Hi folks

I started scouting / Researching my next project and came up with some detail questions I need answers for . First, For anyone who has had the misfortune to wreck a cycle I need to know what kind of damage happens to a bike when it gets layed on its side at say 30 - 35 mph. Second, What kind of injury does one suffer when this happens.
The idea I'm working on is this. A British Dingo with some infantry in support are moving down a Norman Road. They have fired on a German BMW motorcycle and are moving to investagate. The bike is on it's side in a ditch. The German soldier has dashed, wounded, into the underbrush. You can see where the questions fit in.

Thanks in advance
Wolfsix

Ouch! I can speak from bitter experience here (years ago now luckily!) At that sort of speed on tarmac handlebars and footrests, exhaust pipe, basically anything sticking out to the side of the bike, will be bent backwards as it slides.

As those items bend back other parts of the bike get lower until they impact the road surface (engine casings, perhaps fuel tank and mudguards, depends on the bike). They will then suffer score marks.

If the bike comes to rest without hitting anything solid that will be about it (stand fast possible small arms damage in your scenario). The rider will have suffered 'road rash' unless he's wearing protective clothing e.g. leathers. Combat clothing will wear through to the skin (and underlying bone, trust me... ) on tarmac at that speed. Clothing on his knees and elbows in particular will be shredded, and of course he would be bleeding, though not profusely.

Finally, he would be susceptible, as the bike was, to sliding into solid objects, and fast-moving .303 rounds!

Hope that helps

The tank will likely be dented as well where the handlebars contacted it.
As Ripster said, cloth will be worn away to the skin where ever he slid along. The skin will be heavily abraided, Ripster's road rash. Think the color of steak (meat is meat). There won't be puddles of blood, but there would likel;y be speck of dirt and pebbles. The rider may also have broken limbs as well. If he hit his head, especially if hte helmet was not fastened, there will be copious bleeding from the head injury, even if it's not that big.
If he hit's anything solid before sliding, he's pretty much toast, a crumpled heap in awkward positions.

Interesting dio Harry…depending on the crash will determine how much damage the bike will sustain. A head on crash, the front forks will bend in, rim also bent, and the fender will be bent into the tire if not knock off. If the bike (once crashed) still continues down the road on it’s side, things like the mirror, upper controls, foot pegs and maybe the clutch will be ripped off. The gas tank will get scratch and gouged up pretty bad and may have a small dent in it. The primary cover also will be gouged. The handle bar (the side the laid down on) will be bent in-wards. Marker light will be broke off in most cases (front & rear) Rear shock will be scratched. If there’s a windshield (Plexiglas) it to should break of a nice piece, a little jagged. The clutch or brake on handle bars would stay on, maybe the handles would break off, but more likely not. Hope this helps some and good luck with your dio, can’t wait to see it.

Injuries to the rider, again depend on the crash. Most defiantly he will sustain road rash. If head-on the chest will hit the risers and he will be thrown from the bike hitting what he hit (ouch) The helmet also will determine his injuries, open face helmet…well what can I say. Driver will be pretty much Fubar’rd.

RIDERS,
Well speeking from EXPERIANCE. Three of my accidents @ the road speed of < 30 mph. I DID NOT walk away from. 2 was transported by ambulance,
1 was transported uncauncous by ambulance. All 3 times the bike was totaled.

Now on the Race track I have crashed 3 times in excess of 85 mph. FULL leathers and not a scratch, and I walked to the pits. Bike suffered a bent brake lever, case rash, and trashed body work, dented tank.
All changed within 1/2 hr. thanx to mmmwhaaa.

I own a suzuki TXR-150 since 1996. and still proudly rides him.
i have a number of accidents with my bike but to me worst one if in 2002 when i'm taking a sharp corner at 120 km/hr (i guess it could be more than that) This corner is my favourite corner and were racing on it every day ..i use the road to work. . Suddenly i realise there was an oil mark along the road.... just about to think that i gonna fall suddenly the rear wheel skidded, throwing me on the road. (I was in office suit with a leather jacket, crash helmet in place properly). The bike felt to the ground throwing me together. Me and the bike were sliding on the road an the center of the sharp corner. I can see clearly the spark on my bike sliding on the road. I was sliding about 10-15 meters when stopped by the road divider. Okay enough story..i still scared talking about it.
Luckly there were no major injuries on me. I just have a few deep scratches in both knees... my pants torn apart..my leather jacket was unbottoned resulting on my shirt inside got torn also.. no head injuries. No major cuts... The wound took more than 5 months to completly cured!
The bike however is another story. The front wheel was bend and the handle was misaligned. The disc brake fluid leaking. The disc itself suffered a slight bend. The rear wheel is okay but the swing arm misalign by a few inches. The cluth lever was broken. The brake lever was broken. Fuel tank dent. Both side mirror were missing (broken and lost) Exhaust muffler was scratched and dent. Arggghh so many of them. The front mudguard was ok but loses some of the screws. The engine covers suffered 'major cuts'. These were all that i can think of ..

better be carefull next time! Now the bike have been repaired and i casually drive but from that momment, i never use that corner again...that same road is a curse to me.. i avoid that road since that incident!

I managed to total a Kawasaki Z550 many years ago - front wheel ended up between the frame downtubes, all sticky-out bits on the left hand side either bent at right angles to their original position or ripped clean off, tank dented, front wheel rim buckled. Luckily I was wearing two pairs of jeans (outer pair well oiled and kept only for riding in!), tough boots (ex-German army para boots) and a good leather jacket - only injury was a stiff shoulder for a couple of days. Indicated speed on the jammed speedo - 96mph.

