Wildguzzi.com
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: StaysCrunchy on July 10, 2015, 06:23:20 PM
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Tipped my bike over. My last three bikes were all Harleys, which have a center of gravity about 3" off the ground as opposed to 3' off the ground (obvious hyperbole) like my Stelvio. I was pulling into my parking spot at work, made a sharp low-speed right turn, lost my balance, and down we went. Put a scuff on the corner of the side case, broke one of the rivets off of and bent the side case bracket, and scuffed the aptly-named crash bar. I walked away with a bruised knee, elbow, and pride.
I've had tall bikes like this before, and I'm an experienced rider, but I just got caught off guard. No biggie I suppose, just added another personalized touch to the bike. :grin:
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Character mark :laugh: It has happened to us all .
Dusty
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Boy do9 I remember something like this.
These things put a dent in your confidence, that's all. Don't be put off. There are plenty more good rides left in us before we slough off our mortal coils :grin:
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Did the same thing this time last year, scuffed paint off the engine guards and scuffed the top box. I had to have help picking it back up.
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I dropped my Stelvio for the first and second time ever last week too. Funny you say that about the Harley...the Soft tail has a low center of gravity, yes, but any of the Glides, or even my XLCR Sportster are more top heavy than the Stelvio.
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Tipped my bike over. My last three bikes were all Harleys, which have a center of gravity about 3" off the ground as opposed to 3' off the ground (obvious hyperbole) like my Stelvio. I was pulling into my parking spot at work, made a sharp low-speed right turn, lost my balance, and down we went. Put a scuff on the corner of the side case, broke one of the rivets off of and bent the side case bracket, and scuffed the aptly-named crash bar. I walked away with a bruised knee, elbow, and pride.
I've had tall bikes like this before, and I'm an experienced rider, but I just got caught off guard. No biggie I suppose, just added another personalized touch to the bike. :grin:
Done it twice, once heavily loaded and two-up at 3 MPH when the front wheel washed out on gravel and too much front brake, and once solo and empty at 1 MPH coming to a stop with too much front brake.
There's a theme here, I'll figure it out one of these days .....
Lannis
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Sorry to hear that. I did it, too, recently, with my Norge. If you have insurance, you could have everything repaired. Or, you could do like I did and pocket the pay out (thereby reducing the cost of your bike!).
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Happens to me too. Only 2 kind of riders, ones that have fallen and ones that are going to fall.
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I think it's called "Grinding the new off" :boozing:
You're in good company.
P.S. If it happened at work, with witnesses, you'll be hearing about it 20 years from now... :violent1:
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Did it on my R1100GS when taking the motorcycle test when iI moved back to Washington 20 years ago. Still hear about it from wife and friends
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25 years... FIRST TIME... :laugh: :laugh: :grin: :laugh: :laugh:
Crap, I'm thinking I dropped my first bike twice in the first week... Though in my defense I was teaching myself to ride.
But shyte even since then, man I've got some doozies...
Maybe my best was the time I backed one out of the garage and stepped off to close the carriage doors and didn't realize until it hit the ground that I'd forgotten the side stand. :boozing:
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The last time I dropped a bike on dry asphalt was when I was riding on Hwy 178 out of Bakersfield heading towards Mammoth. I come around a corner and some guy is in the middle of the road waving his arms. I come to a stop as soon as possible and in the excitement, get off balance and the bike falls. The guy helps me up and then asks if I know where he can find Lake Isabella. I just pointed to the big blue thing off to the left.
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" today for the first time I finally... "
I AM SO PROUD OF YOU.
You may be a late bloomer, but you're OUR late bloomer.
:gotpics:
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Most fall-offs are low speed. Don't hit your head without a helmet. And you thought helmets didn't matter at __mph. :wink:
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" today for the first time I finally... "
I AM SO PROUD OF YOU.
You may be a late bloomer, but you're OUR late bloomer.
:gotpics:
ROFLMAO
My last drop was at a gas station. Stopped, put down stand. Leaned it over. Bike fell over. WTF?!?!? I realized I had put the stand down, just did not push it forward to the stop. So, stand folded. Luckily I did not try and stop it and got out of the way.
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At least it took you 25 years. A year into owning a Honda 350 Four, at lunch time in front of the high school, with everyone watching, I hit the front brake a little to hard on the painted stop limit and did a nose plant. I had just rained a bit, I knew better.
Helmet got quite scratched up and did the face shield. Helmet immediately got uglier. Took my face a few more decades to catch up.
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Crunch,
Someone wise told me "gravity wins". 2 years ago dropped V7R in garage. Side stand stuck, and slippery from new road goo. Boot gooed, hot as hell. Pinned me. Wife gone, fished out cell phone, called police, they lifted bike and EMT checked me. Added side stand knurl to get grip. Replaced mirror.
Glad you are ok. Get on and ride again.
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First trip with my Jackal to Luaps, there were these golf ball size things all over the place and we were getting set to go ride and I was all ready to go, put my foot down on one of these golf balls and it was the best Bill Dance slow motion lean over and tip over ever!
You know the one where you know you are going down and do everything to try and stop it only to make it worse!
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Did it 3 times on my Hyosung 650. Realized that with a full tank, it's topheavy. Sold it. Good riddance.
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First trip with my Jackal to Luaps, there were these golf ball size things all over the place and we were getting set to go ride and I was all ready to go, put my foot down on one of these golf balls and it was the best Bill Dance slow motion lean over and tip over ever!
