Crashes/offs

[NoYou]

Thought it'd be nice to see how many of you have had crashes/offs either your fault or someone else's. Any crashes (on the roads, not off-roading) you've had post em up so we can both laugh at the stupid ones and learn from others mistakes :]
I'll start it off, annoyingly i've had 3 offs in my short biking career so far.

First was about 3 months after passing my CBT, was filtering down a fairly busy street and as i came round a bus there was a car in front of me, was only going maybe 15 mph and damage to me and the bike was minimal. After a very long drawn out insurance claim which i was told i had a very good case for... my insurance company paid out despite me having quoted about 10 things from the highway code that proved it was either her (the car drivers) or the bus drivers fault and not mine

Second was on my way to work about 6 months ago i would imagine, my back tyre hit a smallest patch of diesel ever, started spinning for a moment and as it regained grip cause the bike to high side. Broke the RH handlebar and indicator and bent the front and rear subframes. Caused a minor Scaphoid fracture in my right wrist, had to wear a wrist brace for a few weeks and it was sorted.

Third was the only one that was my fault, about 3 months ago i would guess was out for a pretty long ride, wasn't too familiar with the roads, came round a fairly gentle corner at probably 70mph ish and found myself faced with a roundabout. There were no signs leading up to it so was caught blissfully unaware.
Grabbed a handful of break and probably managed to get the speed down to 55-60. I would guess i was going about 50 when i came off.
Very almost saved it but the edge of my tyre wasn't warm enough to keep it up and the back tyre slid out, Had a lucky escape as both me and the bike slid into a car parking bay next to the roundabout which had enough distance to stop both me and the bike without hitting any solid objects.

[NiteW4tcher]

i was 19 on a dt125r

following a tourist down back roads of cornwall.....just waiting to get past them......eventually they pulled over, i dropped it a few cogs pulled out around and they opened the door.....bike stopped i landed on car bonnet.
partially my fault.

again i was 19 on same dtr. following a "friend" who i taught to ride. i caught him up and thought id follow him home.

we took a right hander, he lost control of his bike and smashed into a wall. his bike came at me i hit the brakes.....knwing i wasnt going to stop my speed + the closing speed of his bike. i hit his bike and went straight over the bars head 1st into the wall he had hit.

it was mid summer 11pm. i got up and i removed his bike that somehow landed ontop of him. its a sight i NEVER want to see again.

i was fully kitted up boots trousers jacket gloves lid. he had a lid shorts and a thin top on, u can imagine the mess. (this is were i really learnt my lesson about gearing up) only bad part was my lid chin peice gave out and jammed itself into my cheek. the scars are visiable when i sleep on my face lol

after he was released from hospital 5 weeks later the truth came to pass..........he was drunk as a skunk. (to this day i have never talked to him again)

apart from that never had a off (excluding off roading)

[Splash]

I was 17 riding a restricted CBR600F 97 model

Happened: About a month after passing my test (A2)... blissfully unaware of the traffic coming to a stop in front of me as my eyes were peeled on the sunset over the white horse hills I looked and there they were 10's of stationary cars in front of me.

Grabbing a handful of the front brake and smashing into a car infront at about 30MPH...You could of called it a flying visit!

I wasn't injured but was throw onto the bonnet of the vehicle I hit ( up and over) - The daughter got out of the car she was just Natural Beauty as I crawled around on the floor with smashed b&ll&cks from hitting the fuel tank!

The best place of all it that it happened outside Gable Cross police station in Swindon and the driver of the car I hit was Disqualified from driving due to previous points and no Present MOT and invalidated insurance on the vehicle. ;D

RESULT! another one off the road!

