Taking A Fall

It's interesting how many of the incidents here could probably have been avoided. Youthful exuberance has a lot to answer for, as well as numbskull drivers.

My first off was on my SS50. I was doing all of 30mph on the road from Highworth to Lechlade. I took a leasurely look over my right shoulder for reasons that elude me and when I looked back I realised I'd veered towards the kerb. Too late - the bike fell over and I slid on my arse for 20 yards on the wet grass verge. Never made that rookie mistake again.

Second time was on my GP100. Stuck in a long queue of traffic on Ermin Street (undulating Roman road) unable to overtake because of oncoming cars, and sat behind my friend's car. Our moment arrived - he plulled out and accelerated. I followed. He suddenly pulled back in and I, with a cheery wave on my way past, kept going...straight in to the car a little in front that I thought was also overtaking but was in fact pulling in to a layby on the other side of the road. Slammed in to the back, over the handlebars and slid grafully across their boot and landed in the road. Turned out to be someone I'd worked with about 6 months before. I was fine but the bike's forks resembled bananas.

Worst one (and still not too serious) was entirely down to my own stupid frustration. A car pulled out on me and my Thunderace a little late, but not dangerously so. Annoyed, I rolled off the throttle, arrived close to his bumper and grabbed the front brake, as if he's even realise I was there. Damp road, autumn leaves, goodbye front wheel. It was slow speed but I was slammed on to the deck and, I realised some weeks later when I felt the bump, I must've broken my collarbone.

 

Dirt bike offs to many to count. Road incedents 1978 tank slapper, death shake, Endo whatever you guys call it 80 mph at 1:00 am hit a piece of 3" black pipe angled to my travel on black asphalt with only my throttle hand on the bars, handlebars oscillating back and forth violently as I launch over the top. Landed on the palms of my hands and did a front roll and wound up sliding down the road feet first but my torso upright watching a brilliant display of sparks from the bike. Two older women in oncoming traffic dodged the bike and stopped. Got up with little skin left on my palms and bleeding, got the bike upright and limped a half mile home.

Mid 90s running 75 on the freeway when the rear tire blew, only thrill I got riding a vintage 76 Honda cb750 super sport. Lots of theatrics but stayed upright by pulling my butt clear up onto the tank next to the handlebars to stick the front tire.

2011 Hallett motor speedway track day pro also on an sv650 passes andl looses the rear, no where to go so low sidded it also. Slid and bounced once. Now at 60 I reckon my bouncing days are over.

 

I was talking to a bike cop at the TT a couple of years back, we were looking at 2 black skid marks going across a corner and over the edge of a steep drop on the mountain, he said “that one was yesterday and he’s in Nobles with broken legs, the other one was a couple of days ago and he’s in a very bad way, probably won’t make it”, then he said “a few yards before the corner there’s a sign showing it’s a tight bend, pretty much every accident I go to there’s a sign that’s been ignored, you should always look at the signs and react accordingly”, spin forward a year or so and I’m on a country lane near my house approaching a blind bend, there’s a sign showing the tight bend and that there’s a lane joining it at its apex, I thought of the cops words and slowed right down, a van came tearing out of the lane into the corner, the driver hadn’t slowed or looked, if I’d not slowed to virtually a crawl he’d have ploughed into me, thank you TT bike cop!.

 

If you get into a corner way too hot, just look to where you want to go. Bike is far more capable then what the average rider thinks. Look there, and it's highly likely the bike will go there,l without you or your brain f*cking it up.

 

ive had a few cars pulling out in front of me came off a couple times missed the corner worst being a woman pulling out of mac donalds was doing 60kpm on a bmw k100 didn't even have time to brake broke my right leg got a plate with 7 screws and broke my left foot totalled the bike

 

I don't know what you have over there but here tight corners they have a recommended speed . on the bike as I am getting old 10 to 20 km over I know I am ok

 

its rare to have a recommended speed over here, usually it’s just a road sign showing a bend before the corner and then a black and white chevron board on the corner, often you’ll find the corner they have marked is not too tight only to find an unmarked one further down the road that’s really tight!, keeps life interesting though

 

That definitely would

 

First off was a mini pulling out at a junction. Nothing I could do. It was like the smash on the “Think Bike” TV script. Second was due to me having a one pint, on a road with the most accidents in the UK, in the wet, not knowing my limitations . My fault entirely! There is no third but I came perilously close to high siding in to oncoming traffic when my front gave up on gravel on a corner in Wales. However , continually eyeing up dolly drops is an error I have yet to find a solution to as it remains a problem!!! I still open the taps but on roads I know well which have little or no side roads and no traffic.

