Why you always leave a little in reserve

May 24, 2010

On what looks like The Dragon, a supermoto rider turns into a corner to find a nasty surprise: another biker overtaking a van in his lane, on a blind turn. He made it, but only just. >

Johndo

Oh man…close call!!
PeteP

Close call, indeed. Glad to see no one was hurt.

As a side note, notice the relative indestructibility of the supermoto bikes.

I was behind a rider on a CBR600 F4i in a similar incident.

He was also unijured, but there was no way his bike was going anywhere under its own power after the accident.
typeone

FYI, this clip is from a supermoto flick titled, ‘Bit By The Dragon’
amsterdam

The director says;” Make it look natural” at 1.54.
The whole thing looks staged.
“Wow, cool”, at 1.40…really; a real near accident, cool?
Not buying it.
http://easyendgarage.blogspot.com jeremy

staged? seriously?
- http://hellforleathermagazine.com Wes Siler
  
  I also think the speed is in KPH. You can tell because the sky hasn’t turned plaid.
  - AadmanZ
    
    I think the bikes were R/C models..
  - AGP
    
    Bwahahaha… best reply of the month right there. :)
ZATO1414

Nice laydown! Those trees had to look too big…
Shawn

I think I’d have turned around… chased down the guy…. and beat the shit out of him. :)
- meatbag_pussrocket
  
  i was thinking the same thing. ones helmet can make a great weapon when grabbed in your hand and smashed into your adversaries unprotected face. i understand doing some stupid passing in certain situations, but around a blind corner?
  
  if you wanna catch up with a fool like that, do it quick before they’re squid.
- Brian
  
  My thoughts exactly!
  
  Though they are no angels going waaaay over double yellows…
brettvegas

Both riders thought ballons:

“SHIT, Fuck!
- GasBreather09
  
  LOL! Other options could be
  “Yes!” “NOOO!”
  “PEE!” “POOP!”<<<in reference to what would happen in the suite in this situation
  “Jesus” “Christ”
  “Did I leave the iron on?” “Did I turn the oven off”
BL

irresponsible jerk, giving all bikers a bad name, my 14 kids were in that minivan and he almost ran it off the road. it’s people like this who make the laws so hard against bikers and then wes promotes it by putting it up on his site, all that and he wasn’t even wearing day glo yellow…jesus..so many injustices…

btw, the sky only turns plaid in the southern hemisphere.
in the north, it’s herringbone.
Bikerdad

I think I’d have turned around… chased down the guy…. and beat the shit out of him. :)

Why? The Supermoto riders were all over the road as well. How far across the double yellow did they get early in the segment?….

In a more perfect world, they’d simply close the Dragon to anything other than motorcycles and sports cars one weekend every month. Turn it into a true playground, everybody entering has to sign a waiver.
- Ninjah
  
  It’s one thing to use the whole road when you can clearly see around or into the turn – that can be done safely.
  
  When you do it around a BLIND turn, that’s not safe and you’re rolling the dice with other peoples’ lives.
- Mike B
  
  The supermoto riders were using the whole road, where there was a whole road to use. The douchetard who was passing in a corner gambled that nobody would be coming around that corner right then and lost.
  
  If something went pearshaped on the supermoto guys, they had a whole other lane to bail to, or whoever may have been oncoming had lots of road to avoid an accident.
  
  The passing douchebag had no backup plan and nowhere to go if something went wrong.
  
  You don’t ever, ever, EVER cross the double yellow unless you can see far enough ahead to know there’s nobody there, or that you can bail somewhere if you get hairy.
- fazer6
  
  Or go to a racetrack…Instead of racing on public roads. Because, surely this wouldn’t happen if the minivan were a sportscar…
- ryan
  
  But they didn’t do it on blind corners.
  
  That’s the difference, they could see through the corners they crossed over the lines to enter.
armpump

Yah, its called a road not a racetrack – just f____n stupid
Sean Jordan

The BMW rider passed on a blind corner – idiot move.

The supermoto guy committed to an inside line on a blind corner – also an idiot move. (Because cars NEVER run wide on tight, twisty roads.)

Final conclusion?

They’re both idiots.
- AGP
  
  He was not THAT committed to the inside line, or the whole thing would have ended differently. :)
- bikingteacher
  
  Yep! Both bikes cross the line. BMW at time of crash–enduro man just before the crash. Karma sucks–this time it was bikema–it could have been the van–those suck to clip.
Bronson

Yep, that’s from Bit By the Dragon. The 5+ minute long wheelie in the opening credits rocks. KTM motards FTW!
Core

I was always taught… ( I don’t ride a motorcycle yet) ( I just really like this site) never to pass in a blind corner, or on hills… When you have no visual, don’t take chances.

O’well…
the other larry

Where’s Mr. 190+ Long Island BMW guy in all this? Is the average IQ of BMW riders coming down? Or are they just starting to grow some balls?
crack

….this happened to a HD guy in our area….while passing on some windy/hilly bits, a BMW chap was flying blind round a sharp left …. the outcome was not quite as pretty as here….. the BM clipped the Roadking’s saddlebag and the HD guy came off much worse!! That BM guy has been bitching ever since ……Where’s the justice?
chunky

Yeah of course he could pass the van without crossing the line, there’s plenty of space there. Buuuuuuut, what would be the point of riding a motorcycle then? Motorcycle is about getting the adrenalines from endangering yourself and endangering other people. If you want safety go ride bus.
- steve
  
  Motorcycle is about getting the adrenalines from endangering yourself and endangering other people
  
  Really? You get off on endangering OTHER people?
  - Grant Ray
    
    Steve, he’s making sarcastic reference to the vitriol that happened in the comments of the 192 MPH post.
    
    Chunky, I really wish you’d drop the hate and keep the discussion relevant and/or constructive. Otherwise I’ll have to do it for you.
Duge

And nobody’s gonna comment on the ORANGE front tire?!!! Where do you get those?? haha. Is this old news that i’m just not aware of?
PeteP

Git yer orange tires here: thttp://www.cycletires.com/gallery.htm
Scottie

All these years I’ve been avoiding mistakes made by stupid cagers, now I’ve got to watch out for bikes too?
Dodgy

And this, was (filmed by) me…
60mph speed limit, doing 40.
Anyone who can find a way out wins a beer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM3NajjnO7A
Lachlan MacTavish

they both made BIG mistakes…….BMW passing on a blind corner wrong lane……and the other driver pushing the envelop on a road full of blind corners. I remember when I was young and dumb, oh wow that was close…cool….rad man. Luckily no one got killed….my opinion they were less that an inch from serious injuries or death…..
powermatic

We are on the street…and things can happen…”

Whoever amongst us hasn’t already learned that valuable lesson-trust me, you will.
http://electrovelocity.com/ Benjamin

@ Shawn – I was thinking the same thing. I would have lost my temper at the guys utter idiocy and chased him down for a bollocking.
marko

what happened to the BMW rider? did he stop or even check his mirrors?
smokeydog

He is just damn lucky it wasn’t a logging truck he met! I haven’t been over to the Dragon in a decade. Between the out of state cocaine cowboys on crotch rockets and the local meth heads hauling stuff in their 18 wheelers, I’d rather drive blindfolded in italy!
http://www.michael-engle.com Michael

+1 on both being idiots. Glad they’re okay.
http://www.tibiaplatinum.net tibia gold

I truly appreciate you taking the time to post this. I really liked reading it and am looking forward to more posts from you! Keep ‘em coming.