Nasty Outcome for Rider Who Makes a Silly Noob Mistake

When it comes to road-going motorcycles, remaining on the tarmac, and on good tarmac even, is the first thing to keep in mind and avoid crashing. However, as this rider unequivocally demonstrates in the video after the jump, things are not always as easy as one would expect.

Some riders are skilled enough to keep the bike on track even though they are doing something else than watching the road for a brief period. This involves checking luggage or the time, the GPS, changing glasses, picking up a mint from a box or pocket, and so on.

In case you think doing this is a bit dangerous, you're right, because such distractions can easily cause trouble. In most cases, the rider, preoccupied with doing something else, would fail to respond promptly to avoid a road hazard.

Not being able to maintain a firm grip of the bars is also a shortcut to crashing

Back in the day when I was a beginning rider, I also took a similarly silly fall because I wasn't holding the bars of the bike firmly enough. A small hole adjacent to a street car rail was enough to violently change the direction of the front wheel and I was down before I knew what was happening.

Likewise, this rider could have saved the day maybe, in case he held the bars firmly, manhandling the Drifter to get back on the road. His speed was low, and he had good chances to simply force the front onto flat road while throttling on and forcing the rear to climb, too.

All in all, this chap will have to spend a bit on a new mirror, new bar-end caps, some chrome polishing or a new floorboard and all, plus some painkillers and ointments, and new jeans. That's one more totally avoidable crash that was not avoided, but was transformed into a very good piece of educational footage.