Lowside (mulholland strikes again!)

[The Bacon Junkie]

Throwing sand on the road?!  REALLY??!!!   

Do you know how soon someone's ass would be kicked over the side of the mountain if they were caught doing that? 

Unless you've seen firsthand the amount of motorcycle traffic that corner gets on a weekend, it's really difficult to imagine...  Hundreds of bikes an hour, thousands each day...  Just go to Paul's (the photog's) website, and you'll start to get an idea... 

Also, there is stupidity abound among the four-wheeled cage crowd, too.  It's just not highlighted as much as motos...  Fabio crashed his (borrowed) Ferrari in that corner, and some asshat in a Pontiac GTO took out a bunch of motorcycles parked in the turnout, because he thought he could drift while filming himself with his Iphone...   

Car Crashes into Parked Motorcycles on Mulholland powered by Aeva

Red Truck Idiot powered by Aeva

Lane Challenged Drivers powered by Aeva

^^^ This last video pretty much demonstrates my argument of more money than brains or talent.

The corner isn't that difficult, people are just not realistic about their abilities and get into trouble....   I'm tired of the corner getting a bad rep because people can't handle their bikes.    Hell, there's a vid of some tool in Crocs on a little scooter eating it going 25mph!!!

Scooter Crashes Into Guardrail on Mulholland powered by Aeva

There's also plenty of videos of some really talented riders making that corner look as awesome as it really is... 

Nice Two Up powered by Aeva

Mulholland @ 300fps - Red Epic Super Slowmo powered by Aeva

The Best time to enjoy that stretch of road is around 6pm on a Tuesday night.  No weekend warriors, no millionaires in their garage queen supercars, no nonsense.    I met one of the guys test riding the 1098 Streetfighter for Cycle World on a weekday evening a few years ago.  I also followed an LA County moto once...  I was on my Monster, he was on a big BMW...  I couldn't keep up! 


 

[Slide Panda]

Throwing sand on the road?!  REALLY??!!!   

Do you know how soon someone's ass would be kicked over the side of the mountain if they were caught doing that? 

Yeah tossing sand = peeing in your own pool, and drinking it 

As noted it's a coincidence of people who lack sufficient skill/sense pushing too hard. Now, the fact there are cameras there might, anecdotally, contribute to more crashes as folks are probably pushing harder to get a glamour shot.. and end up getting a shame shot. But no one is tossing stuff in the road. There might be some more crud due to people running wide and dragging it back in - but as mentioned the locals usually police for that and will have brooms.

I know at deals gap, KillBoy, his photogs and other locals carry brooms and actively work to keep the road clear of mess. They spray paint warnings  and arrows on the road as well to warn of extra tight or complex turns and direction changes - I'd bet there's some of that on Mulholland too.

And as that car video and other show - people with PLENTY of grip still run wide, or worse cut the corner on roads like that due to lack of skill or sense.

[dark_duc]

I like this on board perspective.   

NEW - DUCATI 1199 PANIGALE S ON MULHOLLAND powered by Aeva

[cokey]

So its an uphill turn..  is it a late apex, think wat its called,  there?   Recommend speed?

[$Lindz$]

Besides people getting scared or not knowing what they are doing on a bike, there are a few reasons why people (myself included once) crash in that corner.

1. That corner is "tricky" because it's not very difficult. It's pretty long but it's neither tight and slow nor is it sweeping and fast.

2. The speed (as you can see in Adey's video) is between 40-45mph. And no more.... That's the important part! If you get greedy and try to roll on the gas a bit earlier or a bit harder you run out of room on the exit and you have to keep the bike leaned over to turn. That's when the rear will spin up and slide.

3. THE SPEED IS 40-45mph, NO MORE!!!

4. The right hand kink and short straight leading up to is the root cause for most of the crashes. You can really get going (like Bacon Junkie said) and then easily overcook it in the braking zone, get distracted, target fixation, lock the rear, tuck the front, run a shitty line, etc.


My personal choice was to get greedy on the throttle application the first time I rode my R6 up there (coming from only riding my S4RS). Spun the rear and let is lowside off into the dirt at the corner exit. I had just bought the bike and didn't have good tires (plus ended up I had a leaky fork too).

[Slide Panda]

Here we have an example if rider error. In this case too much lean vice foot position (and bad foot wear) causes a toe to scrape and rider to panic stand up the bike and run wide. In the slow mo you can see the rider 'jump' away from the inside pulling up the bike... that wasn't it for them though - they target fixated and went in. They could have rode it out if they kept their eyes on the prize. Even with standing up the bike they still would have made it.

Mulholland GSXR 750 Crash 5/20/2012 powered by Aeva

[Silver King]

^ The pink mohawk!!!  I can't stop laughing. 

[Slide Panda]

Re-reviewing that, they also were on the front brake when the wheel left the pavement, causing it to lock up. Probably all happened to quickly for reaction that wasn't practiced - but being off the front into the dirt might have kept the bike up... *might*

And yeah, it's hard to feel as much pity for folks with helmet hawks or similar 'look at me' adornments.

[jaxduc]

guess those frame sliders didn't hold up so well... 

[Slide Panda]

DON'T LOOK AT THE ROCKS

Motorcycle Crashes Into Hillside - July 28, 2012 powered by Aeva

[jaxduc]

you always wonder if the guy is a seasoned riding veteran or just a squid riding outside his limits

[Triple J]

you always wonder if the guy is a seasoned riding veteran or just a squid riding outside his limits

Not really

[JohnEE]

I just came to post sadpanda's video......he should have dumped before trying to go trail riding on his R6, plastics and levers are easier to fix than engine cases......my 0.02

[Slide Panda]

Going back to pink mohawk - if you're about to run off the road don't grab that front brake. They might have been able to ride it out on the rear brake. But they locked up the front brake (very easy in dirt w/ street tires) and it dived in. 

[duccarlos]

There is so much fail in the guy trying to scale the hillside with an R6.