The official crash thread... tell about your best crashes!

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:10 am

I had a few excellent crashes over the years. If you ride, you will probably crash..... it's just a fact of life Embarassed

The first crash was when I was flying around a curve on a CB400T Hawk and hit some sand. I was down and sliding before I even knew what happened. Sad

.... did you know you can slide a pretty long way at 45 mph ? Surprised

I busted the clutch lever and the shifter was jammed in 6th gear. That was fun trying to ride it home that way.

Second crash was when I was looking for a street sign and the lady in front of me slammed on the brakes. Shocked

As I looked forward and saw she was about stopped and I was still going 35 mph, things were not looking too good. Mad

I had about 10 feet to go before I could even hit the brakes. I knew I was going to plow into her and I just locked up both wheels until I hit. Everything seemed in slow motion as I flew over the trunk and just missed the windshield. Evil or Very Mad

My nice 85 600 Ninja with the nice new Vance and Hines header went straight up and down and then SMASHED on the pipe side (of course), flattening the pipe as flat as a pancake Sad

.... I was ok but the lady's car had a nice big V crunch in her bumper. The forks never bent on that bike for some weird reason.

Third crash was on a 99 YZFR1. There was this road that had a lot of hills...... up and down up and down....forever and straight as an arrow. I was cooking pretty good ...around 75 mph. I came up over one of the hills to find a sudden 15 mph hairpin turn Sad

There were no signs at all, and to make matters worse, the curve had some dirt and gravel on it. I kind of locked the brakes until the front started to tuck under, then I released them and figured I would have to see how the bike handled off road Confused

It all happened so fast but I found myself laying in the ditch with the bike half on top of me. I was sooo knocked out of wind and trying to figure out if it was a bad dream or something?? Laughing

Anyway, I broke my shoulder blade and a few ribs...... and my Arai took a pretty good hit, so I had a slight concussion. The bike was scratched up a little bit, but the clutch lever and shifter was still ok. Some lady stopped and helped me pick the bike up. I rode it 70 miles home and to a hospital. That was not a good day Crying or Very sad

...... and that is about it for now ........... Surprised

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:40 am

Crashes are not a favorite subject around here, but I had a good one on April 19th when my black and very beautiful 79 CB7/1123 Super F was struck and killed by a fonewhale.
I got a real bad dislocated shoulder and my wrist got a dislocated fracture that needs an operation that I am afraid of getting because I will be off the old bikes for about 2 months, so I am gonna try and wait for the winter.

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 4:23 am

the only crash if you can call it that... was on an 85 FZ750 going about 5MPH doing a U turn when I hit some mud and down it went... Got a little boo boo on my leg and the bike was completely fine.

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 4:30 am

I had to get 14 stitches on the right side of my knee, when I laid my bike down going about 25 wearing shorts.

I guess I should mention that this was at age 13.

Oh yeah...

And it was on a mountain bike.

Does that count?

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 4:56 am

I've wrecked a total of 4 times over the years........none of them were excellent. Rolling Eyes

2 were my fault for being a dumbass Head Banger

.......and 2 were out of my control. Wow

Those don't count the times off road that I've had a spill. Laughing

My last one was at age 55......I don't want to do anymore. Shocked

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:20 am

fasterspider wrote:

Crashes are not a favorite subject around here, but I had a good one on April 19th when my black and very beautiful 79 CB7/1123 Super F was struck and killed by a fonewhale.
I got a real bad dislocated shoulder and my wrist got a dislocated fracture that needs an operation that I am afraid of getting because I will be off the old bikes for about 2 months, so I am gonna try and wait for the winter.

Fonewhale huh ? Sad

..... I noticed there are alot of them on the hunt around here lately Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:40 am

Mmmm... Where do I start? Smile

Guess I'll go in chronological order - '83 1100F, riding home one day in the pouring rain. I was going around a turn at 35mph and went over some white road paint. Both wheels slid out and I went sliding across the road. The design in my sweater was brush-burned into my arm.

'02 CBR954RR - (3/04) Just got it, 48 miles on the clock. Moving pretty good on some side roads that I wasn't really familiar with. Hit a pot-hole while leaned over. I went over the bars slid into the guide rail and then the bike slid into me. Oil everywhere.
(5/04) Riding a wheelie over a steep hill at about 80mph (I know, stupid) crested the hill and noticed some rather large cars stopped dead ahead of me. Locked up the front, let off, locked again (all in like .1 sec) and then I ate pavement. The only thing worse than the sound of your head bouncing off the pavement is the sound of your bike sliding next to you. I slid about 230 feet up a hill. The bike went about 250. (the police were nice enough to verify the distance)
(6/05) Driving 30mph down a city street in my left lane. A pickup truck headed in the opposite direction made a left turn into my lane. Hit head on.

