Motorcycle Crash Videos

rnickeymouse teaches by example

There's a lot we can learn from crash videos. By watching them we can see the kind of mistakes people make when riding, learn from that and take our own riding skills up another notch. In fact, you may realize you're a better rider than you thought you were once you start predicting when and why a crash will occur by watching videos of them.

If you're looking for crash videos, YouTube is a good place to start. Putting in a few keywords like "motorcycle crashes" means it won't be long before you stumble upon rnickeymouse's handy work.

Mr. Mouse hopped on YouTube in 2006, and since then has been posting many videos of riders cornering along the twisties of Mulholland Drive in the hills above Los Angeles. He has several channels on the service - rnickeymouse, which is where he stores unedited works, while his other channels is where he posts his finished product.

The rnickeymouse channel is the place to get the crash stuff. It's all here, from a fully clad sportbike rider hitting the guardrail, to a scantily clad scooter rider scraping perfectly good flesh from his legs and awaiting medical treatment.

As you watch the videos you realize how much time this guy spends up on the serpentine corners in LA, picking up one incident after another. A rider crosses over the double yellow line at high speed only to come face to face with the LAPD - and rnickey is there. A snake appears and is picked up by a local snake whisper - rnickey is there. The camera seems to just keep rolling from the time he arrives each weekend until he tears it down at night.

Having a party soon? Fire up the channel and simply let it roll. The entertainment never ends.

As you watch the videos note the skid marks on the pavement from previous catastrophes. Note the condition of the guard rails which take a beating crash after crash. Mr. Mouse documents the riding well. As riders pass by you can follow their line, have a look at their head position, watch the position of their hands and otherwise, and the beauty is you can wind back and re-watch to identify all the mistakes a rider made in advance that led to their kiss with the tarmac. Then rnickey adds to the post partum with a close up of the crash damage.

Even the stretches where no one crashes are revealing. Take a look at how each rider apex' the corners. Are they early, late or dead on? Watch the position of the back and see if it changes as they enter the next corner. Are they applying too much braking? Is their throttle control smooth? Are they looking into the next corner already?

You can watch rnickeymouse's work at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/rnickeymouse