Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/09/17/colorado-motorcyclist-ok-after.html
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It was unusually generous of The Matrix to provide that nice, deep pool in the river right where he went off the trail.
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I was rooting for him all along.
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So for those of us who don’t ride - how did that happen? I mean he seemed fine where was, and then aimed for the edge.
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I’m not a motorcyclist, but from my mountain biking experience: when you see those rocks in the trail that are almost-but-not-quite parallel to the trail? The ruts between them tend to throw the front tire wildly off course.
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Every time I’ve had a serious accident like this, it’s always accompanied by a long, drawn out expletive.
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That is not normal riding obviously, that is very extreme terrain, and you need a seriously well equipped bike to handle that kind of terrain safely.
It looks as though a rut in the rocks twisted his front tire and in correcting it the maneuver sent the front tire just over the edge of the road leading to an irrecoverable condition.
There are people crazier than this, mind you, who ride over boulders the size of homes. Generally they do this on heavily modified dirtbikes, or stuff like a BMW GS series, meant for technical offroading.
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Going on the bit of audio that was edited out, I’m sure an expletive was uttered…if not shrieked. ; )
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Give that man a pickle!
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You know, I’ve never ridden a motorcycle, but as an avid (former) mountain biker I’ve done things many times more reckless and stupid than this guy. It’s very easy to convince yourself that you can make the trail “no problem”, and…it’s a mistake.
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This is what happens when you ride a KTM.
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He doesn’t WANT a pickle. He just wants to ride his motor sick-le.
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I made a sharp turn off the road
Luckily I didn’t go into the mountain
I went over the cliff
I was doin’ 150 miles an hour sideways
And 500 feet down at the same time
Hey, I was lookin’ for the cops
Cuz’ you know
Hey I knew that it, it was illegal…
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The world is actually a pretty boring place, perfectly understandable that someone should want to straddle a machine that harnesses explosions to propel themselves over boulders for fun.
I mean what else is there to do, read? That gets old after awhile
That aside, that trail he is riding is pretty much designed to lead a motorcycle to that outcome. Even with a proper bike that looks like a nightmare trail that no one should ride down
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Or perhaps the name of a girl that his girlfriend is unaware of.
“Tell Doreen I love h…! Oh, crap.” 
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That’s the most terrifying thing I’ve seen in years.
You often tend to go where you look, trainers call it target fixation, if there is an obstruction, despite all good sense you aim for it if you stare at it. The ideal would be to look only where you want to be rather than where you don’t, but that wouldn’t make as good a video.
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Yes, the ruts… plus sometimes there is loose rocky stuff that tilts unexpectedly and very weird under the tyre… acting like a little lever, shifting the wheel in a random direction. And if the tyre pressure is a bit on the higher side, the wheel tends to add a little bounce.
I’ve experienced stuff like this on similar “roads” in the Alps - thankfully never this spectacular.
But the Africa Twin is quite robust, and you can always replace the crash bars.
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Ah that’s true. I remember that in drivers ed where looking at the hood ornament is a guarantee that you will start to drift in your lane, or why people won’t always avoid an obstacle. The same for action shooting sports, you want to move your head first to where you are going and the body naturally follows.
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