I've been through 5 helmets in the last 15 months.

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:01 am

Never been down on a street bike in my 22 years of riding. I don't know if I am good or lucky, but if I had to choose between the two I would take lucky every time.

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 1:42 pm

sorry......i cant believe we are doing this thread...i refuse to talk about my crashes....although they are few...talking about them wont help since there are too many variables

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 4:26 pm

firemun59 wrote:

sorry......i cant believe we are doing this thread...i refuse to talk about my crashes....although they are few...talking about them wont help since there are too many variables

Why? A good out of control crash is one of the more dramatic times you will ever have on a motorcycle Shocked

..... crashes are ok to talk about ......as long as you learned something from the experience, it is all good. Surprised

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 4:40 pm

firemun59 wrote:

sorry......i cant believe we are doing this thread...

Completely agree. Somethings are better untalked about. Crashes and tickets are 2 of them.

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 4:59 pm

CB1100F wrote:

firemun59 wrote:

sorry......i cant believe we are doing this thread...

Completely agree. Somethings are better untalked about. Crashes and tickets are 2 of them.

*cancels plans for an official Ticket thread* Embarassed

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:21 pm

Kinda seems to me that talking about your "best" crash is a lot like talking about your "best" hemorrhoid.

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:29 pm

lj wrote:

Kinda seems to me that talking about your "best" crash is a lot like talking about your "best" hemorrhoid.

No, no I was just kidding!

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:11 pm

Laid down twice over twenty years ago. Neither one was good or excellant. I can see nothing good about destroying yourself or a bike.

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:32 pm

Larry wrote:

Laid down twice over twenty years ago. Neither one was good or excellant. I can see nothing good about destroying yourself or a bike.

I kind of feel like walking away from any accident is quite good. Cool

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:38 pm

The 'best' crash I had was riding my dirt bike (some of you may remember the 'Turkey Run' in November in Port Angeles). It had snowed about 3" on part of the course that ran down a smooth single lane graded gravel road, and I was running in 5th gear on my KX400 in the center part of the road in virgin snow so I had some traction and steering. At high speed my rear wheel slid off the 'hump' between the car tire tracks (it looked like a couple of cars had driven down the road) into the slick packed snow on the right, then the front tire ran off into the left track. Immediately thereafter my bike dropped to the ground like a stone with the peg catching and spinning the bike into the left tire track. I dropped onto my butt on the right tire track at about 70mph (or however fast a KX400 was in 5th pinned) and slid sitting straight down the tire track for a LOOOONNNNGGGG way. When I was done sliding I had a heck of a walk back to my bike, which stopped pretty quickly - with no damage. As I was sliding along I had time to look back at my bike, the riders behind me, the ones in front of me, and think about whether or not anything would be broke on my bike while I was waiting to stop. My worst crash was on another dirt bike, a CR125. I was slowing down rapidly on a short stretch of pavement and on the brakes hard when the back end stepped out a little. I put my left foot out to stabilize the bike (didn't touch the ground with it) and let off the rear brake but kept the front on. The front end washed out to the right and the bike snapped down on the left side, lowsiding. The bad part was I was going so slow - about 5mph - my left leg stuck into the ground and the bike hit it sideways and down. I dislocated my knee, broke my tibia and femur, and tore all the knee ligaments and meniscus.

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 3:32 am

One accident but this is the begining of the 2nd year of riding. Driving ona rode with a dirt shoulder and behind a Subaru wagon carrying a pesky 3 year old and a mother not paying close enough attention. Someone ahead stopped to make a left and the Suby hammered on the brakes you could actually see the puffs of smoke from the tires as the antilocks did their thing. I hammered the brakes and actually locked up the rear wheel. However I did some quick math and realized that I was not going to stop by the back bumper of the car. The bike was still quite straight so I backed off the rear brake just enough to unlock and decided to take my chances with the side of the rode. I didn't want to put myself in the ditch so I tried to go by between the ditch and the car. Well as soon as the front tire hit the soft dirt with me squeezing the brake hard still the tire kicked out to the right. The front fairing hit the right turn signal of the Suby and sent me over the handle bars through my wind screen and poked my head throught the rear window of the car. All in all good lesson about traveling to close and only a few cracked ribs and fiberglass.

