[hogcowboy]

I bet we could fill this thread with mistakes we've all made Mike. We just brush it off and continue. Well, those that keep riding. Some mistakes cost dearly.

 

[bpe]

Don't mess with electricity.

 

[hogcowboy]

Don't mess with electricity.

Not sure what that has to do with motorcycles but there is some entertainment value.
It's really too bad it didn't keep her down. That could easily have stopped her heart.
That's my preference for our southern border. Much cheaper and could be a source
of nutrition for the local critters even. Just up the amps and make it permanent if a
person touched it.

 

[Quazimoto]

I was chatting with another rider in the parking lot of my local beer store
When i started to pull out, a car cut me off
I grab a handful of front brake, stall my bike and lay it down
The other rider asks if I'm ok,embarrassed , i say yeah
He proceeds out the driveway and pulls a
long wheelie up the street

 

[vito]

Deciding to fill up with gas at a station a mile from my house I fill up, and then the Triumph America I was riding was rough getting started. I made it home, but the next day I could not get the bike to start. After trying a few things, I had it taken to the shop where it was discovered that I had filled the almost empty tank with diesel rather than gas. Not sure how I did this, but I think about this EVERY time I fill up with gas ever since that incident.

 

[Porky]

I put about 1/4 of a tank of Gasoline in my new Dodge Ram 2500, Cummins powered truck, because the BP nozzles were all GREEN Absolutely no other fueling station uses green plastic covers for their nozzles. I got about 10 miles away and the fun stopped. My truck and the 25ft Pace trailer had to towed into a Dodge dealer in Gallup, NM, to have the tank drained and the pump system purged! $250 latter and 5 hours shot I was on my way sadder but much wiser for the experience.

Oh well, live and learn,

Sam

 

[vito]

My putting diesel in my motorcycle was even less forgivable since many years before I had filled my old Chevy Suburban with diesel. But in those days, before fuel injection and catalytic converters, the car still ran, but I was leaving a trail of heavy smoke behind me as I rode on the shoulder of the interstate at about 20 mph, the fastest the car would go. I would get off at every exit that had a gas station nearby (this was in Western Kansas and eastern Colorado), topping off the tank to dilute the diesel fuel. By the time I reached Denver I was able to cruise at about 50 mph but was still sending out a smoke screen behind me. I thought after that incident I would never, ever, put the wrong fuel in any vehicle, but 30 years later I filled up that Triumph with diesel anyway.

 

[Retired Guy]

Dumb mistakes on a motorcycle, ran into a barbed wire fence, that was dumb, that I helped build, that's worse.
Being the passenger on a dirt bike, in a muddy cow pasture full of cow sh..., cow pies.

Running off one side of the road after becoming focused on some $$ bills on the other side of the road.

I wished that was all.

 

[RogerC60]

After 29 years of not having ridden a motorcycle I went to take a test ride on a BMW R1150RT (that I ended up buying). Looking back on it now that was a pretty foolhardy thing to do. Anyway, I took the test ride and then rode the bike back into the dealer's parking lot, down to the far end of the lot to turn around and come back to the door. During my turn I got too much front brake and dropped the bike. 630 lb bike. My adrenaline was pumping so hard I just picked it right up and climbed back on and rode back the the door. The owner didn't notice. ?

 

[hogcowboy]

My adrenaline was pumping so hard I just picked it right up and climbed back on and rode back the the door.

Adrenaline is both your friend and enemy. You can easily hurt yourself seriously by picking a bike up wrong when that stuff is pumping and not notice it until later.

 

[vito]

I once dropped my brand new bike, over 600 pounds. I was so upset I muscled it up by myself, not realizing until a little later that I had injured myself. I tore my rotator cuff and suffer with it to this day. That was just about 20 years ago.

 

[hogcowboy]

The hardest thing I ever dealt with as a volunteer firefighter was dealing with pumped up motorcycle accident riders. That is, those that were conscious. They almost always felt they had no problems. Getting them to calm down is real work. I was always glad when the regulars arrived to take control of the scene. I've never dealt with meth heads but I imagine it nearly the same in my mind. Maybe someone that is still dealing with fire departments can correct me if wrong and talk to it. It's been 30 years since I was doing that but pumped up accident victims are still the same. Unconscious riders were always easier to deal with if their other injuries weren't life threatening.

