What was your first Bike?

[Kevin]

Wow Kevin, that is one impressive list. I counted nine crashes, including a GTR. How did you crash the GTR?

You only count nine because I haven't indicated where I crashed a bike more than once!

I put some details of the GTR crash on the other forum, here. The solicitor got nowhere as the council only has to show they inspect the roads regularly and their records showed they'd inspected the road two weeks before we went down. It was resurfaced not long after we crashed so at least there was on positive outcome.

Kevin

[Kwikasfuki]

Glad to hear Lyn and you came out of it OK. Sounds like a very nasty crash. I'll assume the bike was fully comp which would take some of the pain away.

Newly surfaced roads are a pain. Either they do a 'proper' job and leave a nice shiny road that is a death bed for riders, or they do a cheap job, lay some tar, pile on the loose road surface with a helpful 'loose chipping' sign.

The closest I've come to coming off was when the bike went into what appeared a tank slap on a motorway bend at about 50mph. I honestly thought this is it, when it spontaneously corrected itself. I rode back around to find it was one of those black tar junction box type things there appear to have every 100 yards or so in the motorway lanes.

[mecki]

Now I can guess why your tyres wear out so quickly  :D.
I've been riding bikes for over 20 years and so far haven't crashed a single one. :-*

[Kevin]

Now I can guess why your tyres wear out so quickly  :D.
I've been riding bikes for over 20 years and so far haven't crashed a single one. :-*

You're not trying hard enough! (crashes don't wear out tyres BTW  :)).

I've/we've had some funny 'crashes'.

I dumped my second BSA 250 after going round a roundabout too quickly (I realise the juxtaposition of BSA 250 and 'too quickly' is an oxymoron) and losing it on some gravel laying on the exit. We both went down and I was up and chasing the bike as it was still sliding towards a parked bus. I've no idea what the driver thought or what I thought I was going to do in the very unlikely event I caught it.

In a house we had some years ago the concrete drive went up a steep slope, then it was flat then there was another, short, steep slope up to the garage. One Sunday afternoon we came up the drive on our XS1100 and I stopped the bike with the rear wheel on the flat part and the front wheel partway up the steep slope to the garage. I've no idea what I was thinking as of course when I put my feet down they were dangling in mid-air! The bike fell over, us with it, and we laid on the ground laughing too much to get up.

As with most of our bikes the first FJ12 was used all year round. Coming round a country lane one Winter afternoon I was slowing down for a sharp bend when the front brakes locked on. Nothing I could do about it, the front end was gone so I kicked the bike away and we slid along the ground separately. I've always told Lyn to hang on to me if she can as we go down as if I press the eject button I want to know she's coming with me. A car driver saw our accident, and said he was really surprised when two of us got up as Lyn was hanging on so tightly we went along the deck looking like a single person. There was a problem with the brakes on early FJ12s and Yamaha paid for all the repairs - parts and labour - as long as we promised not to sue for personal injury. We were quite happy with that as we only had a couple of bruises.

I didn't count the one with the K100RS as a crash where I was putting it up on the centre stand and the tang broke off the stand. What I was basically doing as I heaved it 'on to the stand' was throwing it away from me. Lyn was upstairs and all she heard was the sound of a crash then me laughing.

The red mist was down when riding my ZZR11 at Cadwell and I was completely out of control as the ZZR, especially on that circuit, is a lorry. I'd already told myself I needed to slow down the lap before but I kept being passed by all these b4stards on 600s so I wasn't listening. Anyway, next lap I knew I wasn't going to make the Gooseneck, went grass tracking and just as I was about to get back on track and was already congratulating myself on the save I lost the front end. Unfortunately I went down on the edge of the track which resulted in a fracture/dislocation of my right elbow; not good. It was a nasty injury and the surgeon told me I'd never ride again but he was wrong. The bike wasn't too badly damaged and once I got back home I consoled myself by looking at all the burnt bits on the edges of the rear tyre.

The GTR crash wasn't funny at all, not least because I had no idea what was going on other than the back end was fishtailing and I didn't dare just shut the throttle as I was sure it would highside us. Even that had some humour though. It felt like it was going on for ages but obviously didn't. I was trying to tell Lyn I was going to put it down as I was concerned about a car coming the other way but she couldn't hear me because she was too busy endlessly repeating "Sh!t, Sh!t, Sh!t" which was all I could hear in my speakers! When I saw Lyn crawling out of the hedge and had checked she was OK I couldn't help but laugh as that looked so funny. I wasn't laughing so much when the adrenalin rush had gone and we started to hurt!

There are others like the time I was in London waiting at the traffic lights to turn left when a skip lorry going on a right filter took it too wide pushing against the pannier and forcing me to fall gracelessly off on the other side. He didn't stop but I got his registration number and witnesses then took the company to company to court but they claimed the number plate had been cloned and of course I couldn't disprove that.

Sorry, I'm waffling and this isn't the thread so I'll shut up now.

Kevin

[mecki]

Well, if you count dropping the bike as a crash ;D.

[Lonewolf]

I can only remember four accidents I have had, I'm sure there will be more though.

1/. Turning left off a main road onto a minor road covered in snow on my Honda CX500, gunned the engine and suprisingly the bike disappeared from under me and I slid down the road. I was young and stupid then.  ;D

2/. Again on the Honda CX500, tried to be sneaky to avoid a que of traffic, turned right down an empty road with not one single car on it, result I though, "Shit" I said as I noticed it was sheet ice and I had no alternative other than to drop the bike before I slid out into a dual carriageway directly ahead. I was young and stupid then.  ;D

3/. Got knocked off a scooter while over taking a bus in a layby, just as the bus decided to pull out. I veered to my offside, mounted a kerb of a traffic island, skidded to a halt on the grass and then dropped the bike. I was young and stupid then.  ;D

4/.  Back on the Honda CX500, straight after work one night I rode down to Dover and fell asleep while riding the bike. It was only the sound of my bike going over the rumple strips at the side of the hard shoulder that woke me up. Did a non stop jaunt to St Tropez, some 1200 miles approx, on the way home from France I went via Hastings towards Newquay where I promptly rode straight into the back of a car and destroyed my trusty CX500. It was a good holiday though.  8)

I'm sure there's been others but thats all I can remember. My last car crash was at the impressive speed of 7mph. I still cringe about that one.  ::)

[Kevin]

Well, if you count dropping the bike as a crash ;D.

As I said - "(crashed it - everything from 'That was silly' to 'Ouch, that hurt!')". The XS1100 was on its side again in the middle of Rouen on a later trip and I once skittled a couple of mates off a Fireblade using a ZZR11 as a ball but they're different stories.

Kevin

[fred24]

Didn't realise that throwing bikes down the rode was such a popular pastime - think I'll try and avoid it though

[Boomer]

I dropped my XS250 on diesel on a roundabout in Brum.
Broke lots of me but the bike needed a new indicator and footpeg.

XS500 died in the side of a Volvo.
It did kill the Volvo and it took over an hour for the Fire Crew to extract the badly injured driver from the wreckage.
I had bruises an few square inches of gravel rash (shoulder and bum).

Dropped the Z1300 when I forgot to put the sidestand down.
I was bone tired and it was a 30 minute fight to get it vertical again.

My funniest ever was 2-non crashes.
I lost the front end on Sanji at about 0.1Mph on snow.
Jammed my knee under the petrol tank and held her up.
A nice pedestrian helped me get her upright again.
200meters later it happened again.
The same pedestrian suggested I park it and walk home.
I agreed and did!  ;D