[cattzap]

Is there such a thing? I have heard on more than one occasion, someone say/post...It's not if you have a wreck of some kind on a bike, but when. Last week someone wrote in the first 5000 miles if you haven't had one your lucky or one of the few. Not exactly that but something like that. Then this weekend I met a older guy that had 250k miles on his bike and it looked like it didn't have a scratch on it, and he rode every one. So that got me to thinking. How many of you have never had an indecent on a bike and how long have you been riding. Myself, I'm closing in on 1000 miles so far and nothing. I came close when I first got it. I went on a ride up the road and back and when I got back, I pulled the bike into the shop, turned it off, and was looking at things on it. Doing that, I never put the kick stand down (jiffy stand for you Harley guys), then went to hop off and over she was going. I was able to not let it go all the way but boy was that a surprise. I have laid/flipped/jumped/rolled/wheelied/etc some dirt bikes but your supposed to do that. That was the old days. I did have a smaller 250 Honda street bike and never scratched it.

 

[FlipFlop]

I have had 3 accidents(1 was standing still other 2 were slower speed)) for street bikes and cant count how many on my dirt bike, at least a dozen.

-BK

 

[Rollin']

I haven't had a crash since … last July.

 

[vistavette]

I considered not responding to this, I don't want to tempt fate; but I've never had one. I started street riding in 2008, since then I've done well over 100,000 miles, probably closer to 135,000. I've been all over the bulk of the Western part of the country. I like to think that it's my careful riding; but the truth is, it's part that and part luck. I could have hit a patch of gravel, or an animal, or some a$$hat could have hit me...it's a **** shoot.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

 

[leximon]

I've never had a crash in 9400 total miles on my two bikes. I've had a few close calls though. One time my car key fob got stuck between the handlebar and the frame on my Ninja 1000, which I didn't realize until I tried to make a U-turn. At that point I couldn't turn the handlebar as far as I needed to and almost dropped the bike. Fortunately I was able to save it by putting out my feet. Now, before each ride, I always make sure the car key is in a position where it won't block the full movement of the handlebar.

 

[mike721]

Back in the day I crashed lots of dirt bikes, mopeds, things like that, so many times I lost count. Never had a serious crash on the street though.

Not wanting to tempt fate either but in the last 4 years since I started riding again I've ridden about 130,000 miles and the only thing i've done that is even close to a crash was dropping a standing still bike in a gas station with no damage to anything but my pride. Riding in a sane manor and keeping ones eyes open go a long way towards avoiding crashes.

 

[Unkle Krusty]

I had a few, but not too many, crashes at the road race tracks. I had quite a few crashes at the moto cross tracks. I had hundreds of crashes racing cross country events. These are the places to go extreme tippy, IMO.

I have had zero crashes on the public highways since 1961.

UK

 

[WintrSol]

Not counting off-road, I had several 'back in the day', mostly low-sides from road hazards I didn't anticipate. Like the wet pavement that turned out to be antifreeze from an earlier auto wreck - did you know antifreeze is like soap?

After a 27 year gap, I've only laid a bike down twice in parking lots, once when it rolled off the side stand on a downhill, and one nearly stopped trying to corner into the a shop with a steep entry. You get more cautious, watching for hazards better, in later years, as long as your reflexes hold out.

 

[Retired Guy]

Not going to count dirt bikes, mini bikes and scooters cause I can't remember all the times I went down on them, mostly trying to do something stupid. But I guess it was fun back then.

Whenever I crashed on a street bike, it wasn't fun. Right now I can only remember three crashes, but one involved a wooden bridge on a dirt road. The bridge had partially collapsed and me and another guy hit it, in the dark, at about 40 MPH. No warning signs had been put up.

He was riding a Honda CB 350 and I was riding the 350 scrambler Honda. We hobbled around, got the bikes back up on 2 wheels and rode'em home. That wasn't fun.

 

[ketchboy]

'Those that have wrecked, and those that are going to', is one saying. The other is, 'If you make it thru the first year without a mishap, you'll be alright.'

Granted, some motorcyclists can ride their entire lives without ever going down. My opinion is they're lucky. How well a novice (one year exp) rider can handle gravel, rain, oil, wet leaves, and any other thing the road can throw at you, will determine the outcome. Other than my many 'get offs' on my dirt bike, I've gone down three times on the street. Two were within the first year, and one happened after ten years of riding.

