To ground the bike or to take a leap of death
 

I understand this is a very sensitive question, but i cannot resist asking. I've been riding for about 20 years, and luckily I never (knock on wood) had been in such position and thank god for blessing.

One buddy of mine riding for many years said, when it comes a time ( knowing all of the CBR owners love their bikes so very much, would not want to let go) that you must make the decision to swerve & ground your bike or to jump and take a leap of death, to avoid being hit by stupid drivers. Drivers that are texting,drunk, using their smartphone or whatever the case... Cars don't see
you. Such incident most relate to a car trying to
make a left turn and don't see you. Don't matter if
they are making a left turn coming out from a
driveway or facing you on opposing traffic try to
make a left. They just don't see us and pull out
going right at us... If anyone can swerve and
maneuver out ofte way & avoid accident is best
result...but what if there is nothing you can do to
avoid collision(hard front braking with rear &
downshift engine braking)
Would you:
1. Just give up and be hit as is? Let it be.....
2. Swerve away a little then ground the bike and try to run/walk/ roll away on foot.
3. Take a jump/leap of death over the car and hope no other cars will hit you after you land & slide for
how many yards?
I understand being a CBR owner & love my bike so
much. Last thing I'll do is let her go... But if in such
incident, what do one do...?

It's very scary especially after seeing what happen in UTAH:

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/topstories/article/218747/483/Fiery-Motorcycle-Crash-Caught-on-Tape

The honest answer is I don't know. I have no idea what I would do in that situation until I was physically placed there. There are so many other factors that go into this such as speed and what is surrounding you. This is almost an impossible question to answer.

I would say that speed would be an issue here, because if your doing a high rate of speed ( 60mph or better ) you wont have much time to think about it or even get out of the way.

I think it all depends on how good you are at falling. If you grew up playing sports such as football or skareboarding then id say it doesnt matter, either way, your instincts will kick in and your reflexes will take over.

But if you never were physically active like that as a kid, then either way, slide or jump, youre screwed.

The plan is, don't be surprised by the unexpected and already have your out.
As long as you have a plan, you are going to better off riding it out, if only
reducing speed/changing angle of collision to reduce impact, etc.

Ern

this is your way forward.

its called defensive riding, please dont think im judging your skills nor taking away and of your 20years experience, but over here we have advanced rider courses run by the police.
they teach what is called ''roadcraft'' as its their bible.

it made me a better rider, both on the road and on the track, so i can avoid those choices you pose.

i highly recommend advanced learning.

:icon_ditto:

If you have enough time to

1. make the conscious decision to lowside
2. successfully lowside the bike
3. slide safe from the impact zone

• You had enough time to do something else.
• You were riding beyond your skills
• You were riding beyond the bike's mechanical limits

I don't like this talk of grounding or jumping because the implication is that its a viable escape maneuver. In reality you panicked or couldn't pull off the manuevers necessary to escape because you were riding too fast. And if a car hits you, chances are you're never gonna see it coming.

I might low side my bike trying to escape a situation. But it'd purely be by accident. Because my intention would be to out-manuever whatever it was I sae coming and I simply exceeded the traction limits of the front tire.

I've done it. Front and rear already locked up, sliding, dual cab hilux 4x4 tuning in front of me so I basically got myself into the "ready for take off" position. Don't know if it's what saved me seeing as I still smashed into (with my body) the side of the toyota. I'm lucky I literally (after re-gaining consciousness) walked away with a sore head, nuts and thumbs from the impact. very lucky considering i was doing around 80 klms/hr when I realised I was in the ****. Oh, and it turned out he was drunk too........ the fug wit.

Kuroshio is right that you will almost always have other options. But if a crash is unavoidable, you'll want to be going as slow as possible when it occurs. And you will shed a lot more speeed staying upright and on the brakes than sliding along on the bike's side. Your bike's tires have much better traction than its plastics.