Sean

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 11:54 pm

Here's the result of doing why you're not supposed to scrape your pegs, boots,knees etc on the ground with brand spankin' new tires:

Here i am a year and a half ago "la-di-da-ing " admiring my brand new Metzelers... even took a pic , but little did i know it was a going to be a "before" pic Embarassed

{Notice the nipples and the tire mold remnants on my tire}

{Sigh} here's the after pic , just coming out of the "Rock Store" here in Socali i was going to see the wonderful PCH but not before an 85mph in a 30mph hairpin put a delay on my plans.
Not that the bike wouldn't normally handle this turn as it had a million times before , but just not on a tire that wasn't properly broken in Confused

Nothing much happened to me wearing my old vetter leather jacket, jeans , and boots .
The buttons on my wallet still have scars Laughing

The bike saw a bit more with the fairing being destroyed, headlight mount tweaked, handlebars bent , tank hold down ripped loose , left blinkers thrashed, and the shifter bent .But i left the shifter alone cause it's never been in a more comfortable position Laughing

Would have been much much worst if i had gone down on the pavement, i'm glad there was nice soft dirt to land on and not to mention slow my excessive speed!!!
So i saw the dirt and let her slide that way.

Had to ride the bike back that way ... should have seen all the onlookers wondering WTF Very Happy

Luckily it didn't happen on my 1100F or i'd never gotten over it Mad

I've never been down on my F amazingly , and i'm gonna keep it that way Very Happy

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 10:53 am

........greasy. First corner I came to I leaned over a bit and the back end came out from under me. Lucky thing it hooked back up real quick. I would have hated laying down a bike with only 3 miles on it. Embarassed

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:11 pm

This one is funny!

In the old days, I had a Triumph Bonneville and an old KZ400.
Where I used to live, at the bottom of the hill was a 90 degree left turn, a berm, and Lyman's Reservoir. On the shore of the reservoir is where the local girls laid out in the sun. Imagine, if you will, a young Airman First Class, on leave from defending freedom, riding down Lyman Road on his KZ400. On the shore, resplendent in a blue bikini, was Shari Janowicz. Mark's 1978 Dream Girl. You guessed it. I missed the curve. Crested the berm, and did the best imitation of Evel Knievel jumping the fountain at Caesar's Palace yet seen in Wolcott,CT. After a major field strip to remove the water from EVERYWHERE on the bike. I slunk back to Germany. Shari is probably STILL laughing.

Fast forward to 1985, The young A1C is now a staff sergeant. The Kawasaki is bigger and greener. Mark's 1985 Dream Girl is Mary McNabb, who works at the local gas and go. Our Hero pulls his ELR in to fill up. Consumed by thoughts of bliss, I....I mean he, plods toward his next ex-wife in her little glass house. The evening's entertainment planned, I traipse out to my mo-chine. Get on, click down one notch on the shifter (not from N to 1, 5th to 4th) 7500 RPM takeoff planned, Bike goes putt, putt, putt, and I lay it over on the brand new case saver. Cut to Mary, framed in the window, laughing her ass off.

This is why I ride Hondas, they crash less.

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:22 pm

Quote:

This is why I ride Hondas, they crash less. Laughing

Good stuff.... and yes they do. Im suprised that it took you so long to figure it out. Razz

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:49 pm

Do dirt bikes count? I was up in the Bitteroot mountains, north of a town called De Borgia Montana on a 500 Ossa in the summer of 1991. That thing was a screaming hunk of dirt bike. Anyway, I was riding with a couple of other guys, we were cruising timber on a Federal contract, and dirt bikes were the best way to get around. I was going down slope on a forest road that had water bars every so often to divert water from the road. I was pulling wheelies off each water bar, showing off to the guys behind me. Oh yea, I should point out that the bike had just been in to a shop to get the fork seals replaced. So, I pull this huge wheelie over this water bar and see the front tire and lower fork tubes go shooting down the hill in front of me. You can imagine the rest, cause I couldn't hold that wheelie for ever. I did a tuck and roll that my jump school instructors at Benning would have been proud of and escaped unscathed. I had on no helmet. This I think was the closest that I ever came to getting seriously fucked up on any kind of motorcycle, and I have laid down bigger machines that that Ossa.

I am no mechanic, but even I could have put those fork pins in properly, had I done the work. The mechanic that did it was from Missoula I think. It was not my bike, I was using it for the summer.

