When you crash.......

[shereen]

I was thinking about this last night.

What should you do in a crash, obviously with some crashes rolling or sliding might not apply, but in the type of crashes that they do apply, what is better?

Sliding leaves the option of flailing legs and arms which are more likely to sustain an injury.

Tucking and rolling seems the better option to me, being tucked in would help protect your vitals from injury, less chance of broken legs/arms, but rolling into something could cause a lot of damage, although saying that so would sliding into the same object.

What do you guys think?
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[Zombeh]

You're welcome to attempt the 'tuck and roll' when you crash but I think that the forces involved will make it rather difficult to control your limbs in any meaningful way (if you're traveling at any reasonable speed).

Obviously tuck and roll during a 10mph crash would be hilarious.

[Baisemontchou]

That's assuming you have a choice!

The three accidents I have had on a bike have involved:

Recent
1: Bike landing ontop of me giving me no choice except slide for a few metres acting as a human airbag.

20 years ago
2: KE100 going one way into a bush, me flying other way into softer bush while attempting off-road course, if I'd had presence of mind I'd probably have attempted some kind of Ninja landing, but opted instead for general flailing arms and legs.

3: KE100 sliding out from under me on diesel spill leaving me to slide on my backside on same diesel spill.

So I guess sliding, but not really by choice.
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[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

General consensus from race types is to go limp so you stand less chance of damaging yourself.

In my experience you don't have the time to think about what do, one minute you're on the bike, then next, something's gone a bit wrong and it's skidding up the road.
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[shereen]

Its all well and good going limp if you crash on tracks as you have very little to hit. On the road it is a differnet story.

I was under the impression that just by tucking your legs and arms in slighty it forces your body into a roll.
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[supZ]

i plan to go full superman pose as i soar across the bonnet.

both have their negatives..

rolling actually increases your chance of breaking arms/legs as they can get caught under you. as you roll over you'll just break it; plus you have the added disorientation. sliding could cause you to move further than you otherwise would into the path of cars/hit curbs/trees etc..

on balance id prefer to slide.
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[MarJay]

slide.

Rolling induces flailing which causes broken limbs. As long as you've got abrasion resistant clothing, you're better off sliding.
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[Shinigami]

I just landed straight onto my shoulder, all my weight and the force of impact, while this did preserve most of my body, my shoulder broke in 2 places. I didn't really have a choice in how I landed as reaction time was pretty much nothing.

I reckon 9 out of 10 times you'll land however you happen to land
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[Derivative]

[G]

First off; if you're going to plan it; I'd plan not to crash .

Then; I'd still go for a slide in 'most any situation I can think off.

For a start, I would guess a slide would reduce your speed better than rolling. Sliding gives a better contact patch for friction, while rolling by nature is going to reduce the friction.

Pulling limbs in may well increase the speed of rotation (get on a kids roundabout with a couple of people, run around to get it going fast on the outside, then get everyone to pull themselves in to the middle.) However, if I was rolling, I'd still probably want to do that.
Though, when I have rolled I've been lucky enough that even though I've stuck my arms out, it's been slow enough that I've stopped myself rolling.

I would expect rolling is a lot more likely to induce flailing limbs - and also likely to mean any such flailing limbs will result in breaks. More likely for your arm or leg to end up bent the wrong way around.

Sliding also gives you some control, though not much, of your direction of travel and the ability to react better (just don't try and get up until you're actually going slow, not what feels like slow!)

With more things to hit, I'd say it's even more important to be limp on the road. Not being limp is an issue when you hit something hard - you're a fair bit more likely to break a bone if your muscles are holding it tight.
So generally on the track it's less of an issue I'd say.

[The Shaggy D.A.]

I prefer springing from the bike, double back pike, double back tuck, front lay full to front tuck, back layout double twist and land lightly on my feet whilst grabbing my balls and shouting "Boooyah!".

I don't always get what I prefer though.
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[Hetzer]

I've always tried to grab the ground with everything I've got (slide and stop asap). Fortunately I've never been in an off where I was sent tumbling and cartwheeling.
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[MarkJ]

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[Skudd]

I went for the basic SPLAT. I found it worked well as I'm still here. I was thinking of the SPLODGE or URGH, but the SPLAT felt like the right one.
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[FantasticMrFo...]

Shortly after getting my bike I had quite a bad accident and ended up in intensive care for 2 weeks and had to have my spleen and a kidney removed.

When talking to my consultant at a follow up appointment, he told me that it was the rolling that caused the internal injuries, my legs over took my torso and twisted my abdomen which caused the ruptured spleen and kidney.

If I were wearing my leathers I'd have slid and the damage would have been far less.

Well, according to my consultant that is.

[chris-red]

I've had a few few crashes and have never had one where I had time to make that decision of how I'm going to land.

The following has past through my head mid crash.


"FUCK"
"SHIT"
"DONTRUNOVERMYHEAD"
"YOUCUNT"

You don't really get a chance to make conscious decisions.
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[The Shaggy D.A.]

[recman]

[The999Kid]

[Old Git Racing]

Having binned it 70+ times on road and track I think I can contribute. 80% of the time you don't have a choice, it just happens like it does. The other 20% where a choice is available is usually taken care of by your brains auto survival instinct, e.g. getting off the bike before it hits something solid, choosing to go through a hedge rather than hitting a car etc.
As for sliding versus tumbling I can definitely recommend sliding, assuming you don't hit anything solid. Tumbling causes impact injuries, internal injuries etc. (I speak from experience) I have very rarely broken anything in a 'sliding' crash, even in excess of 100mph.
The fact is you don't have a choice really, except not to get there to start with, and any accident you can walk away from is luck.

OGR
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[Ayrton]

Stupid question really. I doubt you will have the time to willingly think about it, it would be more based on instinct. Like the guy above me said, your brain will just do what it thinks is best at the time. You wont really have the time to think about tucking your legs in or any of that crap.

[G]

In one of my first races I crashed, was able to think "must keep helmet of deck" (as it'd have to be replaced if it got a scratch), then think "oh, that's good that I thought of doing that" while still sliding.

On the road you're probably not going to be that calm.
The only time I have crashed a bike at any speed on the road I was rolling (and got the worst concussion I've ever had); no idea what I thought as I had a small bit of amnesia.