What to do in the event of an off?

Here is what happens

1. Happy puttering along minding own business
2. Insert series of unfortunate events here
3. Hear the noise of above event and think "Fuuuuu.. that sounds expensive"
4. Completely ignore any advice you have been told about checking yourself over , to see how badly damaged your pride and joy is .
5. Throw gloves on the floor in temper after slipping over trying to pick the bike up and knocking more bits off it .
6. Abandon bike to one side of the road after arranging pickup for it
7. Fix it as cheaply as possible on eBay
8. Big the story right up in the pub for Hero points and make it more and more elaborate with each telling .

30 years of falling off has taught me to get away from the bike asap, and then give in to body weight. If you're rolling and tumbling then pull all arms and legs inwards and let yourself roll - don't try and stop it, you'll stop soon enough. if you're sliding then lift your arms and legs inwards and just slide. Sticky-out bits catch on things and get broken.

There's no way I'd spread-eagle if I was going down, no way at all.

[anna]

Originally Posted by missyorkie_chris

I would think there's really not much time to think AND act, has anyone actually thought "Oh crap I'm coming off, quick into the position! " Just doesn't seem realistic to me. The whole relaxation thing clearly makes sense but how easy is it to actually do that when in that situation? Or is it more, dare I say it, a practice thing?!

You would be surprised. When you have an accident things tend to move in slow motion.

I remember thinking when I was in the air seeing the floor "owch this is going to hurt" and then thinking when I saw the bike slide past me "but that is going to make me cry" I was right on both counts.

[Quiff Wichard]

Limp option for me every time...

Had an off at approx. 65mph on a motorway in June. I don't remember the part where I left the bike, but between going airborne and hitting the tarmac I remember thinking, "Crap, roll, roll, roll!"

After that I was sitting up on the central reservation, not a clue what happened. However, my helmet had lovely rings of scrapes around it, so clearly I followed up on my thoughts. Injury count for hitting the deck at that speed and bouncing off the central reservation twice was a broken wrist, a sprained ankle and some friction burning from my leathers where I hit the floor. I'm still convinced I did the right thing!

[anna]

Originally Posted by Quiff Wichard

Limp option for me every time...

phnar phnar

[Lissa]

I've had three offs in the past, and was lucky enough to walk away from all of them. They happened so quickly I didn't have time to realise I was going until I was on the deck, which is maybe what saved me from seriuos injury. I didn't have time to tense up.

The one at speed, I remember sliding along the road looking at the lights of an oncoming car, and the only though I had was '****, who's going to feed the cat?' Luckily, I lived to feed it.

Originally Posted by Jester666

Explain!!

Well, since you asked, I'll try not to derail too much (but since this is a "crash" thread anyway...).

Back in the days when I used to mess about in fields on semi-road legal bikes (highly illegal activity these days), a friend of mine wanted to take some pictures of me on his bike (I think it was a Suzuki SK125 but all I really remember was that it was a Suzuki, and it was 125cc) for his photography coursework.

So I was riding around, having my photo taken, and he turned around to me "Take the bike off that ramp & I'll get a pic of you in the air." Fair enough.

Now, before I continue, I was at this point wearing combat style trousers and trainers. Maybe a jumper, but it was summer. I was (luckily in hindsight) wearing a helmet, which is pretty unusual for the way I was back then.

This ramp that he pointed at, was maybe 3 ft long, but was at probably 55-60degrees. It was a grass mound, with a field at the bottom and a tarmac playground at the top. There's also a small lip at the top just after the grass flattens out, which I was keen to avoid catching the bike on.

So I head off down the field, 180, and back towards the ramp. Click up 3 gears and pretty hard on the throttle. I hit the ramp somewhere near the top of 4th gear. I've no idea what speed that was as the bike didn't have a working speedo.

The photo (I still have it somewhere in the house) shows the roof of the 2 storey school through the front wheel of the bike.

Unfortunately, due to the angle of the ramp, the bike decided it wanted to go vertical in front of me. So I'm flying though the air with the bike basically pulling an extreme wheelie out in front of me. I'm still holding the bars as the bike touches the floor (youth: I figured I could save the landing ).

Then I'm sliding on the tarmac (mmm, smell those lovely concrete burns all over my rear!!), with the bike only a small distance infront of me. The oil tank on the bike happens to be on the side that hit the floor first, and the tarmac ripped a nice hole in it. Oil onto the nice hot engine. To complicate things further, whilst I'm sliding, the petrol tank developed a hole, and petrol started pouring out onto tarmac, and the hot engine.

So now my nicely ripped trousers are on fire. My mate runs over and takes some pictures before he helps me make sure the fire is out. On looking at where I stopped compared to where the ramp is, I've slid maybe 30-40 meters.

A group of kids I went to school with were playing football (could of been rugby) in the field further up, and witnessed everything. So as they cheered/laughed, I took a bow.

We had a bit of a giggle about it, I went to hospital (not much they could do really as I wasn't that injured) and a few days later I'd fixed his bike. So we went out for a ride on it again.

PS. Concrete burns on your rear make it REALLY hard to sit down for a while. The above may sound cool, but it really fricking hurt (after the event). Pretty much any of the times I've set myself on fire, I can't really remember feeling it.

[Red Herring]

I guess I've been really lucky, in 22 years of competition and road riding I've only ever been off during the competition bit, however I've done a fair bit of that!
Generally there are two types of crashes, those where you fall off the bike, and those where you ride into something. As a general rule you get less warning on the falling off, one moment you are riding, the next you are on the ground, however spotting the circumstances leading up to the fall can give you some warning so keep an eye out for gravel, manhole covers, diesel, etc.... When you are clearly going to ride into something then, as i think Baph said, you do get a brief moment to influence things. The first thing is not to panic, even if you only get a split second it's still time to do something, even if it's only to stand up so you go over the car that's just pulled out in front of you rather than into it. Despite the urge to get away from the bike, and that is good advice once you are definitely coming off, bikes slow a lot quicker on tarmac with the brakes than on their side so try and lose as much energy as possible before giving up. At a huge number of the crashes I've been to where the rider has simply run off the road his mate who was immediately behind him has made it round the bend simply because he has come off the brakes and had a go. If you are definitely not going to make the corner look at where you are likely to go instead. If you can influence course at all try not to go straight at a tree. The vast majority of fatal and serious injuries on bikes happen when a rider hits roadside furniture so avoid it if you can!
Finally dress for a fall. As has already been said long graceful slides are rare on the road, generally something gets in the way first, so go for armor over leather (both is better still) but make sure it fits properly otherwise the brief slide you do get will pull the armor round to where it isn't supposed to be. Heads, hands and feet (the sticky out bits) are the most vulnerable and also the bits you need most (you can still do quite a bit with an arm/leg in plaster, you try it with both hands!) so I always wear helmet/boots/gloves even if nipping to the shops. And finally, finally, to quote Sid, don't fall off, that's good advice!!

Pray.....