Chris Northover explains what to do if you lose grip on the rear wheel of a motorbike - how to avoid a crash! SUBSCRIBE FOR OTHER VIDEOS & UPDATES www.youtube.co... LET’S CONNECT! Twitter ▻ / bennetts_bike Facebook ▻ / bennettsbike
Thanks for the link.... The cost of beginners course, travel costs, overnight accommodation & kit hire amount to near half the price paid for my bike. Not cost justifiable at the moment. I will be mindful of the sensible tips in the video, (& try to recall limited off road skills learned riding on my friends farm 40 years ago).
Ikr! Just now when I was heading home at night my bike digged into a rut in the neighborhood I was in and then the rear tire rode the edge of the rut! But thanks to my slow reflexes I kept rolling on throttle and then the bike corrected itself, I was about to chop the throttle and grab the clutch! All on new Shinko 777s.
Had my first slide yesterday cornering at about 60kph on wet road, I started breathing heavily and just kept saying "you nearly lost her, you nearly lost her", that's when you know its time to slow down
My first ever real slide was about two months ago on a trackday on the Dutch TT circuit of Assen. Knee on the tarmac in the 'Meeuwenmeer corner' going 220 kmh (136mph) through the full throttle corner feeling my rear wheel stepping out. I'm glad I didn't really respond to it, possibly saving me from a nice highsider. but damn my heart stopped for a second, then I giggled in my helmet and carried on. But that first time slide at that speed, it was frightning AF.
CBR900RR with a rear tire that probably needed replacing a lot sooner than I did. Rode throughout the winter. I learned to respect, appreciate and control my bike; at least a little bit.
I live in California, learned to ride on dirt bikes as a kid. Think it helps to be a better street rider, as you learn bike control and loose conditions
I got mine from having fun at sliding the rear tire when i was a kid on my bicycle. Eventually i adopted it to bigger bikes until it became an instinct. It came in handy when i got my own motorcycle and had a lot of skids but that hobby of mine saved me from panicking. And also got to handle dirt bikes as well. Especially from where i live. Bloody muddy trails all over the mountain. But its fun nonetheless when ur on a dirt bike.
Slid my rear wheel on a public road, the same week after buying my first bike, by instinct I cornered well and regained traction. Cars behind me must have thought I'm showing off not knowing I almost shat myself. I've only been riding 2 months.
TheTsongaMan same here mate, turned a corner yesterday into a business lot & the damn gap coming into the lot was steeper than I though! Felt myself going down, right side, so I stomped my foot down and revved...made it, albeit shaky and angrily. LOL
Dude first week having a bike, came around a turn and a car was on my side of the road slammed the rear brake out of instinct and fishtailed it to the left then to the right then regained control prbly looked cool but I almost pissed myself and thought about selling the bike 😂
Great advice. I had my first rear wheel slide on my s1000r on a hot track day, where I hit a wet patch (seepage). it happened quickly but my slow brain recalled “do not shut the throttle” and “this bike has TC and other electrickery” - and it was fine - BMW brain sorted it and the little that my brain remembered saved the day. Will be enrolling on an off road course by the same track day people, which the quicker guys I chatted to said they had done and did wonders for their confidence and skills.
It's called drifting... Why is everyone acting like it's a bad thing? You blip the shit out of the throttle like anything else until you finish your drift. Faster blip, continue drift - slower blips regain traction.
Best thing to do is keep calm. If you panic, you end up doing absolutly nothing, the right thing or the worst thing; it is just a dice. If you don't panic you have time to think about the whole situation and act properly. If this happens in track, well, you are in track, you are suposed to know what you are doing, so you can control it if you haven't crossed the limit where it becomes a highside. If this happens in the road and you didn't expect it, that means you have no control over the throttle or attention on the road surface.
