
Add some body armour and a good helmet and footwear and your chances of coming out of an accident in one piece really improve.

I'm not entirely sure if the question is "should I stay with the bike until a crash then get away" or "should I dump the bike if I think I cannot avoid an accident."
Or else you're asking about after the accident.

In the first case, if you can stay on the bike and brake every second of braking is a LOT of speed lost, more then you could "bleed off" (get the pun?) by dumping and using the friction of you + the asphault to stop you.

If you're already down, get AWAY from the bike. That's 400+ lbs of steel with a lot of momentum behind it. More then enough to do some serious damage to any body part that it comes into contact with.