Hi, I'm a new rider (2006 Suzuki Boulevard S-40, acquired last April) and loving it.

Over the years I've heard a lot of (mostly idle) talk about 'laying the bike down' in order to ameliorate a crash.  Now I haven't ever laid it down, even to perform maintenance, but even the thought of doing this is repulsive.

My thoughts have been that should you find a crash unavoidable that the best thing you can do is to scrub speed, and doing that is most effective with rubber (the tires) in contact with pavement, rather than metal (the bike) and flesh (you & me).  And that even in hard braking you exert some sort of control over your trajectory.

I just wonder if any of you are better informed about that than I, and what your thoughts have been.  And this, of course, assumes we're not talking about a loss of control situation (like a skid or a fall).

rubber side down...

sluggo wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:09:

Aww, now that's just mean.  

Thanks everyone.  I didn't think of the two scenarios that you mentioned where lying it down would be OK, and I do plan to try the maneuver that Sluggo suggested. 8)

The only time I had to "lay the bike down" was at low speed when I was following the car ahead of me too close. It happened at a 4 way stop when a f*ckn cage driver ran his stop sign when the car in front of me had the right of way. The car in front had to slam on thier brakes to prevent a collision. I was too close and grabbed too much front brake while turning to advoid the car and went down. Happened so fast that I didn't have any chance to think about it, just a quick lowside at about 5mph. Got bruised and bent up the handle bars mounts. Laying the bike down at speed is a Hollywood fable, can't see how you would drop a bike when you can ride around the obstruction. Unless you have some really good gear keeping it upright is the way to go. I learned that the best way to prevent from lay the bike down is to watch out for all the other stupid cage drivers (that's all of them) and don't tailgate.

my lay down came at 75 mph on a 500cc Arial red hunter,I was racing my buddy back to town after watching a local road race at Fairwood in South wales,I was way ahead of him on his Triumph,it had been raining all day,I was laying over pretty low on a left turn,
right about half way through the turn when right there in my line was a manhole cover,slick as a whistle,we went down together I landed on my back and shoulders
the bike took off on it's own and went a good 80 feet,it hit the embankment and started to cross the street again,I just got flashes of the bike doing it's thing,while I was bouncing around,I was even on my feet for a second or two before momentem took hold again,I was sitting at the side of the road when my buddy pulled up,
he asked if I wanted a lift (funny guy) in those days I rarely rode with a helmet on,but this day I had one on,it was ground flat at the back,could of been my head.
as for laying down or what ever,in the fraction of a second it took to happen I did remember what my Dad always said ,LET  IT  GO,
My buddy and I straightened out the handle bars ,and I managed to get it home,I hid it so my Mom woulden't see it (her first husband was killed on a bike on Christmas eve)  I fixed the bike up at work my Mom never knew,but my Dad sure did,he was not a happy camper ,it was his bike  

Quote:


No prob Sluggo! Happy to oblige! Enjoy!

Was my 1st drop (not a lay-down) ... beautiful spring evening in May '04 ... daughters were having parent night at their Jr. High School ... despite being dog-tired after a gruelling day at work, I decided to take the m/c while wife and the ladies followed behind in the car. Had to go gas-up before setting out and since the station is only 1km from the house, I dodged down, gassed up and Rode home to wait for the females. Pulled up to the curb in front of the house and had a brain-fart ... next thing you know I could feel the weight of the Bike going over (dohh, forgot the side stand!!), well I have a couple of bum discs in my lower back, so there was no way I could prevent it from goin' but instintively tried to stop the drop ... my back protested and promptly went out ... and in an instant I was on the pavement with the Savage on top of me. At this point the pain was so intense that things became a little fuzzy and the next thing I knew my neighbour was pulling me off the asphalt ... I looked over and saw the Savage upright and leaning on her kickstand ... confused I asked my pal how the hell the Bike got there ... it was just on top of me? He laughed and said that he saw the whole thing happen from his front yard and as he was running over to help, Maxx (my darling 5ft tall wife) had raced out of the house and single-handedly lifted the Bike off of me and expertly placed it on it's stand (this is a gal who hates Bikes   ).
Needless to say, I was astonished ... and my back was buggered for a week afterward ... I get ribbed/reminded about this incident on a regular basis!

Paladin. wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:09:


Your a better man than me.  Dirt riding I drop at least almost every time out.  Of course, it's usually trying to climb hills and not making it and that's how you "get off".

The only drop on street I did was when I went for a short test ride on my street after doing some wrenching.  Got some lubricant of some kind  on the front tire.  Heck of a lot of fun when I was turning around at the end of the block.  I turned left and the front tire went right.