Metal slides much further on pavement than rubber does. Use your brakes. When you are doing the speed limit, you should always have time to apply the brakes and stop...mainly because you have time to look ahead and assess the dangers before you arrive at the scene of a crash/accident. JMHO.
I've been riding since I was 11 or 12 years old. I'm now 62. I've raced dirt bikes and had crashes, I've been off the road on a streetbike twice..of my own volition in avoiding a jack-butt. I've never crashed my streetbikes.
Hope I never just jinxed myself.

 

You calling a controlled lay down "bullshit" tells me volumes about how long you've been riding motorcycles. I guess you've never owned a 1960s or early '70's motorcycle with shitty drum brakes, have you? Laying the bike down back then was a very viable option.

I'll agree with you that with the advent of today's disc brakes, ABS, outstanding tires, and better suspension, it's almost always better keep the bike upright and swerve, brake, or otherwise avoid laying the bike on its side. But as Twizted alluded to, we don't always get to pick what the circumstances will be when we face a situation where some sort of a crash is imminent.

If keeping your body low in an imminent crash situation will keep you from having your head decapitated, then laying the bike down isn't such a bad option.

Deciding in a second or two whether it is better to max brake and keep the bike upright, when you're about to T-Bone a blue hair in a Cadillac, or lay it down is a tough choice. Do you prefer a Superman over the top of the car (or into the car), or do you take your chances in a slide? I hope I never have to make that choice.

 

Actually around here passing on the right is against the law.

 

I'm still calling BS on "laying it down". You guys must still be living in the '60's? And yes I grew up with shi**y drum brakes on bikes. Which, by the way, would still stop you faster upright than laying on your side. But, now I have high quality triple disc brakes. I guess it comes down to the difference in rider education? Some of you guys were trained by "bikers" who think they are the end all and be all of the motorcycle world. You know, the ones that taught "Don't grab the front brake , it will make you crash" types. And, some of us were educated by real riders who knew what they were talking about.
And yes I prefer to be superman over the top of a Caddy with a FF helmet and body armor instead of being stuck underneath it like the poor kid that was saved by bystanders lifting the car off of him last week in Utah.
So, you old school farts just keep "laying her down" if that's what blows your skirt up. Me, I'll stick with staying upright until the very end.
And to Twisted, I do have a clue as to what I am "spouting off" about, BOY!

 

really ? you're using a stuntman in a movie as an example of how to ride ? did he get the girl at the end too ?

 

Your digging your own hole deeper , you have no idea what training anyone else has be it by older riders or by professionals including the guys who get paid the big bucks to make those wrecks look so real in the movies . You keep right on believing what you want I'll continue riding the way I have the last 600,000 plus miles it's worked fine for me .

That last part hope that thought is running through your head when you slap off the front fender of a car and do an ender into the grill of an oncoming one at 40mph . That's when the slide gets real attractive .

 

Passion aside, There may be some situations where a slide is the only choice but it stands to reason that with ABS and better brakes, you have a chance to maintain more control, to stomp, steer and evade and miss a collision than laying it down and ensuring a collision. But if my only chance to come out breathing is to lay it down, down she goes. without a second thought. But if I have an option, I'm going to try to miss it.

Biotch came out of a parking lot and hit me and caused me to hit a cage head on and did the superman thing but had I laid it down and slid under the cage, i think I would have been hurt worse. The funny thing is that wehn Ihit the cage head on, I actually jumped off the floorbaords and tried to jump the car. lady in the car said she knew now that fat could fly, it just didn't land so well.

 

Known 4 guys who rode it out till bang , 2 left their family jewels on the bike as they flew over the car , one they had to dig the gages outa what was left of his intestines and the last was a quadriplegic for years till he talked someone into ending it for him . I've slide & walked away from a couple , you do what the situation calls for for and you don't always have the time to think it out you just react .

 

That's more or less the point some of us are trying to make. I never laid claim to laying it down as the only course of action. You better f'ing believe that if I can brake and steer around a problem I will. Some of the A$$ hats here seem to believe we would lay a bike down for any situation. Just goes to show their lack of real world riding experience.

 

It's an option not the rule and the last resort no other choice at that , that is real world experience .

I'll add one bit here the times I've slide a bike I was able to ride it home , not so with upright impacts that does play into the equation for me sometimes , Yes stuff does get scratched up and bit bent but nowhere near what straight on impact does . Maybe the fact I've always had older iron and not the over insured new beasts that seem to the rage today is what has shaped my habits , I look out for both of us the bike and my *** .