Your fastest get off (Poll added)

[canuguzzi]

No, not related to the Viagra thread.

What is the highest speed you've ever dismounted from your motorcycle, on purpose or with assistance?

Relate the story. Falling over while stopped doesn't count although if you really want to tell that story...

[HardAspie]

Decades ago I was crossing the desert from Flagpole Arizona to my home in Southern California. I was riding my Suzuki GT 550L. The day was windy, like "Winnie The Pooh and the Blustery Day" windy. The ride was one of the unpleasantest things I have ever done. The bike was leaned waaay over all the time as we fought a quartering gusting headwind. My fuel mileage had been so poor that on the planned Williams to Needles leg, which should have been a one tank with reserve left affair, we limped into a Stucky's a few miles short of Kingtown. We limped in on reserve, on the shoulder, in fourth gear, at thirty five miles per hour, left hand off the grip and against the tank, helmet low over the trees.

I pulled off the highway once more at the California town of Amboy. Time for more fuel. Pull up to a pump. Side stand down. Now let's get that right leg over the saddle. WHAM! I got hit by one wicked nasti gust of wind so solid and energetic that it must have been made of gelatin and moving at least two hunnert knots. That gust assisted me in getting off the bike so well that it took about five fast bass ackwards steps to recover my balance. I deserved applause but alas, no one saw my move of quick desperation.

[Sasquatch Jim]

  About 65 MPH on a dark night.  I was in a right hand curve and the wheels simply lost traction because of volcanic pumice on the road.  I low sided and slid for more than 150 feet by looking at the steel scrapes on the asphalt the next day.  Yes it hurt.  I slid for just short of forever in a shower of metal grinding sparks, then stood up and fell over.  I just hate it when it does that!

[rob-mg]

Falling over while stopped doesn't count although if you really want to tell that story...

Not only my fastest get off, but my most embarrassing/comic.

My first bike, a step-through scooter. I went to the market and hung my grocery bag from the peg in the centre.

Got home.

Decided to leave the groceries in place, instead of removing them from the peg and placing them off the bike.

Swung my leg over the back of the bike.

Where, of course, I had a rear rack and a Givi top box.

Yes, I knew (theoretically) that the top box was there - I had also filled it with groceries.

Flat on my back, scooter on top of me.

Luckily, I was wearing the right gear; not so much as a bruise.

On the upside, the food (and wine) survived, including some great Pachino tomatoes (Pomodoro di Pachino).

The artichokes, grilled over olive branches, were wonderful.

[calfruit]

1967, riding two up on a Honda S90,rear ended at 40MPH in the dark ( got to love 6 volt lighting)  Slid 40-50 feet with my passenger surfing on top of me. Spent a couple of hours in the ER being scrubbed with a Brillo pad. Passenger was untouched.

[normzone]

Oh, you don't even want to know...

http://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=68761.0;nowap

[HardAspie]

Oh, you don't even want to know...

http://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=68761.0;nowap

Oh Holy Ned. What a tale. I am glad you are here to tell it.

[Gliderjohn]

I have a very attentive guardian angel. My fastest get off was when I was 10 years old riding my Montgomery Ward bicycle to see my neighbor kid friend (we lived in the country). My front end washed out in sand on the road and I did the classic high side at about an estimated eight mph. Road rashed the lower palm of my right hand. My friend's mom cleaned it up with soap, water and peroxside. Made me think that I really don't ever want much more of that road rash thing.
GliderJohn

[travelingbyguzzi]

About 60mph. On a US30 exit in Pennsylvania. It had just started to rain and I was telling myself, "Self, you need to slow down. It is starting to rain". The next second, the back end went out and I was sliding down the highway on my back end. It all turned out OK in the end.
It could have been very bad.

[Scott DeRoss]

Not a good memory for me! All I can say is ouch! http://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=47956.0

[HardAspie]

OUCH! Glad you are okay!

Wobbles are a thing that can cause me nightmares. Good cause? Bad cause? Just cause.

[wymple]

With assistance? A deer assisted me around 55-60.

[fotoguzzi]

over 50 mph, busted two ribs but the Aerostich saved me from rash and a Nolan saved my face.