[trustno1]

Here goes then chaps.... been riding almost 35 years, motocross and road and have had 2 accidents first was on a GS850 near Slough. Two cars in front of me at traffic lights and had my 15 year old daughter on the back. Cars went and I followed, another car jumped the lights and turned across my path. No time to think just pushed daughter off bike as I was laying it down and went into the front wheel at about 30. Rode bike home and realised when I got there that the front wheel was almost touching block. Driver had no insurance and could not speak English hence being in Slough. Paid out in pound notes, £1800 of them so got another set of forks and sold bike on.
Accident number 2, roll on about 30 years till summer 2 years ago. Bought myself a 06 Hayabusa on the Saturday, loved it for the whole week. I am a big lad and it was an amazing machine, 17 again, wheelies in most gears and 160 mph etc etc. Anyway out for a ride on Sunday morning, saw in front of me a car towing an horsebox parked at side of road. Stopped on white line and looked at car, lady driver looking across to the shops on her left, no eye contact in mirrors etc. My indicator goes on, checks road ahead, checks mirrors, checks blind spot and does lifesaver, pulls out to overtake, gets past horsebox and she decides to turn into a side road on my right. Wham ........ bike collides with car front corner, bike goes down road, I go across road, up kerb on my back, through a fence and come to rest after breaking a 6 foot concrete planter with my head. Comes back to the real world and stands up, takes off helmet and realises that it is ****ed (Arai St George) throws on to floor and am told that she did not see me in her mirrors so must have been in blind spot. Bike totalled, gear totalled, most of body totalled. Ambulance cut off leathers and boots. Ankle broken, fingers of left hand split apart and the worse gravel rash in the world on my lower back where jacket had ridden up. Crutches, stitches and worst of all bike totalled. Distance covered in a week - 1500 miles. Now almost 2 years later, ankles still ****ed, haematoma ? in lower back needs draining again and I bloody ache!! Horse boxes scare the **** out of me now and I will turn around to avoid the bitches. Now own a VStrom 1000 but I really want another Busa but wife says NO!!

[Beamer]

Think most people on here know all about my 'drops' lol......i.e. going to slow going round corners etc......too many to say alot about each one.(Im in double figures now lol)

Best/worst one was trying to do a u-turn for my mod 1 whilst out with our Mark Able..... came off onto a grass verge and landed in a very soft, smelly pile of doggie do's .....hehehe.....and yes I still laugh about it.

My worst one was on the 5 horses (in September) when the crash bar squashed my foot....still have a limp at times but I can drive and ride fine....just walking is a bit of an issue after a while hehe

I have a special account at GM Stevens now and buy my new indicator lens's in bulk to save the hassle of re-ordering all the time.

Needless to say, after my last 'incident' I now carry a spare lens, a screwdriver and tape under my seat (as a precaution of course) hehehe

But I still soldier on and WILL get it right one day 8-) 8-)

I kind of like being the standing joke of the forum and love the fact I have the highest score rate of 'drops' hehehehe

[Hazel-nut]

Tina, what about your impressive landing on the roundabout the day we bought my bike and James got his confidence back :P

[wiltshire builders]

Only ever had one on the road but it was a beauty.

Traveling south on the western by-pass around Chippenham on my old SRAD I cracked the throttle with a little too much enthusiasm just as the front wheel passed over a series of ripples in the road. In a fraction of a second the bars were going from lock to lock with my hands moving faster than Bruce Lee tying his shoe laces.
So this is what a tank slapper feels like. :o

The bike fired across the road with me fighting it all the way straight into the path of an oncoming lorry. The driver swerved right, saving my life, and I shot down his left hand side.
I was now heading straight for a lampost. The bike hit the grass and spat me off then exploded into the lampost. I somehow ended up back in the road sliding along on my arse while cars swerved around me.

It took me a while to get my confidence back. I played it over and over again in my head, blaming the road, the bike, and a host of other things. It wasn't until I admitted that it was purely down to my riding style that I was able to move on....that and an ohlins steering damper. ;)

[@bj]

Had my fair share when I was young & stupid naive...

Last 20 years have been smooth though - probably due to the learning curve before...

[lolliver]

I'm a bit too new to have had an off yet, but I have dropped the bike whilst taking it off of its centre stand whilst on a slight decline.. That was more embarrassing than anything! :-[ No damage done though, which is good!

