Most embarrassing crash.

[Rogue]

Okay with all these posts lately of crashing and people getting hurt, what was your most embarrassing crash, or one you saw where there was no permanent damage?

I want to hear about you dropping your brand new bike in front of all your friends!

The rules are: embarrassing and no serious damage (except to your ego) .

I’ll start it with one on my bike, one on someone else’s, one I saw and one I heard about.

1) My son-in-law gave me a disk lock for Christmas; a month later I took off from the curb on my RF900R, put both feet on the pegs and the bike stopped! Oops forgot to take the disk lock off! Down it went on the left side…… not too bad right? Except 6 days later in the exact same place……………….. I took off from the curb on my RF900R, put both feet on the pegs and the bike stopped! Oops forgot to take the disk lock off! Down it went on the right side!

2) Mid 80’s I worked as a bike mechanic. Shop policy was that we would test ride the bikes after working on them, especially after doing tires (to scuff them in some). I replaced both tires on a V65 Magna. The drive to the street had a dip. When I pulled out the drive, hit the dip and leaned right the rear washed out, my falling right made me give it more throttle (those V65’s had torque) and down she went………… right in front of the customer who was watching!

3) High School:

My buddy was walking out of the Dairy Queen when he saw 3 girls from High School across the street. Of course he has to impress them………. So he gets on his RD, fires it up and wheelies out of the parking lot………… he discovers he didn’t unlock the forks! Watching him try to straighten those bars was priceless!

4) (Late 60’s, all Harley & Indian chopper riders) Buddy from upstate NY was at a gas station where 5 streets intersect with some riding buddies when he sees another buddy at the light. Light turns green and the guy takes off……. And the sissy bar breaks sending the girl friend off the back………. She grabs the back of the riders shirt and pulls him off……… The bike wheelies across the intersection with no one on it. The front comes gently down, bounces a couple times and the bike rides off a couple hundred yards.

The rider and girl friend are lying on their backs in the middle of the street and the LEO they didn’t see (Who was at a cross street watching the whole thing) walks up and asks “Miss, are you all right?” “Yes sir” “Sir, are you all right?” “Yes”……. The LEO sticks both arms out and says …. “Okay, I’m giving you three tickets; exhibition of speed, Driving in an unsafe manner and failing to control your vehicle.” …….(Rider) “but, but, but…..” (LEO) “Sir,…….. are those pipes stock on that bike?” (Rider)………………………… (LEO) “All right then………”

5) Now it’s your turn………..

 

[Toecutter]

Now it’s your turn………..

Well, you already heard about mine firsthand, and took a very incriminating picture to boot.
Did I mention it happened in front of some guys who were getting ready to saddle up on their Harleys? Luckily, they were German tourists on rentals and didn't give a bunch of attitude, at least nothing I could understand, and not until after they helped me pick it back up and we rode off to tell the rest of the group over breakfast.

 

[Rogue]

Now it’s your turn………..

Well, you already heard about mine firsthand, and took a very incriminating picture to boot.
Did I mention it happened in front of some guys who were getting ready to saddle up on their Harleys? Luckily, they were German tourists on rentals

Yea, I remember.. but not everyone was there so you should post up......... unless you want me to describe it and make it more embarrassing?

 

[odot]

Usually only lay my scoot down if I am cleaning it. Yet another reason for me not to clean my feej. As for you other clowns...park next to a tree...it'll just scuff up your seat a bit.

 

[PapaUtah]

MNFJR05 like Quantas. Quantas never crash, MNFJR05 never crash...never crash. :yahoo:

 

[TheAxeman]

Going hard into a left hand sweeper on a cool, crystal clear night I hit a patch of low lying warm fog coming off the wetlands which in turn fogged up my cold faceshield. Even though I had driven the road 100 times I couldn't remember if the turn was 90 degrees or 45 degrees and I mistakenly chose 45. As soon as I could make out the trees and road signs coming towards me I layed the bike down and took the slide. Nothing hurt but my pride my first thought was to jump up and make sure no one had seen me. Since I was wearing a down jacket it looked like I had just run over a flock of ducks. The entire ride home, thousands of feathers were following me as they blew out of the gaping holes in the jacket. Nothing like the stupidity of youth....

