SOOO EMBARASSING!!! Tipped bike over TWICE in 24 HRS.

[IanDMacDonald]

Ughh. First time was last night forgetting to take the disc brake lock off, second time was early this morning rilling it backwards down my girlfriends driveway not wanting to wake her family or neighbors. Both times it was a slow and controlled drop, all the weight of the bike on the right mirror and nothing else. I feel like an idiot. It's funny the shock u get when u instant try to pick it back up and realize a quick jerk will not magically pick the bike back up. Fortunately I'm not a wimp and gor the bike up with five seconds of falling and no.harm was done. Lesson learned.

[WMarshy]

It happens once in a while. I did it this spring as well. Wouldnt ya know it happened right after a coworker (new to riding) and I are were talking about tipping bikes over and the proper way to pick them up. I wasnt bragging but mentioned it had been two years since I last tipped mine over. Next morning I tipped it over in the parking lot at work. While doing a tight turn to get lined up to back the bike in a parking spot I use too much front brake and the bike slowly went down. Nothing I could do about it except hit the kill switch and minimize the damage. Only damage was to my ego, luckily no one saw it happen. After that I blamed it on my breaks and decided it was time to disassemble the calipers and clean them to get smoother operating brakes.

[BA80]

Happens to all of us. It's REALLY embarrassing when people point and laugh.

[donebysunday]

Two Bucks

Brand new 79SF11, two bucks worth or nickle beers, gravel drive, pulled right up in front of the big picture window, 3 times, 1st rt. then Lt. and right again trying to back up feet slipping on the gravel. So PO'd at that point did not have any beer in me, just rage, never looked to see if anyone was looking. Backed it up this time fine, rode two mi. home back roads totally sober. Dumb Kid !

[fredintoon]

Get a chair?

Just like the JWs, I'm always ready to preach.
What worked for me and would work for you clumsy clowns too is to hang sidecars on your bikes.
Good thing 1):- A rig cannot fall over (well, it can, but you REALLY gotta work at it.)
Good thing 2):- A rig is a great chick magnet.
Good thing 3):- Your chick can wear a nice dress when you take her somewhere posh.
Different thing:- "They steers funny" (like a lopsided quad or sled)
Thing to watch for:- Never park where you can't drive out of going forward.
(that or use a tug with a reverse gear or have some burly friends to haul the rig backwards)

[BA80]

Just like the JWs, I'm always ready to preach.
What worked for me and would work for you clumsy clowns too is to hang sidecars on your bikes.
Good thing 1):- A rig cannot fall over (well, it can, but you REALLY gotta work at it.)
Good thing 2):- A rig is a great chick magnet.
Good thing 3):- Your chick can wear a nice dress when you take her somewhere posh.
Different thing:- "They steers funny" (like a lopsided quad or sled)
Thing to watch for:- Never park where you can't drive out of going forward.
(that or use a tug with a reverse gear or have some burly friends to haul the rig backwards)

One more thing) Get a car.

[fredintoon]

One more thing) Get a car.

Hi Greg,
refer to good thing 2)
While the family's Buick Le Sabre is great for winter riding, a chick magnet it ain't.
It's a Grandpa car. At least that's what my eldest son said it was when he first saw it.
The second thing he said was "can I borrow it?"

[xs11jack]

More and more I think about a side car or trike as I get older and weaker and nearly unable to lift the bike with fairing and bags back up.
Ole (71yrold) Jack

[XSive Okie]

Dropped mine last summer. Pulled up to work and parked under an electric wire, and then thought to myself the birds will try their best to paint her white. So I roll her back aways, and the kickstand popped up. Didn't think twice about it, and stepped off and down she went! No damage done (except to my pride).

[TopCatGr58]

There's even an award for that!

Hey there Ian,

It's such a common occurence that several years ago someone created an award for the yearly XSEast attendees. I don't know the backstory of the award. Anyways, the lady friend and rider with Ralph/Madbiker had won the award on Saturday of this recent XS East when she was approaching and turning into a gas station with a very steep inclined entrance, got going too slow for the turn and layed it over on her right side!