[Nikki]

My very first one was age 16 on my Suzuki GT50 (a very long time ago) - had only had it a few weeks and just loved riding it everywhere whenever I could. I was leaving the main carpark in Melksham and had to go around a sharp corner, didnt quite realise it wasnt a wise move to open the throttle on a corner even on a 50cc! Thankfully I wasnt going too fast but come down pretty quick and hard, bent the bars and had a few scuffs and scrapes on me and the bike - the worst bit was the embarassment at some old guy asking if I was OK. Needless to say I hopped back on and disappeared off pretty quick, even with bent bars. I did ache the next day. Lesson learnt.

[Nikki]

.. That was more embarrassing than anything!


It's where full face helmets come into their own ;) :)

[Scotty]

OK how long have we got? I’ve scoured the memory archives and recalled them all (it’s pretty quiet in the office this morning!) and the total is 19 on the roads and 11 on track. I haven’t gone through the off-road ones as it kinda comes with the territory and I probably can’t remember all of them!

Of the 19 on-road stacks, only two have been since 1990, so things are a little less dramatic than they used to be. Most were due to a combination of feeling immortal, inexperience, an excess of youthful exuberance, and the rubbish ground clearance of the bikes of yore (TFF basically ::))... on my GS550 and Z650 from 1980-82, if I wasn’t scraping the crash bars, exhaust, footpegs and centre stand round every corner, then I simply wasn’t trying. In hindsight, the poor ground clearance is quite alarming (though you still had to be leant over at 45º to touch them down), but at least modern bikes are better in that respect, with the exception of cruisers. >:(

I guess that the most comical stack was the one on my GS550 outside the Harbour Lights pub in Northampton in early summer 1981. In those days the Lights was a proper bikers pub in the old style, 7 days a week, all year round, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays were the busiest nights, wall to wall leather and denim and you couldn’t move outside for all the bikes parked up all over the pavement, up both edges of the side road and in the Freezer Centre car park. Any townies inadvertently straying into the place didn’t stay long, and even those looking for trouble normally thought the better of it! The pub’s on the left of a short stretch of urban dual carriageway (in the direction that I was approaching) and on a balmy April evening I was heading down with a couple of mates, and seeing the pavement outside the pub thronging with a potentially appreciative audience I thought I’d make a stylish entrance... not slowing down too much, I took a nice wide sweeping line into the left turn by the pub... and gracefully slid off on the sheen of fine gravel that covered the apex of the corner... Fortunately the bike stopped sliding before reaching any of the others parked along the road otherwise elements of my audience may have been considerably less appreciative than they were. I picked the bike up with applause and laughter ringing in my ears and hurried into the car park to park up. The crash bars picked up another scuff and the left footpeg was slightly bent (the next model had folding footpegs!) and I’d collected a bit more gravel rash and another hole in my jeans, but no real damage was done, even to my pride after the next hour or so...
:-[ :-[ :-[

[lolliver]

.. That was more embarrassing than anything!


It's where full face helmets come into their own ;) :)


;D ;D Definitely!

[Swanny]

Back in 1980 one week after my 16th birthday I was riding my lovely little DT50 down Castle st in trogtown came to the roundabout and saw all my biker mates in the St Stephens car park where the old tescos used to be, so I went round the roundabout and almost made it before some arsehole decided not to slow down but to just shoot through and not worry about the boy on the moped.
I had no chance couldn't stop or speed up to get out of his way and he hit me straight in the side. I was so lucky, the dent on my tank started 1" away from my knee :o if I had been a fraction of a second further along I would have lost my leg.
I was wearing a pair of bike boots on that had a metal plate in the front, this plate had a very deep and round dent in, I tried to recreate the dent with a ball pain hammer but no luck.
Anyway I somersaulted over the car, I can still remember seeing it going underneath me, landed on my back on the road, clocked his number plate then passed out.
I came too with a lot of heads in a circle looking down at me just like you see in the films and I thought "Oh I must be dead" :D
The driver didn't stop he just raced off. A chap some of you may remember called Selwin (wears a patch over one eye) jumped on his Yamaha 750 caught him up and took his number as well.
The police were up the road by the Chinese so I went to tell them what had happened. Even thought the driver had done a hit and run they tried to blame me saying it was my fault for going round the roundabout >:(