Having dumped my bike a few times..... once at a very slow speed when I was totally distracted by a purple thong bending over....... :-) :-) :-) (always a good way to impress a babe in a tiny purple thong.... and any other females around..... :-) :-) :-) ) Since the speed was no more than a slow walk, I did no damage to the bike or myself, but the pride and ego suffered a bit...... especially since the guy I was riding with couldn't stop laughing......
:-) :-) :-)
Another time, I dumped it, avoiding a kid on his bicycle...... a little faster, but again not as fast as 30 mph.... slid into my neighbors car, no damage to bike or myself.... except for a little scraping to the frame guard..... but the momentum of the bike took off the guys bumper.... cheap ass Toyota's...... :-) :-) :-) And I even had to pay the neighbor 700 bucks for repairs to his car..... hell, I should have creamed his rotten kid.
Now after I got a older, and became a weeble...... :-) :-) :-)
and started riding with a sidecar..... :-) :-) :-) I forgot that they do not turn the same as two wheels....... :-) :-) :-) and took a right handed jug handle a little too fast........ :-) :-) :-) the bike tipped up and dumped me..... ever so nicely onto the grass..... landing about 12 foot away, and YES grass does give road rash also...... :-) :-) :-) but the bike came back down on three wheels, and stalled out, in gear, and waited for me to get back on........ :-) :-) :-) :-) as I roll on the floor reliving some of my more dumber events in life.

Z550, 96mph? Now we know you're making it up!

(From an FZR600 rider)

I went down in 98. I was hit broadside on the left side of the bike. The 15 pack 3/4 ton van hit me in the left side of my leg. It drove my leg into the gas tank and split the frame and removed my leg. the engine casing was split between the two cylinders (restored 1949 Indian Chief). The windshield, handle bars, running board, front forks, engine guard and frame were destroyed. I was thrown from the bike and was impaled on the emblem of a Mercedes Benz. in the stomach. I was wearing leathers and a helmet. I do not remember the actual accident as I did not wake up for four days after. I was going 30 MPH on a straight road on a sunny warm Sunday morning with very little traffic when I was hit. I lost my left leg above the knee and have internal damage. Lost my spleen and parts of my lower intestines. I suffered a serious concussion. I was wearing a helmet ( which I contribute to saving me) that split in half on the left side from the lower ear part to the center of the helmet. I kept the helmet a piece of the windshield, and my old leathers which they cut off me.

[]--
It was a brand new 550A2, good for over a ton, and like all 1980s rice burners it was s**t hot in a straight line and absolute c**p on the twisty roads. I dumped it following a 20yr old Norton round a bend - shockloaded the 'box in 6th. I remember at the time being most upset because the girl on the pillion broke my skid-lid with her nose!Only brit iron after that - the Bonnie would actually scrape the silencer on the ground without sliding! :

Back to the question in hand -------- from the various answers Harry, it would appear that the amount of damage depends very much on the type of accident - headon, sliding etc. take what you need and ignore the rest of us old petrol-heads reliving our youth!

I was into two-strokes back then - had a Suzuki X7, handled like a jelly on a plate, followed by a 350 YPVS - probably still the most fun bike I've ever had, pound for pound.

Followed by a GPz 600, GPX 750, and an RD 500. That was a mad bike!

Apologies for and shamelessly hijacking a thread....

Harry, as others have said, the kind of damage will depend on how the bike crashed. If it tumbled or cartwheeled, everything will be bent, dented or broken. If it went down on its left side say, and slid straight into the ditch, then the damage will be confined to the left side (and mostly invisible in your diorama). On a BMW boxer engined bike, the left cylinder would have taken the brunt of the damage, maybe footrests or pannier boxes too. It'll be scratched down to shiny metal with all the scratches in the same direction.

And don't forget that the cylinder would have left a big scrape mark along the road which will be just as important as bike damage in telling your story. And it will have shed bits of kit, number plate, headlight cover, glass, etc as it went.

Hi guys

Thanks for all the replys. I'm just a simple old four wheeler, I had no idea the kind of damage that could happen even at what for a car is not really that fast. I may have to back off the speed of the wreck on this dio. { I want the German rider to still be able to move away from the wreck to hide in the woods. Injured, yes bleeding, ok but still mobile.

Hey guys, for those who recalled what had to be real nightmares to reply to this post , Thank You, I'm glad all of you made it through.

Harry

Wolf,
As you can see from several 2 wheelers it doesn't take much to wrinkle the ride or even total it. So I think you will be fairly safe with whichever damage you invoke. Have FUN. Todd

I've dropped all sorts of bikes @ all kinds of speeds over the years! I always used to figure that the cost of the repair was about the same as the speed - i.e. 35 m.p.h. = £35 repairs (yes this was some years ago!). I've noticed that the more recent the bike the higher the repair bill - you can do £1000 damaged to a modern Jap sports bike if it falls off the stand! Remember that these old army bikes were built to take this kind of stick! At 35 m.p.h. on an old BMW I'd just expect scrapes & the odd bent bit - you'd just kick it straight & ride off! Bikes were made off real metal then, not plastic & monkey metal! Yes, the levers might be bent, but the pots take most of the impact, so the fins would be all bent, & the mudguard. If you were unlucky you might break the headlight glass. As for the rider, I've been off wearing jeans, yes it hurts, but a low speed slide, as opposed to a highside could leave you with just abrasions. All these presumes of course you don't hit anything & nothing hits you!
Dave don't feel too bad about the Z550! My brother -in-law had one, but he sold it when he found he couldn't keep up with my featherbed Norton (1969) & bought a Guzzi!