Any Motörbike riders here?

gavin_axecaster

thebreeze said:

Question:  Have all of you fallen off or had an accident at any stage since you since you started?  Anyone not?

Not sure if I'm tempting fate writing this but in 37 years of riding (wow I'm old) I've had 3 incidents/crashes worthy of note.

In chronological order...

I was (outside) filtering in stationary traffic on the A13 by the M25 roundabout and an impatient driver decided to do a U turn without checking mirrors or indicating and I t-boned him, over the bonnet and flat out on the road. Ambulance ride to A+E and I was extremely surprised (and lucky) to find my ankle wasn't broken, just very mangled. I still have a dent on the inside of my left leg, although well padded with excess fat these days.

Bike was a write-off (Honda CX500Custom rat bike)

Interesting fact - this was the night before I was supposed to take delivery of the bike in the next incident!

Next one I was 100% to blame.

After a late social gathering after finishing an evening shift at Old Orleans in Thurrock (alcohol not a factor) I was heading home and stupidly gave it the beans on a dual carriageway rising up to a blind roundabout. No time to take evasive action when said roundabout suddenly appeared  I grabbed a handful of brakes and highsided. Ended up laying in the middle of the roundabout. Adrenaline got me up and I pulled my bike out of the road and I collapsed on the verge to get my breath.

One of my co-workers pulled up a few minutes later and after checking I was ok toodled off. I got the bike started, rode home in agony and could barely move the next day. Off to hospital for a check-up and told I most likely had some cracked ribs and should take it easy for a while. I think I took a couple of days off work.

Bike had damaged silencer and twisted handlebars (Yamaha FZR750 - baby v-max)

Third one was again my fault for not reading the road conditions. Just round the corner from me here, approaching a mini roundabout I didn't anticipate the wet road (had been raining earlier but drying out) and I missed a car coming from the right (they obviously had priority) and yet again I grabbed too much brake and this time the front folded and the bike slid way from me. Only injured my pride but the engine casing ground through and had to push the bloody thing home. (GSX750 with GSXR750 overbored engine and drag swingarm, no baffle, pearl white and purple. Hugely obnoxious bike but a lot of fun)

These were from 92-94/5-ish.

Some scary situations over the years (blow-out at 80+mph I somehow managed to save being a particular stand out) but in the grand scheme of things relatively few considering I used to commute into Central/West London 5 nights a week for a number of years.

These days I only ride for fun in warm/dry months. The standard of driving on the roads today scares the hell out of me.

thebreeze

@thumpingrug @gavin_axecaster its good to know you've ridden for so long and only had a few incidents.  I'm getting to the stage where I'm feeling too old to endure too much of all that. 

AK99

thebreeze said:

Question:  Have all of you fallen off or had an accident at any stage since you since you started?  Anyone not?

Ok here goes..(so not counting riding motoX as a kid or teenager):

1) Aged 16 1/2 - first decent road bike an air-cooled RD250. Bought it off the proceeds of a Summer job on the building sites. Bike was stored at the house of friends of my parents as I wasn't yet 17, and warned not to even think of going near it until my birthday. Had a spare key (of course), so sneaked off early one morning to take it to school. Pushed it out of the friends outhouse onto the road before kicking it onto life. Spotted some girls from a neighbouring school standing waiting at a nearby bus stop. Tried to do a quick U-turn with plenty of revs and noise to impress them, gave it too much throttle on the cold back tyre and landed up on my @rse in front of the bus shelter.

2) Aged 17 - same bike, legal now - came round a bog local roundabout over the M1 motorway, a favourite scratching spot for all the local Barry Sheene/ Kenny Roberts wannabes. Spotted another bunch of kids doing a traffic-survey counting cars on the motorway below, thought I'd show them how I could scrape the footpegs, so went round again for another lap. Went a bit too hard, ran out of talent and road, and ended up on the deck, slid into the armco and ended up with a set of bent forks and another dented ego. (Yeah there may be a pattern there )

3) Aged 17 still on the poor long-suffering Yamaha, came hammering round yet another local roundabout (as usual) - saw a wet line of something on the road, wasn't sure what it was, but had to cross it at some point anyway, turned out it was spilt diesel. Strike 3

4) Aged about 18, my younger brother bought a little KX125 trail-bike. It wasn't running right, so helped him replace the dodgy alternator and points plate. Took him for a spin to show how well it was working, and promptly lost the front end in the wet and fell off going round a T-junction with him ending up on top of me in the middle of the road. Oh how he laughed..