1981 fell off the same DT50 again, going round a very long bend with the bike led over, somebody had lovingly placed a brick in the middle of the road right on my line, tried to drop the bike even lower but still hit the brick and came off. Bike hit the kerb and flipped over onto some ones lawn, undamaged. The lawn had a hole where the handle bars dug in which pissed off the lawn owner ;D I hurt my knee. :'(


As has been said above it really pays to wear good kit

[Beamer]

Tina, what about your impressive landing on the roundabout the day we bought my bike and James got his confidence back :P



Ahh yes hehe.forgot that one.....the one where I had grass hanging off my jacket zip and muddy skid marks on the boobie area (of my jacket) hahahaha.........yeah that was a good one too !!!

[SupeRDel]

Where do I start.... :-[

Started riding in the mid 70's on sports mopeds where falling off was done on a daily basis in fact the old Swindon hospital used to have one ward full of motorcycle riders with broken legs. We used to go visiting mates there who would be swapping crash stories with the young lads in the other beds... ;D

Fell off my moped a few times but never got more than a few bruises and gravel rash scars. Then in 1976 I bought a new RD250 Yamaha. Three weeks later I was having a bit of a burn up with some mates around the country lanes outside Calne. The front wheel went into a rut on the side of the road and pushed the bike to the right while I was going straight on... :o

Well it chucked me over the handlebars head first and I landed on the top of my head and I rolled down the road.
I took a chunck off the top of my helmet as big as my fist right down to the last layer of black cloth liner.

That helmet cost me 30 quid out of my mothers catalogue, which was a lot of money back then so my dad helped me to fill the hole with plastic padding car filler. We rubbed it down and sprayed it with an aerosol paint. That helmet did me good for another couple of years... :D

In 1976 I lost a good mate who came off his Yamaha YDS7 on a bend coming into Hilmarton and slid under the rear wheels of a lorry. The police drew around his body on the road and you could see the twin tire skid marks from the lorry as the driver tried to stop. The tire marks stopped at the body outline.

On the 23rd September 1980 I had another good mate and his young wife killed in a head on crash outside Beanacre.

By now you realise how dangerous motorcles really are - anyone who says riding bikes is a safe pastime is a complete idiot no matter wot training you have.

But once you ride a bike you realise there is not much out there to replace the thrill of them.

Other stories....... I had a mate who was riding a RD400 out of Chippenham by the cemetary when a taxi pulled out of the old Stanley Lane junction.
My mate hit him side on behind the door post and imbedded the bike into the door. He flew over the top of the car and broke his wrist. Beleive it or not but the taxi driver tried to drive awy with the bike still embedded into the rear door.
My mates best bit of biking kit was a bright red pair of Dainese motorcycle boots. As my mate flew over the top of the car the toe caps left two neat red lines across the roof of the car... ;D ;D

Another story with a photo.....and a quiz.

One saturday afternoon a certain chippenham motorcycle dealer lost control at speed and cartwheeled his old Suzuki GT750 as he was heading into Wootten Bassett (see hill behind in photo) from Lyneham.

Me and the missus were coming the other way just after the crash and we stopped to take this photo.
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l109/superdel/GTcrash.jpg

Someone called an ambulance - In them days the ambulances did not treat you they just put you on a stretcher and took you to hospital. Because the rider said he was ok they just drove away. The police turned up and were also not interested. Good job because the bike was uninsured... :o

Question - Who was the rider?

Footnote to the photo... The chap on the left with hand on hip was my mate that was killed at Beanacre. His wife is in the red jacket. My missus is holding the white helmet

[redken1]

Back in the days of the punk era when Johhny Rotten and Joe Strummer were Kings of the music scene and Liverpool FC was the best team in Europe, a hedge jumped out in front of me, knocking me off my 185GT Suzuki. ;)

In the small town where I lived, along with the youth of the day, the girl of my dreams would hang-out on a street corner on our housing estate. As a naïve juvenile I thought that if I took the 90 degree junction at 40 mph I could woo her with my riding skills.

