[2wheelmike]

From Keith Code's email flyer:

"Code-Break readers may recall my observations about the past 50 years, that horsepower wasn’t the cause before, and was unlikely to be the cause now, of crashing motorcycles. Rather, it is rider errors in applying core technical skills that causes them to go down. That was my story, and now I have proof, so I’m sticking to it.

So far this year, over 400 or our students have run 49,000 track miles at 4 tracks in 13 days of riding. The training was conducted in all sorts of weather, including rain, on our 2010 BMW S1000RRs fitted with Dynamic Traction Control and Race ABS systems. Yes, we run the first session in Rain Mode which limits the power output to “only” 150 bhp. After the first ride students are allow to go for the full power.

The bike provides an electronic cushion that forgives the rider some of the more common errors. This curtails panic; riders have that cushion and it provides time to gather themselves together before it escalates to out-of-control proportions. At the same time, NO, the bike cannot and will not forgive truly stupid riding.

Here are the results. Compared to the 600s we’ve used for the past 30 years; 12 million miles of track training; over 125,000 students; at 106 tracks around the world…our crash ratio has reduced by 400%. In real world numbers it looks like this: Last year we had 1.2 crashes per per school day average. This year so far, it’s down to a very convincing 0.3 per day.

Let me point out once again, bone stock, these bikes put out 193 bhp, add an Akrapovic pipe and that number is 204.5 bhp. Horsepower is not the cause of crashing and the S1000RR is the best high performance rider training aid ever invented. I rest my case."

Code's crash averages seem low compared with the track days I have been at (no tutoring, just track time), but the quantifiable decrease in crashing is still pretty impressive to me-