Fatality on Devil's Whip (NC)

[1olbull]

Am not that political correct. They were dumb $sses. Typical of that make of bike.

Amigo,
Are youse speaking of guys that ride/own HD . . . like you???

 

[sonny]

My Harley has never been layed down. Then again do not consider myself the average Harley Rider. Did have some fun coming home today from work with a few on the infamous Milwaukee Eights. They had a real hard time with the fact that a 2010 Harley Fatboy smoked them. Yes rode the Harley today. Then again it ain't a Harley it is S&S conversion.

 

[TURBO200R4]

i don't usually think that others that make a mistake r funny.
but those two riders r funny
and i give a to the guy that has the camera
now that is the type of riders u do not want to be riding with

 

[Ishrub]

Here ya go..... "harley davidson owners ride off cliff - YouTube"

Not sure what happened there, but I think it has to do with inertia and velocity like @1olbull was saying. I'm probably misquoting him (going by memory) as I failed physics.

In the video they were going very slow around the very steep and sharp climbing turn. Later in the the first bike rider who came off said he "hit a hole'' in the side of the road but this does not seem to support that claim as the 2nd bike passed the first as he started to fall over and he was stepping off at this instant before the bike actually went over the cliff. The 2nd bike's rider which had passed him looked back and made the most serious and silly error.

The 3rd and 4th shot shows the camber and road where the 1st rider came off. The spot is in a straight line between the base of rider's visor and the Harley front wheel in #3 and at the base of the RH mirror stem in screen shot #4. Besides the ridiculously small shoulder the line was actually painted on asphalt sloping down the slope and there appears to be a depression with a ridge of asphalt in the 12" inside the line. This often occurs with soft roads and steep corners with heavy vehicles often forming them here in Oz. I believe at slow speed on a tight RH turn he rode over this ridge which rolled his front end and with a lack of forward motion and speed he lost balance and stepped off causing the bike to go down with him. If he had not been on such a steep climbing turn he may have been able to get his foot down and regained his balance but as the slope fell away steeply under him he never got to put his foot down until he was off the bike. He was silly to ride such a tight line on such a steep road with no shoulder.

The 2nd rider has no excuses at all.

 

[Journeyman]

at slow speed on a tight RH turn he rode over this ridge which rolled his front end and with a lack of forward motion and speed he lost balance and stepped off causing the bike to go down with him.
The 2nd rider has no excuses at all.

Putt, putt, putt. If you are going so slow that you literally have to balance the bike and you lose forward motion (momentum) on a highway with traffic behind you, you shouldn't be riding. As you said, the 2nd rider has no excuses at all- target fixation.


This reinforces my theory that going slower is not always safer. As a general rule faster may be less safe, but there are so many situations where speeding up gets you out of danger. However, I'm not sure these guys should be going any faster on a motorcycle. Edit: These guys should not be on a motorcycle.

 

[tdragger]

I'm not sure if they were all riding together. It looks like the Harleys were holding up a group of squids. The Harleys may have tried to ride the right track to let the squids around. The first rider got caught in a too sharp of a corner in the wrong place. It's an 'ah sh$t' moment. The second rider, geez, that was just bad.

 

[Joesmoe]

Another reason I prefer for groups to spread out.

Here is the actual video:

 

[Ted Biggie]

Another reason I prefer for groups to spread out.

Here is the actual video:

I live about 10 minutes from that road. It's a real b$%ch of a curve. It's a climbing/descending curve with about 10 degrees of camber. The surrounding landscape makes it worse, and if you're not in "Harley First" gear this is what happens. Every Weekend. Had one of the guys in our group on a Ducati fly off into the brambles coming down the curve. Says he got vertigo and simply fell off bike .

 

[Joesmoe]

Where is that road ?

 

[tdragger]

Right here:

Southwest of Austin. Ridden that road many, many times.