Have You Crashed?

[tntimbo]

Twice:

First one: encountered Mustang GT conv w/female driver on cell phone as I was entering blind left hander at a high velocity on my GS. (She was in the middle of a pretty narrow road) Ran wide to avoid her, ended up in a ditch (still upright) thought I had it made, and tried to ride out of the ditch. Thats when I found a pile of empty beer bottles someone dumped in the ditch. Lost it! Bike spun around and I stopped facing the direction I had came from and looking at a hysterical female with a cell phone in her hand.

Cuts and bruises, sore ribs, minimal bike damage.

Second one: having a blast on my R90S flying down a twisty road I had never traveled. After a succession of sweepers found a decreasing radius right hander that looked innocent going in, but proved way to much for my R90 braking capability. Low side into ditch on left side of the road....hard! Broken collarbone!

Minimal damage to the bike, fixed up now, good as new

Both instances I was able to ride it home.

I am a LOT more conservative on roads I have never traveled and stretches of narrow road with poor visibility now.

The R90S will go a hell of a lot faster than it can stop!
T

 

[CTellman]

Only put it down once . . .

May 1973 driving my R75/5 south eventually for Mexico City. In Santee State Park in South Carolina. I was a 25 year old central NY kid who had no experience with sand. I was loaded down for a two month trip and in the middle of a 30 mph gradual right hand turn was a left I decided I wanted to make. Didn't notice road went from hard surface to sand. Started turn . . . bike went out from under me and slid to side of road. No traffic, luckily. Shut off bike. No damage to cylinder or v/c. Left hand pinky bent back and hurting. 3/4 helmet and jeans jacket and jeans with boots were only gear. Some bruises but ego intact because no one saw it.
I was lucky and the pinky finger still bothers me when weather changes.
Campbell Tellman II
'93 R100RT

 

[MCMXCIVRS]

My one and only crash was lat fall when I hit a deer. Ended up with a broken ankle from the bike coming down on top of it and a torn rotator cuff from my elbow being the first point of contact with the ground. Bike was written off, dee died of its injuries.

1. The circumstances. Weather, road conditions, traffic, speed, contributing factors, etc.

Beautiful sunny warm afternoon around 1545 hrs. Zero traffic on a little used gravel road, my speed was 57 Km/h according to the GPS log. Only contributing factor is the flightyness and unpredictability of deer.

2. Lessons learned. Particularly, what steps have you taken (or could have taken) to prevent it from happening again.

I've gone through the sequence of event in my head again and again and have not come up with anything I could have done differently in the circumstances. I even went back and re-read the relevant section of David Hough's "Profficient Motorcycling" and verified that I had not screwed up somehow.

From the moment the deer first came into sight until it was all over was mere seconds. I had zero time to react at all. The GPS log shows a deceleration from 57 Km/h to zero in a space of 6 meters, at least for the bike and GPS that is. I slid slightly further face down in the gravel. My memory of the whole event is three quick snapshots; 1. seeing two deer at the side of the road, 2. seeing one of the deer hitting my front wheel, 3. sliding face down in the gravel.

3. Gear. What worked, what didn't? Example, a jacket that worked particularly well. Or a flip-up helmet that came open. Things along those lines.

What worked was my riding suit and other gear. My injuries were the result of hitting the ground and the bike coming down on top of my ankle. For the distance I slid on gravel, the fact that I had no abrasions is remarkable. I had a significant bruise on my elbow where it hit, but the armour did a great job of limiting that. My knees were also bruised from sliding on them, but the arour did a great job protecting them as well. The Revit suit was shredded and torn, but well worth the sacrifice to save my hide. My Joe Rocket gloves were probably the weakest link in the ATGATT equation, but they held up just enough to keep the gravel seperated from my skin. Not by much though, another few feet of skid and they would have been through. They are the only item that I wouldn't/won't replace with identical gear. I did end up with a different brand of helmet than the Shoei Hornet, but only because of a great deal on the BMW Enduro helmet I got instead.

 

[rmarkr]

Some preventable crashes I've had:
Slipped on an oily patch, in a bend, at a bus stop. They dump a lot of oil. I was picking bits of asphalt out of my hand for years after.

Crashed a dirt bike which I had a problem controlling. Resulted in a (serious) lung embulus from marrow getting into the blood stream from a broken arm. Turns out there were a few broken spokes and the rest were loose, in the back wheel.

Seized a 350 Bridgstone two stroke (remember them?) going flat out. Back wheel locked up, got me sideways, pulled in the clutch, and the bike shot of the road and I dropped it in a ditch/swale. I was lucky - minor injuries.