Things didn’t really go to plan - £100 damage to my bike (a lot then, the bike cost £447 new) had to pay for the resident’s hedge and I never got the girl. :'(

Fast forward 35 years and I have been very lucky to not have an off since (‘touch wood’).

[Rabb]

1985 - riding pillion on a Honda superdream. Rider decided to take hump-back bridge too quickly and I shot about 20 feet over a hedgerow. I was not injured in any way and walked away from my aerial acrobatics - Very funny now but pretty shocked at the time.

Since getting back on bikes I have only had low speed drops when learning to do what was required for Mod 1- with much bigger bikes. ( Only twice )

[Maria]

i had a accident 5 weeeks ago,on a 125,not mine,sorry mark able,feel so bad,but any way crashed into a car,entirerly my fault,hands up,poor womens car,went through the window screen,but only suffered very bad bruising to my legs and pelvis,but on the mend,now ive found out my wrist may be fractured,but lesson learnt,and hands up to the police and ambulance men,they were great and also lee from able training.it happens to the best of us,but on a plus note hasnt put me off

[Snowy]

1979 - came off my 250 Superdream on black ice. My fault - should have realised a railway bridge would be icey at that time if it's been in shade all day. Ended up in someones front garden who came out to help me pick the bike up off his lawn. No injuries and only scratches to the bike.

1981 - Locked up the front on a wet Monday morning when someone pulled out in front of me and stopped to let a woman with child cross the road. Woke up underneath the car with the rear wheel slowly spinning around above my head - just like in a film. The bike, a CB900F had gone underneath the car, breaking the rear axle and wedging the back end of the car 18 inches off the ground (thankfully for me). I walked around in a daze picking bits and bobs up off the ground while car drivers carried on around me. I had 2 police bikes, traffic car, an ambulance and a fire engine come to that one. I walked away from it with just a bruise. I had fitted a colour matched Pantera fairing to the bike 3 weeks earlier (cost £750 and remember this is 30 years ago) which was trashed along with the alternator cover and hard panniers I had at the time. The car was a write off.

That one was my fault to as I should have been able to brake in time and is why I will always have a bike with ABS from now on. Thankfully that was the last one although I have had a few near misses when I was in my twenties and stupid.

[Maria]

glad somebody put this post up,was thinking of giving up,but its just made me realise i can ride a bike and its not just me that has accidents,was just unlucky or stupid,lol,but has made me more determined,dont think hubby will agree with me tho.lol

[abxv535]

my recent one was last year, when I was trying to bumpstart my xv535 because my battery was flat , after a few goes of pushing it up and down the road ... I was so knackered I dropped the bike lost my balance and rolled over it! only bruised my ego... very embarrassing! only found out after that because the battery being flat the fuel pump doesn't work and no fuel gets to the carbs !! :-[

before that I think i was still riding a moped 50cc I was 17ish on my way home after a night out I fallen a sleep for a few seconds and crashed, waked up on side of the road on a muddy water drain covered in mud an a few bruisers ... again embarrassing... :-[

[JcJc]

January ice on a geared moped with £20 tyres, slowing down to turn right at the end of the road, car came across onto my side as they turned onto the road, almost hit me, I dropped my bike and they drove off, I'm now 17 and on a cagiva canyon 500, not planning on going back on the ice.

[R1chie]

I've had 2 off's. One on the track, one on the road.

The track was Donny. Flying down Craners then having to sit the bike up to avoid a fat nugget who'd panicked after being buzzed by a gixxer who'd just passes him. Anyway, went onto grass in-field, thought for a moment that I managed to save it...then hit divvit, wiped outand continued down towards the old hairpin spinning in a star shape fashion on my front. No injuries bar a slightly jarred middle finger end joint. Not bad considering the speed.

Second off. Somewhere near Oare coming from Marlborough. Going round a right hand bend at 30mph...hit gravel....come off and slide down the road. At this point I think I would have been fine. I say I think because I can't remember any of this (last thing I remember is leaving Marlborough), but also because unfortunately as I was sliding down the road I slid into a bus coming the other way.