 

[NightShine]

Well, more years ago than I care to think about, I rode home from the dealer on my shiny, new Yamaha XS1000. It was that bike's first model year and probably the first one it my town.

I arrive home with a smile on my face that barely fit inside my Bell helmet, open up the garage door, and carefully back the bike in by pulling back on the hand grips while standing to one side of the bike. No sooner do I get into the spot in the garage I'd carefully prepared for it, when it begins a fall toward the opposite side. I couldn't hold it, and let it go, cringing as I heard the dreaded sound of plastic and metal on cement.

And do I first right the bike and inspect the damage to my new baby? :no: I scurry over and close the garage door, before any of the neighbors could see! :blush2:

 

[Toecutter]

Yea, I remember.. but not everyone was there so you should post up......... unless you want me to describe it and make it more embarrassing?

I'l get around to it. I have a couple other time-consuming tasks in line ahead of it right now.

 

[Mike-H]

Yea, I remember.. but not everyone was there so you should post up......... unless you want me to describe it and make it more embarrassing?

I'l get around to it. I have a couple other time-consuming tasks in line ahead of it right now.

Ya....that would be a "restraining order" on you Rogue so you can't say anything

 

[FJRottie]

MNFJR05 like Quantas. Quantas never crash, MNFJR05 never crash...never crash. :yahoo:

Don't jinx yourself !!

My best crash was on my bmx. A new suburb under construction in the neighborhood, makes a great dirt track. Way way back, we were riding around the developing land. We had been there so many times we had a hardened down path with its share of dirt ramps. Out on my bmx with my newly installed "Tuff Wheels" (5 spoke plastic bmx rims) I was burning up the dirt. I didn't realize I hadn't tightened up my front wheel on the forks enough.

I wasn't riding long when I took a jump and the front wheel left the fix. "Oh Oh".

I landed and the forks dug in the dirt. I became superman without a cape. I landed headfirst but managed to roll up like a ball.

No problems. But I rolled into a patch of prickle bushes (Long weeds with thorns).

I got out of that mess, with all my pals laughing at me. I stood up and took a bow.

I noticed my front wheel had bounced along an ended up near a lttle stream created by the construction and previous rain.

I went to retrieve it and fell into the water and onto my new rim. More laughing.

I got up and found that I had tore the ass of my jeans on the axle of my rim and bruised my ass check.

More laughing. I picked up my rim, and saw that it was warped. More laughing.

 

[boogahboogah]

Many many years ago, on the somewhat trusty RD-350 (Yamaha two stroke for you young pups, you know, it goes ring-dingdingding, ring-dingdingding, fastest stock bike from 0-60 at the time), I was riding on a back road, up the hill then down, lots of sharp curves, just across from Swiss Pines (Chester CO, PA). The last curve was a semi-high speed left hand sweeper, just before a big downhill/uphill straight.

I was pushing it pretty good, looking forward to that left hand sweeper just coming up. Everything felt good, bike was running just fine. I was primed.

Come into the left hand sweeper a little slow, lean baby over, apply smooth throttle acceleration, lean over a little more, just about to come through the curve, running close to my limit, when what do I see crossing the road but a big German Shepard. He's old, he's slow, looking back on it I guess he was a little deaf too, because he didn't hear anything until I was smack dab on top of him.

Couldn't go wide, road dropped off into boulder & tree bonanza.

Couldn't turn sharper.

Tried to slow down but couldn't really seem to do much of anything. Probably doing 45 at the time.

When the dog finally noticed me, he froze, taking up most of my lane. Hit the dog, I went low side left, bike slid about 60 yards, I slid about 40. Helmet had massive gouges in it from the recent chip seal on the road. Denim jacket wore through in a couple of spots along with the jeans. All in all just a few tiny bits of road rash here & there, nothing to complain about.

The bike forks really got whacked (or is that dogged?). An almost full left turn on the bars now and the front wheel was sort of straight... Had a fun time riding the bike home.

And the dog ??? He got up & walked away !

 

[kaitsdad]

OK - I'm aging myself -

17 years old, riding my Kawasaki Bushwhacker 90 (Enduro 2 stroke) in the dirt. Do a small jump, and the teeny tiny little bolts holding the footpeg bracket onto the frame strip out when I land. Voice climbed an octave and stayed that way for a week.

