And then it fell.....

Mailman

Mailman

Hardly a Guru
Top Contributor
Messages
9,889
Reaction score
47,886
Points
688
Location
Surprise Az
Reading Jim’s post yesterday about slipping and having his bike fall on him just made me think of several instance when something gets away from you and you lose control of it, it’s a sickening feeling when you see it happening and can’t stop it.
I have had several bikes tip over on me and I couldn’t stop it, usually with disastrous consequences. It’s amazing how much damage can occur from just falling over. I’ve heard of high end sport bikes with uber expensive bodywork actually being totaled simply because it fell over.
My old ‘07 Bonneville America got away from me while I had the back wheel jacked up about 1/2” off the ground so I could rotate the tire to oil the chain. I was sitting on a stool and it did this slow mo tip away from me and I couldn’t wrestle it upright and the resulting fall did over $1000 damage to my bike and the clutch lever dug into the door of my new car and left a 15” long crease down the door. I just about had an aneurism over that.
Or back in the 70’s in a hot summer day I had ridden my new ‘73 RD350 to the bank to cash my paycheck, and when I came back outside, there was my bike laying on its side in a pool of gasoline. The sidestand had sunk into the hot asphalt and it finally succumbed to gravity.
This is a fun one, when I was in my 20’s I worked in a lumber company fleet garage, the company had all manner of big trucks, fork lifts and even tractors that we maintained. We kept a big rack in the garage filled with mounted tires for all these vehicles so we could do quick swaps in the event of flat tires. One day I was moving the tires around and I grabbed this big tractor tire to move it, not realizing that it was filled with water, it weighed a ton! As soon as I started tipping the tire , the water shifted and it just pushed me down and landed on me and pinned me to the floor like a bug! I was helpless to get it off of me and I started hollering for help, two mechanics ran over and got it off of me, after they stopped laughing that is. :lmao:
 
Mailman said:
Or back in the 70’s in a hot summer day I had ridden my new ‘73 RD350 to the bank to cash my paycheck, and when I came back outside, there was my bike laying on its side in a pool of gasoline. The sidestand had sunk into the hot asphalt and it finally succumbed to gravity.
Click to expand...
Heh....:lmao:
N. Mex. 73. Parked my (new) 72 R5C at work. Asphalt parking lot.... same result.
 
I have a friend that had a new Ninja when they first came on the market. It fell over sitting still in the parking lot and the estimate to replace every piece that got broken or scratched or dented with labor was as much as the bike cost new.:yikes: Totaled out in a non moving mishap. Go figure.:shrug:
 
Most recent: Rode the FJ to an antique motorcycle show. Free entry and parking for motorcyclists, but it was on the grass.

Normally, I put my side stand down and then get off the bike and THEN put it on the center stand. Didn't trust the grass to hold the side stand so I figured I'd just hold the bike while I slung my right leg up over the tail bag and got off.

So, with 50 or so riders watching, I put my left foot on the ground, grabbed the bars, swung my right leg up and almost over until my bootlace caught on the tail bag and then oh-so-gracefully did a slow motion prat fall and laid the bike on top of me.

To their credit, nobody laughed, at least not while I was in ear-shot.
 
Downeaster said:
until my bootlace caught
Click to expand...

Yup! I’ve had that happen too. I had a pair of non motorcycle work boots that had a bad habit of catching the shoe lace on the shifter lever when I would roll up to a stop and go to put my foot down. I never totally lost it it, but had a couple close calls where I teetered on balance and would’ve gone right down. I now have motorcycle specific boots that zip up. :D
 
The FJ came with "curb feelers" on the foot pegs as early warning devices for those of us who occasionally allow our exuberance to overcome our common sense when cornering.

I damn near did face-plants 2 or 3 times in the first week of owning the bike. I'm not sure where they ended up, possibly Low Earth Orbit...
 