Fractured and dislocated left wrist and shoulder, fractured collarbone, fractured sternum, broken ribs and 2 collapsed lungs. Heli flight to the great western, 5 days intensive care plus 2 further weeks in hospital.

What made things even better is that I was only TPFT, so no payout for me. Being northern, that hurt more than my injuries ;D

Watch out for that gravel folks. Its evil.

[Loops]

Only one off for me. Filtering along some traffic, saw a car pulling through a gap up ahead so slowed down as he probably hadn't seen me. Then as he stopped, I thought 'oh good, I've been spotted'.
Obviously not, as just as I rode past his bonnet he pulled out. Crushed my left leg against the bike and sent me flying onto the other side of the road. Luckily nothing coming the other way and the only damage was a broken break lever, bent peg and a hold in my BRAND NEW trousers ::)

Driver looked pretty shocked when I lept up from in front of his bonnet and got the bike back up so I could get going, as I was going to be late for work. Spent the rest of the day limping around with my boot on to support my leg until work ordered me to go to A&E - so I rode there. That hurt ;D

Much more careful when I see people pulling out now, even when they've stopped!

[BB]

Lovely sunny evening one July, coming back from Swindon, got nearly to Trowbridge and two deer ran out in front of me - or so i'm told. Like R1chie I can only remember leaving Swindon, can't recall the heli ride to the Great western. Woke up and thought hmm, looks & smells like hospital, wonder what hurts... Apparently I hit one deer and slid some distance down the road. Broken collarbone, broken ribs front & back, pinned left hand for 12 weeks, broken right base of thumb, fractured skull, permanent hearing damage & partial loss of sight in one eye. oh yea, and masses of multicoloured bruises! ;D ;D

But hey, I'm still here to complain! 8-)

[FJ_Biker]

Hit a mini on my commute into work on an old Honda CB550/5 broken finger and some toes. Got back on the bike after but was late for work.

Lost one of My Yamaha FJ1200 under braking running late for work, dislocated shoulder and quite a bit skin removed as I only had works trousers on. Bit of a lucky one as I slid down the road all the traffic diverted onto the grass bank to miss me. The bike was badly damaged. Never made it in to work that day.

Luckily no accidents now for over 15 years

[Mitch9128]

Got punted off @ Jnc17 M4 eastbound slip by a highways van back in October, they have just admitted liability. Broken collarbone/2 ribs and scaphoid, and the bike is a Cat B. Not impressed with how slow the insurance is going, feel like i'd be ok to ride now, but i am still without a bike :(

[gibbo]

Thankfully, I've only been off once. Hit a diesel spill on the Greenbridge roundabout in Swindon. It was like a slow motion off. Car behind nearly squashed me but stopped in time. Bike messed up a bit, had a few grazes myself but nothing serious. Nobody stopped to help me though. Just sat dazed in the middle of the roundabout with cars swerving to avoid the junk. When recovered, managed to push it home and took a few days off work.

[alanTDM]

I have now been riding bikes since 1966 but have had two accidents one major 1981and one not so bad 1997,both involved women drivers at road junctions.
First was in Bristol along the Portway to Avonmouth, at Sea mills traffic lights was in outside lane with Ford transit in middle lane lights went green and we pulled away,he slammed the brakes on cause a car came through red lights,i did not see her she hit me cracked my ankle pushed my knee into the petrol tank and i pivoted and ended on her car bonnet got carried across 4 lanes of road and dumped on the grass,she drove over the back end of the bike,when i got to hospital i had a smashed hip took all bits of bone out and screwed my hip ball into the socket as there wasnt any there to hold it in.
Second was at cross roads at Stonar late one evening women drove straight across junction i was on a off road bike i caught her front bumper and ripped it off the Peugot and managed to stay on for about 10 yards.first thing she said to me was " Your lights are dim" Stupid bitch was looking out for car headlights,cause hers cancelled mine out she did not see them she went straight across.My responce was " So you dont even look out for push bikes at dark then do you ". I've dropped a bike a couple of times in a garage and have come off Off Roading though aswell, but dosnt every one.
The injury to my ankle back in 1981 came back to haunt 6 weeks ago, ankle seized up for some reason and wasnt able to ride the bike for 5 weeks could not change gear :'( only just started riding again just before Xmas.

