California’s canyon roads offer some fantastic opportunities to enjoy enthusiastic driving and motorcycling. Local police are aware of this. Try not to freak out and fall over if you see them.

As long as you stay in your lane, I don’t really care if you ride a little quickly on the unpopulated bends of Mulholland Drive. But let this be another lesson in “why you should learn the limits of your machine on a closed course.” Maybe put some thicker pants on when you’re running hard while you’re at it.

And as my colleague Sean MacDonald : “If you come around a corner speeding and see a cop, just finish your turn on the gas and then pull over. Because waiting for a truck to come pick up your busted bike will seem infinitely longer if you’re holding a ticket.”

The rider, who video uploader says is 19 years old, is apparently unscathed but his Yamaha R6 is going to need a few new pieces of plastic. (Or a streetfighter-style conversion!)

As for this crash itself, the YouTube comments are rife with “analysis,” but I think I like ’s the best:

“Entering the corner @ the rider got off the throttle, @ he accelerated transferring the weight to the rear. He saw the saw the cop and release the throttle @ transferring the load back on to the front tire. It may have not been that much, but along with a great amount of lean angle and a high center of gravity (not lowering his upper body down and to the side of the bike, it caused the front to lose grip. This is what happens when you over load the front tire, be it from a weight transfer (like he did here) or over braking. ”

No, wait, I just scrolled down a little further and clearly had the most constructive thing to add to the conversation so far: “That has to be the hardest working crash barrier in the USA. ”

Keep the shiny side up, kids.