A very interesting and important thread.
My real life 230mph crash experience... In Sept 2016, I was trying to set a new world record in Elvington, on my Rolls Royce 560hp turbine bike at 240mph +
The fairing was not a great design and I could not get my head down enough, so it was vibrating around
The track finish boards were about the size of a short door at either edge of the track, they were black and white
Against the grey concrete runway, they were not easy to see at 230mph + due to them being too far apart. It is agreed fact, that the faster you ride/drive, the narrower your peripheral vision becomes.. to that of a sniper rifle scope.
The event was a two way average speed event, so there were several marker boards at different lengths for each direction.
Confusion was easy. No one rides or walks the track before. You just attend and listen to the briefing and then go out trying to get a top speed, before the wind/weather changes and halts the event for x period of time.
At 230mph, I did not see/notice the finish boards, I though stupidly I'll hold full power for a few seconds, until the boards appear.
but at those speeds, that's around 1000 feet gone in 3 seconds. After seeing no boards (because I had missed them ages before), I notice the grass at the end of the runway. I thought 'holy sh*t', and then had to make a rapid decision, slam the brakes on, and grind my leathers off, skin and bone at 200mph + or just hold on for the ride and enjoy the life I had lived.
I exited the runway like missile, carved a hole through the bushes and trees, and landed quite far away in another field, with the bike being completely destroyed and having eleven broken bones, dent in skull, collapsed lungs, not breathing, etc.. without immediate attention of medics and helicopter, I would not be writing this.
I was fully aware of the risks of not stopping. A Turbine bike has no engine braking, no gearbox and pulls 150hp + at idle. The bike weighed about 400kg fully kitted with me on it, so not easy to stop... so I had created a Motec ECU distance algorithm, which made the screen flash red to signal the end of the 1 mile, 50 metres before, relying on my 0.3 second reaction time to brake beyond the finish line. For some reason, it never worked on that run. Did I forget to reset, did it fail on the GPS signal? It had worked on the previous runs with good results. Exact reasons are wooly, as my brain went blank in regards to the crash.
I lived to tell the tale, and after a year of recovery, I raced again on the same bike (rebuilt) on the anniversary of the event. By that time the organisers had made several important changes. The finish boards were much bigger, had very bright red flashing lights on them, and I was allowed to go out and ride the course before to get comfortable with the placement of boards. I also started to wear a neck brace, mouth guard and a full GP Dianese airbag race suit, and chose a helmet with much higher vision, when in tucked position, as made for the Moto GP boys. The cost of such equipment is irrelevant to 6 months in hospital.
I now use new tyres and a new chain for every event and check everything after every run, especially tyres and brakes. Practise time is hard, so I practise visualisation, by going through the run in the garage with the lights off, focusing on the launch, acceleration and brake and going through simulated issues and what to do, so those actions become sub-conscious. I gopro every run, and watch it back to practise the motions. Practise is essential. Lack of track time, and not building up speed is dangerous (to test reaction speeds, braking, etc..) Those who do big speeds, know that strong cross winds are very dangerous - maybe fatal.
I've learned never to land speed race on a shoe string, it doesn't end well and for some the money is often spent on big turbo's and not excellent safety gear, because, 'it will never happen to me', macho nonsense. May the god of speed be with us all and we ride fast, but safe!