[Nooj]

Only two so far.

1. Not long after passing my DAS I failed to get round a corner, saw a car coming, panic-braked and shot off the road resulting in a broken back. Burst T-12 vertebra from going over the bars, flying down a bank and landing on my arse. Was only doing about 50mph, but had been taught NOT to counter-steer by my instructor, so couldn't corner properly >:(

2. Later that year I got knocked off when filtering round a gridlocked roundabout which suddenly cleared as I was trying to exit it, got bounced off the side of a car that suddenly appeared next to me.

[oliciv]

Knocked off my VFR last year filtering in to Bath. Car pulled out in front of me, I braked, the rider behind me didn't. Both bikes went down.

His insurance admitted liability and the bike was repaired.

3 weeks after picking it up, fully repaired, from Chippenham Motorcycles, a van driver thought his sat nav was more important than looking at me or giving way on the roundabout on Bradley Road and County Way in Trowbridge. Bike written off, and my first ride in an ambulance.

[Jon_W]

Two major offs.

Lovely sunny day coming down the wye valley on the way home from a SOC meet in Ludlow. Pitched the Sv into a LH corner hit some gravel and ended up in the bank on the opposite side of the road. Bike lost it's crash bung and seriously damaged one fairing panel. Got home with the bike jammed in one gear.... and set to repairing it. Took 6 months for Dream Machine to get the panel (they made originally) correct.

About 5 years ago. Left work at 6pm in in the dark, accelerated up to 30 and suddenly saw a labrador infront of me. Hit it straight up the rear, went down. I was fine (bar a sore left ankle where the bike landed on me), the bike sustained a broken mudguard, indicator, lever, headlight and switches. The owners admitted responcibility at once, but a witness called the police. She turned out to be an off duty copper who duely made her report, both myself and the dog owner agreed wit her, but the copper still insisted on breathalysing me, seeing my lisence and accusing me of speeding!! Lacking evidence he let me go with a "go careful".
The owner of the dog was gret. She gave me some money for the repairs, but the dog who had just been rescued from a puppy farm (was a breeding animal) and was on the way to the vet, had to be put down due to a broken pelvis. :(

[Trev]