Just saved a lowside today after locking up the rear mid curve. 1988 Honda nx250. Bike was angled and going down. I put my foot down and basically "walked" it out, more like 3 giant stomps and my ankle dragged a tiny bit. I was probably going into the curve at 35 locked up at 25. Went straight with the rear locked about 10' then it went sideways another 10'. Really glad I didn't go down
If everyone rode a dirt or off road bike for the first 6 months or more of riding, NEWBIE accidents would drop by 90 percent or more. My girlfriend is 62, just finished the MOTORCYCLE SAFETY FOUNDATION course and I got her a DUAL SPORT SUZUKI DR200ES, which is in fact thee same bike the MSF used for years to train new riders. The best ROAD riders, rode first in the DIRT, FACT NOT OPINION. On a positive note, thanks for the video. Nice job. 🏍🏍🏍🏍🏍🏍🏍🏍🏍🏍🏍
I strongly believe everyone should learn & practice drifting their land vehicle, NO MATTER WHAT IT IS, so when it slides unwantedly, you know how to recover.
Experienced this when turning right and going over the white strip on the tar road when wet. Those white dividing lines are bloody slippery and now I exercise caution around them during the wet season. Great vid and excellent info. Thank you!!
Nailed it. When my G/F decided she wanted a bike I put her on a trailie specifically so she could learn how to handle loss of traction, she is very precious to me.. Now fully licenced she has no issues with slides on gravel or wet roads. Been a long time since she soiled her knickers.
First time I experienced a rear wheel slide from overpowering grip was in the wet, was a week into my first bike, and when I felt the tire spool up, without hesitation or panic, I kept the throttle open, countersteered, got it lined back up and the bike wheelied when it came back into traction. I'm not 100% sure why or how I knew to do that, but, I've delt with far higher speed slides with much the same confidence. I have a lot of experience on smaller and far less powerful bikes, so I'm guessing that experience is what programmed that into me.
This happened to me today, round a corner and my back end fish tailed. Back end of my Harley went out, I immediately reacted, rolled off the throttle and it corrected but HOLY MOLY!!
Before watching this I'll tell you how I saved my slide. Back learning on my mc22 and screwing around making the tyre spin in the rain turned out to be good practice. Back end came out entering a fast road, turned into it and held it on, drifted nearly into the gutter till I could straighten enough to let off. Scary but fun
Chis is the most entertaining and informative person in motorcycling right now. Fun to watch and educational. And the other test guy is great (don't remember the name).
I came in too fast into a center median/ turn around on a highway. kind of panicked and locked my rear wheel braking so hard. I got into a low side and ended up breaking my leg pretty bad. Had I caught traction again I could have quite possibly been thrown into oncoming traffic instead of sliding into the center median. It was by complete accident that I did this but i feel it saved my life.
Everything you just said I could not agree more. You have a lot of people that are new to Riding that think their experts. Back in the late '80s and early '90s when I moved up to a sports bike a large group of us went up to the Poconos to take riding lessons. Just like you said when you practice you want to be on something I hate to use the word cheap but basically that. They were EX500 that they used to use at the racing school. Once you finish one part of the course of training they eventually moved you up to where you can use whatever you brought with you or stick to one of their bikes. Not too long ago my back tire broke loose on my Harley and even though it's been a lot of years since I was on a racetrack I just compensated without even giving it a single thought. My body knew what to do before my brain. All my friends behind me told me when we had stopped at the next red light that they thought for sure I was going down. It turned out it was diesel fuel or oil on the road and I just hit that perfect spot to lose traction. I enjoy watching your videos look forward to watching more.
Started out on a Yamaha YZF 750R in 1993 and did not get a car drivers license till 1996, plenty of wet, winter rides, with lots of slides. The worst ones though are the ones where you don't lose grip because you give too much throttle but the ones where you lose grip on a tiny slippery patch only for your tire to slide onto non slippery part of road surface instantly loading the spring. I have ended up sitting on top of my gas tank like that on 2 occasions.