[giusto]

About 55 mph. 1978 My cousin and I were headed home from playing basketball at small town gym in Northern Michigan on my Honda 550 four with floppy shop stand...with a girl friend following in her car....she passes us on a two lane and a few seconds later we hit a compression hole ...the bike rebounds and the shop stand comes down and locks in place forward....immediat ely flinging sparks and jerking the bike across centerline then back towards the shoulder...as soon as we hit the gravel the stand digs in and catapults us both up and over and right...landing on some guys front lawn... my girlfriend watching in her rear view mirror sees the sparks and headlight flip and thinks we're dead...while turning around....this is a 1 am...front light at the house comes on and a guy sticks his head out of the door and says...."hey what's going on...you ok??"...sees us crawling across his front lawn...to which I say "I think so"....click off goes the light and he closes the door...my cousin had a small cut on his leg (7 stitches in the morning) and I had to push the bike home about 2 miles....long night....no real injuries but I remember it well....Cousin was wearing a down jacket and shorts...and I was wearing sweats and my "Papa John Creech" short sleeved T shirt.

[HardAspie]

I may have been a tough too literal in interpretation of my fastest get off. That was MY fastest get off. Now, as for the fastest the bike was going. . .

Twas winter in Northern Arizona and there was finally a spell without snow. I fired up the Zook and headed out. I was very careful about the possibly of ice. The only ice of any magnitude that I had found was under the rail road crossing on 66. That was deep shadow, and the road was in good shape otherwise. I headed out Lake Mary Road and gradually worked my speed up to the limit as I found no ice whatsoever. Then I crested a rise then fall right hander and there was ice...forever.

Anyway, I stood the bike up to brake, lost a few MPH. got back off the brake before hitting the ice at about 40 MPH. Then began the slowest get off ever. Time slowed down. I watched for a couple of hours as a rut approached. I had plenty of time to decide what to do about it. As I approached the bike was moving in ways that a bike cannot move and it was disorientating. Into the rut and the bike went into a slo mo low side and We slid. After a day or two I thought I ought check to see if there was any traffic behind me. None. Then on the third day I determined to kill the engine. And we slid. Ice would make a good non stick pan coating!

As the bike and I stopped I rolled off and then with a burst of adrenaline I picked up the bike. But I needed the help of several strong guys who had been ice racing on the lake to push it back to other end of the ice. I was fine. Bike had a few scrapes. 40 MPH. That is it.

[Mike Harper]

Labor day weekend 1964 Sedalia mile.  120+  Three bike low side Wipeout due to a broken straw bale that a rider just ahead of us hit but he recovered and didn't go down .  Nobody hurt.

[normzone]

I may have been a tough too literal in interpretation of my fastest get off. That was MY fastest get off. Now, as for the fastest the bike was going. . .

Twas winter in Northern Arizona and there was finally a spell without snow. I fired up the Zook and headed out. I was very careful about the possibly of ice. The only ice of any magnitude that I had found was under the rail road crossing on 66. That was deep shadow, and the road was in good shape otherwise. I headed out Lake Mary Road and gradually worked my speed up to the limit as I found no ice whatsoever. Then I crested a rise then fall right hander and there was ice...forever.

Anyway, I stood the bike up to brake, lost a few MPH. got back off the brake before hitting the ice at about 40 MPH. Then began the slowest get off ever. Time slowed down. I watched for a couple of hours as a rut approached. I had plenty of time to decide what to do about it. As I approached the bike was moving in ways that a bike cannot move and it was disorientating. Into the rut and the bike went into a slo mo low side and We slid. After a day or two I thought I ought check to see if there was any traffic behind me. None. . And we slid. Ice would make a good non stick pan coating!

As the bike and I stopped I rolled off and then with a burst of adrenaline I picked up the bike. But I needed the help of several strong guys who had been ice racing on the lake to push it back to other end of the ice. I was fine. Bike had a few scrapes. 40 MPH. That is it.

" Then on the third day I determined to kill the engine "

I love it. Yeah, our minds make more time in order to give us a chance to figure options. 

[cruzziguzzi]

I had this on another thread. More; "Get the Hell OFF!"

The airfield for Ft Devens, Mass. is in fact a detached entity. Little bitty thing barely tolerant of C-130s. To get to it, one leaves the main gate, hangs a hard left then a hard right and mosies on through some very pretty country with a fine and twisty road.

The very day I was to leave base to go to language school out in Monterey, I found a need to go out to the airbase to do something or other with the Riggers out at the airfield. On the way back on my super sweet little Kawasaki GPZ550, I was in a fine state and motoring along very enthusiastically. On the way, there is necessity for the road to address a railroad crossing. Here, they had done it by passing the road beneath the tracks - very aggressively. It was the kind of dip that would, beneath the track, trap tractor trailers of the wrong dimension.

What it did for us was give us sort of a "gravity cavity" with a jump on the other side. Unfortunately, given the specifics, it presented as rather "blind", more the fun!