 

[mike721]

Unconscious riders are easier UNTIL they wake up..the guy I was helping out at an accident woke up about 5 minutes after the accident..and of course immediately decided to try and stand up. That was not fun.

I had the same thing happen with an vehicle accident victim at work about 8 years ago. The poor guy got run over and pinned under a bus, bus was on his torso and stopped him from breathing so he was out when we got involved. We lifted the bus, got him breathing, about 5 minutes later he woke up and started fighting us. I had a tough 5 minutes under the bus, trying to keep him still, he had serious injuries and moving had to be bad, then he calmed down again just as the EMTs showed up The sad part was that he left in the ambulance conscious and alert, died 4 hours later in surgery for the internal injuries.

The hardest thing I ever dealt with as a volunteer firefighter was dealing with pumped up motorcycle accident riders. That is, those that were conscious. They almost always felt they had no problems. Getting them to calm down is real work. I was always glad when the regulars arrived to take control of the scene. I've never dealt with meth heads but I imagine it nearly the same in my mind. Maybe someone that is still dealing with fire departments can correct me if wrong and talk to it. It's been 30 years since I was doing that but pumped up accident victims are still the same. Unconscious riders were always easier to deal with if their other injuries weren't life threatening.

 

[RogerC60]

Adrenaline is both your friend and enemy. You can easily hurt yourself seriously by picking a bike up wrong when that stuff is pumping and not notice it until later.

I thank God I haven't noticed any ill effects from that incident. I didn't realize just how heavy that bike is until the second time I dropped it, in my garage. It was in a spot where I didn't have room to get next to it backwards and walk it up.

 

[Retired Guy]

I had stopped at a busy gas station, took off my helmet and gloves, then realized I needed to back up, just a little bit. For some unknown reason I was thinking the kickstand was down when I let the bike start over, suddenly I knew it was going down.

I started pulling hard on the handle bars, I stopped the fall but it seemed like a long time before it started coming back up. I got it up, got the kickstand down, then picked up my helmet, all the time thinking "Oh I wish I hadn't done that." Thought it the next day too.

 

[Claud 14.7 to 1]

1. Stacked it on ice and cold tyres (was dumb to go out really).
2. Rode off with my disk lock still on and fell off the side... in town and girls were watching just made it even worse, lol.
3. Similar to above but I rode down a hill in town and it was impossible to back the bike up, lol at me struggling helplessly.
4. One time I was in a rural area and a dog ran out and started biting my foot and would not let go (luckily I had proper motorbike boots on).

Probably more, but these are the most memorable I can think of at the moment hahaha!

 

[Claud 14.7 to 1]

Oh, also one time I was on the camp site on a field and I backed the bike up but I fell backwards into a quite big ditch lol. Needed multiple people to get the bike out again hahaha! Good times

 

[hogcowboy]

Rode off with my disk lock still on and fell off the side... in town and girls were watching just made it even worse, lol.

Believe it or not, they probably wasn't paying that much attention, if any, to you. It just felt like it. Like when I got back to my driveway after a really enjoyable 300 mile ride and I just got off the bike, realized my mistake and just watched the bike slowly fall over. I just knew every single neighbor was watching from inside their houses. Not a single one noticed. I embarrassed myself 6 more times by mentioning my bike mistake to each one when I saw them next. Had I kept my trap shut, not one person would have known.

 

[Retired Guy]

Thinking back on my earlier years of riding, I'm sure I must of had more than just one of those "Hold my beer, watch this." incidents but unfortunately (unfortunately?) there's a lot I don't remember about those years.

Now I drink very little, but still have the CRS syndrome. ?

 

[Miss Mercedes]

My latest mistake was trying to do an "Italian Tuneup" on the GS850G in the wet yesterday. Feels like the carbs may need a little carb cleaner as the engine's running a tad rough, but I tried to blew them out with full throttle action. Forgot that wetness plus full thottle aren't a great combo. Got some nice wheelspin action on a green light