17 years old, same bike, beautiful blonde on the back (helmets, of course). Rear tire goes flat, so I push it into the closest gas station, inflate the rear tire - and it holds air! Hmmm....... That's interesting. Oh well, being young and stupid, we climb on, and off we go. 5 miles later, I lean into a right hand curve at about 20 mph, and the rear tire goes flat instantly. Low side the bike, we both go down, with me dragging my right knee on the asphalt. She's ok, she wasn't injured. Pulled the tire later, and the tube had a 4" long split in it - which had been pinched closed by the tire on the rim when I re-inflated it at the gas station. Leaning into the curve flexed the tire bead just enough to slip the tube back into the tire and deflate it. She broke up with me the next day at school. Gee. No sense of adventure, that chick.

And the most embarrasing -

20 years old, on my new Honda CB750K4. Heading home at lunch time, pull into the left turn lane and come to a perfect, feet up stop. Gently lean to the left, and place my foot directly into a fresh puddle of ATF. Foot slips to the left (platform dress shoes, remember those?) and the bike tips onto it's side. So - I'm standing there in my shirt , tie, and helmet, and really cool bell bottom dress pants, doing the splits over my bike. Guy behind me in the 67 Mustang is laughing his A** off.

Nothing since, and I'm hoping it stays that way.

 

[odot]

MNFJR05 like Quantas. Quantas never crash, MNFJR05 never crash...never crash. :yahoo:

Don't jinx yourself !!

My best crash was on my bmx. A new suburb under construction in the neighborhood, makes a great dirt track. Way way back, we were riding around the developing land. We had been there so many times we had a hardened down path with its share of dirt ramps. Out on my bmx with my newly installed "Tuff Wheels" (5 spoke plastic bmx rims) I was burning up the dirt. I didn't realize I hadn't tightened up my front wheel on the forks enough.

I wasn't riding long when I took a jump and the front wheel left the fix. "Oh Oh".

I landed and the forks dug in the dirt. I became superman without a cape. I landed headfirst but managed to roll up like a ball.

No problems. But I rolled into a patch of prickle bushes (Long weeds with thorns).

I got out of that mess, with all my pals laughing at me. I stood up and took a bow.

I noticed my front wheel had bounced along an ended up near a lttle stream created by the construction and previous rain.

I went to retrieve it and fell into the water and onto my new rim. More laughing.

I got up and found that I had tore the ass of my jeans on the axle of my rim and bruised my ass check.

More laughing. I picked up my rim, and saw that it was warped. More laughing.

I thought they were called skywheels. Once you bent them....give them away.

 

[pawtracks]

1984

My buddy and I are riding dirt bikes in a future housing development in southern MN

(Right near where today's 35E goes through Eagan, MN)

The area has seen plenty of dirt riding and has nice smooth trails through the woods leading up a steep hill to a brand new paved cul-de-sac. Perfect for getting some nice air time on my Honda.

After 3 or 4 runs we are building quite a bit of confidence (8th grade & fearless).

Getting 8-10 feet in the air. Tons of fun!

My buddy and I are taking turns at the top of the hill spotting each other in case a car or cops come around

(safety first you know)

Getting close to dinner time I figure it's time to ramp up for a little bigger finish.

I don't see my buddy spotting, wonder what happened to him??, oh well...

With what seems like an extra 10-15 mph run at the hill I am shooting for 15 feet between me & the ground, as I clear the crest of the hill doing 50MPH, 15-18 feet in the air I see the biggest painted badge on the drivers door coming straight into view. For some reason I thought grabbing the brakes would slow me down, turns out they don't work while airborne I nailed the drivers front fender of this law enforcement vehicle with about the lower 20% of my front tire. How I managed to not go over the bars and still stick the landing on the other side of his car... (someone was looking out for me that day)

I will have to check with my Dad, he might still be making payments to the police dept for the repairs to the fender and hood of that truck!

Needless to say, my bike went up for sale later that day

Next bike was an 1987 Honda Hurricane 600, in its day that was a fun bike

 

[odot]

Or, skyway.....something to that effect.

 

[FJRottie]

Or, skyway.....something to that effect.