So, enter Todd, Schwantz-ing along. The GPZ singing as they did and here comes the last fun bit before base. I check my gear, tuck in, wait for the world to fall from beneath me and then smash back to earth at the bottom. A great part of the fun here is that if you didn't know better, you would think you're going to nail the bridge but you always fall in time. Still...

So, gas, fly, control crash and you gun it up the other side to get a bit of air before settling down within sight of the gate MPs.

Except!

They had been, for a very long time, working to take the kink out and line up more directly with the gate. In doing this, for months, on the way out one used the new road but on the way back, one used the old kink.

Not anymore. The return traffic was now directed to a left sweep. The last couple times times I did this Top Gun crap, I barely made the sweep as by the time you're down and solid from the exuberant exit, you just barely - and only with the greatest confidence in one's self and ride - are able to hammer the bike over and hang on. Otherwise, I could ride on, past the "road closed" sign on the center strip, slow "U" and proceed responsibly along.

This time, getting ready to leave Devens, thrilled at returning to Monterey and its riding and not a little amped from the Rigger shed visit, I had really hauled ass outa the hole. No damn way I was gonna make it but all's well. Shame's my game, and I go on to do the "U". Too late, I see that they had strung a chain from trees on either side of the road, to the sign!

Damn thing hits the bikini fairing, slips over the controls, tears up my forearms and stops playing nice at my neck. I got hauled off that bike like I just got Road Runnered in a cartoon trap. I'm off the bike, sign goes down and I just make it up to my elbows in time to see that previously fine little red rocket scoot off into the woods.

Jeezum Crow! How'd I make it outa that one? I was in exceptional shape and had a damn good full-face to take the brunt and keep my jaw where it is today. I shudder to think how many fellas - and a coupe a gals - would have missed their shots at that target had the helmet not kept it on my brain-ball. Sure did leave a lot of skin on that chain though.

Speed? fast enough to be very lucky to be alive... Well into a high RPM third gear.


Todd.

[Doppelgaenger]

Within about a month, I crashed twice on my SV650. New rider thinking he could learn to ride without taking an MSF class, pretty stupid. Both times I went into a turn too hot on the wrong side of the road.

The first time I had a long dirt driveway that went off the side, so I tried best I could to line myself up with that. I went off into the dirt and was on the brakes without them locking up, but as I shed speed without locking up the front, I realized there was a ditch coming up. It was either hit the front brakes and go down in the dirt, or hit the ditch and go flying. I chose the former and ended up sliding with the bike under me. Bent the handlebar slightly and dented the tank, and bent one of my fingernails slightly, but otherwise unscathed. I was in the middle of nowhere by myself and I was able to ride out of there. I got lucky. I never looked at the speedo but it must have been about 30 mph.

Next time I was on hwy 1 in the big sur area and came around a turn to find a sharper counter-turn. I washed wide and saw a car coming right at me about a hundred feet ahead, so I stood the bike up doing about 45-50, slammed the brakes, scrubbed off an unknown amount of speed, and then went down in the dirt on the far side of the road. Again. This time I tore the cap off the radiator so the bike was unrideable. When the bike and I stopped, I realized that I couldn't move my foot. The bike was on top of it, but I was fine thanks to the steel toe boots I was wearing. I actually started laughing as I tried to pull my foot out from under the bike, but that time I was completely unscathed. I was the lucky one that time, another new rider ate it up by Nepenthe and broke her thumb. We ended up having to get a trailer and book it up the 1 because they were closing it at 8 pm for road work. We made it with about 10 minutes to spare to the flaggers and luckily no one stole the bikes as they sat by the side of the road.

I scared myself badly another time and almost ended up in a tree, but managed to wrench the bike over in the space of the wrong lane. Most of these close calls have come while group riding...

So far I haven't scared myself on the guzzi... Let's hope that keeps up.

[ScepticalScotty]

Couple of years ago when a wasp flew into my jacket and started stinging my chest. My freind Bob thought I had fallen off I stopped so fast...

[steven c]

 Hate that when it happens.

[Skarsaune]

Dunno the exact speed, but I flipped a Ninja 250 3 or 4 times down the front straight at little talledega during an endurance race several years ago.

Sure, just a 250, but WOT is WOT.

Walked away (well, to the ambulance anyways).  Concussion was the worst of it.

The rest of the track crashes that come to mind were all lowsides, not at great speed.

Street stuff - I hit a retread / recap (we always called them gators) on an I-65 off ramp at about 50 one morning on my way to work.  Put me down quickly.

Walked away from that, too.

[normzone]

" gators "

That's a good name for those damn things - I've heard that hitting a live gator is pretty traumatic for all involved.

I hit one of the tire tread versions in my Camry - the front skirt has never been the same since.