I accelerated a bit too quickly out of a corner with poor road surface on my Street Triple 765 and the rear stepped out. TC cut in repeatedly, but my arse was so tightly clenched, that it had sapped all my strength and fortitude, thus I did not send any motor coordination to my right hand to slowly reduce the throttle. Kept it pinned at about 70% or so while my brain struggled to process the whole thing. I could feel the TC calling me a knob as it repeatedly cut in to try stop the rear from stepping out too far, as I sat there, with my hole puckered and my throttle wide open 🥲🤣
Slightly drag the rear brake. When you are in a corner and you open up the throttle, slightly lean on the rear brake and you will equilise the engine torque on the rear wheel. Because the power comes in impulses from the pistons, that makes your rear wheel to lose grip earlier. But if you level out those torque spikes, you will find new grip levels. I did it on the track and on the street. Cheers !
I did slide with two tires at the same time once in a corner, on little rocks..was crazy, it was a really balanced slide, got some grip again and rode away
Happened to me a few times now. The first two times on my Daytona (no electronics) and I dont recognize what saved me at that time. I did manage to "catch" the bike somehow...subconsciously I guess. But with that explanation it seems clearer what I did on the bike. ;)
wish i learned this when i slipped on a blind water patch in a curved tunnel... would have saved me a broken collarbone, 6 broken ribs, and a lacerated lung..
Alberto J. Mollinedo why be negative and try to speak that into existence smh. Its power and death in the tongue... aka watch what you say because you can speak it and make it happen
Very interesting vid, you need to have Chris on more often. Think I've seen him deliberately crash an MT10 just to see how well the crash protection worked, felt genuinely sorry for the bike.
Good video. If you have to think about it, you're too late and on the ground. Get a dirt bike. It will ingrain rolling the throttle on slightly when a slide occurs. I find that most of us start riding street bikes, but the dirt bike skills are what save your butt in unusual situations.
Maybe im mental but i never learnt slides and the first time i had a slide it didnt scare me at all, i just carried on with the gas and it got grip again. Best advice, and hard advice to take in is, dont get scared, dont come off the gas and dont bloody brake
That winter when I hit that residual patch of sand (from the last snow) while I was on throttle and the rear end came way forward I broke my leg beneath the knee in both bones in an instant. I'm no wild rider. But if you ride after a snow has melted well don't ride like you normally do.
Paxwallacejazz, If you are going down, keep both feet on the foot pegs. Keeps knees and legs tight against the motorcycle. The motorcycle should keep the legs protected. I once slide over 100 feet on my side without injury. Putting your feet out to try to catch the fall can easily result in broken leg, foot or ankle. However landing on the shoulder can easily result in a broken collar bone. So avoid acceleration or braking during a turn especially on bad pavement.
I ride an Electra Glide and I was waiting for the roads to dry up this morning and then went out. As I headed a little higher into the mountains, the roads were wetter than by my house but were still drying up. Then at a point, the entire pavement surface was renewed. This would be great in the dry I suppose, but this surface seemed to keep the moisture on top. As I negotiated a right hand sweeper, I made sure not to use the brakes and pushed the bike down, keeping a steady track. Then all of a sudden, the rear tire stepped out, I heard some hard part scrape the ground. I saw the headlights of a car that I knew was behind me, and I saw him move to the shoulder. Then the bike came back up, wobbling a bit but not scary. And that was it! My heart was not pounding and I continued my ride, a little wiser. I wish I could tell you what great technique I used, but I can't. I have no idea. I wanted to stop and ask the guy behind me what he might have seen, but I didn't do that either. The bike is over 900 lbs. and I'm just grateful that I didn't wreck. I think if I went down, I may have slid into oncoming traffic that was there. As I said, the bike never left the center of the lane. Importantly, I replace the rear tire in May, so it may have been worse if I hadn't.
So glad you're okay! The Electra Glide I last rode had a box section of steel running across the bottom of the chassis - that can touch down early and lift the rear tyre. I wouldn't be surprised if you had a look under the machine and saw some scrape marks there. All the best, John
@@bennettsbikesocial I appreciate your comment. This isn't the typical bike on your channel but every once in a while it'll remind you that you're on two wheels! In this case, the road was barley wet enough to produce road spray, but this surface was very fresh and I think there was sealer on it that kept the moisture on top. Thanks for your great video.
