Bikers who have gone down...aka crashed

[JulesMaximus]

Hmm, me thinks Jules is going to sleep and visions of 1100 Evos and 2011 Speed Triples are dancing through his head.

DO IT!!!!

I'm pretty much set on the 1100 EVO. 😉

Unfortunately, they won't be arriving at dealerships until the end of May. 🙁 So, I'll be riding the SV for a few more months...which is fine. It's a great bike. Wish I could keep it actually.

 

[BoberFett]

At the time I had been riding for around six years, had around 30K miles on the bike. Never was really big into the twisties though, I'm more of a laid back rider. One time though a buddy and I were tearing around on a twisty country back road and I went into a tight turn too fast. Like an inexperienced fool my first reaction was to brake rather than leaning harder. My buddy was riding behind me, he saw me disappear over the embankment and slide into a small wooded area. He helped me pull the bike back up onto the shoulder and all things considered damage was minimal, both to me and the bike. Bike had a bent fork, tank and front fender were dented and smashed, windshield was kind of flopping around in the wind on the ride home. I was just in jeans, t-shirt, and engineer boots. I had a scuff on my forehead and my right hand was a bit scraped up, but other than being really sore for the next couple days no permanent damage done.

 

[roguerower]

I'm pretty much set on the 1100 EVO. 😉

Unfortunately, they won't be arriving at dealerships until the end of May. 🙁 So, I'll be riding the SV for a few more months...which is fine. It's a great bike. Wish I could keep it actually.

Definitely a hard choice between the two. Both look nice as hell. I feel the same way about my GS. Would make a great track bike 🙁

In other news though, I don't have to wait as long as you 🙂. Goin to the dealership Saturday and dropping off my deposit. 7-10 days from then for the bike to go from the warehouse to the dealer and get setup. Should have a shiny new St3R in my parking spot come Wed. the 16th.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Definitely a hard choice between the two. Both look nice as hell. I feel the same way about my GS. Would make a great track bike 🙁

In other news though, I don't have to wait as long as you 🙂. Goin to the dealership Saturday and dropping off my deposit. 7-10 days from then for the bike to go from the warehouse to the dealer and get setup. Should have a shiny new St3R in my parking spot come Wed. the 16th.

Can I come over and flog it sometime?

Dude, you should give the SV650 a try sometime. Forget the GS, get an SV and set it up as a track bike. It is cheap, has a great chassis, enough power and they are plentiful. I was talking to a guy the other day who tracks an SV650. He installed a GSXR front end and had the suspension sorted out by a professional and at some of the tighter tracks he goes to he's within a second or two of the fastest guys on liter bikes.

A complete GSXR front end will bolt on my bike with no modification and you can find them all the time for sale on ebay or craigslist (because most of those supersport guys can't ride and they are always crashing their bikes).

Like I said, I'd love to keep my SV...hell, maybe I will. 😉

 

[roguerower]

Yea, there are quite a few SV's on CL for a decent price, and there are quite a few mods that are much easier to perform on a SV.

If you get an Evo I'll let you borrow mine if I can borrow yours 🙂

 

[theeedude]

I went down on my road bicycle coming down a hill on a wet patch at a corner at about 25mph. Not too bad, some road rash and torn bar tape 🙂

 

[JulesMaximus]

I went down on my road bicycle coming down a hill on a wet patch at a corner at about 25mph. Not too bad, some road rash and torn bar tape 🙂

I always used to wonder what would happen if I blew a tire or some part of my bicycle failed while I was bombing down a steep hill at nearly 50mph wearing nothing but a pair of cycling shorts and a jersey...unfortunately, leather is completely impractical on a bicycle.

 

[WackyDan]

Why would blowing an engine make you crash? Worst case is the rear wheel locks up, so either the slipper clutch disengages or you pull in the lever. Am I missing something?

You have no idea how much debris was in that engine after she let go. The wet clutch was fully locked up, pulling the lever had no affect on it.

As far as "worse case the rear wheel locks up"... Next time you are going about 70, slam on your rear brake and hold it there and tell me what happens and how fun the ride gets.

 

[WackyDan]

most bikes dont have slipper clutches, although I would think he could have shifted to N. but.

the motor just blewup all over his leg, so one can assume his brain was busy....

My brain was in overload. I can't really explain the sound the engine made... The initial sound of it blowing and the next few seconds of 10k rpm parts trying to come to a sudden stop internally. Initially, I was fine, as due to the oil lubricating the rear wheel, I wasn't aware of the lockup. I figured I would coast the bike over to the curb and that would be the end of it. Then the case stopped pouring oil onto the road and the back tire started to bite... the rest is history.

 

[WackyDan]

You know, I always hear it's the damn "cagers" fault but nearly all of these accidents were due to the motorcyclist driving too fast for conditions. With the exception of the dog running out or cars pulling out, the rest were pretty avoidable. I haven't seen anyone post where a car has run into them and every point at which a car pulled out in front could have been alleviated by slowing down as you come to an intersection and being prepared to stop if needed.