I was literally spat off a new SWM 360 (remember them?) on a straight gravel road after hitting a manageable bump. It appears that it had a mismatched pair of rear shocks which twisted and broke the swing arm. Unequal damping in the forks can also result in some interesting antics.

Other crashes I've had were rider stupidity.

 

[Jfixit]

Went down once and the largest contributing factor was me being a complete idiot. Not in a show-off type of way, I had just put everything but the ride in my head. It was the best of lessons.

 

[moshaffer]

My first serious accident was in 63 on a Bonniville. I had just pulled out of a burger drive in and was guning it and between gears when a car in front slamed on his brakes to turn into another drive in, my bike ended up under the Ford convertable. Only bike that ever put me on crutches. No broken bones but lots of glass in my foot. No helmet law in VA at the time. Chaulk that one up to dumb and young.
The second was riding to close to the edge of the road and a branch from a bush got my handle bar and I went down, damage to my Zunn Dapp a German bike, my helmet and Jacket.
Third time was in town in front of a police station from oil on the road, no personal damage but some to the Honda.
The last time I went down, this winter, was in a parking lot at Lowe's by the Arden airpot In NC and the lot had just been re-surface coated, it was dark and I didn't notice it plus there was some ice, anyway I got the bike stopped but when I put my foot down I put it on ice, slipped and couldn't hold the RT up so I went down and the only thing I could think was I didn't want the bike coming down on my ankle and while trying to get out from it I landed on my left shoulder and am now scheduled for surgery in March. The bike was actually stopped and this is the worse personal injury I have ever received from a bike in close to 50 years of riding.

 

[dbrick]

#1: I'd been riding 18 years. Riding on Highway 1 in rural Northern California. Carrying reasonable speed into a completely-visible good-pavement corner, I ran wide and off the road. The K75S came to rest (with me still on it) leaned into a dirt berm, removing the right-side saddlebag.

Responsibility: Mine. I shouldn't have been out there, as I had the flu - I wasn't thinking clearly and wasn't effectively processing the physical aspects of riding.

#2: I'd been riding 28 years. Stopped in lane #1 in stop-and-go driving on a 4-lane limited-access mountain road. Hit from behind by an inattentive car driver. R1100RSL knocked out from between my legs, leaving me standing all alone, momentarily perplexed, with the bike on its side 10 feet away.

Responsibility: Mine. I should have been watching behind me, or, perhaps, moving slowly between the lanes.

Interesting to see that I was responsible for both.

 

[knary]

I haven't fallen down on pavement in almost six years. I must be due for something.

 

[308NUT]

Laid it down once

Was too young and too dumb.

78 Kawasaki KZ1000 Z1R too much bike for an 18yr old

Coming off the interstate in New Orleans, came into a very hard right turn onto the service road. Bid puddle of water had gathered in the turn and me being a very inexpericed rider, I grabbed tooooooo much front brake and down I went. Luckily only going about 15mph but hitting the ground is still no fun. Took me 15 years to get back on another bike, but I really don't think it was being afraid of crashing again, not sure what it was but I'm back, much older, and much wiser.



Wade

 

[108625]

On pavement?
I was riding through Yosemite very early in the season, about nine years ago in March, I think. I made it safely across several frozen patches across the pass and upon exiting the park on heading east I started riding faster as I descended into warmer, drier conditions. I let myself get distracted by the price of gas, of all things, then looked ahead and was late into a left-hander. I tried to stay on the road but there was too much springtime loose stuff near the edge and I started to slide sideways, then the tires caught and I high-sided, hard. The wind was knocked out of me and my head was ringing, yet I somehow got up and staggered over to the bike and hit the kill switch on my screaming Kawasaki.
(The right bar had bent slightly inside the throttle barrel and it was bound up open.) I was wearing all my gear, and the visor and chin guard on my helmet quite literally saved my face. I was very stiff and sore afterwards, but essentially unharmed.
A couple years ago I was riding my airhead in Nevada, made a left hand turn, and felt my rear tire abruptly slide out behind me. I low-sided and had the bizarre experience of sliding on my backside, watching my beemer skidding away on both tires and a valve cover, nice and stable, if you can picture it. I somehow slowed and caught my feet and inertia picked me up into a forward stumbling trot, like you see fallen racers do (but they seem to be in control, I sort of just "fell up").
My bike needed a new valve cover, nothing more, and this time, full gear saved my @ss. I looked down at the asphalt and saw a nice, arc-like line of spilled diesel fuel that must have sloshed out of somebody's overfilled saddle tank as they made the turn before me.
My only riding injuries have occurred on dirt bikes. Again, I wore my gear, but the nature of dirt bike falls is usually orthopedic and gear can't prevent that. I tore ligaments in my left knee, and I had a footpeg tear right through my riding pants about an inch above my boot, and rip my shin open to the bone. I'll save those stories for my shark fishing trip on the "Orca".