I know this may sound odd, but I think bikes are a lot safer than they were 50 years ago. Better tires, suspension, handling, has a lot to do with it. Back in the 60's and 70's, bikes had to be 'tuned' by the rider to his riding style. Tires, shocks, front forks, anything to make the bike handle correctly to the riders specs. In my case it was trial and error. I remember going thru 3 sets of rear shocks before settling on a set of KONI's. It's not like that these days. A lot of the 'trial and error' is done for you at the factory.

So do those two axioms still hold true? I really don't know. But they were words to live by 50 years ago.

 

[Herrick]

I've only been riding for 13 months and rode around 3500 miles. I haven't had an accident or dropped my bike...yet.

 

[Retired Guy]

Other than vistavette, who I really don't know, I don't know any rider that hasn't crashed or been in a wreck.

The guys I rode with didn't do a lot of jacking around on their bikes. Adjusting the handlebars or running the shock spring preload up or down was about it. Except one that had to have megaphones so his would be the loudest.

 

[RogerC60]

I've ridden about 56000 miles over the course of 6 years (5 years a long time ago, then 29 years not riding, then riding again for the past year). Dropped a bike standing still 3 times, and had one 20 mph low-side (during a Basic Skills for Returning Riders class, of all things). I guess I've been lucky and/or blessed. But I have done my very best to be careful and ride in a sane manner.

 

[BWB75]

I've twice been rear ended by slow moving cars while I was at a stop or near stop. One time was in Tampa, Florida. The other was in South Korea. Different motorcycles. Both times the bike was knocked out from under me and fell over, leaving me standing in the road. Both times the bike was operable afterwards, but the tipover broke some stuff that needed to be replaced.

On another occassion my bike was totalled. I was not on it at the time. It fell over during shipment from the US to Europe. The type of damage suggests that it was on the top tier of a shipping container full of motorcycles, and it fell off the rack. Everything on the left side of the bike was bent/broken/squished. The frame was also bent.

 

[cattzap]

One thing is for sure, riding up on a bike can spark conversations quick. I'm starting to see alot of "they've never ridden or had a bike advice givers", giving me advice on what I shouldn't ever do and what will get me killed. I just say yea, I'm being careful. One guy has said he's not getting on one because everyone that gets on one dies. I was like Uh so how are we having this conversation then and how are there bikes that are showroom new with over 100k miles on them. He just repeated himself. I'm ok with a bike not being someones thing.

 

[hogcowboy]

Hopefully I'll die of old age before I crash again. It hurts dang it. Really don't care to do it again. :grin: Maybe instead of crashing at 70mph I can try a 35mph. Might hurt half as much.

 

[oldenslow]

How many of you have never had an indecent on a bike ...

This being a decent family forum, I will not discuss the indecents I may have had on my bike...:angel::grin:

 

[Offcenter]

This being a decent family forum, I will not discuss the indecents I may have had on my bike...:angel::grin:

I was wondering how I should respond to that.
You beat me to it.

 

[SteveCB500F]

I rode for two years in the mid-1980's (about 9,000 miles) and only had one issue. Did one year on a 125cc scooter and one year on a 500cc Honda FT500 Ascot. Never had any issues with the scooter but on the Ascot with the very first stop sign I came to I was able to stop okay but when I tried to get going again I popped the clutch and dropped the bike. Back then I never took a safety course. My trainer was the salesman who sold me my bike and spent the better part of 10 minutes with me in the dealership parking lot explaining how the bike worked. I drove manual transmission cars for years so I figured there wouldn't be any problems with a motorcycle. Boy was I wrong. Amazingly, after that one issue, nothing else ever happened in the year that I rode. I think because it occurred at a busy four-way stop and embarrassed the heck out of me I learned my lesson really fast.

Then I took 30 years off from riding....

Until last October when I took the MSF course and bought a Honda CB500F. This week the bike is one year-old, and has 6,300 miles on it and I haven't had any issues yet. Although I've had two close calls:

https://www.motorcycleforum.com/101...on/235566-intersections-really-dangerous.html

https://www.motorcycleforum.com/101-general-motorcycle-discussion/234720-almost-crashed-sunday.html

 

[dcstrng]

Hmmm... well "fate" has found me several times... I manage to have a little, or not so little, get-off every five to eight years, about 400K miles since the 60s; on the other hand I have a friend (his was the first bike I ever rode back in the 60s -- an Allstate 250) who has around 500K miles at least (and is still riding as well) and has never so much as tipped a bike over in his garage... go figure...