First time losing traction leaned over - what's the best thing to do?

[56Pan]

  My most memorable almost was a left hander on board a G80 CS Matchless.  One of the best handling bikes I have ever owned.
 A surprise patch of sandy gravel put the bike into a left hand broad slide.  In those days I competed on TT tracks occasionally so the feeling was not fearful.  As it went into a low side I withdrew my left leg, the boot was already down and sliding flat track style.
 The machine went all the way down until the front tire was not touching ground and the tip of the left handlebar was.  This turned the front wheel enough that the tire contacted pavement and momentarily got traction.  The bike snapped upright and drifted a couple more yards then continued on through the curve.  It was in third gear and a bit of throttle gained control as I powered on out of the corner.  As I straightened up I looked behind me and saw a hitch hiker on the side of the road gawking wide eyed.  I rode on as if I always cornered that way.
 It was not great skill on my part so much as it was excellent steering geometry and handling of that frame.  I believe it used the same frame as a Norton 500 single.  The Matchless 500 single while maybe not as fast as a Norton, did have a broad and powerful torque band that complemented that frame.

You're quite the wordsmith, Jim.  Had me there with you with that description.  Just giving credit where it's due.  Thanks for sharing.

[guzzimike]

Weight on the pegs does Nothing  to lower your CG while riding a motorcycle.

It does give the rider some apparent leverage, but it's nothing compared in scale to what proper countersteering does for you.

Watch Road racers...do you see any of them gaining more purchase by standing on their pegs..?

Of course Not.

The reason dirt Bike riders stand on pegs is that Thigh and Hamstring muscles act as superb "Additional" shock absorbers. That's all.


What you should do on the street in a slide is what worked for the OP, albeit it seems as if it was mostly a subconscious action. And there is nothing wrong with that!

Remember that the bike wants to remain upright due to gyroscopic effect of the spinning wheels.

Worrking against this gyroscope effect is applied countersteering which destabilizes  the momentum, allowing for precise, smooth turning inputs -  and on the Negative Side; there's also the road surface debris, which eliminates tire stiction by acting as ball bearings.

 Worse of all is Antifreeze in a curve; because Antifreeze often can be invisible and is usually slippier than a greased up Pig during a County Fair.

Best thing you can do in an incipient slide is FIRST - try to hold back Panic, and - SECOND: stay the course...The bike will usually right itself.

If it doesn't, then basically you're fukked; but at least now you know that there really was not much that you could do about it in the first place.


Next time, scan farther out to spot derbris with plenty of warning. Also set up your lines with more wiggle room on either side of your intended path. This is aspecial emergency line for escape purposes only. If you ride this expanded line as a daily matter of fact, you will be turning up some sloppy lines; and sloppy lines are not only ugly, but they can be dangerous in a complacent, careless manner because now you'd have little to no margin for error.

Basically you would be trading laziness for safety. You don't want to do that.

And remember that if you have to "go wide" for a second in order to clear an oncoming  patch of road debris, you can always LEAN farther IN, once clear of the Debris;  to recover your initial line of travel....Ditto if the opposite applies; where you have to tighten up your line in order to clear the ugly patch..

Last -  if you think you're  Leaned too far over, and the flutterbyes  seem to creep up suddenly from your scrotum up towards your stomach, and you can taste bile in the back of your throat....Well - DO remember that you can slide your "Inside" butt-cheek on the seat a bit farther into the turn... This will allow your bike's lean angle to regain SMOOTHLY some more vertical without diminishing your tire's Contact Patch on the tarmac as severely..

I stress SMOOTHLY, because you want smooth inputs here.

Anything severe and sudden will serve to destabilize your bike's angle attitude, which will then usually lead to a panicky over-correction, which will likely induce a  progressively worse re-overcorrectional attitude which often can result in a tank slapper, which is absolutely Never a good thing...



So; back to the Butt slide -  yes, in this particular case we do apply pressure to the pegs.. using our leg muscles minutely to shift our butt-cheeks, and hence our weight a little bit further into the turn. 

But WE DO NOT get off the seat...    We just unload our weight from the saddle Just Enough to allow for a slide side-to-side as needed.. Also, You can stop the slide when you can feel the seat's side-seam kissing your nutsack.   You may or may not want to consider dropping the inside knee at this point.

Personally I rarely find the need to do so; but then I seldom go triple the posted speed on a twisty mountain road, either.

Twice the posted is just fine for me nowadays, thank you very much. My 59 year old eyes ain't what they used to be.


Hope this helped.


Have a good one...I'm off to retrofit and adjust a LASER sight on my new Sig (9mm ) - Losing vision is not just a PITA when it comes to motorcycles. It's an affliction that affects all our hobbies, I fear..

C'est La Vie..!



Added: Sig with Sig Tac Laser installed:



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[Nic in Western NYS]

Well then, since you are still among us, you don't need the wisdom, you've earned some privilege to pass some out wouldn't you say?

 

OK. 
1. I hadn't ridden for a while because of an illness, I knew the weather was much cooler than when I rode last so I checked tire pressure and inflated to spec.
2 I knew the roads were potentially unpredictable due to gravel and dust from a lot of farming activity so I rode slow. 
3. I looked for alternate lines in curves, going outside wide instead of inside because of fear of getting hit by a wide turning vehicle coming around the curve
4. My gearing and torque let me stay almost exclusively in 2nd gear, which maximized smoothness through curves
5. Since I had prepared myself that the roads might hold surprises, when I lost traction I didn't panic
6. My thinking response to the adrenaline surge was "don't further destabilize the bike, gentle inputs, get ready for traction to come back, feather the clutch to smoothly reduce drivetrain input, no brake, no abrupt rider movements "
7. Traction came back quickly enough to exit the curve ok.  That's where I just got lucky.  If traction hadn't come back, I likely would have lowsided.

[Aaron D.]

Well, if it is slippery enough and lasts long enough, you are going to lowside. Unless you knew it was there.

[Rough Edge racing]

 I don't know, a few times riding fast into a back road curve and the bike slide out some on loose stone or debris and I don't recall what I did if anything because it happened so fast.It's not like a long planned slide where there's time to counter steer and play with the throttle. One time riding double the bike slid and leaned over far enough to knock my foot off the peg...The bikes never went down...Maybe I did do the right thing which was to do nothing...?