 

A few minor scrapes mainly due to my acute lack of talent as a yoof!

Worst by far at 19 on a massively overpowered 250 superdream with semi slick racing quality whoflungdung tyres.....coming off a roundabout in sheffield on the way back from work, cranked over in full mick grant stylee, hit a patch of diesel, highsided and flew over 10 feet.
Landed on all fours broke wrist and mangled knee with torn cruciate ligament. Luckily (?) the bike slid into the front of the van that was heading towards me which prevented more serious damage.

I can confirm that happily I can still spot diesel even 30 years later......

 

Let me see.... First time was on my CB250RS. Wet road following a car when I suddenly realised it was slowing down as it moved in towards the side of the road. Grabbed a handful of the anchors and the back end slid round on me until I hit the back of the car side on and wound up sitting on his boot. Broke a mirror. I had a wee bit of a 'discussion' with the driver who claimed his brake lights and indicators were working where I swore (freely) that they weren't. He wasn't bothered about it anyway as he said he was on the way to the breakers with his old heap.

Second time was on my CB250RS. Went to Harry Fairbairn's Honda in Irvine, Ayrshire to buy a new mirror after the previous incident. Came out of the shop and fitted the mirror then though I would be clever and nip through between some bollards to another part of the industrial estate rather than going the long way round. Didn't see all the gravel until it was too late and I went down, smashing the new mirror. Geezer comes out of a nearby tyre fitters to see if I was alright and commented that a fella on a Goldwing had done the same thing earlier in the day but he didn't get off so lightly damage wise.

Third time was, again, on my CB250RS. Flying down a country road and I remembered too late that I was coming up on a bend that was pretty much 90 degrees. Tried to wash off my speed before the bend and, realising I didn't fancy going into the hedge/wire fence, I opted to try and get around the bend, unfortunately all the gravel accumulated on the bend had other ideas and I went down tearing lumps out of one knee. Of course a fella was just coming around a bend farther on when I went down and decided to stop and see if he could offer any help and then, while I was hopping around cursing he decided to offer me his pearls of wisdom about how cars are safer. I'm not proud of it but I put it down to shock and pain that the eejit got a thump.

Fourth, Fifth and Sixth time were the last times on the CB250RS. I was working at a semiconductor factory on the top of a steep hill in Greenock on the night shift. Drove up to work for 7pm start in an incredible thunder storm with rain coming down in lumps. About midnight the sky became totally clear and temperatures dropped below freezing. At 7am I left work and, being the last day of the shift I was seriously pissed off at how slow the traffic was moving out of the works car park. That is until I spun run 180 degrees on the frozen water across the road and found myself lying on the ground with the bike on top of me. Picked myself and the bike up and started moving again as nothing seemed too badly damaged. Just started cursing that traffic was still so slow even though the ice patch was passed when, wheee! I found myself on the ground once more. Again I picked the bike up and got on. Got all the way down to the Greenock by-pass where a Taxi driver warned me to watch myself if I was southbound. I motored off not really thinking much about it until I came under the bridge over the by-pass and the morning sunlight was shining of the ice covered dual carriageway and all of I sudden there was no noise from my tyres. I thought I was gonna make it, skating over the ice avoiding touching the brakes and just trying to guide the bike when, in the blink of an eye myself and the bike went down and spun around, parting company, At which point an idiot in a Metro skimmed the top of my lid and totalled the bike. I loved that old bike too!

Seventh time was a Honda MBX125. I caned it along a cold winter road with nary a care in the world until I heeled her over into a tight bend where the back wheel shot out from under, the left footpeg bit the ground and the bike flipped me up into the air and I sailed many airborne yards down the road before coming back to earth and sliding for more yards. When I got back to the bike the keys were missing and I found them yards up the railway embankment next to the road. Apart from that and a torn strap on my boots both myself and the bike had escaped any serious injury.

