Thankfully, no one was (seriously) injured in the making of this video. High five for helmets!
Video: Brutal Bike-on-Biker collision
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More
Subscribe
48 Comments
Holy crap! That guy just had a major brain fart. I can’t believe someone didn’t come out paralyzed. Good to hear no one was seriously hurt. That’s the biggest reason why I don’t ride on the road. I prefer dirt or canals. On a mountain bike you can see the danger coming. On a road bike the danger is lurking up behind you.
This is a road well known for motorcyclists to ride, as I believe I read there is a shop nearby that’s a big gathering point for them. This corner is a popular spotting point to photograph those guys, just like there are people who regularly film/shoot photos of random people driving the Tail of the Dragon.
This is Mulholland drive upper part of the Rock store climb. There are hundreds of cyclists, and motorcycles on this part of the road and thousands on the weekend. This is one of the best parts of the road to film, as there is no tree cover below so you can track someone riding down low all the way through the hairpin corner. We all know there are risks and people make mistakes, these poor cyclists were at the wrong place at the wrong time. I hope they are back riding soon.
@craig: He doesn’t overcook the corner; he looks to be riding a perfectly reasonable speed and takes a perfectly controlled line into the cyclists. This is a classic case of target fixation: he was staring at the cyclists, and he rode where he was staring. It’s hard to know what you will do when panic sets in, as I was reminded when I saw a video of myself riding straight into a crash without turning or braking at a local weeknight crit. I’m just glad everyone in this video seemed okay.
I still don’t understand how the motorcyclist couldn’t have avoided the cyclists. He is either a rookie rider or this was intentional. He seemed controlled and slow enough to maneuver away. The “at least nothing is bleeding” comment is infuriating. Must be nice to have a full riding suit and no road rash.
I do not mean to defend the motorist because the cyclists are clearly in the right here, but come on you guys, you really mean to say this was intentional? Irrational statements do not help situations like these. It sucks big time to be the motorcyclist… if that was me, i’d feel like an idiot, and in no way could I make up for causing something like this to the cyclists or myself.
Target fixation is a real thing, and motorcycles aren’t cars. You can’t just brake hard and turn. Wearing full leathers shows a sign of intelligence, not battle armor for bumper bikes. The motorcyclist is in the wrong and misjudged his abilities, but it’s not like he was on a roadie hunt or wanted to play smash up with human landing pads. Would it have been better if he were in flip flops and a tank top?
Its interesting to look at the slow motion portion of the video and stop the video as often as one can.
First, the motorcyclist seems to be leaning while steering, not countersteering.
At 14 seconds he sees the cyclists and panics!
You can see that he starts to stand up in a sudden way, the motorbike goes up …
At 16 to 19 seconds arms are rigid, he clearly doesnt know where to go, he brakes (look at the fork’s compression). At 20 secondes he brakes hard.
A series of mistakes due to surprise/panic that lead to target fixation.
We’ve seen it done counteless times by pro cyclist on TV.
Let’s learn from this instead of insulting the motorcyclist.
I’m sure he feels enough guilt at the moment.
Concur on many points mentioned here.
Also just want to add:
a. Looks as if biker was looking up the road into the next corner
b. Starts to come out wide in preparation for next corner
c. Notices bikes and looses sight of his target (corner)
d. Is now wide on the road directly behind cyclists.
e. FAILURE – Biker fixes on cyclist and bike rights itself to go strait into them.
SO glad it looks like all ended up not as bad as it could have been. I would say biker has simply found themselves in a situation at a time with too little experience to cope with the circumstances.
HOPE biker takes some real time to evaluate their desire to continue biking and if they wish to would recommend they start taking track days which make a big difference to rider ability. Actually would say MANDATORY to get out on the track and practice where they can not hurt others.
“Two Wheels Good” – Just need be careful how we use them
Goats
Coming from someone who rides both bicycles and motorcycles, the motorcyclist was clearly an amateur rider and was absolutely at fault. You can see in the second or two before he hits the bikers that he panics and hits his brakes, which in the middle of a corner will cause the motorcycle to stand up and track straight. If he was more experienced, he would’ve leaned and pressed on the throttle, causing him to tighten into the corner more and miss the bicyclists.
The speed also was not over done into the corner, the motorcyclist simply didn’t know how to corner properly and fixated on the wrong target (the bicyclists). The old adage of “you go where you look” seems to play itself out perfectly in this case. Glad everyone is going to be ok, this could have ended up way worse.