Staying on the throttle while the back tire slid on a turn today saved my a**. Turned traction control back on after that lol
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Slow reaction saved me once few weeks ago. I was trained at track just with car - with motorbike not much experience but I slowly put the gas down and I felt my rear wheel was at 30-35 degrees, really a lot near to point where nothing could help 😬😁
Funny seeing this video now, I did this yesterday and ended up breaking 4 bones in my ankle and left foot. But I was just starting a turn under 10mph, and hit the white pedestrian cross walk lines painted on the damp road. Bike drifted sideways from the rear, caught traction on the non painted surface and high side threw me. Dont know how the left ankle and foot broke though since I landed on my right hip and chest. Crazy thing though, the bike is almost completely ok, just broke the clutch lever at its joint to the handlebar.
This happened to me yesterday when the roads were wet from sprinkling and my rear tire slid out while I was cornering at around 50 mph. Keep in mind that this was my first motorcycle (Yamaha Bolt C-Spec) and I’ve been riding for 1.5 weeks. I was saved when I eased off the throttle gave it some gas. Scariest experience ever because there were cars behind me
Got caught out in the rain while riding today. I took a turn just hard enough to break traction and start Tokyo drifting. Jesus took the wheel (bars?) this time and kept me upright, but I had to seek out this exact video to see what I accidentally did right, just in case I have to save myself on purpose if I start sliding again. The oh-shit levels was high but duuude, I couldn't help the stupid ass grin I had on my face. That jawn was fun ngl. Thanks for the mini lesson \m/
I've saved a slide twice by clutch in. There's no engine braking going on so it's very similar force wise to keeping an even throttle. Imho lot easier to do in a panic as well.
I've hit oil on down hill runs and clutched in and skied along and passed through ..cars breaking loose on ice same wheels match road speed with clutch in ...or Nuetral works ,tire quits breaking loose .but I don't consider my self to be an expert and would like to improve my abilities
A few months ago I was pulling out of a parking lot when it was cold out with cold tires. The rear wheel slid way out, I kept on the gas, knowing it would correct, which it did, but WAY too far. The rear tire then slid out the OTHER direction, at this point I did flinch a little bit and let off some gas. This is when I got traction again and I then high-sided. My right hand finger's were in the way of the handlebars when they hit the pavement. It shredded my gloves and it wasn't very pretty. A minor injury. One slide, I'm good with, but that second one really threw me off and I wasn't prepared for that lol
Lmao, I did this today, and I dunno what came over me today, but my mindset was just like, well I'll just keep it throttled until I get traction. And I kept it together
I wish i found this vid 7 months ago before i highside crashed my ninja 250. I wasnt even pushing it that day. I got forced out of my lane onto the white strip on the road the tyre slipped.
Because of the lack of money I haven't changed my rear tire yet. Today; first rain of the season. Was out on lunch break coming around the corner fairly slow about 50Ks but rear tire in super bad condition plus chinese brand. rear tire came around. instinctively I did the right thing which I cant quite remember anymore, it was just reaction. I did feather the rear break a little and held the gas I think. Naked tourer, really lucky... Thanks for the advice ill keep that in mind on my way home and tomorrow ill get some michelins
Yep, I did that with my ER-6N in a turn at more or less 40km/h. Started going on my right and I think I shut the gas slightly. Might have been the training in gymkhana motorcycle, because in a turn if you want to be straight again, you just have to slow down
Wear good gear and learn how to fall properly. If your front end has lost traction and its not something you are controlling i.e. breaking then what can you do about it except wait for it to regain traction and hope that happens before you fall over.
i ridden all my life bicycles and when i got my first moped 50cc in Finland when i was 15. I actually almost lost the rear end by coming into a corner to fast and there was some gravel and luckily i knew where to place my weight and kept the throttle going so i was completely fine. now I've moved onto a 125.
