lessons learned the hard way ...

Salbo's post asking about home-made trailers reminded me of a few crashes and lessons learned the hard way many years ago. I hadn't thought about the way a trailer doesn't lean like a 'bike and crashed when taking (or rather not taking) a bend, thankfully slowly. I also crashed when the trailer whip-lashed forward once and decided to flip over taking me and 'bike with it.

Sometimes when we are young (or in my case now, going senile) we do silly things. And sometimes, a few times even, the gods protect us from our misfortune and stupidity.

I thought it may be fun to get some admissions about the silly/lucky things we have done on a bike ... I will start ...

Once the front brake drum disintegrated on my old Honda CB250 as I cruised up to the lights in Cardiff and the back brake was pretty useless anyway so rather than hit the cross traffic at speed I skidded to a halt using my boot soles, literally burnt right through them and fortunately had good socks on ...

Once I was going a bit too fast (!) up the Seven Sisters road in London, came to a roundabout and took a quick zip into the traffic between two trucks which turned out to be one with a trailer, dropped the bike and somehow rode it under the bar, bounced onto the fence (yep, some roundabouts had metal fences back then) and ended up a bit dazed with the bike next to me on my legs and the detached and smashed fuel tank cradled in my arms ... a bloke rushed across and offered me a cigarette as the fuel poured onto my lap ( ciggies were seen as health aids in those days believe it or not) ...

Once a headlight mount broke on my Beezer and bits of it jammed the front wheel at a rate of knots, I flew over the top and landed unharmed on the roof of a soft-top car, think of the odds ...

I have a regular habit of forgetting to close the visor down, once in Maidstone some insect whacked me in the eye when I was riding at speed and I rode straight off the road, down some steps, across the adjacent canal path and onto a barge where I stopped just in time!

I used to smoke a pipe with a metal perforated lid on it sometimes while motorbiking as a student in Oxford, whacky baccy too, I have no idea how I survived that and even hallucinogenics, thank goodness I gave all that youthful stuff up and took to whisky ...

All I have had from these and other incidents is bad gravel rash thanks to always wearing good leather and helmets, and in all cases the 'bikes took little or no repair. Sheesh, we think we are bulletproof :naughty:.

Come on, own up you lot!

OK. Since you started, i might as well. I want to land on soft-top car too! Kind of like landing on a trampoline? :mwink:
I did something very stupid some back when i had my first bike. Before i started riding, i spent a lot of time reading common riding mistakes. One lesson i remember is you cannot brake and lean/swerve at the same time. You see a problem ahead, you have to decide quickly, to swerve left or right avoiding impact; or to brake. And when you brake you keep the bike in a straight line, upright position. I also knew i was on a heavy bike with a long wheel base. VLX 400, or more known as Steed. So that limits how fast i can lean the bike and how much i can turn.
I was going back home from work, not speeding, everything ok. All of a sudden i see the car in my lane coming my way. It was just after a hill so i only saw it when i was almost on top, seconds before impact. Right on the apex of the hill, i somehow manage to avoid hitting it. I was surprised i could do that on my bike. No brakes of course. I'm safe and clear, but i decide to stop right next to the idiot valet parking guy and talk some shit. This is right after the apex of the hill. So the drivers coming also cannot see me. I'm right near his window, just about to start yapping, when i car slams into me from behind, sending me and the bike tumbling down the hill.
Lesson learned, being angry on the road never solved anything. Many drivers are idiots, move along. Live to write about it on such a forum.

Some pretty amazing stories there Jape! Driving onto a barge in a canal! That has definitely happened in more than one film!

I wish i had some good ones to add, but the only lesson i've learned from embarrassing crashes is that i can't do a wheelie when i'm too drunk to stand.

A badly misspent youth in a country town in the days of mods and rockers and greasers counts for a lot of it, we were strictly barred from riding motorbikes along the river banks - but roariing around the market place doing what bad boys on Triumphs and Beezers do to impress the girls often meant we had to head through the barrier posts to the river banks where the cops couldn't follow - they only had cars in those days, or the occasional 2 stroke Velocettes that didn't have a chance to catch us! Mind you our days of getting away easily were numbered, the cops soon got Bonnevilles if I remember right or something similar!

I was opposite to you Felix, I found I could only do wheelies when drunk!

Slabo, I didn't bounce unfortunately, I went right through it! Cost me two weeks pay to replace it as no one had insurance back then. Still much better than crunching into and off a metal roof and I ended up going out with the pretty girl who was driving the MG what is more!

whats a beezer ? sounds old, can you find it on http://www.bikeexif.com/ i don't know if i'm wierd, but shiny bright new stuff don't interest me that much.

Beezer is BSA.

I had a couple, an early CB 250 and later an A10 (650) which I loved until I got my girlfriend pregnant and had to buy a Lotus Cortina - but that is another story.

In those days many were either Triumph or BSA riders in Britain and never the two would meet, however there were some amazing Triumph Norton hybrids (Tritons) and believe it or not Harleys were seen as just American junk. I soon moved to Hondas to the disgust of my mates, first a CB250 then a CR250 dirtbike whioh was great. I think I remember the letters and numbers right.

