Maintaining a racing superbike is a labor of love, emphasis on labor. As the rider, you and your team together have to be responsible for keeping the temperamental two-wheeler in tip-top shape for each and every outing. One tiny thing goes wrong and one rider will have a really bad day, one that could wind up in the hospital or worse, YouTube. The worst situation that can happen to any bike rider is the high-side…that’s where it appears to be less of a motorcycle ride and more like a rodeo with a highly pissed-off liter bike and it usually ends with the rider impersonating Superman before a very hard landing. The leading photo shows Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo, and we believe this photo was taken at Laguna Seca in 2011. In one of the most perfectly timed photographs ever taken, Lorenzo is found mid-flight, with the bike perfectly upside-down beneath him. While the truth is that he wouldn’t have a hope to recover this and that it would be much safer to get away from the bike at this point, part of you wants him to grab the front wheel and ride that sucker into the dirt like a victorious cowboy.
Each rider is able to communicate with their pits, so besides the usual “Oh,….!” moment, let’s hear what you think is being yelled across the radio from poor Lorenzo here.
Keep saying…” rubber side down, rubber side down, rubber…”
Motorcycle Stunting
For
Dummies
Worst. Bike. Stand. Ever.
I know that the rider is thinking “I can save it”!