25 years of riding, and today for the first time I finally...

[ed.bremner]

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 

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

[MotoGoosy]

Just another one of life's lessons in humility.  Biggest concern when dropping the bike is what it does to a running engine.

[rodekyll]

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?

[brenwin]

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 .

[Yukonica]

 :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.

 

[donn]

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.