had to "lay it down!"

I just don't know what to say... Clear view, dry pavement... That is about the most short sighted display of urban riding I have ever seen. He should have easily avoided that truck.

I doubt he was sober.

I have low sided on the street twice, both times it was not my idea, both times drunk and in the rain (a LOOOONG time ago).

I can see some situations where it might end up better then slamming into something upright.

I once witnessed a guy lay the bike down and stand on it and surf it across some railroad tracks. 750 2 stroke triple, my friend had a 500, this guy had the 750, we worked with him.
Lay er down and surf it, why mess up your gear (jeans).

The bike was in bad shape, but he did not have a scratch on him.

I had to watch it three times to see WTF he was doing, besides speeding and not paying attention.He had enough time and distance to stop twice

The worse part is for the rest of his none riding life he will explain to every noob, how laying down his bike saved him from a fiery death.

Excellent quote, " That is about the most short sighted display of urban riding I have ever seen."

They kept me busy with all that layin er down when I worked in an HD dealership . It's the only arena of motorcycling where I heard it talked about as a fact of life.

Harley, I mean "Hardly". <Nope -- Take Three> I mean "hardly."

I have heard the same pearl of wisdom about "laying 'er down" from riders of Ancient Rice as well. Most recently, it was the learned old coot from down the road who staggered up my driveway while I was washing the grime off my scoot. He waxed nostalgic about the bad old days of motorcycles when they had greased blocks of ice for brake shoes and steel-mounted engines on rubber frames. That led to his regaling me with tales of his prowess in surfing the asphalt with his bike on its side, its 5 cc engine blatting furiously as they plunged headlong toward what would have been certain doom had he given the brakes a try.

After the history lesson, he dispensed his sage advice that the best favor I could do for myself was to learn to "lay 'er down." Now, here comes the best part: "Ya need ta practice thet!" :huh I didn't ask how many bikes he went through to perfect his technique, and I resisted the temptation to ask if he ever got on a first-name basis with the folks in the ER. I let him prattle on, thanked him for opening my eyes to The Truth, and then let him walk away with the afterglow that he had done somebody a good deed. After all, his heart was in the right place even if his brain was still in transit.

Hi, my name is Marc and I "laid er down".

It started as a casual thing, I would bomb down the trails in Soledad Canyon almost every weekend on my 1971 Suzuki TS 90.

I started to realize that it was getting out of hand when I would fantasize that I was racing in Baja and keep the throttle pinned around blind curves on a trail that I had ridden (literally) a hundred times. I knew it was stupid, but all my friends would ride fast on blind trails too.

They say you can't start to recover until you hit bottom, and for me that day was Feb 23rd, 1975.

Late in the afternoon I was riding along on an old mine road that followed the contours halfway up to a ridge on the right and a canyon on the left. Sure I was going fast, but I thought I was in control. I came around a right hand curve that led into a side canyon before coming back out to the main canyon. This time there had been some heavy rain mid week and the trail was completely washed out...

I grabbed the brakes and started to scrub off speed, but I realized that there was no way I was going to stop before the edge. I threw the bike down on the right side and sprawled myself onto the dirt, the bikes' momentum carried it away from me and I clawed at the ground to no avail as I slid over the edge like Wile E. Coyote in slow motion.

Fortunately, the ravine was only about ten feet deep and I landed on my feet on some sand and gravel. My bike had gone farther than I and was laying on it's side, handlebars bent, tank dented, front fender busted.

Once I realized that I was unhurt I started to think about the fading sunlight and how I would get out of there and back to the trailer. I couldn't climb up and out with the bike and there was about an 8' drop to the sandy canyon bottom. Well there was nothing else to do than to roll the bike to the edge and just let it fall! A few kicks to the handle bar, pull off the remains of the fender, a couple of kicks to clear the motor and we're back in business.

It's been years, but I still take it one day at a time. I recognize that I have a disease and I know that it only takes one long pull on that throttle and I could be right back on my face in the dirt.

Thank you for listening and for your support .
My name is Marc, I'm an Adventure Rider and a recovering "Laid er Downer".

Well ,yes, I'll concede you had an excuse

I've ridden off cliffs to avoid "laying her down" several times now - all those times I rode out again undamaged.