For more news on the cyclist and state of health
(Talk about bad luck, a British guy visiting his Californian buddy) …
I dont know but I saw yesterday a video in Youtube were a motorcycle rider was running from the highway patrol in the same place, first going downhill and after a while (I think the patrol cant catch it) the same rider appear going in uphill, looks the sme place of the crash.
By the way I was injuried last year while training for a Tri with my bike, I was hit and run by one guy. I know what’s the feeling of the guy very well. Hope get well soon.
To change direction you have to initiate a turn by countersteering.
A study a looong time ago (from memory about 30 years) showed that in emergency situations around 90% (I think, it was a long time ago) of motorcyclists steer TOWARDS the object they are trying to avoid. It was theorized that this was as a result of inexperienced motorcyclists not understanding countersteering, and as a result in a panic situation, turning the bars away from object they are trying to avoid. This , of course, steers them directly towards it.
Just watched the local news here in LA. The camera man was a avid cyclist out with his family. He was just tracking motorcycles as they pasted and happened to catch the crash, if you want to call it that.
LA has a epidemic of deadly hit and runs on cyclist and peds. Laws need to change. I can’t count the number of times I have been buzzed while lane 1 has no cars in it for a few blocks. People just don’t care and they need to be reminded about the weapons they drive!
Unfortunately this is the case of target fixation. The motorcyclist saw the cyclists and focused on them rather then where he wanted to go. Not saying it makes it ok but he was not speeding recklessly he just did not focus on where he needed to go. I ride road bikes and motorcycles and feel for both parties in this case.
Generalee- that’s what I was thinking. That motorcyclist is going to be real surprised when the damage check comes. He probably has no idea how much those lightweight cycling components cost relative to his motorcycle.
This youtube recorder has a very popular channel as has been mentioned (also for the reasons mentioned; there is an open spot and quite a few crashes happen at this corner on a run known as Tail of the Dragon). So he just plants himself and records. I don’t believe that he is an avid cyclist, but I don’t know. He was recording the motorcycles. He often records the crashes then the damage like this video showed. I’m not sure if that’s what you’re talking about Myke?
@Fabricio-
This video that you’re talking about is a pretty funny event. I’ve seen it and it turns out the guy “running” on a DRZ is actually just out for a ride and the cop was responding to a different call down the road, it just looked like he was running to the bystanders because of the timing. When he returned after his loop, everyone was cheering because they thought he got away and he had no idea what they were cheering for.
@George, lighten up, please. Alex shows genuine concern for the cyclists, and while they are not at fault, had they been 20 seconds sooner or later they wouldn’t have had this trouble (hence the wrong place/wrong time comment). Your comment, on the other hand, has cycling elitist implied in it. Who knows how this moto rider responded to a genuine accident? I won’t make my judgment on his road manners until I know…
As a motorcycle rider with 20+ years of seat time, I think the guy on the motorcycle was totally at fault for running too wide and the failing to correct effectively. When I don’t have clear sight lines I always stay clear of shoulders and center lines because I don’t know what’s around the bend and I want some space to deal with that. If he had come out just a little bit further from the fog line and headed for the apex of the turn he would have cleared the cyclists.
BTW the guy saying “the nice part is, nothing is bleeding terribly” appears to be another cyclist and not the bonehead on the Ducati.
the biker hit the corner too fast for his skill level. physics dictate the rest. the bike drifts. lawyerknowitall can take the biker’s money, but in court the biker loses. nobody has a right to run over or into any other vehicle on the road. meanwhile, it’s a presumption to say the biker feels bad. if you visit any biker sites where this video is on display, you certainly won’t get the impression other bikers feel bad. some of them think it’s cool, and trumpet the fact the biker is better protected for the crash than the cyclist and didn’t get hurt at all. isn’t that special?
@Craig. It’s also a presumption to think he doesn’t (and unfair to group his reaction with other people’s comments). It is unclear of his particular response at this point, and if you read the motorcyclist comments , many DO condemn him as well. There are a few pricks that it’s easy to focus on, just like a couple of reactions on this particular site. Instant judgment gets nowhere, but is all too easy to do on a two minute video clip on the internet.
I’ve been watching this guys videos for a while now. Every weekend there are a bunch of crashes due to inexperienced motorcyclists. I always think ever time I see one of his videos that one of these days an idiot on a motorcycle or fast car is going to kill some poor cyclists going up this road.
I’m glad everyone seemed to have walked away to some degree, they need way more police up there especially in that corner!
God, its called an accident FFS. I am sure the motorcyclist didn’t go out that morning with the intention of harming anyone (or himself) You guys (north americans) sue anything that moves, its really sad. And before you ask, I cycle to and from work and locally as well as mountain bike, and use my motorcycle for longer trips or carrying heavy loads.
