Austrian GP crash

If you need bottle to take the risks, you probably should not be racing. If your bike is set-up properly and you adjust to it, racing should be easy - no anxiety. It takes bottle to climb back onto a bike after you have crashed, especially if your next ride is not immediately after you have crashed. If you get straight back onto the bike and race again, your crash means nothing.
I have been lucky. I've only had one crash where I could not ride in the next race due to injury. But the one serious injury I had, really stopped me for a long time.
I will admit one thing, I would always be too scared to ride on the IOM and possibly in the Ulster GP. - Discretion is the better part of valour.
In Australia, I do not race at Broadford. The circuit has both blind and off-camber corners. When I aim my bike at a corner, my head has to be around the corner as I approach it. If I go to Broadford, I would most likely neck myself.
 
The definition of bottle in the southern hemisphere might be different to the one in the northern hemisphere.
Some people have confidence in themselves and their bike to lean it over at all speeds from 20mph to 150mph, some don't.
P.S. there are many, many off chamber corners probably more so than positive chamber corners, they are put there by the race circuit designer to sort the wheat from the chaff, If you cannot ride these tracks, you are not as good as you think you are.
 
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There seems to be an idea here, that race circuits are intentionally created to be difficult. I think the opposite is the truth. Broadford circuit was created to fit the landscape in the best possible way . When it was built, the CEO of Winton raceway was consulted. He said 'if you build it like that, it will be dangerous' - And it is. I would race there, but I'd need to be much more careful. My problem Is, I know the way I ride and what would happen. The whole thing is a dog's breakfast, but if taken slowly could be a lot of fun. It is very three-dimensional. Mount Gambier circuit used to be dangerous, but I'd ride there any day in preference to Broadford, even though it is 400 Km further away. Mount Gambier now has smooth top instead of half inch screenings bedded down. Good grip is good as long as you don't land on it. My friend lost half his hand when he crashed on it, back in the old days. The local council was involved in the circuit and got sued when somebody got badly injured, so it changed for the better..
 
In Australia, the controlling body does the track inspections. They also do the track inspections at Broadford - which they own. When you use bollocks to go racing, your bollocks are being held by the track inspectors.
 
Lots of guys who race do not know what game they are involved in. If you look at racing from the promoters' point of view, you find you are in the entertainment business. From the controlling bodies' point of view you are involved in a sport. In Australia, the controlling body is no longer a riders' union, it is a corporation which sometimes acts as a promoter. If a fatality occurs, the Coroner gets involved and also one of the government departments - the Statutory Authority. Recently a fatality occurred at Winton, and the Statutory Authority was challenged on the basis that the riders are involved in a sport, not a workplace activity. What is seldom considered is the effect a fatality has on riders' and promoters' insurance. If you consider racing to be a sport. the riders will always fund it. Gate takings at racing events in Australia are almost zero. When we do a track inspection, we usually walk the circuit - we don't approach the corners at high speed. On Winton there are two places where the riders face a wall as they come out of a corner, when you remove one hazard, you often create another. - But money talks.
When you talk about having bollocks, you are being silly. The whole thing is forensic and depends on competence and luck. You have to be unlucky to be killed in a motorcycle race. The last guy who was killed at Winton threw his bike away as he braked for a corner in the wet. The bike went off at an angle and he followed it. The bike hit a tyre barrier and reversed direction - the rear wheel hit the rider in the chest as he arrived after it. The incidents which kill are usually the nasty little ones - not the great big get-offs.
 
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Zarco's Ducati. As someone said, "That wont polish out".

Austrian GP crash
 
Many years ago I was told by a friend Nigel " you were going well there" it was very wet & I was. 7th at Pembrey really chuffed.
Nigel's wife Angie told me later I was only 2 seconds a lap slower in the wet than my lap times in the dry!
Loved them for it.
Always made me smile, because the underlying fact is
I just wasnt riding fast enough in the dry. Lol
 
acotrel said:
In Australia, the controlling body does the track inspections. They also do the track inspections at Broadford - which they own. When you use bollocks to go racing, your bollocks are being held by the track inspectors.
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Can we install a swear box on acotrels computer desk?
 
There is a lot of politics in motorcycle racing. What somebody's friend wants, often goes. The simple fact is, most of the guys will race anywhere, regardless of any safety considerations. If you get smart, you choose where you ride to suit your bike.
 
Fast Eddie said:
Oh yes. Been there and done that !
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More fool you.
I make a point to myself when I've fell off to deliberately lay myself as flat as I can, and stay down until I've stopped sliding. . . . . .
True I've scrubbed some leather.
 
Bernhard said:
More fool you.
I make a point to myself when I've fell off to deliberately lay myself as flat as I can, and stay down until I've stopped sliding. . . . . .
True I've scrubbed some leather.
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Well done you.
I’ll try and remember your patronising teaching next time.
 
Fast Eddie said:
Well done you.
I’ll try and remember your patronising teaching next time.
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I'm not tryto be patronising, it's something that is taught in motorcycle racing schools, if you fall off, lay down and make yourself as flat as you can, as it's the friction between your leathers and the tarmac that will slow you down. Some people want to get up quickly, but too quickly, the end result is they are still going faster than their little legs can carry them! They end up with egg on their face a second time. :)
 
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Once I am off, I usually try to keep my legs together and slightly bent, and I keep my arms together in front of me also sightly bent. Then I relax and just let it happen. Once when I was wearing an open face helmet, I gave myself a fat lip. If the surface grabs you and you roll, you get hurt worse. But if you slide and meet a ripple in the road, it is easy to end up dead. We all need to be choosie about where we stick our necks out.
These days, I go nowhere near crashing because anything which was going to happen to me has already happened and I have learned from each experience. I'm not a good road racer, but I know how to avoid ending up on the ground.
Some riders are afraid to let go of the handle bars and gran the tank when they get into a tank-slapper - so they get launched. When that stuff happens, you always have plenty of time - except when you lock the front brake and it does it's own thing.
 
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Bernhard said:
I'm not tryto be patronising, it's something that is taught in motorcycle racing schools, if you fall off, lay down and make yourself as flat as you can, as it's the friction between your leathers and the tarmac that will slow you down. Some people want to get up quickly, but too quickly, the end result is they are still going faster than their little legs can carry them! They end up with egg on their face a second time. :)
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Try harder.
 
Bernhard said:
Good job you never went to a motorcycle racing school, you would, in your case, found them too patronising. . . . . :(
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Glad to see you’re improving.

Look, if you don’t think that ‘more fool you’ isn’t patronising, when you know nothing about the person or event concerned, then you are simply ignorant.
 
Barry Sheene refused to race on the IOM. Are the heroes now saying he had no bollocks ? IOMTT would still be part of MotoGP racing. Sometimes common sense must prevail. When you stand out side the fence of a race circuit, the racing always looks slow - unless you have actually done it.
 
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