Each bike is different. You need to develop instinctive feel for the torque level at that rpm range when you correct. That's why high HP/low torque track bikes (R6) that have weaker low-end are easier to at the cornering limit - cracking the throttle in the upper mid-range doesn't hi-torque the tire into a slide. Like the dude says - get a trail bike with lousy tires and slide it ez in a short loop until you can do it in your sleep - go both ways around.
1997 1200cc suzuki bandit last night after feeding the horses 🐎 my chain locked my back wheel ok yes I was speeding in the bad weather but was not expecting the chain to locback wheel over a ton. Was quite the shock, but I'm her, and I'll be back out today lol after fixing it. So be good if people do videos on this kinder thing, not just when you have control as that obvious. If you know of any as I think that was just potluck last night, I stayed on her. Same goes with my 1500cc VN kawasaki she locked up after the drive shaft snaped and the throttle was stuck open due to the carburettor sucking in the rubber from the air Intake that again was a little over a ton 😅
First slide was actually yesterday.. in a curb on sand.. right now in recovery.. bike fell on my leg but I was only at 5km per hour so I'm fine no broken bones
And most important - when going on speed on corner and loose rear - never put leg out.. not for heavy bike and in speed.. That's can be reaction but it's bad.. you can hurt yourself only in that case.. keep feet on pegs.
Highly recommend if you goin to ride a motorcycle without abs... you get use to your rear sliding. You will need to know how your bike slides if you need to emergency brake!
I'd like to think that a quick clutch pull saved me from a high degree high-side on Yamaha FZR 1000 on a wet road once. Nearly flying off the bike amid oncoming traffic was a learning experience like no other. What it taught me? Sold my Fazer and bought a Vulcan. :D
Do everything smoothly all the time and you have a better chance, getting on the gas or the brakes progressively gives you the feel for when things are going loose. But diesel on the road means all bets are off.
eas of brakes or the throttle.dont panic.sometimg l go out my way so the back end dose come lose.so if it dose happens l know what to. people can watch has many video about this .u have to go out an doing yourself or your never know how gonna feel in real life. but l do appreciate the video keep up the good work
I was riding a little 125cc honda on the street, there was a patch of sand on an intersection as I was turning left, and on the right side there was a parked truck. I learned to drift cars and my reaction at that time was to drop a gear and throttle out, I saved it... but now that I think of it if I was on a bigger bike i would probably ended inside of it
Hats off if this is him just talkin in explaining out of knowledge he's on point or whoever wrote it to explain it my hat's off to them it's the little details behind what he say
I slide a lot with my bike, usually I don't realize I slid until I close the throttle again and feel the tire gripping again. It's surprisingly easy imo
I always say to people who want to start riding to get a road trail bike because you get used to the bike sliding all over the place and believe me it comes in handy on the road and on the racetrack as I’ve had some doozies most times just let the bike do what it wants to do and you’ll be fine. Most accidents happen because people hit the the brakes and they go down
now that is wel explained. of course however it has to be second nature. I used to do motocros. Recently i got my first Harley 12075 cc sportster and it lowsides like nobody's business and back whel slides in rain, almost imposible tyo turn a bend or overtake without this slide efect. Lucky the first time it happened on the superbike and every time after, my inherent inbuilt memorized experience from motocros as a kid makes me kep control. But i wold say that an inexperienced driver would perhaps not survive an event like this
My instinctive reaction to the rear wheel starting to lose grip is to reduce the lean angle, has worked every time so far, but I've never properly lost grip, or at least never skidded more than an inch or two sideways before catching it. I keep the throttle steady.
Controversial maybe, but if I knew the next days race would be wet, I’d have a big night in the paddock bar, wake up a bit dusty the next day, keep my darkest visor on and try to ignore the rain. Tip courtesy of Colin Appleyard. 😉🍻