Let me add one more thing to that. You are correct, most bike accidents are the fault of the biker and tend to be solo accidents. My gut tells me that the solo accidents are more survivable or have less injury than the ones involving other vehicles.

So... Why all the rage at cagers? They still don't see you or bother to even try and notice you, they still put their makeup on while driving, they still cut you off, they still read, and txt while driving, talk on their phones, and due to our riding height in some cases...we get to see all of that - more so than if we were also in cars. Remember the bitch in Chicago that killed the biker at a stop light because she was too busy painting her nails while driving? That is why we hate cagers. I say that as someone who rides as a primary form of transportation.

 

[hanoverphist]

can we post times we didnt go down and should have? hehe. ive been riding since i was a kid, the first bike i rode (with my uncles help) was a triumph at 10ish yrs old. ive always had bikes, and didnt park mine until i had 3 kids and bills to pay before i could justify fixing my bike. its still parked, 13 years later. before kids, it was my only transportation for years. no idea how many miles ive put on 2 wheels, but im sure its up there.

one time i was being an idjit trying to beat a yellow light onto the freeway. went into the turn pretty hot, hit a puddle of antifreeze and slid sideways about 14 feet, heading right into the stopped lane of oncoming traffic. i managed to keep it up, straightened it out about a foot from a car in the turn lane opposite me and pulled it onto the offramp. i immediately slowed down, parked the bike and had a smoke sitting on the curb. thought i was gonna eat bumper on that one, hehe.

another time i took my bike through some dirt (street bike, not very smart) with some friends after a rain storm. didnt realize i had some build up on my back frame/ swingarm area, and when i got on open road the rain started up again and washed the grit down into my back brake assembly. rock wedged in, locked up the brake and started taking me sideways into a red light, i stood up on the pegs and started kicking the rod by the back tire. it freed up, but i was already about 40 degrees left sliding into an intersection where i had a red light. tire stopped sliding, i straightened it up and got it on the sidewalk. luckily it was a fairly open intersection and the guy that was about to go through saw my troubles and waited to see what happened before going through himself.

another i was riding in the right lane on a 4 lane road coming up to a red light, my lane was clear and there were 4 or 5 cars in the left lane stopped for the light. red turns to green so i started accelerating. the last car in line to the left decided he wanted to pass everyone and changed lanes pretty much on top of me. i hit his passenger door with the side of my bike as i wass braking, the engine bars saved my leg. the peg on it turned sideways and made a gouge all the way down his car, from the front of his door to the back QP. i bounced off the curb a couple times and balanced it out, then pulled into a store parking lot to get his info. cops got called, he got busted. too many witnesses for him to get out of that one, despite him saying it was all my fault.

i rode here in the phoenix metro valley, all over the state and all over cali and nm for a couple decades, i have a bunch of stories like that and worse.

the only time my bike went down was inside a warehouse when i was messing around. ive put a few friends bikes down in actual traffic accidents before, never my fault tho, and no real injuries.

 

[hanoverphist]

You know, I always hear it's the damn "cagers" fault but nearly all of these accidents were due to the motorcyclist driving too fast for conditions. With the exception of the dog running out or cars pulling out, the rest were pretty avoidable. I haven't seen anyone post where a car has run into them and every point at which a car pulled out in front could have been alleviated by slowing down as you come to an intersection and being prepared to stop if needed.

while i think the whole cagers thing is stupid, i have a bunch of friends that were messed up due to car/ truck drivers not paying attention. i also saw a guy splat into a work truck that made a left in front of me but didnt see the bike at all. he left a head dent in the service body of the truck. i also had a friend go over an old ladies trunk when she backed out of her driveway without looking. his cousin was on the back of the bike, got pushed over him first and the force of that made him rake his body over the handlebars and cluster. he lost a nut in that debacle. another friend was riding home one night, a drunk made a left in front of him while leaving a macayos in mesa. he braked and swerved, the truck stopped in the lane to "avoid the bike" and my friend went over the tail gate into the macayos parking lot.

my point is, plenty of accidents are from people in cars not seeing bikes, just like plenty of accidents are the cause of riders doing things they shouldnt have been doing.

and please, stop calling people in cars cagers, it makes you look like an asshat.

 

[JulesMaximus]

You have no idea how much debris was in that engine after she let go. The wet clutch was fully locked up, pulling the lever had no affect on it.

As far as "worse case the rear wheel locks up"... Next time you are going about 70, slam on your rear brake and hold it there and tell me what happens and how fun the ride gets.

I was riding with some friends a few years ago and we lost one of the guys who was with us so my friend in front of me decides at the last second to pull over right where these two freeways split in the middle of the Y so I followed him, braking hard to try to stop without plowing into the back of him or missing the exit. I was on my old Honda CB750 which had shity brakes to begin with, and I locked up the rear wheel as I was trying to stop. As soon as it locked I just rode it out. I did stop in time but it was a bit of a pucker moment for sure. I was probably doing around 65-70mph at the time.