Yes Skyway was the company. Tuff Wheels were the nickname.

25 years ago they were plastic and dandy.

Skyway

 

[worldbound4now]

Ok, back on topic...

Pulled into work, up onto the sidewalk just like I'm not supposed to do. Hit the kill switch, turned off the ignition, hopped off the bike. Felt a hard smack into the back of my leg. Shit. Forgot to put the sidestand down.

 

[Dallara]

Hmmmm... Neat subject, but there were so many in 35 years of riding!

Perhaps the funniest - Motorcycle shop I worked at was right next door to a car dealership in downtown. Car dealership was doing a big promotion with all sorts of stuff going on. Everybody that worked in the bike shop had wandered over to the car store at one time or another during the day to get some of the free eats and stuff. All of us scored these neat advertising buttons that pin on your shirt. I didn't wear mine, and stuck it in the back pocket of my jeans. Later, while we are all watching all these people milling about this car dealership the sales manager gets the bright idea that I fire up one of my MX bikes and do some wheelies up and down the street... I choose my 1976 Honda CR-125, as it was easier to control long wheelies on than my 250. Start doing wheelies up and down the main drag street in front of the dealership, sans helmet, and in street clothes - our sales staff attire of Honda polo shirts, jeans, and desert boots (does anybody else remember desert boots?). I am doing wheelies, the crowd is loving it and clapping and cheering... I get braver and braver, and finally I loop it over backwards at about 50 MPH.

Torn the bike up pretty good, but really didn't get me that bad... Why?

Cuz' I was sliding down the pavement square on that big metal ad button in my back pocket. Crowd was laughing like hell... Why?

Cuz' they all said it looked like I had sparks coming out'a my ass!

Most embarassing for me... That's easy.

When I had my own Honda store, years later, it's 1984. I have an *elephant* (meaning a bike with a long memory cuz' it's sat on the showroom floor so long) 1983 Honda CB-1100-F. We had sold CB-1100-F's all around this one, but it was one of the first one ones I had received when we had ordered them, and it had even had a friggin' BIRTHDAY at the store. No matter what we did that Jonah stayed there...

Finally, actually a real good friend from Austin (180 miles away) wants one, and I make him a hell of a deal on it... So he drives down to get it. Hands me the money, and we start getting it ready. We have to ride it over to a local gas station to get a Texas state inspection sticker on it. I am the store owner, and I don't want ANYTHING happening that might keep this bike from getting off my inventory books, so I decide it is going to be me that rides it over the 1.5 miles to get the sticker. All goes well until I round this little blind corner that leads out of this subdivsion behid the shop to the gas station... As a go around the corner in the fading evening light I discover they had just topped off this street and loose gravel is everywhere.

Well, before you could say "Lowside" I had lost the front end and was sliding merrily into a fellow's driveway, where he was standing with his two kids. Bike stopped at their feet, with me a few feet back. They helped me pick the bike up and managed to contain their laughter, but now the bike has a trashed right side muffler, two broke off turn signals, a scratched fairing (the 1100-f's had little head fairings), torn up bars, a broke brake lever, and other minor damage, so it's not going to pass any inspection. I limp back to the shop, wheel the bike in... silence at first, but then uproarious laughter as I was the one who crashed it.

My buddy who was buying it was great about it. He still wanted the bike and told me just to let him know when it was fixed and he would drive back down and pick it up... But the razzing and heckling I took from my staff for months was most pretty constant and definitely embarassing.

AND it cost me $600 out of my own pocket to finally move that unlucky SOB!

I have another great one, but it wasn't me, and it will have to wait for later...

Dallara

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

I forgot this one until reading the other posts.

My brother got a new job in downtown Boston and borrowed some money from me to buy a CB350 new off the showroom floor to commute with. I had never been on a bike and he offered to teach me.... so we sit at the end of a sloping driveway from the 1920's that is 10 feet wide with a house on one side and 6 foot hedges on the other. I stalled the thing a dozen times, getting redder and my brother madder, then decide to gas the hell out of it......within 20 feet I punch a hole throguh the hedges into the neighbor's yard. I ruined the paint job and so embarrassed, with the neighbor out to see what all the noise was.

I didn't live that one down for years.