[HardAspie]

There was no traffic either in or approaching the intersection. My street had right of way' with stop signs for the cross street. I flicked my bike with a quick countersteer from the straight ahead to the left turn lane, and prepared to go through the left at the same speed at which I'd been traveling. But it was during that double countersteer - get the bike to head left in a hurry and then oppose that to straighten it up - that I became aware of an unadvertised feature in the bike's design. There was a hinge somewhere between the steering head and the rear wheel.

That rear wheel got all egotistical and decided to become the leader as it came around to the right and the bike began to fall to the left. Then, suddenly, that rear wheel changed its mind and dug in hard. Bang! High side! I was catapulted off the bike and into the intersection. I have no recollection of flying, which constitutes a sadness in that I have always been interested in aviation. I must have flown pretty straight, and than landed hard and slid. All my gear worked well. A mark on the helmet face shield showed that it had kept my nose from becoming a pencil eraser against the tarmac.

I walked away from a high side. That is some good bragging rights. Oh, except that I was high sided by a moped.

[wavedog]

High sided my VFR at 80mph, at least that's what I was doing when I whacked the throttle open exiting a nice left hand curve. I was riding home from a scout meeting and riding south on Vulture Mine road out of Wickenburg, AZ. Don't know how long I was unconscious. A couple of riders saw my bike laying in the brush and walked around until they found me. I guess I got launched quite a ways out into the bushes. Got a helicopter ride into the trauma center in Phoenix. Right collar bone broken in two places, right shoulder blade almost broken off- just a little bit of bone holding it on, five ribs broken on the right side- some broken in three places- these were complete breaks not fractures, my left hand was badly damaged. The only thing holding my middle finger on was skin. It was flopping all over the place. Could have cut it off with a pair of scissors. Every bone in the left hand was broken or fractured. The knuckle for the middle finger was broken off and was free floating. Had surgery to rebuild my hand and pins to hold everything in place. A punctured right lung which later got infected. Spewed some blood from that one. Had a concussion so bad I couldn't read for a month. I was kind of messed up. This was early January, and by mid March I was running a backhoe and using a chainsaw to clear some land that I had bought and started building a house. It was great therapy and really helped me recover. Lesson learned? Don't high side.

[normzone]

Ouch.

Nice of those folks to look for you.

Off topic, I knew a girl who was not known for being the sharpest tool or paying attention to detail. Not a very together driver either.

One day going down the freeway she saw a motorcycle wheel sticking out of the landscaping bushes.

She got off at the next exit, went back and pulled over, looked around.

It was a police bike, with an officer unconscious nearby in the brush. Somebody had run him off the road.

Pre cellphone era, the bike radio was still functional, she used it to tell his buddies where he was.

A month later, she got pulled over for yet another boneheaded move, and was on the verge of getting a ticket when the officer did a double take at the name on her license, told her to be more careful and sent her on her way.

[welshrob]

170kph on a Triumph Speed Triple, 7 years ago. Riding with a load of other guys on sportsbikes, I was at the front and took a r/h corner with a steep camber too quickly, I was hanging off the bike, had the right hand peg down, I thought I was Casey Stoner until the front wheel tucked. Or "I ran out of talent" as I lke to call it.

I had a massive slide then the bike hit one of those "sharp right corner" signs and nose dived into a bank. I broke my left hand when I hit the sign, the slide wore through my leather jacket resulting in a free tattoo removal on my right arm. I was very lucky, the bank cushioned most of the impact.


http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu238/welshrob_2009/192jpg.jpg

If you click on the image link above you can scroll through pics of the bike and the injuries.


Sorry, the image button doesn`t appear to be working.

[HardAspie]

Ouch, guys!

[Luap McKeever]

45 MPH, 5:15 AM, Light rain, 2003, 1998 EV.  Dragging my Kamperoo to work until noon, then leave early for Italy, TX.  Come around a not so sharp curve to find both lanes with vehicles stopped in them.  Hit my brakes, the interlocks worked perfectly.  Bike goes to the right, camper pushes bike away from me, I roll about 100' to my stop in the ditch with my back on a rock.  Nothing broken, but I did get a football sized hematoma in my lower back which later needed surgery to drain.

My riding gear was fine.  My helmet was shot. The EV was totaled. Insurance paid it off. I kept it and fixed it back up then rode it another 50,000+ miles before selling it to get my first Stelvio in 2009.

Turns out the idiots holding up both lanes were gawking at someone else who rolled their car on the same curve.  The Highway patrol cited them with impeding traffic.  I got no tickets at all.  The Highway Patrol never gave me my helmet back.

My back still hurts...

[Arizona Wayne]

Have yet to have a fast get off.