If you haven’t already, see my previous post, which resurrected a column I wrote in 2006 about riders who said they “had to lay it down” to explain a motorcycle crash. In that original piece, I asked for reader comments, including “any remotely plausible scenario” in which it was better for a motorcycle to be skidding down the road on its side than to be upright and on its tires on asphalt. Here is my followup column from 2006 that gave readers their say.
Laying it down, revisted
A co-worker just chuckled when he saw my previous column, inviting readers to write to me if they disagreed with my opinions about motorcyclists “laying it down.”
“You’re asking for it,” he warned.
True, I was. But with eyes wide open.
I promised I’d print responses from those who could come up with “even a remotely plausible scenario” when it made sense to intentionally drop a functioning motorcycle on its side on asphalt.
The responses were many. Too many to publish them all. But I will provide representative samples. The responses fall into three general categories.
First, there were those who took my challenge and wrote in with a “plausible scenario” plucked from their own experience or, in some cases, their impressively fertile imaginations. Second, one reader said he had laid a bike down once and was convinced it was the right thing to do. And third was the biggest group of readers, who criticized the idea of “laying it down,” often in sharper terms than I’d chosen.
So here’s what you had to say.
Among the “plausible scenarios,” two common themes emerged, both included in this message.
Ordinarily, “laying it down” should not be done. However, there may be one or two exceptions.
Instead of hitting a low guard rail and sailing over a cliff, it may be better to lay the bike down to avoid sailing over the cliff.
Another possibility may be if it is impossible to stop before hitting a semi. Laying it down and sliding underneath may result in less serious injuries.
These two situations are probably highly unusual.
Frank E.
Personally, I hope they stay highly unusual. Although another reader said he actually witnessed the “slide under a semi” scenario.
After several MSF courses and 30-plus years of riding experience (20-plus on the street), I also feel that “laying it down” is due to lack of training or knowledge by many motorcyclists.
On the other hand, when I was in junior high school, I remember seeing a semi-truck do the dreaded left turn in front of a motorcyclist. It may have been a purposeful maneuver or it may have been a total panic and loss-of-control situation, but the guy “laid it down” and slid right under the trailer and into a curb. He was probably lucky not to get run over by the trailer’s tires. I remember he lost a lot of skin due to the “protective T-shirt” he was wearing.
Daniel S.
I, too, would be awfully worried about getting run over by the rear eight of those 18 wheels, if this maneuver failed. In addition to the semi, a few readers mentioned the low-wall scenario.
I have heard of one situation where it might be preferable to lay it down. Picture yourself on a bridge or overpass with relatively low sidewalls. If you were to run into the sidewall it might stop the bike, but the rider could then be propelled over the side. In that situation, the slide into the sidewall could stop both the bike and the rider, which might be preferable to a long fall and a landing in the middle of a river or interstate traffic below.
John B.
Unfortunately, nobody who suggested this scenario ever gave me an explanation of why you’d be aimed at the side wall of a bridge at anything other than a shallow angle in the first place. If an obstacle were completely blocking the bridge ahead, how would you turn the bike 45 to 90 degrees in the space of a lane or two to aim yourself at a side wall and then still have time to intentionally fling the bike on its side?
Then there was one reader who, by his own admission, took “remotely plausible” to an extreme.
I was glad to read your article, and I agree that “layin’ her down” isn’t a good habit to get into.
I did, however, come up with a “remotely plausible scenario,” as you put it. If I were about to get hit by lightning and felt the tingle of an impending strike, I think it would make sense to get as low as I could, and therefore lay her down.
OK, my idea is heavy on the “remotely” and a ways away from “plausible,” but it’s an idea I had once when there were thunderstorms all around me and my thoughts wandered to “What would I do if…?”
Don
OK, but how would you feel if you felt a “tingle,” intentionally crashed your bike, and then lightning didn’t strike anywhere near?
Only one reader wrote in to tell me he had laid down a bike in a crash (with his wife as a passenger, even!) and believed it was the right thing to do.
Last fall a pickup truck pulled out in front of me and stopped in my lane. I started braking, but quickly realized there was not enough room between him and me to stop. I quickly surveyed the road beyond the truck and could not determine if traffic was approaching and also I did not know, if I swerved in front of him, whether he might start moving into my path again. The ditch was not an option due to posts, signs, and trees. I felt my only option was to go down, which I did. The pickup did not move and my bike slid under the truck.
I wish I didn’t have to go down, but I felt it better to lay down than to go face-to-face into the side of a pickup truck.
Dwight C.
Since he was the only one to say he had benefited from this maneuver, I asked him to explain, step by step, how he did it. He replied, adding that he and his wife spent some time in the hospital emergency department for tests and X-rays but largely emerged from the crash uninjured. As for how he laid the bike down, he said:
After evaluating the options, I simply laid over to the right. I can’t tell you any particulars because I had no experience with doing it, but it just seemed so natural as the thing to do… I wish I could tell you in more detail how I went about laying the bike down, but it’s hard to do in written form and I am not sure if I can remember any more than explained above. I feel in panic situations … your natural instincts kick in. That and the Lord above kept his hand upon us.
His inability to describe the procedure for laying a motorcycle down, even after doing it himself, is something that came up in several messages from people who agreed with me that it should never be done.
Something that makes even the faithful pause is to point out that in order to become proficient at any skill, one has to practice, practice, practice. Then I ask, “Whose bike are you going to practice ‘laying it down’ with? If you don’t practice the skill, how are you going to execute it properly under the stress of a developing bad situation?”
No one wants to use their motorcycle to practice throwing it down. No one has given me a plausible answer for my second question, either.
Nicole O.
Some were more harshly critical of the “laying it down” concept than I was.
I think people will say this because it sounds a lot better than “I &^%#ed up and crashed.” Fortunately, those of us who know better know what they’re really saying.
Jaime C.
A few current and former MSF instructors wrote in to agree with my take.
I’m still horrified when I hear some “veteran” rider (read: one year’s experience 20 times) suggest that laying a bike down is a legitimate strategy. Like you, I’ve come to the conclusion that laying a bike down is a consequence of bad braking technique rather than a conscious decision. I’m reminded of the scene in “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” where Pee Wee Herman crashes his bicycle and then tells witnesses, “I meant to do that.”
John F.
There was one response that didn’t fit into those three categories. So the last word has to go to Eddie James, the former AMA Road Riding director and Iron Butt Rally competitor.
Sometimes it is a necessity, Mr. Knows-It-All. For example: One time I went to get off my bike and learned that the kickstand had fallen off somewhere along my ride. I had no choice but to “lay ‘er down” until suitable parts to repair the bike could be obtained. So there.
Rev. Eddie James
P.S. — Last night I was holding the TV remote control when the phone rang. As I was holding a Dr. Pepper in the other hand, I looked at the remote and knew I “had to lay ‘er down” while I answered the phone.
As usual, it’s impossible (not to mention pointless) to argue with Eddie.
