I slide the front tire on my motorcycle quite often, it's very controllable. For whatever reason, it's not so controllable on the bicycle. Both my single and tandem are quite squirrely when the front tire looses grip so I don't push them so hard in the corners. I always leave myself a cushion because you never know what might happen. Plus I learned through experience that you shouldn't make your stoker cry. That's not a good thing. Nope, not a good thing at all.

I have yet to end up on my head from loosing the front end on either my tandem or single. I have had five front flats on the tandem in excess of 50mph. That gets a little exciting but I've been able to get the bike stopped safely each time (once on a descent in the rain). The key for both the captain and stoker is to remain calm and not panic. The first reaction for many people is to tense up or grab a handful of brakes. Both are bad ideas. As far as injuries goes, I've seen people break bones at less than 5mph and walk away unscratched from 35+mph get offs. It's just a matter of circumstances surrounding when and where you go down.