Two wheels good.

[Eddie Honda]

viewtopic.php?p=232720#p232720

^^^^ The Savanna incident.

As a despatch rider for a lot longer than Ringo, I counted something like 10 work crashes. Usually very minor and always seemed to be on a Friday averaging about one every six months which wasn't bad really for up to 60k miles a year.

[xtriple]

16 years and 8 days old and I had a 'major ' accident. Spent 5 months in hospital, weirdly, after I woke up in the hospital bed, nothing hurt at all, I felt like I could have got up and walked out. 4 months later when they let me out of bed, I discovered just how wrong I was!

[Barry Cade]

I've never actually hit the tarmac, but went head on with a Polo coupe near the Nurburgring on my ZZR1100, and got thumped hard, side on by an mid overturn LWB Renault Master on the Autobahn, at about 80mph. Bent my foot and the gearlever right under the engine and van ended up sliding along on its side. I managed to stay upright and none of the witnesses or the cops could believe I wasn't dead . Come to think of it, it's always been abroad if I've had a grippit moment..

[Jerzy Woking]

I have had just two notable offs in my 48 years of riding on the roads.

High-sided my Suzuki GT550 on a trail of water left by the fire engine going out to an incident somewhere. Did it right outside the pub I was just drinking in. Oh, the embarrassment! Managed to pick the bike up and ride off in about 5 seconds. Was pretty bashed up, was riding in jeans, Converse bumpers and a padded nylon jacket. Had to have 2 weeks off of work (which included two weeks of getting nagged at by the missus), as it was too painful to drive.

Second was avoiding a Transit pickup U-turning right in front of me whilst on my 180,000 mile GSX-R750. Managed to avoid the Transit, but clipped the kerb on the offside, and off I went, trying to run at 50mph. Bike totally destroyed, going end over end. Luckily it missed me, and I ended up in a privet hedge. Nothing broken, just some bruising from my shoulder to my thigh.

Not really a big crash, but fell off at 2 mph after hitting black ice. Managed to do the splits trying to stop the bike hitting the road. Tore most of the muscles in my right leg, took weeks to be able to walk properly again.

[Whatever]

IMG_1233.png (4.48 MiB) Viewed 1861 times

IMG_1232.png (4.04 MiB) Viewed 1861 times

IMG_1234.png (4.72 MiB) Viewed 1861 times

Had some small cracks starting on the front wheel rim of my old trials bike where the nipples go through the rim . I took the tyre off and found the rim had corroded inside to the strength of crisp packets and dry leaves wrapped in sellotape .
Lucky find on eBay was a used complete wheel in 15 years better condition than mine £70 delivered.
Soaked the seized nipples in rust off for a couple of days and got them cracked loose without destroying anything , cleaned and greased the wheel bearings . Hour with the spokes in a drill with sandpaper and wire wool had the spokes and nipples looking way better than I had hoped for . Built it back up and am well happy how it looks for a 20 year old wheel.

[Jazoli]

I'd had a few minor falls on the road before I was 18 but then nothing in 35 years which is amazing really as I'd hit 150mph at least most times i went out as i rode with a group of very fast lads, made up for it with a 125mph crash at the top of Clay Hill at Oulton Park and slid most of the way to Druids on my arse but I walked (slowly) away, bike was a write off and I'd only built it 10 miles earlier.

I've had a few near misses over the years on the roads caused by other bikes on the wrong side off the road, living in a very popular biking area has its downsides, I've given up now as I've lost interest not had a bike for 18 months now, had one or another since 1986.

Witnessed a few crashes in the group too, never thought it'd be me.

[DodgeRover]

IMG_1233.pngIMG_1232.pngIMG_1234.pngHad some small cracks starting on the front wheel rim of my old trials bike where the nipples go through the rim . I took the tyre off and found the rim had corroded inside to the strength of crisp packets and dry leaves wrapped in sellotape .
Lucky find on eBay was a used complete wheel in 15 years better condition than mine £70 delivered.
Soaked the seized nipples in rust off for a couple of days and got them cracked loose without destroying anything , cleaned and greased the wheel bearings . Hour with the spokes in a drill with sandpaper and wire wool had the spokes and nipples looking way better than I had hoped for . Built it back up and am well happy how it looks for a 20 year old wheel.

