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Down once in 41 years. Bad. Had to have bone graft which was just like crashing again. Have the patch "Crashing Sucks" now.

Been riding since 1975 with no crashes on pavement. Millions of times in the dirt. Use to race a lot. Problem now is that there are 10x the cars on the road and as you get older your reaction time slows a bit. Out on my Rebel today for a few hrs with a few near misses from people just being ignorant in their cars. Matter of time I guess.

Scott58 wrote:Been riding since 1975 with no crashes on pavement. Millions of times in the dirt. Use to race a lot. Problem now is that there are 10x the cars on the road and as you get older your reaction time slows a bit. Out on my Rebel today for a few hrs with a few near misses from people just being ignorant in their cars. Matter of time I guess.

Well done sir. There really is no way around it, you are a good rider to have gone that long and not have crashed. And you continue to be a great rider by assessing and adjusting to changing conditions and abilities.

Scott58 wrote:Been riding since 1975 with no crashes on pavement. Millions of times in the dirt. Use to race a lot. Problem now is that there are 10x the cars on the road and as you get older your reaction time slows a bit. Out on my Rebel today for a few hrs with a few near misses from people just being ignorant in their cars. Matter of time I guess.

Wow! Haven't seen you around for a while. I still remember your road trip on your Honda Rebel. That was a good story.

Had first crash just a month ago. The front fender cracked in three places and I knocked the forks out of alignment. It was a low speed collision and I walked away completely uninjured. I have been riding since I was 25 and I am now 66. If it happens again....that's it. Gods way of telling me I ain't what I used to be.

soyarm wrote:Had first crash just a month ago. The front fender cracked in three places and I knocked the forks out of alignment. It was a low speed collision and I walked away completely uninjured. I have been riding since I was 25 and I am now 66. If it happens again....that's it. Gods way of telling me I ain't what I used to be.

Welcome to TMW.


You must be a good rider to have stayed shiny side up for so many years. Glad to hear you were not injured.

2 onroad in 40+ years and >650,000 miles.

Too many to count on the 12 or 13 years of dirtbiking/desert racing. (Sometimes 2 per day...) Yeah, I was a lot younger...

In 50+ years and countless miles I've been down 4 times. No.1 I was 21 and new at it. Busted up the bike but youth saved me. No.2 was in dirt and busted me up but the bike was good. No's3 & 4 I was rear ended at slow speed by inattentive drivers. Made good money on those.

No crashes so far in 9 years and about 100k miles. I dropped my first bike a hand full of times in the driveway (really bad pavement). Closest I came was being forced onto an off ramp by a dump truck and discovering that all traffic on said off ramp was stopped. Didn't have enough braking distance so I went for the shoulder. Stopped without crashing, but it was pretty terrifying. The reflectors were big enough to pop back tire into the air (hit the first set at about 75 mph), so I rode it down shoulder with the back tire locked up. Hate to think what would have happened in similar circumstances with a cage.

Edit: This was coming off an elevated freeway in Houston, so really the worst part was being so close to guard rail, as I'm terrified of heights.

Amdonim wrote:No crashes so far in 9 years and about 100k miles. I dropped my first bike a hand full of times in the driveway (really bad pavement). Closest I came was being forced onto an off ramp by a dump truck and discovering that all traffic on said off ramp was stopped. Didn't have enough braking distance so I went for the shoulder. Stopped without crashing, but it was pretty terrifying. The reflectors were big enough to pop back tire into the air (hit the first set at about 75 mph), so I rode it down shoulder with the back tire locked up. Hate to think what would have happened in similar circumstances with a cage.

Edit: This was coming off an elevated freeway in Houston, so really the worst part was being so close to guard rail, as I'm terrified of heights.

That does sound terrifying. We had ice this winter in Dallas and a man had an auto crash on one of the highway overpasses. When he got out of his car he slipped and went right over the railing and fell to his death. The railings are only about 2.5' tall and are likely fine for retaining a car on the roadway, but if you where to hit one hard on a motorcycle I think that at least the rider would go right over the top. I think a lot of highway safety engineering just ignores motorcycles. Remain vigilant brother.

1 year riding - 0 get offs - but I have dropped my bike getting on and off when parking. The worst part is the humiliation, the shame, and the struggle to get my top heavy pig upright when she is laying flat on her side.

Safe Travels,
Richard