Nasty Target Fixation

[faffi]

Look where you want to go.

 

[ktk_ace]

brakes + tight on the bars too compounded the problem

 

I think a round mirror in the middle of the turn helps road users see who's on the turn thou...

[Kevin Kane]

Eirik;

 

Our resident video Jedi; how do you find this stuff? BTW, great summary on how to not do this. You can see the rider running out to the white line and the question I have is did he target fix on them or was just going too quick for his personal skill set (sic) and just ran wide inadvertantly cutting these unfortunate riders down.

[YellowDuck]

Ah, Mulholland. What a disaster zone.

 

Thankfully it seems like his worst injury was some serious road rash. Could have been much worse.

 

What terrible riding!

[Hotfoot]

You can see the rider running out to the white line and the question I have is did he target fix on them or was just going too quick for his personal skill set (sic) and just ran wide inadvertantly cutting these unfortunate riders down.

 

Well, clearly he WAS exceeding his skill level, as proven by the fact that he HIT something!! However, the rider does not appear to be going exceptionally fast, and he is certainly not leaned way over trying desparely to tighten his turn - in fact he appears to stand the bike UP, instead of trying to turn it more - so I don't really think speed was the primary problem. It looks more like he panicked, staring straight at the thing he didn't want to hit - and simply did not know what to do, so his Survival Reactions took over. Some of the classic SR responses in Twist II include:

Roll off the gas

Tighten on the bars

Fixed attention (on something)

Steering in the direction of the fixed attention

No steering or ineffective steering

Braking errors (over or under braking)

 

If the rider did not know WHAT to do, he probably panicked, grabbed a handful of front brake (which would make the bike run wide), stiffened his arms (also makes the bike run wide) and never attempted to steer away from the bicyclist at all - all classic SR reactions.

 

They should put up a warning on Mulholland that all riders are advised to attend at least one day of California Superbike School before attempting to ride that road.

[ktk_ace]

You can see the rider running out to the white line and the question I have is did he target fix on them or was just going too quick for his personal skill set (sic) and just ran wide inadvertantly cutting these unfortunate riders down.

 

Well, clearly he WAS exceeding his skill level, as proven by the fact that he HIT something!! However, the rider does not appear to be going exceptionally fast, and he is certainly not leaned way over trying desparely to tighten his turn - in fact he appears to stand the bike UP, instead of trying to turn it more - so I don't really think speed was the primary problem. It looks more like he panicked, staring straight at the thing he didn't want to hit - and simply did not know what to do, so his Survival Reactions took over. Some of the classic SR responses in Twist II include:

Roll off the gas

Tighten on the bars

Fixed attention (on something)

Steering in the direction of the fixed attention

No steering or ineffective steering

Braking errors (over or under braking)

 

If the rider did not know WHAT to do, he probably panicked, grabbed a handful of front brake (which would make the bike run wide), stiffened his arms (also makes the bike run wide) and never attempted to steer away from the bicyclist at all - all classic SR reactions.

 

They should put up a warning on Mulholland that all riders are advised to attend at least one day of California Superbike School before attempting to ride that road.

 

That is a brillant idea imho.

[jeffrey8mm]

We were talking about this vid over at the FZ1 Owners Association forums. They guy clearly did not know what to do. There was one idiot on the forums that thought it was funny and called the cyclists a bunch of douches. As a cycle rider myself I took great offense to that.

[anthem]

If I remember correctly the camber on that road changes right when the bike should be picked up. . You can't really see it from the video's, but its pretty noticeable - which is why there are so many crashes there. It's a combination of the road camber and people trying to show off and accelerate when they see camera's there.. . Not sure if the camber caused the rider to freak out a little - then target fixate and not do the proper thing. but you do see a small hitch in there right before he runs into them and that might be where the camber freaked him out ?

[ktk_ace]

wow erik , someone has the same thoughts as you it seems :

http://blogs.motorcyclistonline.com/street-savvy-target-fixation-35309.html

[tmckeen]

This unfortunate accident is the result of riding "Duck Footed" Rnickymouse mentions it in the description of the video on youtube that the riders foot scrapes the pavement, its very brief and the slow mo starts after it happens but if you listen you can actually hear it at the start of the video, this sets of the SR fireworks in his head and is why he stands the bike up despite being at a very shallow lean angle and then target fixates onto the bikers he actually wants to avoid.

[YellowDuck]

but if you listen you can actually hear it

 

Ha, yes! Very interesting!

[Cobie Fair]

Looks to me like the eyes lead the parade in this mini disaster. His head turns and he then steers into the poor cyclist.

 

Haven't ridden that road for years.