highside question

Hey,

Is there anything you can do to counter a highside?  I mean like if you find yourself about to highside what do you do?  Whenever I see a highside on TV it looks as though there is nothing the rider can do.  

The high-sides you see on TV are at race pace, and as noted,

most end a crash.

How to counter a high-side?

Depends, on what caused the rear to begin to 'slide-out'.

Patch of sand, oil on the road; stuff that causes the rear

to lose traction- modulate the clutch/throttle to reduce

power to the rear. Or, you can maintain current throttle

position and 'ride through' said patch.

Again, depends on rate of travel and where on the road this

occurs.

To much throttle too soon/leaned over exiting a corner.

Clutch/throttle modulation or 'pin the throttle to bring

the bike around' both might work or not...

"I mean like if you find yourself about to highside what do

you do?" Say "OH *** THIS IS GOING TO HURT"  

Lock up the front end and force a lowside. That's the best answer.
You are going to crash either way, but oh well. Force the lowside, if you can react fast enough.  

I'll agree with you on that I'd rather lowside than highside anyday.  

We have a system that is asymmetric; un-balanced energy.

What we desire is a system with its energy in symmetry

around its center.

Call it 'A(r)' for wheel spin rear and 'L(r)' for lateral

movement rear.

Now you want to add even more enery. This energy, is of a

different direction as well. B(f) braking front.

Now this is the... Blah, Blah,..... Blah

<p> in-sert more BS here </p>

and would result in the most spectacular crash in history

or the coolest corner exit burn-outs.  

You're only going to highside when you get the rear end so far out that it's impossible to save; I'm talking like 45+ degrees sideways.  At this point when you've already realized that you're screwed and going to crash, I would pin the throttle wide open to cause the rear to slide more and create a low side.  

I unfortunately had not gone through this scenario in my head before it happened to me.  Was powering out of a corner, hit some oil, got to the 'I'm so sideways, I'm screwed and I'm going to crash point', i.e. I was already at full opposite lock on the steering and the rear was still sliding out.  But I did the WRONG thing, I eased up on the trottle which created the instant highside.  I got flung up a good 6 feet or so up into the air and who knows how far down the road.  I have a nice metal plate in my arm as a reminder.  

Yeah, what he said.
If your steering head is at the stop, the bike is probably not going to be able to save itself.
Either gronk down on the front brake for all you are worth and dump the front end, or slam on the gas and lay it down. Either way, force the lowside.

And once you are on the ground....LET GO OF THE BIKE!!  

I can tell you from my recent Highside coming out of t3 @ NHIS that there is not much you can do at speed about a highside except hope for a soft landing. My ducati looked way better before the Highside, I guess they call t4 Highside hill for a reason.  

I thought you were supposed to do nothing. maintain throttle and try to ride it out...

The high-side occurs when the rear tire re-grains traction at an angle from the direction travel.

If you want to turn a slide into a power slide you should add quite a bit of throttle. However you should probably practice on a dirt bike and you better be quick to mantain balance.

I have a friend that ties up his bike to a beam on his garage to the point that the bike will lean to like 70 degrees in either direction. The point is to learn how to balance the bike side to side. Sometimes he does not put his foot down when stop at a red light. He just balances it. Anyways, I think this would be a good practice for power slides.

Luis  

If you are ever riding your bike hard enough to get into a high-side situation, it will happen so fast that by the time you realize that you are going to do it, you will be 20 feet into the air.
Hope your insurance is paid up!  

yeh, i agree, one thing you might do is maybe panic and open up the throttle which might give you something else to panic about. my mate enjoys racing supermoto, which is drifting on over-powerd dirt bikes with slicks on, because they are so tall, when hes sideways round a corner, hes really low, and all of the time during the drift hes hard on the throttle, spinning the back out, i think maybe this might help. depends on the bike and conditions etc.