 

[227708]

What we learn...what we don't...

Always interesting to read accident reports, though often I can't determine what the rider learned from the mishap. That's a shame, as almost always there's a moral to what we did and what happened to us. Cactus 1549 will be studied by pilots for years to come in the (often vain) hope that Capt. Chesley Sullenberger's experience will be of value to other airplane drivers.
Speculate that Sullenberger/Skiles could not have avoided the birds. What they did from the moment of impact/loss of thrust was the lesson.
Can we apply that same reasoning as scooter drivers? Probably, particularly if we consider all possible external factors. Take riding in the winter and the effects of hypothermia (geez, it's effin' cold outside and I didn't bring proper gear...). Mister body limits blood flow to the extremities (hands, arms, feet, legs--and haid) as core temperatures drop. Hypothermia results in decreased oxygenation to the brain, thus thought processes are slowed. The results are quite similar to hypoxia, a condition incurred at altitude when one doesn't have supplemental oxygen available.
In about fifty years of riding bikes, I've known several riders who had mishaps in cold conditions who later blamed lack of traction or cold tires or whatever when very possibly their own failure to ensure sufficient warmth contributed significantly to the accident. The real "catch 22" is that brain impairment brings with it an inability to distinguish clearly the factors immediately preceeding the crash. It's very similar to having an accident while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Just a bit of food for thought in this cold motorcycling weather...and yes...I've had accidents. Hopefully I learned from them. To paraphrase an old pilot's adage, "there are old motorcyclists and bold motorcyclists but there ain't too many old, bold motorcyclists."

robert
'98 BMW K12RS
'93 Ducati 907ie
'75 Norton 850 Commando
'85 VW Vanagon for bad weather days

 

[118788]

1975, at the age of 16, forgot to put the sidestand up on an old R5C Yamaha. It worked ok until the first left hand turn....whereupon I skated gracefully, brakes full on, into a guard rail on the outside of the corner. Its amazing how quickly an R5C will stop when the crash bars contact the vertical post of a guard rail.....leading to a perfect launch over the bars and subsequent impact with the highway. I'd have been uninjured except I had been riding with a damaged front brake lever...the ball on the end had broken off during a low side with the prior owner of the bike. When I incurred the sudden stop, my hand shot off the throttle and the backside of my wrist contacted the broken lever....leading to a four inch scar I have to this day.

Two years later, about a quarter mile from the original site, I managed to get an old TX500 Yamaha (remember those?) into a nasty speed wobble (remember those?) that led to a get off at about 60mph. Wearing a T-shirt and jeans. Broken left collarbone in about three places, tore the heck out of all the ligaments in my right ankle, and road rash on both arms from wrist up to shoulder. Spent the night in the hospital...and still remember the orderly with the toothbrush and Betadine working on the road rash.

Much older and wiser now, and wearing a full coverage helmet and an Aerostich these days.......

gmichel
'06 R1200RT

 

[nhbmw]

Off-road crashes ( playing on dirt) don't count.

My only on-road 'off' was in the winter of '69-'70 in Arlington, VA. Departed for work on my R-27, and the road conditions were just wet and cold. I did a U-turn to go home and get my wallet. Accelerated (with all the 18 raging horsepower of the R-27) and got some wheel-spin. That's when I realized the traffic into the city had melted the ice, but the much smaller volume of outbound traffic had not.

A car pulled out of a side street in front of me (yep, cagers drove the same 40 years ago), I rolled off the throttle just a bit, and that got the rear loose enough to low-side me. Fortunately, bikes back then didn't have folding footpegs, and mine dragged enough that I didn't go under/into the car.

Same road, same time, different direction and totally different results.

 

[Rinty]

...Kawasaki KZ 1000...308Nut

Almost stuffed one of these in a corner on the notorious Montana Hwy 89, when I was a young fella'.

That was a lot of motorcycle, with an interesting wobble frame.

...older and ...wiser

Which you'd want to be before starting to drive your Italian stallions.

 

[108625]

Almost stuffed one of these in a corner on the notorious Montana Hwy 89, when I was a young fella'.

That was a lot of motorcycle, with an interesting wobble frame.

That road still hasn't improved much, thankfully the bikes have...
I think I'll have to go for a ride on it, underdressed for the temperature

 

[DavidBMWRT]

45 years ago

On a beautiful summer night in front of the police station, I was riding on the back of my Dad's 750 at 45 MPH, when a Dog ran between the motor and front wheel.

We didn't wear helmets back then so it took a little meat off my arms, knees and head.