I dread to think what my TLR rims are like, they weren't good 15 years ago.

[DodgeRover]

Witnessed a few crashes in the group too, never thought it'd be me.

They're something about riding in a group that always encourages at least one person to ride like a twat.
That all well and good when doing trials practise and someone tries riding up a 6 ft vertical strip and everybody laughs but doing the same on the road likely end badly.

[Warren t claim]

IMG_1233.pngIMG_1232.pngIMG_1234.pngHad some small cracks starting on the front wheel rim of my old trials bike where the nipples go through the rim . I took the tyre off and found the rim had corroded inside to the strength of crisp packets and dry leaves wrapped in sellotape .
Lucky find on eBay was a used complete wheel in 15 years better condition than mine £70 delivered.
Soaked the seized nipples in rust off for a couple of days and got them cracked loose without destroying anything , cleaned and greased the wheel bearings . Hour with the spokes in a drill with sandpaper and wire wool had the spokes and nipples looking way better than I had hoped for . Built it back up and am well happy how it looks for a 20 year old wheel.

I dread to think what my TLR rims are like, they weren't good 15 years ago.

Still more trustworthy than Honda Comstars.

[Warren t claim]

Witnessed a few crashes in the group too, never thought it'd be me.

They're something about riding in a group that always encourages at least one person to ride like a twat.
That all well and good when doing trials practise and someone tries riding up a 6 ft vertical strip and everybody laughs but doing the same on the road likely end badly.

Sadly, that one person was usually me.

I had a couple of DAS punters who'd passed their test on the same day and promptly bought their first big bikes, a 600 Hornet which the lad called Muzzy had bought the month before and we'd kept it at the compound for him (and managed to clock up about 600 miles on) and the other lad, Goldie, had a carb fed SV650S which surprised me as he's not a homosexual. They kept in touch with me and about a month later invited me to tag along on a ride out to Black's bike shop in Ormskirk.

On the day of the ride we met up and rode the maybe four miles to the petrol station to fuel up with me taking point on a 1992 GSX600F Teapot that I'd bought in to sell on. When we got to the Shell station they were both giggling as that was the first time they'd seen me ride out of instructor mode. I'd taken them on a post test "Power Course" a couple of weeks prior to this but although that included faster riding, it was all legal stuff with me showing them box overtaking and Roadcraft shit. Our Power Course was basically split between motorway riding and country road stuff around Delamere Forest. IIRC, their course is when the bike Goldie was riding ran over a substantial tree branch launching the branch at my head causing a nasty scar in my AGV.

Once filled up with super unleaded we set off. Muzzy was still in learner mode and a little unsure of himself but Goldie was far from throttle shy on his SV. This meant that several times we'd have to pull over to let Muzzy catch up. Towards Ormskirk there's a fast NSL dual carriageway broken up every couple of miles by a roundabout. At this point Goldie decides to go for it. Me being me, wasn't prepared to be beaten by a newly qualified rider, especially one I've taught, so I opened the taps of my GSX. Goldie's SV has the edge on my GSX exiting roundabouts but I've got a good 10 mph on him on top end. All is going well to the point where I start to get blase between the roundabouts by doing stuff like doing high speed bike checks, fairing seems secure, instrument check, 135mph, fuel OK, and nothing shaking itself off.

What I, and indeed Goldie, didn't know was that one that stretch of dual there's a set of lights. A set of red lights. With a queue of cars. What best describes the next few seconds is looked up then locked up. We both hit the anchors and knowing that there's no fucking way that we can pull up behind the stationary cars decide to go for the gap between the queuing traffic. This junction has three lanes so we could've each had a gap each but we both go for the same space. I'm in front by maybe a bike length which is probably a good thing as his brakes were better than mine. We both enter the gap at about 80 or so and I can feel the back of my bike getting light whilst hearing the chain dancing over the rear sprocket. We managed to stop maybe ten yards after the red light.

When the lights change to green we pull away and stop in a nearby layby to recover. Maybe three minutes later Muzzy joins us and asks why we've stopped.