Ever seen a haunted motorcycle? Do you want to? Well, this one isn’t actually haunted, but it’s definitely moving like it is. Morning rush hour in Adelaide, Australia served up a side of phantom motorcycle with a sidecar that kept right on rolling after its rider fell off. It kept cruising along like nothing was wrong, just without a rider, then drifted across two lanes all on its own. Then it wandered over to the back of a stopped car.
The whole thing was caught on video, so it’s the only reason any of us get to see it. The recorded footage shows the bike moving while other drivers slow down. Drivers spent some time, understandably, staring as well. It looks like the motorcycle just didn’t get the memo that its rider was no longer present.
But here’s what makes it a little odd. Instead of tipping straight over, the motorcycle actually stayed upright for a good few seconds after the rider hit the ground. The sidecar helped it keep its balance, so it rolled along on its own. Then when it bumped into the back of the hatchback, it finally stopped.
As for the rider, he seems to have avoided getting hurt, though it’s clear he definitely had a rough start to the day. Falling off is bad enough, but watching your bike drive off without you and rear-end a stranger’s car is a whole other level.
Why a Riderless Motorcycle Doesn’t Just Fall Over
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Why didn’t the motorcycle just fall over and stop moving? There’s science behind that. A motorcycle in motion is surprisingly good at balancing itself. Once the wheels are spinning, they create a gyroscopic effect. The bike’s steering geometry then helps it correct little wobbles on its own. That’s why you can briefly let go of the handlebars on a moving bike and it’ll mostly hold its line. The machine is doing more of the balancing work than most people realize.
If a rider comes off without the bike stalling or the throttle snapping shut, the motor keeps turning the wheels. The bike keeps moving. Some machines have a kill switch or a tether that cuts the engine when the rider separates, but plenty don’t. Without one, nothing tells the bike to stop, so it carries on until something gets in the way. In this case, that something was a hatchback.
What the Sidecar Had to Do With It
The sidecar made the motorcycle moving on its own look even weirder. A normal two-wheeled motorcycle, with no one to balance it, would usually wobble and drop within a second or two once it slowed down. A sidecar changes the math entirely. It turns the bike into a three-wheeled rig, and three wheels don’t fall over the way two do.
That extra wheel gave the runaway bike a stable base. Instead of toppling, it stayed level and kept tracking forward.Take the rider out of the picture, and you’ve got a little three-wheeled machine driving itself across an intersection. So the next time something like this happens (and you happen to be around), you can impress everyone you know with your physics knowledge.
It’s the small things.