This one happened to a friend (yes, really!), not to me, but there's a lesson in it so it's worth relating. Exactly what the lesson is you'll have to work out for yourself. :confused1:

Firstly I'll set the scene. It's very late on a very cold mid winter night and my friend is returning to London on the A10 (a dual lane major road). He's cold and the bike isn't running too well but he hasn't got that far to go. The road (unusually) is empty other than one car about 1/4 mile ahead. A set of traffic lights turns red and the car stops. My friend pulls up behind him and waits with the clutch pulled in. After a while he puts the bike in neutral and lets the clutch out - except it's not in neutral and jumps forward hitting the rear of the car. The car driver gets out, finds there's no damage done and settles the matter with a few choice words. Somewhat sheepishly my friend sets off behind him when the lights go green.

Half a mile later there's another set of lights on red and the car stops again. My friend pulls up behind and waits, this time deciding not to find neutral and keep the clutch in. Except .... you can probably guess the next bit - the clutch cable snapped. The bike lurched forward straight into the back of the car. Again no damage done but this time the car driver wasn't quite so accommodating. A somewhat more physical response followed (and without a clutch he couldn't ride away!).

Moral of the story - I dunno, always leave a safety margin? Make sure you're bigger than the people you crash into? Buy decent cables? Or maybe, if you do something stupid like this keep quiet about it?

If I listed all my spills, I'd be here for a while - although most happened in the first 5 years of passing my test and I learn quickly!

The first ever drop was just 1 week after getting a big bike. I was parking at work & attempted to give way to a car. Paddling backwards, I lost grip on a wet manhole cover & down I went. The car driver didn't bother to help.
- Lesson Learned: a) never give way to a lazy driver & b) don't paddle backwards when you have short legs. I just get off and push my bike about now.

Once ran out of petrol on a cold November evening. Contacted a friend via a nearby farmhouse (pre mobiles) then sat on my bike to wait. Friend arrived, petrol added to tank. We set off and just as I entered a corner, I flicked down the visor. It was completely misted up & I rode straight into the embankment. Had to ride home with twisted bars.
Lesson Learned - never set off before ensuring visibility is good & try to remember when it went onto reserve!

__________________
Elaine

Striving to live the ordinary life in a non ordinary way

My 'dumbest' motorcycle accident happened about 12 years ago in France.

I pulled over to the side of the road to take a closer look at the map on my tankbag. I didn't pull over very far... only a few inches off the pavement. So far, so good.

But... when I stuck out my right foot to reach the ground and keep the motorcycle steady, there was no ground there! The moto slowly tipped over and fell down into a rather deep ditch. I jumped off it (to the left) as it rolled over, and I was unhurt. The moto suffered some cosmetic damage - busted windscreen, busted mirror, etc., but no serious structural damage.

Lesson learned: Make darn sure there is solid ground underneath where you plan to put your foot down... tall grass and vegetation at the side of a road can be very deceiving.

Michael

Lesson learned...

1981 - I was 15 years old and not legal to ride on raod - mate was selling his Suzuki ER 50 so I rode it home via local dirt track to show my parents and see if they would buy it. They said no chance. Decided to ride it the short distance back via the road but as I turned out of our street I hit a car head on and catapulted over bars. Car driver bribbed parents out of lots of cash not to go to police and they had to fork out for bike as well.

Lesson learnt - Not the best way to persuade parents to let you have a bike and easy way to lose a friend after smashing his pride and joy


1982 - Riding my first road bike a Suzuki ER50 but not the one above! (parents fed up with taking me to college so bought me a bike in the end). Riding along flat out at a whopping 40mph and saw a girl I knew stood at bus stop. Showing off a bit I swerved into bus lane but slipped on deisel and ploughed into side of bus shelter

Lesson learnt - Not a good way to impress a girl

1982 - Same bike as above, riding off road on local council estate when police turn up. Did a runner as I spotted a gap between 2 concreat fence posts that were missing the metal cris cross wire between them. Didnt notice the top wire was still attached though and nearly capacitated myself. Was hurled off bike which continued into garage door opposite.

Lesson learnt - open your eyes and look for the dangers. Laccerations to the neck from rusty wire hurt a lot.

2003 - commuting home from work filtering at about 10mph past traffic when car pulls out from left and t-bones me. Tried to stand up in shock but collapsed when left lef bent in wrong directioin and foot was pointing backwards. Took 5 months before I could walk again and found out the lovely illegal immegrant lady who hit me was not insured, no MOT or licence.

Lesson learnt - always be alert when filtering and can't say I support illegal immegrants in our country either.

Its all about where your foot goes, so far for me;

Banana peel (in front of about 200 people)
Pothole .. covered in muddy water so you could not see how deep it was think I've done this twice? Different places...

I got such a laugh off PanEuropeans photo that I thought I'd add my own.


Did this to my bike at around 4000m up in the Pamirs..

Lesson learned: Don't buy Chinese when your bike is nicked and you have thousands of kilometres of all kinds of awful roads ahead of you!

Lesson learned: Dont ride to fast at steep trails:





http://adventure-travel-experience.d...en_transafrika

So far :

1. (Most embarrassing) - Dropped bike taking off stand.......... in front of a CBT class and workshop full of mechanics at a Honda dealer.

Lesson learned - don't drop your bike in front of teenagers.

2. In a village in Turkey outside a coffee shop - drove around a dead dog in the road. It got up and walked the wrong way, then it was dead.

Lesson learned - just because a dead animal looks dead doesn't mean they can't run. Turkish villager's get very angry when you run over their dogs.

3. In another village in Turkey up a steep "wrong turn" fell over trying to turn around two up. Wife on back was fine, fractured my ankle.

Three lessons learnt - don't try turning around in tight spots two up. Always sit on the back in tight spots as it's much safer ! It really hurts changing gear with a broken ankle.

__________________
Regards Tim

Learning my craft for the big stuff, it won't be long now and it's not that far anyway