Ratranger said:
There was a bike magazine that as part of their testing would push a bike over in a parkinglot and then get a repair estimate. The repair cost would be included in the review to show what even a minor fall would add to the cost.
Click to expand...
Give's me the heebie jeebies just THINKING about doing that. Don't think any REAL motorcyclist could do it. Prolly had to royally piss off a girlfriend, She'd do it!
 
Yeah, I'm careful but there are always slips. I slowly fell over at a MSF course right after lunch once. Pulled up from getting fast food, put my foot down in the only loose gravel around and my foot slid out to where I couldn't save it. No damage to anything, just my ego.
 
Not a motorcycle , but a friend of mine when I was in my twenties worked as a mechanic for a cement company. One weekend he was working alone and he jacked up the front of a pickup to do something underneath and he was in too big of a hurry to put jack stands under the truck. He scootched underneath and was working “ and then it fell” but slowly, he felt the truck settling on his chest, pinning him.
The jack had a slow leak and he absolutely panicked, he flailed around and finally got out,
But guys have been killed that way. Believe me he ( nor I ) ever made that mistake again.
 
Maybe the worst bike drop I did was my 1988 Sportster. This was just a couple years ago. Had it up on the stand that just lifts it by the frame, an after market jack of sorts, You just adjust a couple nuts to get it to the right height and with long arm on one side you can raise up either end for maintenance work.

Forget exactly what I was doing to the bike but while standing on the left side did something to shift the bike to the right. No way to hold it up at that point. Down it goes and breaks the right front signal and the right mirror! Signal was not too bad a problem as in the 30 years or so I have had the Sportster I managed to acquire some spare parts. Mirror was the one I did not have and Harley has obsoleted that style, after market one I did find looked very close but has flat glass so vision is very bad through it!

What is even worse for about 25 years of this bikes life it had a sidecar on the right side so no chance of it falling either direction!

Speaking of sidecars and bikes "not" falling over the XS650 I used as ride to work sidecar bike at least twice did fall over with the sidecar attached! To be honest it does take a bit of "skill" to get a sidecar outfit to fall over on the left side with a right mounted side car. Well "skill" might be a bit of an exaggeration. More like someone doing stupid stuff. Like doing clockwise doughnuts in the snow or dirt then backing off the throttle abruptly allowing rear tire to get traction. No damage or at least none that could be seen with that rat bike outfit!
 
Greyandridin said:
Same here I now carry a small piece of plywood with me
Click to expand...
Yes the road couch had a chunk of aluminum diamond plate on a leash that lived in a tank bag pocket. A retracting leash with it's own side mount pocket would be ideal for the "hefty size" bike rider.
 
Headed to Sturgis 20yrs ago stopped in a Mom&Pop motel in the UP, when you checked in they had a stack of 6x6 pieces of plywood behind the counter. They gave you one if you were on a bike just for your kickstand. Think they were more concerned with their parking lot than your bike. But they were nice enough to pass out towels in the AM to wipe the dew off your bike.
 
Don't feel too bad. I won this when my kickstand flopped back up when I got off. At a gas station. In full view of the VYR guys. Next to a group of Harley riders.
Falling over wasn't so bad it was the Harley guys picking my bike off of me and commenting, "This thing's light, like a girl's bike".
IMG_0726.jpg
 
It was all in fun. They were on me before I even finished going down. They were a club of combat veterans so much respect.
I spent the rest of the VYR looking at my side stand while I got off. It's been fine ever since...
 

Similar threads

toglhot
A charmed life.
Replies
1
Views
211
toglhot
toglhot
O
The rope in the cylinder and floor jack breaking bar trick to loosen flywheel.
Replies
2
Views
187
Grimly
Grimly
RC4MAN
God speed Phil
Replies
7
Views
612
Mikey
Mikey
Britman
PUPPY
Replies
10
Views
593
46th Georgia
4
Mike G
Supermax vertical mill renovation
2 3 4
Replies
70
Views
2K
Mike G
Mike G
Back
Top