laid down my bike

[Arnie]

My Dad told me when I got my bike license a long time ago that if I was to jam the rear brake, lay the bike down and get off it. I would come out OK. My first season on a little ts90 suzuki, I had the opportunity to try it out when I was looking away in traffic going 30 - 35 mph. When I looked the traffic was stopped. I practiced it in my head and now was the time to do it. The bike slid under the car and I slid into the bike. The person in front of me never knew it and drove away.
Now that I'm back on a bike, I'll practice in my head again and hope I never have to do it.

Heal quick!!

Joe,

Sorry to inform you that your dad was wrong.  
That is certainly a way to slide the back of the bike and lay it down, but it is rarely the way to escape either the impact or injury.
Tires have a much better grip on the pavement than the side of the bike (or your protective gear), and will stop you in the shortest distance, which hopefully will prevent the impact as well as being able to steer you away from the greatest danger.
Sliding down the road in front of, behind, or even on top of your bike, you are completely at the mercy of physics.  You have given up any opportunity to change your trajectory or speed.  You have no way to prevent going under the car/truck/bus or over the cliff.
Your best chance of avoiding injury is to stay ON your bike and use the braking and handling capabilities it has to avoid and/or minimize the impact.

Arnie

[FJ_Hooligan]

Very well (and accurately) said Arnie!

[Pat Conlon]

Keary, I hope you heal well...the pictures show that you bike is very fixable.

In my low side accident I dislocated my thumb over 2 years ago and I can tell you this:
Immobilize it. You don't need a cast, just a hot formed plastic brace. Wear it.
It will take over a year for the ligaments to heal...in my case over 18 months.
When you do get back on the bike, wear a soft Velcro thumb support brace under your glove.

Cheers

[ribbert]

My Dad told me when I got my bike license a long time ago that if I was to jam the rear brake, lay the bike down and get off it. I would come out OK.

Joe, there was a time when this may have worked. Old cable drum brakes were even less efficient at retarding speed than engine braking and laying your bike down with a rigid footrest that would gouge the road like an anchor may have worked. Not very efficient but much better than the next useless front brake most bikes had prior to the 60's and 70's.

The fastest and shortest way to stop a modern bike is upright under brakes, by a long shot. It also leaves you the option of releasing the brakes and swerving, which if heading for something moving often becomes a good choice as the gap narrows and your relative positions change.

Once you lock the back wheel and drop it, you've already had one accident, whether you have a second one sliding down the road with no control over anything any longer and hit something, is in the lap of the Gods at that point.

Noel

[Joe Sull]

My Dad told me when I got my bike license a long time ago that if I was to jam the rear brake, lay the bike down and get off it. I would come out OK. My first season on a little ts90 suzuki, I had the opportunity to try it out when I was looking away in traffic going 30 - 35 mph. When I looked the traffic was stopped. I practiced it in my head and now was the time to do it. The bike slid under the car and I slid into the bike. The person in front of me never knew it and drove away.
Now that I'm back on a bike, I'll practice in my head again and hope I never have to do it.

Heal quick!!

Joe,

Sorry to inform you that your dad was wrong.  
That is certainly a way to slide the back of the bike and lay it down, but it is rarely the way to escape either the impact or injury.
Tires have a much better grip on the pavement than the side of the bike (or your protective gear), and will stop you in the shortest distance, which hopefully will prevent the impact as well as being able to steer you away from the greatest danger.
Sliding down the road in front of, behind, or even on top of your bike, you are completely at the mercy of physics.  You have given up any opportunity to change your trajectory or speed.  You have no way to prevent going under the car/truck/bus or over the cliff.
Your best chance of avoiding injury is to stay ON your bike and use the braking and handling capabilities it has to avoid and/or minimize the impact.

Arnie


It worked of my old disillusioned dead Dad and  it worked for me. I'm not trying to win you over. I don't care how you go about saving your ass, just making conversation.

[Klavdy]

Yeah Arnie,
don't you know that's how it works?
Same with driving a car, if it looks like yer about to crash, just open the door and jump out.

[Dan Filetti]

You can lead a horse to water...

[Derek Young]

Sorry to hear about the dismount Keary. Glad you came away mostly intact. At least youv'e got one good thumb for fixin that FJ!

