All goood things must come to an end.

[ariwhiteboy]

I'll jump in on the brakes argument...to stand up you have to dump the rear brakes, right BB? If you are in an emergency braking situation at say, 50+mph, the rear wheel has likely been unloaded and the rear brake is no longer being that effective. I would have to say that, in a situation like that, the disadvantage of releasing the rear brake would be outweighed by the advantages of standing up...max you might be talking 10mph difference in impact speed. I'm willing to bet a Femur will break at 40mph as quickly as it would at 50mph.

[Bumblebee]

It's not about the rear brake. It's about deceleration forces.
Think about your body position and forces when you're holding the brakes during a hard decelerations. You're bracing yourself against the handlebars and knees clamped to the tank. Releasing the rear brake gets you nothing since about 90% of the stopping power is on the front brake and you're still holding hard against the bars and tank. If you attempt to stand up while decelerating hard you're going over the bars right that instant as if you're going down a 70 degree incline and hit something. The only way to stand up and stay on the motorcycle is to dump all the brakes or only lightly drag them and every inch you're not decelerating is more energy that's going to hit you hard.

50 to 40 then a hard stop and you can still get hurt bad. Stay on the brakes for another 30 feet and the 40mph is now in the 15mph range, not 40. 15 and a hard stop will wind you pretty good. A hard stop at 40 will break all sorts of stuff and possibly kill you.

How hard are you willing to bash your head against a brick wall? I'm a wimp. I want to minimize impact forces.

[NightHawked]

FWIW here is what they say concerning stopping distance once the decision to brake is made. MPH/Stopping distance (feet):
20/30
30/58
40/92
50/135
60/185
that includes 1/2 second reaction time.

[JordanA]

How hard are you willing to bash your head against a brick wall? I'm a wimp. I want to minimize impact forces.

I think the point Ari and Loki are getting is that they're trying to avoid hitting the wall, period.

[Bumblebee]

I think the point Ari and Loki are getting is that they're trying to avoid hitting the wall, period.

And that's why you stay hard on the brakes.

[isleofmanfan]

Last week I had another (evidently) distracted cage driver pull a bizarre move on me.  The Bandit and me were out for a medium/low intensity dance on a local twisty 45 MPH road through a nice country neighborhood.  A 70ish year old man driving a Range Rover had just come through the gates of his gated community and slowly rolled to the edge of the roadway looking directly at me as I approached.  He stopped just for a split second, never looking to his right at all, and still looking directly at me pulled out in front of me to make his left turn.  I was 100% prepared with brakes covered, and missed him but... WTH?!    

[jspringator]

I've spent an hour today looking at Goldwings with airbags.  Expensive, but given my situation, worth it.

I'm self employed.  A serious injury could put me out of business for months.  Airbags don't eliminate risk, only mitigate it to an acceptable level.

[ariwhiteboy]

  Airbags don't eliminate risk, only mitigate it to an acceptable level.

I'd rather have one of these , way cooler and I can keep riding my bike of choice.

[Poligrafovich]

The book Proficient Motorcycling makes IMO a compelling argument that almost without exception one's best means of avoiding or minimizing injury in situations like this is getting on the brakes as hard as you can and as long as you can, right up to the moment of impact if it comes to that.

We do all we can to avoid it, but "stuff" happens.

Get well soon, BAMBY.

[jspringator]

  Airbags don't eliminate risk, only mitigate it to an acceptable level.

I'd rather have one of these , way cooler and I can keep riding my bike of choice.

AWB, what about one of these?

http://www.safermoto.com/products/

Fits the budget and is available now.

[ariwhiteboy]

Pretty spiffy J, I don't like the idea of the "tether and key" activation method though...that would make for an embarrassing parking lot experience if one was in a hurry.    The nice thing about the Alpinestars is it is activated by the CPU in the event of a crash only.  Plus it's Alpinestars, expensive yes, but there's a reason why most MotoGP guys wear it besides the endorsement deals.  I'm sure in the next 5 years we will see the tech get cheaper and integrated into everyday riding gear like everything else they make.

[LOKi]

Releasing the rear brake gets you nothing since about 90% of the stopping power is on the front brake and you're still holding hard against the bars and tank. If you attempt to stand up while decelerating hard you're going over the bars right that instant as if you're going down a 70 degree incline and hit something.

I agree....100%. What I think your missing is WHEN you stand up. You don't stand up 30' away not 20' not even 1 foot but that last 1/2". So as your saying when you stand up your going over the bars "right that instant" and THAT is the whole point. "That instant" should be as your tire makes contact with the car. At that point the forces of impact combined with you standing up will send you over instead of getting your legs caught under the bars and sucked back down into the crash. You don't want to run into the side of something going 50, 40, 30 20 or even 10mph. As the bike front tire is 1/2" from impact your going way to fast to trow yourself at that "brick wall" the sensible thing to do is stand up and go over. But you will never do this if you freeze up and ride that rocket into the brick wall for the sake of shedding that last ?mph if any from your impact speed.

If you stand up to soon then yes your going over the bars and right into the side of the vehicle that has cut you off then stopped liked a deer in headlights. No standing up is not always the answer. If you can stop in time then STOP! We are not talking about those cases where you can actually stop or do something else to avoid the crash. If you can't stop in time break as hard as you can and as you make impact stand up and go over. Why would you try and slam into the hard object in front of you?