Another well known term is “De-Gloving”
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When a friend was in the burn ward, one of the fellows was in there for a motorcycle accident. The classify the abrasions the same way that they do burns, by how many layers of skin are gone. And yeah, skin grafts are the treatment. It is REALLY painful.
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I’m interested in the physics of the wobble that happens after he comes down from the wheelie, and then how the bike seems to ride so smoothly after he falls off.
Is the wobble caused by an over-correction positive-feedback loop? i.e. is the rider trying to correct the balance, which causes the bike to lean the one way, and then correct it back, which causes it to lean the other way further?
If so, would actually taking his hands off the handlebars cause the bike to balance itself smoothly like it does at the end? Is this something that could be taught?
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But at least this guy didn’t drop the bike. Still, not sure I’d want to be riding like that in the rain.
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It’s an oscillation, and rider is the elastic component. Either holding tighter or loosening the grip would change the period, but the recommendation is to loosen up to slow the oscillation. It’s probably easier after experiencing it a few times, but the first is a butt-pucker.
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Coroners may appreciate the ready-to-work-on naked/near naked states of such riders.
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Man, I’ve seen so many jackassery videos on the internet with people on bikes 
And a handful of jackassery IRL. Heck, last weekend a guy on a super loud dirt bike was doing wheelies driving through down town KC.
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I laid down a bike at 80 mph, the leather lasted about 25 feet into the dive, the rest was yours truly, and I still get the ouch when I’m scrubbing 
in the shower too much 35 years later.
Moral of the story is wear protection while out on your bike.
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Hope there weren’t any burn victims waiting for that guy’s skin.
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Not to mention “the mechanical defects” part he’s talking about when he gets to improperly loaded/balanced motorcycle. You can see the rider lost it at 00:12 and couldn’t correct because he still had his butt back over the rear wheel (not to mention possible accidental acceleration because of having to reach too far).
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I couldn’t bear to watch it, but no doubt he’s also staring down at the wheel and the road, he doesn’t have a good posture or grip with his legs and feet, and his system just got a jack-hammer of adrenaline.
Oh, and maybe he grabbed the front brake.
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It is easy to get it up, it is less easy to get it back down.
I admit that I have done stupid things on motorcycles.
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I read the comments but I couldn’t watch it. Just can’t stand seeing people hurt, even when they do it to themselves. I rode a motorcycle for a few years, but fully covered and helmeted and never at high speeds (and only once or twice on the highway). I loved it, but I no longer have one and feel no need to return. Folks like this are dangerous, reckless, and put others at jeopardy. Take that shit to the track, and put on proper clothing.
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That’s known in the trade as a tank-slapper. That particular one was caused by a combination of the front wheel landing crooked and the rebound of the suspension. It would probably have damped itself down even if the pilot had managed to hold on, but the violence of the first couple of oscillations was too much for him and the rest of him wasn’t well attached to the bike anyway.
The physics of tank-slappers is pretty complex. Variables include tyre pressure and condition, front suspension, rear suspension, weight distribution, road condition and usually, acceleration and probably a bunch of other stuff.
They’re thankfully pretty rare because most motorcycles aren’t ridden hard enough to provoke them.
Here’s a brief introduction to the concept by Fortnine…
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To avoid or mitigate wobbles on dirt and sand (where wobbles are just a fact of life), you keep the arms loose, stand up, look as far ahead as possible, and speed is your friend (look up, stand up, open up). The idea is to keep the weight shifted back, load off the front, and to let the front wheel’s angular momentum solve the hard problems.
Not sure what works best on pavement; never had to deal with wobbles there. It seems to happen mostly to bikes with sportier suspension than I ride; the kind where if you roll over a coin you can tell what year is stamped on it. I also ride pretty cautiously on pavement; you can’t just run over the handlebars and roll in some dirt.
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One night after a social ride with a club, we stopped at a cafe. Someone on a yellow Ducati with matching yellow helmet and leathers rode by, saw a bunch of bikes, and did a wheelie. Unfortunately for him, a cop van was rolling the other way. When he realized his tactical error, he rode off in a hurry. The cops turned around and gave chase, but didn’t have much of a chance - van + u-turn vs. already fast bike.
We saw the cops roll by again a few minutes later, and someone foolishly shouted out “Did you catch him?” They pulled over and got out and explained that we must know him because we said “him” - how did we know? Uh huh.
They took their time talking to us. I finished my coffee. I got lucky and had the calm cop, who was still trying the line but his heart wasn’t in it. “Seriously, we know you know.”
“Well, the rider went by a a 1-litre sports bike, doing a wheelie in a residential / light commercial neighbourhood. Right away, we both know he’s a he, and he’s somewhere between 18 and 25 years old. I’d be money on that and feel pretty relaxed. But that’s all I know.”
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We have a stretch of freeway nearby that at one point has an almost 90 degree turn. There are flashy lights telling you to slow to 50mph but no does.
It had grooved pavement, the only time I’ve ever felt wobble and got nervous was that section of road.
When they resurfaced they got rid of the grooves, there was a lot of complaints over the grooves by motorcycle riders.
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“I always cringe and get a whole body awful feeling when I see people riding a motorcycle in shorts, flip flops, tee-shirts, and no gloves.”
Hallelujah Brother!
You just voiced my mind.
Thank you.
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