In all honesty most of those bikes were unreliable and until you learned all the mods and tricks just as many bits broke or fell off as do from modern chinese bikes!:lol8:

But yeah, they felt great to ride, especially the Rocket, in a straight line anyway!

The pinnacle of my stupidity and ignorance was definitely riding through the sand storm in the Mangnai area of China, into a region of the world with very very few people and no water around. Already on the road for 12 hours, at about 10pm - a couple hours after the sun went down - I still had about 100+km on a fully loaded 150cc to the next place with lights or water. I had stopped to ask a guy driving a truck, who worked for the road construction crews, how far the next town was and he told me I could put the bike in the back and he'd drive me there. I said no because pride told me that if I could ride, I should. So he sped off ahead and I shook off the psychotic mess I was in from riding through 5-6 hours of biblical style sandstorm and headed out not long after.

The road was laser straight and quite good but, trying to make time, I was riding too fast for the severely underpowered single reflector headlight on the bike...not to mention being too fatigued and loosing time earlier in the day to re-weld the rack for the 4th or 5th time.

I could on occasion see the truck tail lights way ahead down the road but eventually lost sight of them. I wasn't thinking it at the time but it felt good knowing someone, anyone, was out there and it's strange how much difference tail lights in the darkness can make. There's a definite comfort and security of having another person around, no matter how unrelated you are, when alone and in a dangerous situation but bravado can be a son-of-a-bitch and make you not appreciate such simple things.

Turns out, full speed, even on a 150, and a pile of sand on the road don't mix. Riding too fast, with crappy headlights, lack of water and extreme fatigue is a cocktail I don't recommend to anyone. By the time the sand pile registered in my mind, it was already too late. I tried to make a last second adjustment and clipped the pile's edge. Beyond that all I remember is a violent impact (the forks bottoming out) and then silence (as I was catapulted off the bike). Then there was impact with the road and immediate shock set in. I probably rolled around on the ground in the dark for about a minute or so (time is a little blurry in these situations) trying to catch my breath again and screaming obscenities in pain. Eventually you pull yourself together, try to focus, get up and start walking around in a daze only thinking "Okay, I have to get my things together."

The bike's headlight was still on and shone a straight beam across the ground. Since all my luggage was black, I could only identify my things by the shadow they cast upon the ground. There was no real thinking in what I was doing and the shock hangs around for a long time. I tried to pick up the bike but couldn't and I knew that something was wrong. Later, XRays revealed my left collar bone was broken into three pieces and needed a titanium brace installed for about a year and a half. Only took me about a month before I wanted to get back in the saddle and within half a year I had my first new bike, the Jialing JH150GY2. :dirtbike:

To this day, the whole experience is quite vivid in my mind. Looking back on it, maybe I should have swallowed my pride and put the bike on the back of the dude's truck. Maybe I should have just ridden slower. Hard to say, but one thing is for sure, the greatest danger on the road is yourself and bad judgment.

I know other people have had similar experiences and, from what I've heard, the lessons are much the same. Ride within your limits and, if you choose not to, be strong enough to pay your dues and get back in the saddle. :thumbsup:

Up or down, life is only what you make of it.... so keep riding biatches! :riding:

Much Moto Love,
CC

waaw, some good story's here.
i hope not to be able to add here any time soon :wheelchair:

I learned early on that showing off to pretty girls whilst on a bike is a stupid thing to do, I must've been about 16 at the time and riding my old '79 Honda XL350 (completely stripped down to monkey bike status), I couldn't ride it on the roads so I thought I'd be smart and drive it on the side of the roads (in SA, the sides of the road are all dirt, no pavements or sidewalks.. unless you're downtown).. So anyway, I spot a couple of birds eyeing me out in their BMW (probably thinking I was stupid kid or something) so I took the opportunity to pop onto one wheel and since I was looking at them and not in front of me, I didn't see the lovely ditch where someone had dug up some huge chunks of concrete... so bike goes into the ditch, I fly into the large chunks of concrete and the BWM just keeps on going.... other than some nasty long cuts on my one arm, a suspected fractured little finger (I just let the bugger heal by itself) and big bruises all along my one side, it was my pride that got the biggest thrash.

So, yeah, don't show off and you're more likely to avoid looking like an arse. Oh yeah... the bike was actually not so badly damaged, it was only that one time that I hit a sleeping cow whilst coming round a blind bend out in the bush that I really buggered the front forks.

fffffff .... jeez we get lucky don't we? You found a cow asleep on the road? Brilliant!
I actually shot a sleeping cow once when I tripped over it at night - but that was in a field.

Yeah, I was riding along a small foot path worn through the bush next to a river, often folk from the townships nearby herd their cows there to graze, I must have been going between 40~60km/h around the bend (I knew the paths well) I smacked that cow good, went flying and by the time I could make sense of my surroundings the cow was gone (so I guess I didn't kill it.. although the state it left my bike in leads me to believe that it had some major internal injuries and probably didn't last long).. guess they ate steak that night.

i looked behind me on a bridge, turned back around and there was a curb, Bang i was down my pannel (i had a peugeot jetforce ped lol ^^) was hanging off and the belly pannel was mashed :( i was not please and it was my fault for not looking haha