5) Aged 19 and a bit - 3 up on a Vespa in Greece somewhere in the middle of the night. Alcohol may have been involved. Didn't end well either.

Also had two near misses on a GPZ600 a couple of years after that. The first was when the bstd thing went into a full-on lock-to-lock tank-slapper accelerating out of a junction when the 16" front wheel caught a ripple in the tarmac. I rolled off, and the thing went mad altogether - like a bucking bronco. My knee actually dented the tank during the episode. It came out of it by itself thankfully, pretty much nothing I was able to do about it at the time. Second occasion was about 3 months after that, when I went a run up the Antrim Coast Road of a Sunday morning on the same bike (but with a precautionary MCN small-ads special hydraulic steering damper now fitted on the bstd). Nobody else about so I was shoeing it along rightly when I hit about a 30 yard long damp strip of tarmac overbanding right on my line. The bike just wiggled, shook its head a little, and then slid smoothly and almost in slow motion in a perfect two-wheeled drift about 10 yards out onto the other side of the road heading straight for the sea-wall. I just froze with fear. Somehow, and I still have never been able to figure out exactly why exactly, it gripped and sorted itself out. Again very little I could do about it all. Somebody up above must have been looking out for me.

I think that's about it, unless of course I remember any more. Apart from the bent forks, stitches and scrapes (and not forgetting the mandatory tweezering out of gravel into the stainless steel kidney dish) - I never really came off too bad. You do need a bit of luck on these things.

Touch wood I haven't so much as bent a brake or clutch-lever since in the last 40 years. Touch wood  

Haych

thebreeze said:

Question:  Have all of you fallen off or had an accident at any stage since you since you started?  Anyone not?

Haven't been riding that long, coming up to three years since I passed my test in early September.  Apart from the series of offs I had in the snow in Belgium I've only had one stationary drop.

I stopped in a lay-by an came to a half across quite a steep slope.  When I went to put my right foot down the ground was waaaaaay further away than I anticipated, by the time my foot hit asphalt the bike had gone over the tipping point of no return and over we went.

Damaged my pride a bit, but I laughed it off, and scuffed up the crash bars and broke a rear indicator lens.

Fortunately, or unfortunately perhaps, a nurse was just getting into her car in the same lay-by and saw the whole thing.  She checked I was ok and unhurt and then helped me get the bike upright again - and by that I mean before I could grab hold of any part of the bike with any force she'd got it back on it's wheels!

She must have muscles in her spit - I know I would have struggled to do that!

Dominic

I had an accident 30 years ago on a Ducati 888 SP on a long straight road .
There was just the one T junction onto it .I saw a car waiting to pull out and completely slowed .They just looked dangerous and I had a second sense that they would pull out .....even from a distance .
I approached cautiously at about 20 mph with 100 yards to spare ......sure enough at the last split second they pulled out and I T boned them and went over the top even though I was only doing 15mph by that point.Incredible.
I had quite bad damage to hip and one leg ( it was green and purple for 5 months ! )
I dread to think of the carnage had I been doing a legal 60 mph.

The more stupid Coda to the story is that 3 months later the bike was immaculately repaired , new Dianese leathers/helmet etc ..all in the matching red and white .
The day I picked it up I had to deliver some keys to a site foreman .....it was a lovely day and a chance to get a good 25 mile ride there and back in 'work' time. I arrived and everybody on the site admired the bike ( I knew a lot of the lads )
The thing sounded like a Spitfire in race spec with it's Termignoni pipes (I used to Track day it ) and everybody was intrigued just listening to it. I thought I would be double cool / daring/stupid and pull a big 100m wheelie as I left with the admiring crowd watching .
 Sure enough,I overcooked it ,slid down the road on my back with a 2 hour old mint repaired bike on top of me looking a complete arse /show-off . Broken ankle,ruined leathers/helmet and seriously damaged bike.
I felt so stupid and embarrassed.
That was the last time I have ever tried to show off on a bike .

AK99

^ There is definitely a bit of a theme going on with a lot of these offs..

Kittyfrisk

AK99 said:

^ There is definitely a bit of a theme going on with a lot of these show offs..

