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by redbluff 1113 days ago
Highsides are unrelated to tankslappers - it is a totally different concept, as discussed in another post. As stated in the article the highside is caused by rear breaking traction and then regaining it while the bike is crossed up, sending you either over the bars or skyward. My own recent highside (6 weeks ago) was caused by an engine seizure after a downchange from fifth in a third gear corner in qualifying. I had the bike leaned over, let out the clutch lever and because of the lean angle the bike rear kicked to the left, grabbed, kicked right and threw me over the bars. Well, so I was told - I do not remember the crash, waking up in the medical centre.

Highsides are particularly nasty, especially if you are knocked out so that you cannot control your crash and get rag dolled.
2 comments
MarkMarine 1113 days ago
You can highside by locking the rear, but the common highside you see on track is pushing the rear tire past its limit of traction, while having a heavy load on the rear suspension. As the tire breaks traction, the rear suspension unloads, the tire catches because the force the suspension was putting into the tire is gone and now it only has to support its grip, the rear suspension loads heavily now that the tire has grip and the spring reacts in the way you’d expect. Boing. The yaw angle induced is enough to fling the rider off. I’ve high sided off and then once the bike was free of me it just started riding straight. Happy it was free of the problem.
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ksimukka 1113 days ago
Glad that you are ok. Engine seizures/failures are a frustrating way to end a race.
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redbluff 1113 days ago
For relative values of OK - right collarbone/shoulder/4 ribs, right knee ACL (fortunately micro tears, not snapped) and a traumatic brain injury (big bleed). I had lowsided the previous round after losing the front and that was fine, you slide along the track, controlling the fall and slide. In the last one was pitched head first into the track, knocked out and got severely rag dolled.
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trilbyglens 1113 days ago
Maybe you should find a different sport...
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defrost 1113 days ago
Splashing about in reef breaks off the south coast is a lot a fun .. and water's soft, right?

https://youtu.be/xjHaFOGBPzk?t=144

( As a physics note, you don't often see a three lipped wave:

https://youtu.be/xjHaFOGBPzk?t=346

)

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ksimukka 1113 days ago
Ouch
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