Eighth (my last crash to date(touch wood)) was also my worst and the only one that wasn't the result of me being daft. An old Kawasaki LTD440. I was pottering along and I came up behind a car facing the same direction as myself and waiting to turn right. I came up the inside and didn't see her flash her lights to tell an oncoming car to cross her bows. First I knew it hit the bike just behind my right foot. I hit the kerb and myself and the bike sailed up into the air together and came down on our side. Whiplash, Fractured hip and assorted bruises and it was a feckin' doctor that hit me, driving his sons car. He took advantage of the fact that I was stunned by the crash to convince me that I didn't need treatment, and that the accident was largely my fault but, as there was little damage he wouldn't get the police involved. I wonder if that has anything to do with my pathological hatred of doctors

 

First off 1978 going round a bend at the bottom of Westgate in Wakefield on the way to work, diesel spill on the bend. First I knew was the smell, second was "why am I sitting on my arse in the middle of the road?". Fortunately low speed and the car behind stopped.
Second was turning onto a newly "resurfaced" road, no signs to say loose chippings, that didn't go well.
Last was 1987, 06:00, going down the A17 to Norwich, as I was lining up to go round the Sutterton Roundabout some arse coming down what would have been the first left decided to take a short cut and turned right into the roundabout, suddenly faced with what I think was an old Bedford van I put the bike down and slid into/onto the roundabout. Missed the van by about a foot. Van didn't stop. Bike buggered. Just a few bruises to remind me of it. That really did piss me off. When I got back from work I did go down there on a couple of mornings just in case the bastard came past. Don't really know what I would have done if it had.

 

Yep, that advice has helped me on more than one occasion.

I think one area often overlooked is road surface. Two offs I've had have been because of poor road surface and I pay particular attention to it now - especially on the country roads that I ride that can have a load of shit on them unexpectedly around any corner.

DS

 

Three in one day..they are clearly tricky bikes, those CB250RSs...

Beerman

 

Nah it wasn't the bike it was the black ice and the muppet in the saddle. I do have to say that I seem to have had all my falls on small bikes. The big 'uns seem to be stuck to the road better.

 

I guess I'll chime in. I'm a beginner rider. I was going down a road and missed my turn, so I decided to pull into a driveway to turnaround as I didn't want to go up to the much busier road and turn back around as I said, still learning and very inexperienced. I downshifted to 1st, pulled in on clutch to apply some front brake, and as I was coming to a stop in the gravel driveway, my back wheel came out from me, and caused me to have a not so straight position to stop at. Very slow speed, but came down pretty hard, and broke my shift peg. Hurt my ribs and knee, which took about 4 weeks to completely recover, but I picked the bike up, and was able to use the shifter arm to get the bike through enough gears to ride back home. So lesson learned. I will stay away from gravel until I have way more time on the bike.

 

Reminds me of riding with a Japanese colleague in West Virginia. We all knew the roads and he would roundly kick me to the curb when he decided to ride fast. He had done a bit of amateur racing in Japan. I asked him once how he rode so fast on these gravel strewn corners. He replied in his thick Japanese accent, "I learn how to drive on gravel... I crash many, many time on gravel."
The only way to learn the limits of the possible is to exceed them into the impossible. (Second law of Clarke).

 

That reminds me of a time when I came really close to crashing on my Suzuki GSX750, probably fatally, and the Lord knows how I didn't come a cropper. I was stuck behind this annoying wee car coming up to a roundabout outside an ocean terminal where coal was offloaded to be taken by lorry across Scotland to Longannet power station. I decided I would pass her on the exit from the roundabout which was two lanes wide converging into one. I couldn't believe it when the bitch moved wide to block me passing her and, as I was totally committed to the move, I had no option but to go even wider which took me onto a whole scree of small coal pieces and coal dust left by lorry after lorry load of coal passing. The bike went totally haywire under me and I was thrown up our of the saddle into what felt like a handstand on the bars while the bike bucked back and forward like a rodeo bull. In those fractions of a second I saw myself being catapulted headfirst into the stone wall of the bridge that crossed the road in front of me and clearly remember thinking "So this is the point where I go splat". I have no idea how I managed to stay aboard and get the bike back under control. When I turned round and returned to survey the scene of my near demise there was a terrific snaking pattern through the coal dust for several yards from my wheels. I have to say that it was a bloody serious adrenaline rush!