Circumstances were a bit different to yours in all those cases - but if there's a chance you can land that bike, peel off all the speed you can and take the jump on the bike - it's amazing what bike suspension will handle.

Pete

It's been done, and with an older technology...

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I truly didn't mean it to be. I guess I could have omitted the fact he rode a HD. She also shared with me her husbands' sage advice "you don't START out on an HD, you work your way up to it.".

whatever trips your trigger, I suppose.

I hear that line by Bruce Brown and chuckle every time. Why? Because I know darn well that every racer who comments about things like that never laid the bike down as the plan. They ALWAYS were riding with the intent of making it through or around whatever and laying it down was just the end result of their best efforts. At least that was what it was for me. Once in the slide and on my way down I would stay in it so I didn't high-side though.

Jay Springsteen once noted one time when he laid the XR over so far it was essentially laid down and sliding, but he realized how it was sliding... It was still pretty much in the normal arc of the curve for whatever reason and he rode it on the side case until it started to lift. He then applied the throttle to get the back tire sliding again and rode it out of a lowside laydown to continue in the race! :eek1 Something you can get away with on a cushion track versus pavement.

As I've often said, whenever I've ever laid a bike down that was never the intent, just the end result of everything I could do to avoid whatever was the issue at the time. On the brake or throttle hard into a corner (with no front brake on the short tracker) and ending up sliding out while trying to stay on the line or in the corner. Or on the brakes hard enough up to the point where it was full locked and feet or inches to go - aka the end of the trail. I never went into a corner and mentally said "time to lay 'er down!" Always was looking for the alternative first and foremost.

Hi Marc.

Beat me to it. That one's always good for a laugh.

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What you guys never practiced laying it down? What a bunch of pussies. 'Cause every once in a while YOU GOT TO LAY ER DOWN!

I like to go out and find diesel spills in corners for my practice sessions.

Y'know, I don't know if he did the Bond stuff, but John Hately, former pro flat tracker, did some stunts like sliding under a semi trailer and stuff like that. I wonder if that was John.

In a side note, I just thought of...

Layin' 'er down is kind of like life...

It's what happens while you're planning something else.

On Sunday I hit a patch of diesel on Archie Moore Road that must have spilled out of an uncapped saddle tank.

Nice slide in the GMC, sure glad we weren't on the Guzzi!

Haven't done any motorized racing, but I have had some spectacular moves during cross country running and nordic skiing races, but the best moves sure weren't planned in advanced, they were me trying to do somethg at my limits, and doing my best to avoid taking a header.

When my efforts worked, it was spectacular. When I f'd up, it was spectacular, I just was sore afterwards.

Best tactic while racing though was always to have it be uneventful. Uneventful means you were in control and were being smooth and efficient. Which was the plan. Just wasn't able to stick to the plan a whole lot of the time. When the plan is out the window, just try to minimize the damage, and salvage what you can.

I once rode into the back of a minivan at about 40ish on my SV because I wasn't paying attention. Yes, I'm an idiot. At least I'm an ATGATT one. I was fiddling with my mirror and not watching the road. When I looked up and saw the taillights about 10 feet in front of me, I clamped on the brakes and clutch as hard as I could and rode her in. The SV needed new forks, new mirrors, and a new front wheel. All I needed was a new pair of underwear. Still, when relating the story, several people asked "Why didn't you just lay it down?"

In more than 40 years I've never intentionally "laid down" a motorcyle, it must be like recreational skydiving. The few times I've been up in a small plane I've really enjoyed it but I sure couldn't see myself jumping out of one.

Same thing goes with putting a perfectly good motorcycle on the ground in an emergency. At what point do you decide it's time to make "the move"?

Seriously, I have had a lot of guys that USED to ride, tell me about how they quit after they had to lay er down. Most of these guys were a few years older than me and were talking about pre seventies bikes and usually old used ones to boot, and they were young and fool-hardy at the time, and poor brakes and no maintainence meant sliding down the road may have been about as effective as trying to avoid a crash.

At least that's the way they tell it. Bashing or not, a certain segment of Harley riders are about the only people that I hear talking about laying down a bike now days. Most 60 somethings still riding today have gained some skills by now and ride better bikes. And most of us don't tell newbies that throwing your bike on the ground is a valid safety technic. LOL