AT 60 I would still be lying there rubbing and cussing but at 15, I hardly noticed it.




(Now later on the red clay at the "Lakewood Mile", on a red hot BSA I went though a hay bail at 80mph. And I also made a jump at a construction site that was pretty wild) But God looks after fools and young folks, so I walked away.

 

[Rinty]

crashing

...I'll have to go for a ride on it...108625

St. Mary's + 12 F at the moment...

I like 89 a lot, and usually take it all the way to I 90 when I go down to Beartooth country. But it sure took a toll of Calgary riders this year; three in just one week. You can see why: just the one section between St. Mary and Browning must have 20 or so, very technical corners.

 

[PAGoldsby]

Biggest pavement crash was on my Monster. I was following a friend of mine who took a hard right, which caught me off-guard. I grabbed a handful of front brake and went splat. It was summertime, and I wasn't wearing the bottom half of my Roadcrafter, just the jacket. As a result, got some pretty heft road rash on my right knee. Bike got a dent in the tank, and a bent rear brake lever. One of the guys riding with us was a doctor, another one was my next-door neighbor, and the guy in front of me only lived about a mile from where I went down. All things considered, it couldn't have been a more convenient time and place to make a mistake.

 

[klw457]

Had two crashes in the 70's. First was my Honda 70 sideswiping a Honda 305 Dream on a trail ride. Both our helmets exchanged paint, I almost lost my ring finger on my left hand, still have a scar. Second time I was tearing downhill a gravel logging road on my Suzuki 185 going way to fast on a turn that wouldn't stop "turning". My choice was going down on the gravel or striking the trees. I chose the gravel. That time the skin was torn off my left knee. Its never been right since then. Was real fun playing H.S. football right after that.

Sold my bike for college money in '75, got back on in '06. I was really glad to see how gear had evolved during my riding "sabbatical". Lesson's learned, watch my speed, AGATT, I really missed riding.

 

[48858]

Crashing an R65

It was January in 1993. I was riding down a 2 lane highway (43). I had just left the town of Corcoran, California and was riding north on a 1983 R65 with a recent addition of a Parabellum Scout fairing. It was about 2 p.m., the sky was clear, the road was dry. Highway 43 had ruts from years of trucks rolling into the pavement assisted by 30 plus days straight of 100 degree plus weather during the summers. I had got up to 55 mph when the front end started to pull fom my grasp. Thinking it was the ruts, I slowed, moved to the center and began to acellerate. The front end started to weave again. I actually took a moment and looked at my rolling front tire. All seemed well.

I again got up to about 50 mph and again a pulling on the bars. Realizing something was not right, I slowed down intending to pull to the side of the road. All of a sudden, at about 40 mph, the front end was wrenched from my grasp. I flew over the bars and came down onto the pavement. My left arm and face struck the ground immediately. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and light coat.

Instantly, I had a double compound fracture of my left radius and ulna. My face shield on the BMW System II split in two and my head turned to the right. As it did, the pavement gouged a handfull of material out of the helmet and I tumbled onto the grass strip along the road, sunglasses (Serengetti's) undisturbed or damaged on my face. I was wearing Levis Pants and Tony LLama Goat skin cowboy boots. Without question, the helmet saved me from massive injuries and likely death.

The boots were trashed from somehow skidding on the road. My coat, pants and other items would be cut from my body in the Emergency Room. My stainless steel Rolex Sea Dweller was ripped from my wrist causing a chipped bone and requiring sutures to repair the wrist. I found myself next to the road, alert and wondering what in the heck had just happened.

I had very little pain except for my arm. I had never broken a limb in my 28 years of life. This was clearly disfigured, broken and bleeding. Yet, I had the mindset to accept it and test to see if it could still manipulate my fingers. They worked! Yaaah! I started to move to check my other limbs and body parts. All was well. What I did not realize was a witness to the crash was running up on where I was lying and seeing my movements, thought I was in the last throughs of death. Poor guy.

He ran up to me and I looked at him. I yelled at him to take my helmet off. He was reluctant and thought I might be injured taking it off. I then used my good hand and pushed on the chin tab. The helmet opened perfectly and I released the chin strap and took off the helmet. He asked me what happened. I replied, I don't know.

My R65 was totaled, the Rolex needed alot of work to repair and I needed 2 titanium plates 12 screws and a bone graft from my hip to repair my left arm. Six weeks later, after physical therapy, I was back at work. The California Highway Patrol interviewed me in the ER and based on my recollection of the incident, cited me for driving an unsafe vehicle. Eleven months later, my wife had our first child. All was well!

Anyway, I can only speculate the reason for the front end acting as it did was due to low tire pressure. The bike was too damaged to tell. I still ride.