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 5:02 pm

best crash? popping mono on a borrowed gpz750 1984 i think?
rode 400 miles to go back home for a visit, went around to mates place 3 times but no-one was home

on the fourth try i could see my mates car at the end of the drive of a set of 10 housing units(flats)

excited/showing off whatever - i popped the front wheel up & quickly realised i had no room to put down and stop....front wheel went down with the brake on and over we went Crying or Very sad

to make matters worse, my mates were all spastic drunk and couldn't even stand up to see what had happened, so i got myself up went inside a rang a cab and went to hospital for a 2week stay....

ring my mate back in melbourne...blah blah

ring my boss...blah blah blah...

ring my folk's in town tell them that i'm here for a visit & i'm up in hospital any time they want to come say hello....

Exclamation

it's not the first time i've stacked mates bikes Exclamation

NEW RULE

don't ride borrowed bikes

MB-5 Joined: Dec 15, 2003 Posts: 21 Location: Rhode Island

I've been lucky, havent dumped my bike (yet), been really close a few times but shiny side is still up.

The story I have is about a buddy of mine who got a DUI on his Ya-mama-ha a few years back.

He decided to ride home after a night of drinking. Came up to a stop sign, slowed down and came to a complete stop.... and then forgot to put his feet down...... thump, right on his side. He got a good smack on the head (no helmet laws up here). Cop saw him riding down the road with blood on his forhead and decided to pull him over to see what was up. So remember these three things:

-Dont drive Yamahas
-Dont drink and drive
-Put feet down when you come to a stop

CB1100F Joined: Jul 02, 2003 Posts: 3189 Location: Phoenix

I think just about everybody knows about my story from last year. If you have a really bad wreck, thinking about it too much can be very depressing. Also don't forget, very bad accidents can hurt you just as bad mentally as it can physically. Just like the kid who crawled back up a mountain at the Dragon after he went over with his father, I am sure that the mental scar will be far worse than the actual accident.

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 5:12 pm

That is true Cliff, that is why I relayed the funny ones and NOT the ones which included the base hospital, orthopedic surgeons, and medical leave.

Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2005 11:53 pm

have two that are not really crashes, but are still rather funny.
1st I was living in Groton Ct, Bought my 1100f there. Had a buddy who lived in Cranston R.I. He was going to let me store my bike at his mom's house for the winter. A second buddy was following me to give me a ride back to Groton.
We were cutting through some big park in Cranston, driving park speed. I on the bike was behind some big land yacht and My 2nd buddy following behind. The Guy a head signals a Left turn and starts to move in that direction My turn is there too but to the right so I start to lean over making the turn long and slow. Suddenly the guy in the land yacht breaks hard to the right and is going to squeeze me off the road. I lock up both wheels, when i hear my buddy behind me lock them up. I figure if I can hear him like that he is way too close, so I goose it and feel the ass end of the bike come up. Tire grabs and I'm gone straight down the road.
Turns out my buddy didn't realize how quick bikes can stop. Any how I left abit of rubber on the hood of his car.
Second one. Was in the U.P of Michigan Houghton to be exact.
The main drag through houghton loops through town. west bound loops to go east bound right in the bend is a branch off to continue west. the loop is two lanes wide. The branch off is from the outside lane. I'm in the outside lane wanting to go east. On the inside lane is a Full size van. I start to lean over in the turn. Suddenly I feel pressure on the top of my helmet. I look left and up and I can see this van I start pounding on the van's side. The van wanted to continue west and was changing lanes to get to the branch off. The kids in the van were screaming to the driver that I was pounding on there van. The guy corrected his course and I passed him none the worse for the wear.
The only real crash I had was up in the Houghton area. I was giving a buddy a ride home one night. coming down a steep hill that turned 90 degrees to the right. I started braking and down shifting to make the corner, when the guy on the back started tapping me and shouting. i could'nt understand him so I turn my head to hear what was yelling about. Of course I stopped breaking and had the clutch pulled in. I realize the guy was trying to tell me about the sharp corner up ahead.
Turning forward again. I realized I was now real close the turn and going to fast to make it. I was dressed for the spill but my passager wasn't so I decided to take the truck run away and stop. Of course years of snow plowing had built a mound that was covered with weeds undetectable in the dark. The bike went up until the front wheel left the ground. Not enough speed to get airborne though. fell on to the exhust and the bike flipped and every thing landed on me.
only broke my collar bone smashed up the clock box and scatched up the fairing.
Morals
Never assume cage drivers are going to do what they indicate.
Always watch what those cage drivers are doing they don't always know.
And if your passager has some thing to tell you complete what you are doing first.