I dropped my bike today. I've been sick with the flu, and I was too weak to keep the bike up in my driveway, and down went Frazier.
Who else has dropped their bike?
Nittany
My understanding is there are two types of riders, those who have dropped their bikes and those who will.
I've dropped my cx500 a total of three times.
Twice when parking it at work, both on the same day. It was this summer, maybe 95 degrees, we've grown a lot and parking is tight so we set up a spot just for bikes and scooters to the side of the parking lot. I was turning around and rode the bike up on the grass a bit, and misjudged the hill and dropped it. I wasn't moving at all, I think I was power walking it. Once I picked it up and got off the hill I dropped it again.
There I was in the 95 degree heat in my work clothes picking up my bike.
Other time I was riding home over lunch to walk my dog (I live maybe half a mile from my office.) There was construction at an intersection and I couldn't see around it to see if traffic was coming. I was at the stop sign and leaned really far to the left to see, then I leaned back to the right and felt the bike going out from under me. I knew I wouldn't be able to stop it so I just moved my leg and eased the bike to the ground.
I was totally in shock. The VP of Sales, who I report to, came by pulled over and helped me pick up the bike.
I was fine, bike was fine, but I was in shock.
Fortunately all of my incidents (so far) have happened at no speed.
My cx500 was hit by cars several times this summer so I'm going to be working on it when the weather is better, for now I'm riding a 2002 suzuki v-strom. Similar riding position, but lots of plastic. Really worried what will happen if I ever drop this one.
Yeah, sure!
More than once, also!
Was never my fault though, honestly!!
Once I was ill (flu) and felt sick (almost fainted) when putting my little Yamaha XJ 400 on its centre stand on a city street. Lost my balance a little and down it went.
Once with my Silver Wing on the shore with a lady as passenger. Passing over roots and bumps in the loose sand, she agile as a sack of potatoes - I lost the balance - no surprise!
Last time was -98 on Isle of Man with the same Silver Wing. One pint of Guinness too many at the Ramsey pub (they said two would be OK - three on the limit - for 0.8 promille) - I had only one!! I dropped it on a slant layby on the way up to Gooseneck.
Hasn´t happened since but it has been pretty close! It never happened with the ST 1100 I had for some years, and that is rather strange. I was happy for that, because that bike was a swine to handle at close to standstill. Probably also to lift (325 kg). I think the standard CX 500 and its 220 kg is just what suits me best, even if it´s a little top-heavy.
The lady who later bought that Silver Wing from me dropped it as she climbed aboard for a test-ride. I had told her to concentrate on what she was doing! Talk about talking to deaf ears!! She bought it, anyway! Decent!!
Regards
Sture
Oh, forgot one in my previous post! Didn´t think of it in termes of "dropping" - more of getting hit.
2001 my son and I were on our way to Romania. In the town of Nyiregyhaza (Hungary) we were tailgated as I slammed my brakes for a couple of silver-hair ladies, suddenly crossing at a pedestrian´s crossing. That year we had a new law in my country, making it mandatory to give pedestrians free way at marked crossings, practically no matter how they´d been approaching the zebra lines. A much discussed law, I might add.
I stopped this time too - only was there a Romanian guy behind, too close with his Dacia. I heard his tyres squeek, realized that I could expect some sort of vehicle contact. He hit us softly at one of my hard saddlebags, exactly so much that I didn´t manage to hold the bike, which fell over on rhs, together with my son. I managed to remain on my feet, still over the bike.
No damages at all to either bike or us but the saddlebag holder snapped off in five places. We had to wait some days in a hotel (all expenses paid by my insurance) until new luggage hardware arrived from home (my daughter fixed that with spares from my cellar shelves).
Oh Boy, Here we go....
1st bike, a Harley built in Highschool. Found the engine in pieces in a box in auto shop and went from there, built the frame in metal shop. Wrapped it around a telephone pole on a stormy night in 1976, broke my leg.
Then I had a Honda 400, hit a guy on a 750 four, when he ran a red light, stoned and drunk, he was wearing shorts and a tank top and thongs sandles. No helmet. I was doing 35 MPH. It didn't turn out well for him.....
I spent a few weeks in traction.
Then there was my dump on the freeway, October 24th 1985, 9:00 PM.
I had another 400, with a Rooster fairing, and crash bars. I was doing 65, in the center lane, when some idiot ahead of me came to a dead stop, for no reason at all. A cop saw the whole thing and couldn't believe it.
I leaned.
Man did I lean.
