A question and an Observation

[JPR]

I find that I really like a large lean angle into a tight turn. I tend to scrape the floorboards on the Heritage.

Any one ever flip a bike in that scenario?

The observation is that the Harley leaning into a tight turn is similar to a sailboat heeled over in a strong wind. (I could hold my boat at 30 degrees (way over) for 2 and 3 hours at a time.

On Lake Michigan, if the wind remained constant (it wont) one could hold that lean for 3 days constantly.

[XL1200R]

Have people flipped them...yes. It is hard though because generally you will be forced off the road and overshoot the turn before the back tire comes off the ground...make sense???

Scraping is all fun and games, but don't just lay the bike on the floorboard all of the way through the turn...their are too may chances that a bump or angle change mid turn can upset the bike enough that it can tip it. If it is bangs off the ground a few times that's one thing...but if it makes perfect arcs along the whole length of a turn.......could be dangerous

[LugoffSC_FLD]

JPR I was watching the demo team when I was at the fall rally in Myrtle Beach last month and watching these guys perform and looking at their floorboards and also the supports, I can say, well they had very little left on the pans. The LT. bike support brackets were completely worn out.


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[Dave63]

You'll never "flip" a bike (initially) by leaning it too far. What happens are, hard parts will scrape, and as the bike increases lean angle, the parts lift the bike's tires off the road, resulting in a lowside. What happens after that depends on what speed you lowsided at.

Low speeds: The bike slides and stops.

Higher speeds: As the bike slides, it can and usually returns to the tires, and if it grabs hard enough, it can get tossed over.

It's not a pretty sight and even worse of a noise..... especially if it's your bike.

Perfect example; Note the sparks as hard parts start to scrape.

2011 Harley Davidson Lowside Motorcycle Crash - YouTube

[JPR]

Thanks all for taking the time to respond. Good research. The guy that spilled. . . it lookes like his foot and leg had a lot to do with the spill.

My muscle memory still remembers my sportster as I had 10's of thousands more miles on it than my new Heritage. Plus, I had to take a motorcycle course and I was able to get into exagerated turns on it. (as they said, better to drop their bikes than my own).

I was willing to comit to a greater lean on their bike than I would have tried on mine, but I do find my floorboard scraping on the left and my guardian bell on the right.

Perhaps I need a guardian bell to let me know I'm about to scrape on the left. Any contraindicators to having 2 bells?????????????

At least the bell lets me know what is coming next and I don't get startled when it starts to scrap. Haven't over responded (corrected) from the startle yet. And before I got the bell, I was scraping both sides. Still do but more so now on the left (no bell).

Reminds me of the 60's when some of the large cars had a wire that would scrape the curb and warn the driver while parallel parking that he was about to scrape the fender/wheel cover.

[Knash]

Originally Posted by Dave63

You'll never "flip" a bike (initially) by leaning it too far. What happens are, hard parts will scrape, and as the bike increases lean angle, the parts lift the bike's tires off the road, resulting in a lowside. What happens after that depends on what speed you lowsided at.

Low speeds: The bike slides and stops.

Higher speeds: As the bike slides, it can and usually returns to the tires, and if it grabs hard enough, it can get tossed over.

It's not a pretty sight and even worse of a noise..... especially if it's your bike.

Perfect example; Note the sparks as hard parts start to scrape.

2011 Harley Davidson Lowside Motorcycle Crash - YouTube

JPR,

I've watched this video several times now and I still don't get what this guy was doing which caused this crash. Yeah I know he lost control and etc. Is his bike lowered with less clearance? He was in a good turn and then swung too high is seems. This wasn't a turn that seems too hard so I'm trying to figure out forensically what his malfunction was...

[RandyC]

Appears that the straw that broke the camels back was when the riders boot grabbed and pulled back under the bag. Just my .02 cents.

[000RK]

Originally Posted by Knash

JPR,

I've watched this video several times now and I still don't get what this guy was doing which caused this crash. Yeah I know he lost control and etc. Is his bike lowered with less clearance? He was in a good turn and then swung too high is seems. This wasn't a turn that seems too hard so I'm trying to figure out forensically what his malfunction was...

I'm with you Knash....all I can figure is when his leg went under him he lost control from maybe panicking.....at the end of the video when their walking his bike to the side of the road he seems to have to much clearance to be lowered, my RK's lowered 2" and he has more clearance than I do.

[TmikeX]

I would scrape my floor boards on my Heritage fairly regularly as that bike seems to allow for that. My Limited doesn't go there.

[Knash]

Originally Posted by 000RK

I'm with you Knash....all I can figure is when his leg went under him he lost control from maybe panicking.....at the end of the video when their walking his bike to the side of the road he seems to have to much clearance to be lowered, my RK's lowered 2" and he has more clearance than I do.

I practice my very sharp turns when I take off from a stop sign let's saying going right. I stay into the closest lane instead of swinging wide into the other lane. I've gotten much better at sharp angle turns and this helps me to practice my lean so I'm use to leaning. Last week I scraped my pegs and it kind of alarmed me so all I can figure is that this guy freaked himself out...?