You know the one where you know you are going down and do everything to try and stop it only to make it worse!
Don't ride on ball bearings, it's bad luck.
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I've dropped bikes twice in my driveway. Put my foot on wet leaves and BOOM, there she goes. I know better, too. Once parking at night in a commercial lot where I didn't see the asphalt roll down a bit, bike leaned farther than I expected and I couldn't catch it. Should have known better etc. On the other hand, I've ridden through a ditch and into a yard without an issue to avoid moron-on-my-side-of-road.
Figure I'll drop the dang things a few more times.
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Part of the motorcycling experience. You just hope no one sees you. :rolleyes:
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My Breva doesn't even need me on it to go over. A few years ago I came out, started it up, and turned away to put my helmet and gloves on. It promptly had a misfire and threw itself on the ground.
Of course I should not have left it so close to upright on the sidestand.
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Part of the motorcycling experience. You just hope no one sees you. :rolleyes:
I was riding the Norge down Broadway and while making a left hand turn I lost my balance and the bike went down. I was going really slow so I wasn't hurt, just embarrassed and about three NY'ers came over and helped me get the bike up off the pavement and made sure I was all right.
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Was at work on new to me EV, parked right next to door. Thought I had flipped the sidestand out, then trew the bike over on it and went inside. They all asked why I tossed my bike on the asphalt.
AND all the times that alcohol was involved!!
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Gravity, not just a suggestion, but the law. :laugh: Glad you're okay. Pride heals sooner and easier than flesh and bone.
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Guy I work with told me he left a bar at 2 in the morning and couldn't make it home to pee so he jumped off his Harley on the side of the road and ran down in the ditch to relieve himself and heard all this noise and turned to see the the bike rolling sideways down into the ditch.He didn't put the kickstand down.
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Dropping a bike is a skill they should teach early in riding school. You never know when you're going to need that lesson.
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Turning AND using front brake makes for a challenging combination (an EV I had, at crawling speed)
Leaving bike without sidestand out makes you look really stupid (Virago)
Just a little material damage, considerable damage to pride......
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I guess I'm pretty lucky to have taken this long for my first drop, Lord knows I've come close to doing it countless times! I guess now I know, for the record, that I can pick my bike up after a drop at least. You never realize how heavy it is until you're lifting it off the ground!
Oh, and of course pretty much EVERYBODY at work saw me do it. Couple of them ran out to make sure I was OK, which was nice of them, but honestly my ego got the biggest bruise. I told them thanks, and to never speak of this again lol! :laugh:
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But shyte even since then, man I've got some doozies...
Oh yea.....me to. Some stupid and embarrassing like trying to drive off from pub with disk-lock on the front rotor. Lock was on just in front of caliper, so wheel did pretty much a whole revolution before locking dead, skidding the front out and dropping me in-elegantly on ground... Oh, how I chuckled :violent1:
And some stupid and scary ones, like riding one winter night, back in the days, when the only riding kit I wore was a leather jacket over my jeans, some deerhide gardening gloves and a scarf round my face. Got cold, really cold but kept going, wanting to make my normal 1/2 way stopping point. Got there, and pulled off the main road, into parking area, slowed down to a halt, went to put my leg out only to find my legs were entirely seized up and just didn't move, so bike fell over with me still sitting on it. So there I was lying on the ground in the freezing cold, feeling like I was going to throw up. Problem was my hands were way to cold to even undo my helmet. That was a little scary but good learning experience.
Havn't done it recently, but bound to happen again sometime. In the past I would pray it would happen when no-one was watching, now reckon I want someone to be around as not sure I could lift the Guzzi up by myself any more.
eib
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Just another one of life's lessons in humility. Biggest concern when dropping the bike is what it does to a running engine.
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When I started riding again after being sick I dropped mine twice in a week. One was a classic 'too much front brake in the dirt parking lot' and the other was trying to get the kickstand down before I knew if I could balance it. Needed help getting it upright both times. The first time it was a trio of middle school girl joggers who rushed in to rescue the elderly fool. The second time it was a guy on crutches. He wasn't in a rush.
No embarrassment there, huh?
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I dropped my Stelvio in the garage about a month ago thinking the side stand was all the way down . She went down and knocked my 73 fully restored Eldo over in the process . The left hand guard on the Stelvio was cracked with no damage to the Eldo thanks to engine guards . Pretty amazing considering .
Last bike I dropped prior to this 15 yrs ago was my Norton Commando on a sunny Sunday morning in the driveway for the whole neighborhood to see . I wanted to sell and move that day ! Welcome to the club , you did great for 25 yrs .
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:1:
" today for the first time I finally... "
I AM SO PROUD OF YOU.
You may be a late bloomer, but you're OUR late bloomer.
:gotpics:
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I guess now I know, for the record, that I can pick my bike up after a drop at least.
I never know, really. I've picked it up, but there have been some lengthy struggles, and a time or two when I'm sure I could never have managed because of obstacles (one of which was a tree, so instead I just used the tree to winch it up with a rope.)
I think the last time was when riding out of my yard, I turned left and found my neighbor out unloading groceries or something, and just I guess lost it out of surprise. I got on it and tried to heave it up, with no success whatever, and she (yes) came over and grabbed the bars and pulled it up like it was a sack of onions. I mean, I suppose it was a joint effort, but it didn't feel like it on my end. I wish she were still my neighbor.