You know, I've heard the argument a lot, "I laid it down to avoid an accident" and most of the publications I've read including one that I just finished written for LEO motors is that what that means is, "I paniced and laid it down because I lost control". What the author of the book refers to this as is "I had one collision to avoid another collision."

I haven't been in that situation and will never second guess someone who has.

Don't think I can answer this question accurately, has the car already pulled out and am I looking at a rear impact or a side impact. I'm going to want to scrub as much speed as I can and I can do that more effectively on rubber than metal. What is my current speed, can I scrub enough speed off to make a right where the car is pulling out from? Can I split the lane betweenoncoming traffic and the car that pulled out in front of me?Too many variables to give an accurate description of my response.

 

What he said.

Conventional wisdom is to stay with the bike while slowing if possible. It will take the impact better than you.

 

The lay it down ruleapplies to those old Hawgs of yore, that had really lousy brakes.

I'd ride it out and if the inevitable comes, I jump over the bars... crash jumping, it's an old technique, but it works, unless your bars are REALLY high.. hahahahahaha

 

It is not about slowing, it is about manuevering. You can out manuvere before you can slow to a stop to avoid collision. People "lay it down" cause they try so hard to stop. When they could turn out of the direction of travel and been free and clear. But your not turning when your braking.

 

Yeah I never understood that whole thing... To me tires and brakes seem a much better way to slow down the bike as much as possible than your rear end and chrome sliding across the pavement.. I just don't put that much confidence in the coefficient of friction in my backside.

 

Zombie is absolutely correctabout scrubbing off speed with rubber.

After hearing many stories and observing the real event that the story grew out of, laying a bike down is something that usually happens out of poor operator riding ability. The first reaction to a situation is to hit the rear brake, especially for the beginners or a lot of those who haven't really taken any kind of rider training course. The rear brake when applied and locked up will cause control of the bike to be sorta like riding with a castered wheel on the back. The rear brake locks up easier because it's only bearing about 30% of the weight of the bike in most cases. When ya get it sideways, your balance is gone and either down or over ya go.

Dealing with an armed robber and emergency stopping is something most people don't do except in a real situation and even then, we don't do things like we should. Emergency stopsaren't something that we practice to often because of the noise that screaming brakes make as well as the potential of having someone who isn't paying attention, run us over.

Somewhere, in my early riding years, the story was that ya shouldn't use your front brake to hard or you will dump the bike. That couldn't be further from the truth. The front brake is providing about 70% of the braking power. Sorta like saying, ya shouldn't use to much power in accelerating or you will flip the bike. With practiced control of both, you can be a skilled driver and stay out of trouble.

Sometimes, ya just can't avoid the unexpected. I have had my share of accidents, even when applying avoidance techniques, however, there have been quite a few instances where I was able to easily steer around a problem and not give it a second thought, where a novice rider would be reviewing the pictures of his road rash and wrecked bike.

 

Ride it out.
You might make it out just fine, but if you lay it down, there is no chance of no damage.

 

Amen!

Every time I hear someone say something like, "I'm such a good rider that I had to "layer down" to avoid an accident!" I have to laugh.

What really happened was that they panicked, lockedthebrake on the front wheel, andthe bikeslid out from under them in alow-side fall.

I have asked these "skilled" riders if they really believe that the bike will stop quickersliding down the road on its side or by being upright andusing the brakes --- and have yet to get a good answer.

Another question I enjoy asking them is, "Exactly, whattechnique do you use to lay down your bike?" And again - I've yet to get a good answer. The best one yet was, "I don't know how I did it, but I did!"Ican believe that! They have no idea what a low-side fall is, nor what causes a high-side fall.

These are also the folks that never use their front brake because it "will flip you over the handlebars!"(meaningthey never used the front brake until they panicked), and the same folks that are far too skilled tolearn anything from a basic riding class.

JMHO

 

brake downshift and maneuver right even if there is a ditch that is not too steep.