Austrian GP crash

My racer buddy had to bail off his '75 Z1 superbike at a WERA event at Barber recently. He was mostly uninjured, thanks to his gear, especially the airvest. Luckily, the bike dug into the turf and sustained mostly cosmetic damage, other than bent fork tubes. When your throttle sticks open at 140 mph, you have to make a pretty quick decision. The track steward told him, "Wait until you get the bill from Mr. Barber's landscapers."
 
Danno said:
My racer buddy had to bail off his '75 Z1 superbike at a WERA event at Barber recently. He was mostly uninjured, thanks to his gear, especially the airvest. Luckily, the bike dug into the turf and sustained mostly cosmetic damage, other than bent fork tubes. When your throttle sticks open at 140 mph, you have to make a pretty quick decision. The track steward told him, "Wait until you get the bill from Mr. Barber's landscapers."
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Clutch
 
I heard two guys on radio tonight, talking about this crash. They could not understand how the riders can think quickly enough when an incident happens at those speeds - also how they can slide so far then get up and walk away. They obviously have never raced. When you have an incident, you always have time to react, unless the adrenalin helps you make a mistake. Your brain speeds-up and you have time dilation. Everything seems to happen very slowly. Sliding down a smooth surface is no problem unless you meet a ripple in the road or suddenly get grip and roll. It is very deceptive - a common mistake is to think you have stopped sliding and try to stand up. Then you can break a collar bone after taking a couple of very big steps. I always ride faster when it rains, because it is almost impossible to get hurt unless you throw yourself into the fence. You need to choose the places on the circuit where you stick your neck out. Most places where you crash on a race circuit, many people have crashed before you, so there are usually no solid objects to hit. I would not ride on the IOM.
 
TomU said:
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Pulling the clutch or hitting the kill button at 140 mph isn't going to slow you down enough to make a difference and make the next bend and you've wasted valuable milliseconds fiddling with the controls when you should be bailing the hell off and trying to stay away from the bike and solid objects. Which is what Vinales and my friend both did. At similar speeds.
 
My friend bailed-out when the discs exploded of his bike at the end of Con-rod straight at Bathurst in about 1978 - he was climbing off the back of his bike as he passed another of my friends. He died in the spectator area.
140 MPH is too fast to get off and walk. What you do is make sure the incident does not happen - minimise the risk to a tolerable level.
 
Danno said:
Pulling the clutch or hitting the kill button at 140 mph isn't going to slow you down enough to make a difference and make the next bend and you've wasted valuable milliseconds fiddling with the controls when you should be bailing the hell off and trying to stay away from the bike and solid objects. Which is what Vinales and my friend both did. At similar speeds. [/QUOTE)

As usual some comments have been "lost in translation " I am referring to the comments previously of the throttle jammed open at 140 mph which had nothing to with the Austria's recent GP.
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I don't think you would stop the heavy Commando crank from spinning by holding the brake on. Once t is going, nothing stops it.
 
Nortoniggy said:
Mind boggling...
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I'm not joking. As soon as it rains, I always know I am in with a chance. Most of the guys are very tyre-dependent. When their bike moves around under them, they back off. I ride faster, my tyres re crap, but I don't need much grip. It is all in where your head is when you race. Mine is fixed on the rear tyre contact patch. If it moves, I deal with it very gently. If you fall offin the rain, it is like falling out of bed. You just pick yourself up, and off you go again.
 
When I was much younger , I crashed on a rainy ,wet early June day (1971), certainly very different from what you describe above and you even brag ‘bout speeding up , after a tense and painful hour drive in ambulance , I had my broken arm put back where it should be , no cast until swelling went down , got my broken ribs taped (ugghh) and a couple gashes stitched up (40+) after 6 sleeps in hospital , I was sent home the cast turned out to be waist to neck with a bent 90 degree metal rod encased in plaster to keep my right arm in best position for knitting ....was a very long uncomfortable start to my summer .... I still ride in rain and mostly don’t mind doing so , I sure don’t speed up and usually look for closest shelter for me and my bike .... “the art of racing in the rain“ is a great movie about a dog ....
 
If you claim to "speed up" in the wet, with 40 year old tyres, well for a start you're not going fast enough in the dry. Probably ok around your supermarket car park against all the mums with their prams, when you're running a detuned motor on paraffin :rolleyes:
 
May be Al has a death wish, getting old is not good for the mind, even GP riders slow down in the rain and have also stopped races because of the danger and of course the safety gear racers wore back in the 70s is nothing compared to what the racers wear today, I think bailing out is better than going up in smoke with your bike on fire hitting a wall.
Al you have told us you haven't raced for over 6 years maybe its time to stay retired, well in your thinking anyway.

Ashley
 
Seeley920 said:
If you claim to "speed up" in the wet, with 40 year old tyres, well for a start you're not going fast enough in the dry. Probably ok around your supermarket car park against all the mums with their prams, when you're running a detuned motor on paraffin :rolleyes:
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Speed up in the wet? There's another flying kangaroo in the background of the Australian sky ! :)
 
It depends on the surface of the circuit. At Mount Gambier, wet or dry still makes no difference. Winton is not bad either. In the old days at Mount Gambier, if you fell off, it was almost a certain trip to hospital and new leathers. But it is a fact - if it rains, I try harder because most guys back-off too much after their first slip.
 
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About that Austrian crash. Phillip Island is probably the best race circuit in the world. But turn #1 is blind, particularly at high speed. The international riders who come here each year for the historic meeting get really freaked-out by it. If it doesn't do that to you, you have no sense. When you go around there, you can find almost anything happening.
 
Angle of lean is important in the wet, - and that depends on how your bike steers as you brake or accelerate. If your bike stays more upright in corners, you are less likely to drop it. The rider adapts to the bike. Modern bikes usually lean more and have more power. It is quite difficult to lean a 1962 Manx, and with the tyres they had, you would not want to.
 
acotrel said:
About that Austrian crash. Phillip Island is probably the best race circuit in the world. But turn #1 is blind, particularly at high speed. The international riders who come here each year for the historic meeting get really freaked-out by it. If it doesn't do that to you, you have no sense. When you go around there, you can find almost anything happening.
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There are lots of blind corners on race circuits all of over the world, all of them are designed to catch out riders who are unable to assess the correct racing line and speed they can be taken at, most requiring confidence and bottle to get around at the fastest racing speed, some about 90% of riders are unable to master the corner, especially at three figure speeds.
 
Bernhard said:
There are lots of blind corners on race circuits all of over the world, all of them are designed to catch out riders who are unable to assess the correct racing line and speed they can be taken at, most requiring confidence and bottle to get around at the fastest racing speed, some about 90% of riders are unable to master the corner, especially at three figure speeds.
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That's why you walk the track. And practice sessions. And simulators
 
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