Well, it's not over till it's over, and on Sunday at the END of a long day's worth of riding the twisties and such, we stopped at the local gas station to top off the bikes before loading them onto the trailer/truck for the return trip home. I finish filling up, start it up, slowly pull out and then try to make a fairly tight right hand turn around the pump station, and apparently in my fatigued state, lost concentration for just a second, too much brake or not enough gas/throttle...but down it went on my right side! Thankfully my forward controls framework caught and kept the bike from crushing my right ankle. I was able to extract my self from underneath it, and then once George/GloweVA got over his shock at seeing my foible, came to my assistance and helped me get Godzilla back up on it's wheels, since some fuel had leaked out of the tank around the ground and such!

So...being the gentleman I am, upon my return to the hotel I humbly informed the previous winner that she had to relinquish it to ME!

George had won the Harley Award for that rally, and I didn't want him to feel too bad about it so that's why I dropped it, yeah, that's the ticket!

T.C.

[TopCatGr58]

More and more I think about a side car or trike as I get older and weaker and nearly unable to lift the bike with fairing and bags back up.
Ole (71yrold) Jack

Hey Jack,

Take a look at this system, looks like a better idea than a TRIKE, you get to keep the riding aspects of a true 2 wheeled bike, leaning and such! They state they are only for GoldWings or Harleys, but I would think something similar could be found to fit our machines!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U9kHA1i7Ko

T.C.

[motoman]

Hey Jack,

Take a look at this system, looks like a better idea than a TRIKE, you get to keep the riding aspects of a true 2 wheeled bike, leaning and such! They state they are only for GoldWings or Harleys, but I would think something similar could be found to fit our machines!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U9kHA1i7Ko

T.C.

Some thirtyplus years ago after I bought my Venturer, there was an outfit that made a scissor type side-car that leaned with the bike. I did consider it at the time, but expense derailed the thought. Can't even remember the name of the company.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Brant,

Well, I posted that link before I looked up the price! Something like $5k!!

I found another video about a guy in Wash. State that developed the dual front wheel leaning system....it's only ~$10K ! His prototype was put on a Vmax! It is also only for Goldwings or Harleys! They seem to market these to the AFFLUENT type riders! I like the leaning dual front wheels design better than the "training wheels".

T.C.

[motoman]

Yea T.C. I sure can't remember the name of the Company that built those back then, but I do seem to remember they were bout $1800 back then, which was bout a third cost of the the bike new. The body portion was similar in styling as the Terraplane of Vetter's, and it was a commercially sold one.

[je2wheeler]

Under the heading - "This Happened to ME!"

I had one of those tall, round on top sissy bars that were so popular in the seventies on my '73 CB750.
I dropped my wife of one year off at work and absent-mindedly plopped the helmet on the top of the bar and headed to my work.
Coming to a stop I went over a bump in the road. At the stop, I heard a "clumpa, clumpa" going past me as her helmet continued into the intersection and stopped bisecting the lanes.
I had to choose from
1. Ride on past the helmet as if I was not associated with it (new Bell R/Ts were not cheap) or
2. Mosey out and retrieve it with a 'Hay! Look what I found!' look. I was the only rider in sight so it was
3. Just go get it as quickly and inconspicuously as possible.
I had to time this feat with the cross traffic but with beeping horns and prat calls, inconspicuous was off the table so I redoubled quickly.
I bunged the helmet and went on to work. The ideas of how I was to explain why the helmet she lovingly polished every night was now customized with all over quotation marks boiled down to just come clean when I picked her up.
I was reminded why I married this wonderful woman when after being at first surprised yet then full of understanding at my situation. Of course the promise of a new helmet payday helped.
Although she never did, I suspected she kept it break it out to show my friends when I got to full of myself. She kept that helmet the rest of her days.