Crashing
 

One of Keith Code's articles is titled "crashing" and in it he says, "Riding errors which lead to crashing follow distinct patterns. Once detected they can be used to make huge leaps forward in skill and confidence."

What do you he means by "distinct patterns"? What kinds of errors do you think can indicate whether or not someone is on the path to crashing?"

The article can be seen here:

Crashing - Articles by Keith - Cornering Forum

have you watched twist of the wrist?

probably stuff like looking where you want to go and scanning ahead etc.

If you dont like reading, A twist of the wrist is on youtube in its entirety. every rider should watch it.

IMO, the video is not a good substitute for the book. If you get the book however, I recommend skipping part 1 and just go for part II. The video is okay to get both, but I think the first one is better, the second has a little more sales pitch for the book and school. Both are good, but I'm talking about "meat on the bones" for the uninitiated. Once you get a taste, though you'll probably want it all. I have all of Keith Codes published material.

I'm actually IN it :D:icon_woot:

I've been a coach with the school for the past 14 years, just got back from coaching at the first school of the year in Las Vegas. We have a brand new fleet of the 2017 BMW S 1000's! So fun.

Back to the question. Someone mentioned that Keith probably means things like looking where you want to go and scanning ahead etc are indications or patterns of whether a person might crash or not but I want to know what other people think about this. What kinds of patterns do you think Keith is referring too when he talks about noticing patterns or errors do you think might indicate whether or not someone is on the path to crashing or not?

I'll tell you one thing we often see that is a big clue, we actually pull students in right away if we see them doing this. It's adding lean angle and throttle at the same time. If we see it happening on the track we pull the students in ASAP and coach them on why that isn't a good idea. That is an example of a CLEAR pattern or error that may lead to crashing. What others can you think of?

Those darned leathers!

Off top of my head only woman I recall seeing was coaching the steering drill in T2. Was that you?

Nick Ienatsch's book Sport Riding Techniques is another good one.

I'm in twist of the wrist II: I'm the mom driving the mini van and then coaching the two kids in the paddock. There is a scene where I'm leading them around giving them a hand signal while cornering. LOL. Pretty cool experience participating in filming for the movie :)

I think it's about time I grabbed my DVD copy and review the material...considering I've got 4 school dates coming up and all (wink, wink, LoL).

U might say how many near misses have u had. Who was at fault .could you have done anything different to change the outcome ...I know this is a bit radical but I think every biker should get a banged up scooter and crash it so u know what a real crash would feel like .
I doubt mean 40mph into a wall but falling off

Knowing what a crash feels like has little or no training or redemptive value. To take the example to the extreme (for illustrative purposes), why don't we all get shot so we know what dying feels like?

I can't speak for anyone else only from my own experience
most recently (2015) getting swatted by a car going 25mph to 30mph .there are multiple variables in a crash scenario .
mine was I made the mistake of puting my leg out to stop myself falling into traffic ... instead I should of tried to land on my side or back ..The impact caused 2 prolapse disc L5 L4 and L5 S1 .i had 3 1/2 surgery 28th of January

True there is no right way to crash BUT I never throw my arms or legs out to stop me because the force is enough to snap bones

YES!!! Good idea :) What school dates are you going to?!

Not sure I agree with the idea that everyone SHOULD get banged up but I definitely agree with the idea that you should take a careful look at any of the crashes you have had, or the near misses and see what YOU could have done differently.

All too often people blame other circumstances for the crash without truly taking a moment to identify if there was anything they could have done to reduce the risk of the crash in the first place. When I had my first crash on the street I blamed the lady because she just changed lanes into me. It was deemed 100% her fault insurance wise but there were a few things I could have done differently in the situation. 1. I could have lessened the time I was riding in her blind spot and beside her. and 2. I could have had better visual awareness around me to notice her beginning to change lanes. These two things would have reduced the chances of the crash (it still may have happened) but once I analyzed those two things, the situation never happened again.

There are a lot of things you can learn from a crash or even a near miss when riding. If you are on the street and you run wide for example, maybe cross the centre line and thankfully no one is in the oncoming lane.....what might that tell you about your own riding mistakes?

I've done California Superbike a bunch of times (level 4 3x) and the vast majority of what they focus on is visual skills. Single-bike crashes are usually related in some way to target fixation, which in turn is due to not looking far enough ahead. Another thing they talked about that stuck out for me was event sequence. Talented riders go very quickly to fine details and differences of split seconds, but mediocre riders (like me) can benefit from drilling on "brake, sit up, sight the reference point, THEN tip in". Get this out of order and you can be in big trouble without even realizing what you've done wrong. Personally, a lot of the work I had to do was unlearn all the terrible habits I'd built up over decades of riding without concern for proper riding or consequences. Until you've made proper technique second nature, the bad habits are the ones you'll revert to in a crisis.