Why does a motorcycle highside

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Street high-side crashes can be as brutal as a MotoGP crash. Husqvarna Norden We hope you enjoy this episode! When one occurs, the rider is actually thrown in front of the bike. The results of such an accident can be deadly. The rider is not only in danger of suffering injuries from the fall, but they also run the risk of colliding with the bike itself.

In order to increase your motorcycle safety, it is important to understand the causes behind a high side. Only when you educate yourself can you take the proper precautions and avoid a serious motorcycle injury. High sides predominantly happen when a motorcycle is in a turn.

In any of these scenarios, too much rear brake pressure can cause the rear brake to suddenly seize and lock. The rear tire then begins to lose traction, which causes the bike to lose speed and flip.

The end resulting being that the rider is thrown from the bike. You can see how much damage is caused to the bike even in this low-speed crash. The rider is lucky to have minimal injuries despite wearing little in the way of protective clothing.

Heavy bikes with large amounts of bodywork or low pegs are more likely to be at risk of this type of accident. You can see in this crash that the rider applies too much throttle and loses grip extremely quickly on the back wheel.

This could have been because the throttle was applied too quickly which allowed the wheel to break traction or, if it was applied gradually it simply exceeded the level of possible grip. This is less common for learner riders because the bikes are not powerful enough. The rider in this crash is either carrying too much speed or uses too much front brake or both. In the slow motion replay you can see the front wheel lock as it slips sideways so the rider was still braking and exceeded the level of friction available on the road.

Learner riders commonly carry too much speed into corners. As you can see from all the above relatively low-speed lowside crashes, the riders walk away fairly unscathed.