I caught him 6 inches inside his bumper. That's where the bike and I went our separate ways. I landed on my back, bounced, spun, and started to slide I used my hands to slow down. I saw my bike slide across the fast lane, sparks flying. I thought I'd slowed down enough to stand up, so I put my hands down and stood up, and found myself trying to run backwards, and fell back down. I split my helmet from back to front, and wore a hole through my thermal pants, and my Levi's, and my thermal underwear. Not a scatch on me. My gloves were trashed, and I had sore hands, pulled a bunch of muscles and got a concussion. A good samaritan followed the cop and me to the hospital with the bike in the back of his truck, lucky for me it was just a block away.
After getting checked out by the doc's, I went out to see the damage. The fairing was ground down a whole lot. The crash bars were toast. I lost a turn signal. I rode the bike home.......
That ride home was the only time I've ever ridden without a helmet,
Last month, one of my customers bought a Suzuki GSXR1000. 1st bike. To be fair, he's ridden a few others, and he's a nice kid, but a GSXR1000 as a first bike, was just asking for trouble.
He dropped it in the parking lot a few weeks ago, doing 5 MPH. He took it in, got it all fixed up and back on the road.
Last week I stop in and he tells me he went for a ride over the weekend and got his bike up to 152 MPH, on the freeway. All I could say was "Why?" I pointed out that he had a hard time keeping it upright at 5 MPH and going that fast was just asking for it, not to mention breaking various laws.
The really frightening thing about him is that he reminds me of a friend I had in school. He was showing off to a girl, and rode a wheelie out of the parking lot of the local mini-mart.
Unfortunately for him there was an 18 wheeler going by at the time, and he went under the rear tires.
It didn't turn out well for him
Some people shouldn't own motorcycles........
instructorpilot wrote:Darwin
Every time I see a kid doin' that, I call him "Organ Donor", was thinking of that when I read da Bear's story, before I got to the sad conclusion.
A buddy of mine, who has never rode before, just got his first bike
Never rode a bike before, and he starts with this. God knows how much one of these cost ('08 Harley somethin' or other) He plans on taking an MSF, so I hope he does OK.
Dumping for me? Just the RM125 I terrorized the neighbourhood on when I was a teenager. My GLi bears the scars of some previous spills, but knock on wood none of them are from me. My Brother had his back broken (he turned out ok) in 1978 when a cager ran a red light. He slid 30 meters, feet on the pavement, wore the soles of his shoes right off down to his socks.
I just about died last fall when I was hanging a 4x8 sheet of plywood in my garage for an above garage door shelf, lost my balance and fell off the ladder. No the fall didn't kill me, but I had to heave the sheet with all my might to avoid dropping it on Lil Momma's Reflex. If I scratched her bike, I'd be a gonner!!!
When the 750 and I met in that intersection, I put hairline fractures in two vertibrae, thus the traction.
I have to say that while the accidents I've been in were occuring, I was to busy to be afraid. I think the worst fright I've ever gotten was the night I was driving my 400T up Highway 880 in California. Just outside Oakland. I was in the center lane, when a Safeway big rig passes me on the right. Just as his back end is next to me, there was a VERY loud bang, and I damn near needed a change of shorts. Next thing I knew, I was in the center of rubber storm. Chunks were bouncing off the bike, my helmet, the road, it was all I could do to just get the hell out of there without getting killed by a car, or a chunk of tire. I still get a little nervous when passing a truck........
Bear,
On my way to Vechta (Güllepumpentreffen) 2006 the same thing happened to me. In an Autobahn junction, just when we were merging from one Autobahn to another I was in middle lane, as one of the rear wheels on a big truck exploded in front of me. A big bang, big thread sections all over the place - I managed to stear clear to the left of the biggest section, which was bouncing around all over the place. My friend who was following after me said she was absolutely sure I had been hit by one of the chunks as I did a maneuvre she couldn´t understand from her position behind me. I was ducking. Speed was about 110 kph (70 mph) and it wasn´t funny at all with that sudden big bang, with absolutely no warning. Truck wheels - respect!!
Sturey
Once for me.... first or 2nd week I had it (back in 1982!!) lost balance in the garage, and it tipped over into the garage door rail. A small rip in the seat was the only damage. (25 years later, got a brand new seat!)
2nd time - somebody else. In a parking lot, at work, I came out to find my bike tipped over on the ground. Curious I say. I had been working late, and at an earlier break I had noticed only one other car in the parking lot that night. I went upstairs to the other offices, and inquired who owned the car I had seen the night before. A friend of the culprit squeeled on her. When questioned directly, her response was "if it was a harley and I sat on it, it wouldn't have fallen over!" Apparently, at about 5' nothin, she figured if it was parked, it was her right to sit on it. To this day I still have the scratches & bend in the mirror - I did however replace the signal light. btw, if anybody can hook me up with the original Honda mirrors for the '82 CX500 Custom (new) I'd greatly appreciate it. The perp even wrote me a cheque for the damages - of course it bounced. Never saw her again.
