This is why I'm not into "track days"

killerkeith said:
How I ride a bike has nothing to do with why I don't like track riding. The video I posted can happen at any track day. Yahoos who don't know each other with nothing to lose and everything to prove.





Comparing a 20 mph single vehicle accident in an empty hairpin on the street with a 70 mph crash on the track resulting in a guy getting run the **** over is ludicrous. Come on Scott...this is really reaching. I would hope that any rider behind me could react in time at 20 mph with clear visibility of the road ahead. Not the case for our friend in the video. (For those of you who have never been to Deals Gap, there are several hairpins you can see on coming traffic before entering the corner).






Here's the money quote. 15 to 20 chances of being involved in a serious accident that could not end well for someone in a weekend. ONE WEEKEND!!! Is that ever the case for street riding, even for a poorly skilled rider like myself? Well, maybe for someone like me. (Saved Boooya the trouble)
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I have been racing for about a year now, crashed a couple of times, mostly my fault a little bit the bike setup, I dusted off the mud of my suit, put on a couple of new clip ons and went right back to racing the next day once, a couple of weeks later the next time.

I used to ride street hard (a least I thought so until i started racing) and about 2 months ago I took a trip to Pennsylvania, I will tell you that I never felt so freaking unsafe on my life than on that trip, there was gravel, cars running wide of the turns etc. I felt a lot safer racing in the rain like we did 3 weeks ago than taking any of those roads.
 
Show me a gnarly track crash and I'll show you ten way-more-horrific crashes involving semis. Both have risks, but I'll agree with the majority here that I'd rather crash on the track than public roads.
 
There's a video, somewhere (live leak?), of a rider in Russia getting slammed into a guard rail by a car or truck and dragged for a good 100 meters or so.

I haven't tracked yet, but I'm pretty sure there's no truck that's gonna grind me against a guard rail there lol
 
killerkeith said:
Comparing a 20 mph single vehicle accident in an empty hairpin on the street with a 70 mph crash on the track resulting in a guy getting run the **** over is ludicrous. Come on Scott...this is really reaching. I would hope that any rider behind me could react in time at 20 mph with clear visibility of the road ahead. Not the case for our friend in the video. (For those of you who have never been to Deals Gap, there are several hairpins you can see on coming traffic before entering the corner)
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Looking at the speedo from the first angle, they were doing around 50 when the bike ran over the rider. Given that the rider was still sliding on the pavement, the closing speed was probably 20-30 mph.

Does that make you feel safer? It shouldn't because it's irrelevant. There are tons of ways to crash on the track and on the street, and bike-on-bike types of crashes like this happen just as much on the street as on the track. The difference is that this is one of the greatest dangers of track riding, while on the street there are hundreds of hazards that are more life-threatening than another biker running you over.

Basically, your fear is irrational.
 
killerkeith said:
Here's the money quote. 15 to 20 chances of being involved in a serious accident that could not end well for someone in a weekend. ONE WEEKEND!!! Is that ever the case for street riding, even for a poorly skilled rider like myself? Well, maybe for someone like me. (Saved Boooya the trouble)
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Are you scared of crashing, or are you scared of being injured? Because if it's the former then you should stick to the street where you are more likely to be injured despite the lower chance of a crash.
 
I'd rather be run over by a bike than a car or semi. And I'd rather crash at the track with an ambulance and no cops to give out careless driving tickets for totaling your bike.
 
I heard the other day some guy drowned, I'm not touching water ever again.
 
So far this year-
track days 5, of those five days of 8 hours of continuous riding by 30-50 people I have seen no serious injuries.
On the street this summer I have tried to put two people back together once on duty and the other off duty. Hitting, or being hit by, cars at 50-80kph does not bode well for the rider(s).

Never had an arm or leg come off with the jacket or pants at the track.

Me personally riding street this year which is maybe 2000km (last year 15,000km) limited due to just keeping bike in track form.
I have almost been hit head on once, rear ended once, sideswiped twice, and hit gravel numerous times all able to ride out but with a bit less experience a couple of the gravel slides could have been fatal.

I personally feel way safer at the track.
 
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I can honestly say that I'd rather crash at the track than anywhere else.
 
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I've crashed 10+ times racing. Mostly at high speed. A couple real spectacular ones too. I'm not dead. Go crash on the 401 and see how you make out
 
That crash reminds me a little of Marco Simoncelli's in 2011. That being said, Rossi and Edwards would probably also be dead if it was on the street. Scary crap happens everywhere, and having a max of a 1 second-ish gap will increase said crap on both. They all walked away, and apparently raced the rest of the day, so good for them, if only everyone who crashed got the same result.
 
kellen said:
I've crashed 10+ times racing. Mostly at high speed. A couple real spectacular ones too. I'm not dead. Go crash on the 401 and see how you make out
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The 401 part of that reply was the first thing I thought of. Could have been a lot worse. As said, at least on the track you have medical staff right there.
 
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