FTFY 

AK99

I resemble that remark..

thebreeze

The theme I’m noticing is that quite a lot of tomfoolery goes on when we’re young and then we come to our senses.

Dominic

I'm still doing the Tomfoolery but it doesn't involve motorcycles

Haych

Speaking of Tomfoolery, I think it might be a wind-up, but apparently I've won VIP tickets to the ABR Festival next month!

I won't fully believe it until the tickets drop into my inbox but they've announced me as the winner over on Insta already!  They've asked for my email address but nothing has arrived yet

Anyone else going?  

Hope it's not a wind up, I'm kind of excited about it.  Don't think I've ever won anything before, certainly nothing this significant!

Dominic

Anybody at /going over to thee TT this week ?
Anybody ridden the Mountain ?

Kittyfrisk

Haych said:

Speaking of Tomfoolery, I think it might be a wind-up, but apparently I've won VIP tickets to the ABR Festival next month!

I won't fully believe it until the tickets drop into my inbox but they've announced me as the winner over on Insta already!  They've asked for my email address but nothing has arrived yet

Anyone else going?  

Hope it's not a wind up, I'm kind of excited about it.  Don't think I've ever won anything before, certainly nothing this significant!

Congratulations, hope it's for real  

tinnitus

Anybody at /going over to thee TT this week ?

Anybody ridden the Mountain ?

Going over this Friday for practice week, can't wait. Smooth roads, bike friendly, kippers ......what more could you want?


Having ridden the course, would I like to race? Would I f*** - they're absolutely nuts.

Dominic

I've done it in the old Mad Sunday years on a Fireblade in the 90s .....but when you see a pro come underneath you on a 250 or 400 in a corner you realise how crap you are compared

Dominic

It's even more embarrassing when they go round you on the outside !

TheBigDipper

Dominic said:

It's even more embarrassing when they go round you on the outside !

I once did a track day at Cadwell Park on my BMW 1150GS in preference to my other bike (Ducati 916 Strada). I was quite happy at the way I could get my bus around the track and actually was having more fun than on the 916 because I had nothing to prove, and the bike was not a target in the way the 916 was.

Until a club racer getting some extra laps in came past me at Charlies 1&2 on a Kawasaki ER-5. Oh dear.... 

Dominic

^ The difference between a decent racer and a decent rider is huge.........on small twisty circuits like Snetterton anybody would put in a better time on a 400 than a big bike unless they were semi-pro level.
I used to race a 400rr (baby blade ) in the 90s and would get a better lap time on that than any other bike no matter how big the circuit ....loads of bigger bikes would take me on a long straight but I would always be in front of them 100m after the next corner.

TheBigDipper

Dominic said:

^ The difference between a decent racer and a decent rider is huge.........on small twisty circuits like Snetterton anybody would put in a better time on a 400 than a big bike unless they were semi-pro level.
I used to race a 400rr (baby blade ) in the 90s and would get a better lap time on that than any other bike no matter how big the circuit ....loads of bigger bikes would take me on a long straight but I would always be in front of them 100m after the next corner.

I've ridden all of the national circuits in the UK apart from Snetterton. I've not even visited it. One of my racer friends (MZs - low cost, lots of fun) complained that there were too many long straights for them to compete with the 400s they were racing with (the MZ formula raced at the same time as the 400cc class - separate championships for points, etc., but that didn't stop them trying to beat them anyway...). 

She was nurfed off at Snetterton by a 400 that was running too quick at the end of a straight and tried to go inside her MZ when they didn't have the line. Broken collarbone. The 400 rider apparently said she was at fault for not looking behind for a faster bike before she tipped in! Hmmm... 

AK99

Dominic said:

^ The difference between a decent racer and a decent rider is huge.........on small twisty circuits like Snetterton anybody would put in a better time on a 400 than a big bike unless they were semi-pro level.
I used to race a 400rr (baby blade ) in the 90s and would get a better lap time on that than any other bike no matter how big the circuit ....loads of bigger bikes would take me on a long straight but I would always be in front of them 100m after the next corner.

If you're ever at a loose end with a wee bit of time - have a look at few laps of this.

An open class battle at Kirkistown between local lad Gary Cowan on a TZ250 and Ron Haslam on a works RC30, and somebody else on a works Rotary Norton:



Crap quality, but one of the best races I think I've ever seen