Derek

[simi_ed]

The rest that old tale (tail?) has been 'You can lead a horse to water, then you have to drown them.  Sometimes they do it themselves!

[novaraptor]

I thought it was "You can lead a horticulture, but you can't teach 'em the difference between a homonym and a homophone."

[FJscott]

LMFAO

[fj johnnie]

  I thought it was, " You can lead a horse to water , but a pencil must be lead?".

[JoBrCo]

My Dad told me when I got my bike license a long time ago that if I was to jam the rear brake, lay the bike down and get off it. I would come out OK. My first season on a little ts90 suzuki, I had the opportunity to try it out when I was looking away in traffic going 30 - 35 mph. When I looked the traffic was stopped. I practiced it in my head and now was the time to do it. The bike slid under the car and I slid into the bike. The person in front of me never knew it and drove away.
Now that I'm back on a bike, I'll practice in my head again and hope I never have to do it.

Heal quick!!

Joe,

Sorry to inform you that your dad was wrong.  
That is certainly a way to slide the back of the bike and lay it down, but it is rarely the way to escape either the impact or injury.
Tires have a much better grip on the pavement than the side of the bike (or your protective gear), and will stop you in the shortest distance, which hopefully will prevent the impact as well as being able to steer you away from the greatest danger.
Sliding down the road in front of, behind, or even on top of your bike, you are completely at the mercy of physics.  You have given up any opportunity to change your trajectory or speed.  You have no way to prevent going under the car/truck/bus or over the cliff.
Your best chance of avoiding injury is to stay ON your bike and use the braking and handling capabilities it has to avoid and/or minimize the impact.

Arnie

This is true as long as it's sure that the traction of rubber on pavement is greater than protruding metal on pavement.

My list of slippery that has given me troubles over the years with respect to rubber and pavement (mostly asphalt):

Newly painted lines;
Oil;
Gasoline spilled from a missing cap during a turn of the auto immediately in front of me, I went down instantly;
Leaves;
Metal, both manhole covers and those huge steel plates used for covering large holes during roadwork;
Gravel of course;
Rain, of course, and this adds, to a large degree, to all the above, when combined.

Once when I was new to my Yamaha Midnight Maxim, it was raining, I was accelerating, unbeknownst to me a jeep was stopping in the middle of nowhere, (farmland on both sides of the road, no types of intersection at all.) without brake lights.  Before I knew it I was on top of him, with his sudden increased braking, no anticipation, due to no obvious visual cuing, raindrops on my visor.  As a new rider the 70/30 braking was lost on me, I likening my motorbike to a bicycle, (of a much lower mass), and many times, over the handlebars, I had went, so I did a 30/70, and started to fishtail to the left, immediately compensating I released, sending my rear back to the right, upon which noting my extremely close proximity to his bumper, I again applied 30/70, adding to the previous momentum, sending me fishtailing to the right this time, and down I went, hitting those damn reflectors between lanes on those California roads, almost ripping my arm out of it's socket, by my elbow making contact with a reflector, sending me careening into the oncoming lane, luckily there was no traffic, and I rode her on her side, passing the jeep by.  I was able to stand her up, un-tweak the forks and mirror, stuck with a bent shifter, I was able to make it to a medical clinic, where I was told, that a fraction of an inch deeper, and I would have permanently ruined my elbow joint, which took many years to feel fight again, a constant funny bone pain.

I truly don't know if I would have been able to steer out of it, due to hydroplaning, and I'll never know for sure.  After that I enrolled in the only federally sanctioned motorcycle safety course, given by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.  And became extremely familiar with the difference between a relatively massive motorbike and a bicycle, thus 70/30, maybe more, became the rule of the day, on a motorbike that is.

Obviously, control is most important here, and the speed at which one has to make decisions is extremely fast, but what to do when control is no longer an option?  Impact, Fly or Slide?       

[JoBrCo]

How about, "you can lead a fool to knowledge but you can't make him think."

[JoBrCo]

Please note that my post immediately above is not aimed at anyone, it's just a variation of, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink," that my father came up with years ago.  He thought it clever, yet I think it was the originators intent, and that he just toned it down for civilities sake.