Today I had my rear tire step out about 3 inches. I went into a turn a littletoo hot, and transfered my weightto the inside of the turn, scooted forward on the tank to load the front tire, and touched the rear brake. ( I always use both front and rear brakes on the street)My body reacted and corrected before I completeley realized what had hapened and before my brain realized the danger and verryreal posibility of a low side in a situaton like that.
That got me thinking. a lot of newb riders (by all accounts that includes me newb rider) read articles on bike control, and counter measures on dangerous situations and think they will be ready to save it on a moment like that. In reality there is not enogh time to even realize what happened before it's over.

The two situations that come to mind are:
One time I was out on a ride with some friends and we got off the main road and into a parking lot, I was comming in a little too fast and was braking and the front tire let go, I counter steered and let go of thebrake before I realized what I was doing.

Just goes to show that itsnot enogh toread about it, you need to train your body to react properly in order to control your bike, the only reason I was able to save it, was because I had felt the tires let go on dirt bikes, and YEARS of mountain biking.

 

[sm=exactly.gif], Amen.

 

Yeah, your reflexes kick in, I knew a guy years ago that used to race sidecars (he was the ballast). He said that once the adrenalin hit his system he could actually make out faces of people he knew in the stands.
A few months ago I road my mates GSX1400 Suzuki for a quick blat, anyway we pulled up at this backroad, and as we took off, I hammered it, back stepped out on the gravel road, I corrected it (yeah right) and took off. When we swapped back bikes & over a beer, I could feel both my hips where really sore. He said that was probably from throwing my legs out to keep the bike up. Legs out! could not even remember doing it.

 

Had a similar experience.

Just rained a lot yesterday, so today, one of the corners I went around had a little bit of dirt. Back end stepped WAY out while I was accelerating. Before I even realized what was happening, my body just reacted by counter-steering, shifting my weight, and throttle control. I even kept on going and brushed it off like nothing even happened until the next stop light I started thinking about it......then I got chills.

 

Keith Code defines these as Survival Reactions. Not to thread jack, but, his books (Twist of The Wrist I & II) are an excellent read. The first book is more toward racing and the second is as well. However, the second book's details can easily be applied in street riding.