Here's my admissions of guilt, no one to blame but myself and the way I used to ride. Thankfully I've matured somewhat and not had the misfortune of someone else causing me an 'off'
Ignoring the numerous green laning and proddy racing spills (a couple worth mentioning) and 'minor' moped mayhem drops this is the pick:
a) rounding a blind bend on a country lane I knew well, attempting to retain every last mph I'd buiilt up on my AP50, a car pulled out in front of me from a farm track. Thought I'd saved it by swerving, missing the car and bumping along the verge until front wheel dropped into a drainage ditch and I hurtled over the bars. Poor lady driver was in tears thinking I was seriously injured as doubled up in pain moaning - just pride, moped and gonads damaged ;D Didn't take much to get the bike back together but my Dad did make me write to lady to apologise - he was right!
b) hooning along with my mate on the back coming home from work one night I overtook a long line of cars but couldn't make the bend at about 70mph as pegs dug in due to extra weight (+ dodgy X7 handling and my lack of restraint). We leapt of a high bank, me and mate flew about 60 yards and down into a very high gorse thicket. Thankfully the gorse cushioned our (very hard) landing but plenty of cuts, scratches, bruises and blood. Bike flew another 50 yards and smashed down onto the connecting road, absolutely trashed. Had to ride my mum's C70 to work for a month, two up while X7 rebuilt including frame striaghtened - saved some on fuel though to put towards repairs :)
c) proddy racing racing X7's & LC's I had a few get offs, best was a huge slide in the rain through the muddy outfield, back went out at about 80pmh and bike and I seemed to slide forwever. I was wearing borrowed leathers and took ages to get the mud off 'em :(
d) always tried to have a road bike and a trailee and at same time as a LC's I had a trusty DT175MX. I 'mastered' the art of getting the front up in second then keeping it up as I went through the gears. Inevitably I overcooked it when showing off outside a pub to a packed beer garden of bikers - bike flipped at about 40, I did a quick prayer to Mecca and seemed to leap up almost as soon as my knees and hands had touched the ground. Bike teetered down the road before veering away from the line of parked cars and into the local village hall. Brand new pair of Levi's and motocross gloves trashed not to mention matching scabby knees and a bill for the village hall front door - wot a nob :D
e) fast forward 20 years with only a few mild green lane drops and my nephew got his first 'crosser a KX65. Uncle Trev offered to show him how to ride off road, another show wheely in a field of long grass, as the front came down just had time to see the hidden stump before I was over the bars, landed on my head and bent my neck so bad I swear I hit my nose on my chest - bloody painful and still have the dodgy neck to this day. Nephew is now on a 250 and I'm not allowed near it ;)
f) one of the most painful was also my slowest and not even an 'off'. Hadn't had my Gixer11 long before I got it fully serviced and carbs set up properly. It had always ran rich and consequently could be ridden away with only minimal warming up, after the service I flipped the choke off after 20 seconds or so, it setteeld down to a decent tickover but as I pulled out of the bike store drive, up a slight incline, it stalled. I instinctively stuck my leg out and pushed the beast up from almost on the deck, felt a huge 'pop' in my thigh as I did so. Rode home the few miles in agony and when I stopped couldn't lift my leg from the peg. Hospital visit revealed very badly torn hamstrings (something I never achieved in 20 years of footie) and meant a week of being driven to work - bloody killer K
Hope they raised a chuckle and caution some against riding like a prat, I did learn in the end

[mick_benson]

I've has some very close calls, been hit by a car but stayed on, ended up on a dirt track after taking a turn way to fast but again stayed on and last week with mud on road ended up over the pavment and grass verge but still stayed on, not bad for 20 years ;D ;D

[SupeRDel]

Here's my admissions of guilt, no one to blame but myself ---------Hope they raised a chuckle and caution some against riding like a prat, I did learn in the end

Yes it did and I would like to use it in the Aircooled RD club mag.

Got any old pictures from the story day??

[Tobias5571]

Well i have a Not to bad history considering ;)

My first crash was when i was young and was on my moped! got hit by a car doing 70mph in a 30!!!!!! as i pulled out from a junction, ghostied the bike so was standing on 2 feet ducked and put my arms around my head as her front bumper hit me.
I flew quite a way down the road my right for-arm bone popped out my elbow and a broke my left leg. her car was totalled and snapped every engine mount except 1, so engine was sat on floor! later found out she was my grandperants next door neighber lol!

Second was on SV in warminster in wet, had a low mph spill on a roundabout.

The last one was 8th October 2011 going to warminster from westbury, was going a little to fast over the brow of a hill because i was so comfertable wit the road. knowing the front wheel would lift i was quite happy to keep the power on! All was going well untill i hit some **** and back wheel unsteadied... So in fight or flight i decided on flight! jumped off the bike and landed on my 2 feet flat went straight to knees then face straight on the floor. thats all i really remeber. was told i got up and walked 20 metres to a verge, took jacket and helmet off and was in and out of consiosness till ambulance came! i ended up a little beaten but all ok. Right ankel broken, left heel broken, left knee broken and the part between the bridge of your nose and your skull had a fracture or somthing........ was walking after 2 weeks so all is ok.

I definitly "Learned my lesson" of becoming tooooo familiar with roads.


(needs to be updated alot but i will try in next few days) http://www.svrider.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150969

[Wes]

Going into a roundabout looking for a bit of a scratch and got one literally :o paint spilled on the road which had now dried provided less than required levels of grip and i lowsided, luckily i stayed with the bike until near enough the stop, ground off my ankle slider and the leathers went through to the armour on my forearm, but i was ok. Took a bit longer to get the bike back in one piece than i would have liked, but i got there in the end, complete with crash bungs now fitted. :)