Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I thought I'd bring this thread back since there was very intresting responses last time.


I had my bike for about a week. Had been out practicing and was coming home. I went to make a right turn into my drive way. Pu my signal on and was slowing down. Right before I made the turn I brain farted and just stopped. I dropped like a rock. I was able to keep the bke from hitting hard. I scrambled and picked it up and treid to get into the garage before anyone could see me.

I had mine for a couple days. It was before the safety course or license endorsement, so I was just taking it easy on the back roads around my house.

I wanted to turn around, so I slowed and took a slight right into someone's gravel driveway and began to pull around left. The bike was perpendicular to the street when I lost control. Clutch control. The engine sputtered so I throttled it good, almost launching the bike out from under me (keep in mind I was duck-walking the bike through the turn). I grabbed the front brake and just completely lost balance as the bike fell on its right side, myself jumping off to the side. That sickening clatter of bike hitting street still rings in my ears to this day.

Now for the tragic humorous part to really rub it in my face: I was now in the opposite lane, bike still facing perpendicular to the street. I was kind of panicking that a car might come or someone might see me, so I quickly pulled it up... and lost my grip, dropping it again, this time on the left side. Finally I righted it, got on, and drove home.

Thanks to my total squidness of wearing shorts at the time, I recieved a nice half-circular burn on my leg. Probably from pulling the bike up after the second drop, but I only realized it on the way home when I noticed blood oozing down the side. The scar is still there, so I'll always remember my first bike .

Bought my cuurent bike (78 Honda Gl 1000) about 4 years ago. I brought it home and parked it in front of my house. It wasn't 2 hours until I heard my youngest son Clinton calling for help out front. You guessed it, hadn't had it home a day yet and he had already upset it. Here he was , 11 years old, probably 70 pounds trying to right my Gold Wing. Crash bars caught it with no damage except to Clint's ego. He probably was thinking " Dad's gonna kill me " but it all turned out to be a good laugh for my wife and I. BTW , he hasn't upset it since although I have dropped it a couple times.

My first drop was just this week. Not really so much a drop as a low speed get-off. What sucks even worse is that I just sold my old bike and bought this one last week. Anyway, I was on a road I am familiar with. I was coming up a hill which drops sharply after you crest it so you can't really see what's on the other side until you hit the top. There is a stop sign at the bottom of the hill so I was already slowing as I went up the hill. As I crested the hill at somewhere around 15 mph, there was debris scattered across the road literally feet in front of me. It was too close to stop and too much to just ride over. I swerved and missed the pile on my left, but as I swerved back to miss the pile on the right that was just beyond the first pile, I think the first pile clipped my rear tire. The backend shot out to my right and I low-sided. Bike slid about 40 feet, I slid about 20. I'm fine except a twisted ankle. Bike has only minimal damage that I was able to fix for the most part already. The turn signal sheared off but the bike pretty much slid on the footpegs so not much else. Pegs are scratched up on the bottom and a few small scratches on the mirror.
As if that wasn't enough of a wonderful day, the tank, after coming through the slide unscathed, was hit by a lacrosse ball that evening while parked in the lot at the school where I coach baseball and now has a small dent that I need to pull out. The bike was in near mint condition when I bought it last week.

Hopefully, everyone will learn a lesson here. Anything can happen at any time and sometimes, as in my case this week, you can't avoid it. Dress for the slide, not the ride. Always prepare for the unexpected. And know your machine and the limitations of both it and yourself. I could have pulled that swerve successfully on my old bike in my sleep. I was aware of the difference with the new bike, but instinct took over because I haven't spent as much time on the new bike yet to adjust those instincts.

My first bike drop, was when I was 14yrs. Begged a boyfriend to let me ride his Triumph 500cc in tracked area of a small wood. Boyfriend had to sit on back while I pulled away, (Legs couldnt reach the ground ) Was getting well into it and opened up the throttle....and boyfriend jumped off the back....he s**t himself! Trouble is when I finally brought the bike to a halt, I had to drop it, He never let me ride the bike again

OH BOY....

I'm really gonna open myself up here.
My first real "drop" was not pretty. I was 16 and didn't have my bike endorsement yet. (I had been riding on the back roads for a couple of years with my CL 100) My buddy Steve had just bought a new '78 Honda 360T.
I bugged him to let me take it for a ride, and he agreed, since he knew I had "extensive time" on the road.

I took off and rode down the road for a few miles then turned around to come back. I decided since I was doing fine, I'd open it up a bit. I was cruising along at around 60, and there was a turn coming up. In fact the turn came up real fast, I freaked and stomped the rear brake hard while starting my turn.

The rest is history. I lost it, went down hard, ground-sky-ground-sky over an embankment, and the bike followed me. I dislocated my left knee, got covered in road rash including stitches in my forehead and ended up with a severe concussion. (lucky)

The bike wasn't totalled, just scratched/broke everything on the left side and it cost me five hundred dollars (1978 dollars) which is a lot of money for a kid to come up with, but I did. I worked the whole summer for my stupidity but I made good and paid him every cent of it.

I healed up pretty well, and the next year I got my bike endorsement.

I've only had one other "drop" since then, (worse) I broke three vertibre in my neck, broke my collar bone and got another severe concussion.
Since then (22 years) I've been careful and alert, and haven't had any other "drops".
I never quit riding. I just quit riding stupidly......

OK, I'm in. I have been ridin' off and on for about 30 years. I took the MSC last year after 5 years of not ridin', and had put about 2500km on my new bike (1100 Vstar). I was braking to stop in a highway pullout so I could admire the mountain view, and made the mistake of turning just as I crept to a stop. My and the bikes weight went to the outside of the "turn", and in slow motion, we started to go over. I tried to hold it but knew I'd strain something, so let it go. The bike gently laid down and I stood staddling it, fuel pouring onto the pavement. F#@k echoed down the valley. Luckily, it landed on the saddlebag and the end of the throttle grip. Not a scratch. This was the first time, and hopefully the last, that I dropped a street bike. Now dirt bikes are a different story...

remember dropping a gs850 once.the day i bought it.got it home and took the wife for a spin.only got round the corner at bottom of street.what i didnt know was the rear brake pedal was dodgey.when i applied rear brake it went on ok,but didnt come off,my trouser leg caught on the pedal and i couldnt put my foot down.by the time i realized what was happening the bike was downand both i and the wife just stepped to one side.more embarrassing than anything else.xjrjohn

Knock on wood!! I have never laid down a bike!! I have been riding street bikes on and off since 1985! In fact, by posting this, I have prolly just jinxed myself!
My fav lay down story that was in here before the jackasses hacked our forum, was the person who didnt realize that the bike was still in neutral, and gunned it trying to take off! They said that they fell over like a building!! I have never laughed so hard at someone elses misfortune!
Thanks for the great reading and learning guys! <S> (Salute)


Gunny------

I've only laid down a bike once before. I was riding my CH125 for the first time and was turning left from a stop sign in the pouring rain and I had been only driving the thing (or any bike for that matter) for about two days...

Needless to say - I was wasn't expecting it to even have as much power as it did and I has a guy on my tail riding me. I opened it up a little and then proceeded to have the rear tire shoot out and then kick out under me. I slid about 10 feet into a muddy ditch/puddle and was laying up to my waist in muddy, dirty water.

I was an experience I never want to relive.

All I got out of it though was some scuffs on the left handgrip - That was fixed with $20 worth of grips.