The first time was the first year I had my first bike. It was raining and I almost missed the driveway for a parking lot and pulled a bit too hard on the front brake. Dented tank where turn signal hit it, smashed turn signal lens, knee out of jeans, skinned knee. I should have just slowed and turned into the other driveway.
A few weeks later I went down on slick mud on the road (trucks had been turning out of a construction site & it was raining). Another dent, another lens, another pair of jeans, same knee skinned. After that I learned to think farther ahead when the road is slippery.
Later that summer I was putting the bike on it's centrestand to work on it and one leg went into a crack in the driveway. Turn signal lenses were starting to get expensive so I changed to bullet marker lights on the front.
Some years later I went over while turning off the main road onto the street I lived on. I stopped for oncoming traffic and was only doing about walking speed when I felt it start to go over. Maybe the front tire stepped off of a piece of gravel on the roadway? I'll never know for sure. When I landed the upper frame rail was about 1/2" above my ankle - there was no weight on it but I couldn't turn enough to get leverage to lift the bike and free my foot. No injuries, but embarrasing. A passing driver stopped to help.
Gene McCall wrote:My days of dropping bikes are over........no, I'm not quitting riding, just adding a sidecar to the ST!
Don't count on it. A few years ago I was taking the sidecar off of the GL500 in preparation for the summer restoration. I put the bike on the stand & blocked up the sidecar, then undid all of the strut bolts. Instead of waiting 'till someone could come to help I started shaking the bike around to free it on my own. The bike landed on it's left side and I needed to dig out another clutch lever.
bobisslack wrote:A friend told me I should have laid there and feined injury unitl the police arrived, then I could have sued the city for leaving unsafe road conditions. Oh well, hindsight.
Shep
thx for the skert link. i may just test that before i need it.
I've dropped my Silverwing onto the engine guards twice in my driveway. I was moving it to wash it. of course the neighbors and wife saw it.
Once I was turning off for a foto, and apparently 5mph was too fast for the teeny bit of gravel. That litttle bit of gravel was in just the wrong place for me to get any traction, so I just spun around a few times. A fellow biker happened along and helped out. He told me he thought I might have been using an old trick to get the fuel in the main lobe to slosh over the keel to the reserve lobe. So I gained a friend and another trick.
A few weeks later, (lots of roads in Alaska are dirt) I was coming down a steep section when the rear brake arm got caught on the exhaust. I attempted to slow, gently, with the front brake and...you know the rest.
Insignificant scratches only
TwoW4B2C4V wrote: bobisslack wrote:A friend told me I should have laid there and feined injury unitl the police arrived, then I could have sued the city for leaving unsafe road conditions. Oh well, hindsight.You friend sounds like a scumbag, all offense intended.
Sidecar Bob wrote: Gene McCall wrote:My days of dropping bikes are over........no, I'm not quitting riding, just adding a sidecar to the ST! Don't count on it. A few years ago I was taking the sidecar off of the GL500 in preparation for the summer restoration. I put the bike on the stand & blocked up the sidecar, then undid all of the strut bolts. Instead of waiting 'till someone could come to help I started shaking the bike around to free it on my own. The bike landed on it's left side and I needed to dig out another clutch lever.
Gene McCall wrote:I guess what I am saying is that once the chair goes on, its not coming off! The rig will be delivered into my hot little hands next Saturday and I can't wait!
There will eventually be some repair that requires removal of the sidecar...
Have you had any kind of instruction about how to drive a sidecar outfit? The only similarity it will have to the solo bike is the location of the controls. If you haven't already, go to www.sidecar.com, find the books page and download and read all of the manuals. When you get the outfit don't play in traffic until you have had a chance to practice somewhere safe and always remember what countersteering is and that you should NEVER countersteer a sidecar outfit.
Sidecar Bob wrote: Gene McCall wrote:I guess what I am saying is that once the chair goes on, its not coming off! The rig will be delivered into my hot little hands next Saturday and I can't wait! There will eventually be some repair that requires removal of the sidecar... Have you had any kind of instruction about how to drive a sidecar outfit? The only similarity it will have to the solo bike is the location of the controls. If you haven't already, go to www.sidecar.com, find the books page and download and read all of the manuals. When you get the outfit don't play in traffic until you have had a chance to practice somewhere safe and always remember what countersteering is and that you should NEVER countersteer a sidecar outfit.