Spills, Wrecks, or Funny Calamities You've Had:

[deeptekkie]

I've crashed several times down through the many years and I totalled a bike once under a large truck that suddenly decided that he wanted to be where I was, but the worst lick I ever took was when a LARGE laying hen flew off a high bank right into my chest when I was going about 40 mph. If my hands had been loose on the grips I would have come off the bike. It really knocked the wind out of me. I couldn't see for a second or so for the white feathers! Bike and faceshield needed a good cleaning afterwards. (Collateral damage to the chicken)

 

[ozzieboy]

Haha. I've got a bird story too...lol.

I was cruising down the Esplanade (Left lane in Oz) and a dipstick parked on the left decided he'd feed seaguls out the drivers window of his car. They scattered into the air just before I got there. I was doing about 80km/h and hit about 8 or 9 of them with my body. The road was absolute carnage behind me.

I went back and read the idiot his horoscope (which involved 3 or 4 squid jags,:spank: and a piece of pipe big enough to retrieve them.)

 

[oldschoolsdime92]

I was riding by myself, and I was heading into a nice long sweeper and i hit some sandish fine gravel that is used for chip seal( for those that dont know, its a process of putting hot tar down and then putting crushed gravel on top, to help make the road last longer between pavings), I straightened the bike up and couldn't turn. I went down through someones front yard. Sliding sideways, i got stopped. I rode over to there driveway, and kept right on going.

 

[VEGASRIDER]

You can find a lot of more ot these stories in the Hall of Shame forum, including my own brain farts.

 

[fzme]

Sounds like a "Hall of Shame" topic...

 

[k1c]

Practicing wheelies on my XL250 dirt bike some 30 odd years ago. Got the bike up on the back wheel, right at the balance point and.........fell off the back. The bike kept going, still up on the back wheel and through a major intersection, before coming down onto two wheels, rolled on another 50yds to 60yds and then fell over on the white line. A miracle that nothing hit the bike and, that it didn't hit anything else. I was shaking for two days.

 

[RJ2112]

I was commuting to work in Dupont, WA from Gig Harbor..... crossed the Tacoma Narrows bridge and was headed up the hill through University Place. Highway at that point was 3 lanes wide, and I'm in the inner lane. Gentle S turns back and forth as the road climbs the hill.....

I'm riding in staggered formation with autos and utility trucks, roughly 1 second spacing to anything around me. Damp morning. Cool. A bit breezy on the Puget Sound.

Without any warning, the flatbed lawn care truck to my right loses part of it's load of junk. The gusts of wind picked up a half sheet of plywood and flipped it into the air. 1/2 a second later, it hits me square in the headlight, handlebars, and forehead of my helmet.

Now I'm doing 60 MPH with the equivelent of a car hood that's popped open blocking my view forward, and to the sides. The wind pressure has this thing FIRMLY planted against my upper body. I know there are corners coming up.

All I could do was use my left hand to try and drag the thing off my head so I could see. I had to push it away from my body and down to the right...... had to do that 5 or 6 times before I got it moved far enough to see the road over it, a couple more times to get it off of me. I had to have covered at least 300 feet totally blind.

Once I got it off my body, a couple of the cars that had been behind me, pulled alongside and gave me a 'thumbs up' for not crashing; I rode on to work -- nothing seemed broken, and stopping would have just made me late, with a story no one would believe.:spank:

When I took off my gloves at work, I could see the dent accross my knuckles, where the plywood had whacked my front brake lever into my fingers..... the next day on my ride home the right mirror stalk broke off.

The only evidence I had of the incident when I got to work was the fine layer of sawdust like schlock that was all over the front half of my FF helmet, and on my gloves and somewhat on my jacket.

The truck that spewed that POS into me never slowed down.

 

[discgolfdude]

I was commuting to work in Dupont, WA from Gig Harbor..... crossed the Tacoma Narrows bridge and was headed up the hill through University Place. Highway at that point was 3 lanes wide, and I'm in the inner lane. Gentle S turns back and forth as the road climbs the hill.....

I'm riding in staggered formation with autos and utility trucks, roughly 1 second spacing to anything around me. Damp morning. Cool. A bit breezy on the Puget Sound.

Without any warning, the flatbed lawn care truck to my right loses part of it's load of junk. The gusts of wind picked up a half sheet of plywood and flipped it into the air. 1/2 a second later, it hits me square in the headlight, handlebars, and forehead of my helmet.

Now I'm doing 60 MPH with the equivelent of a car hood that's popped open blocking my view forward, and to the sides. The wind pressure has this thing FIRMLY planted against my upper body. I know there are corners coming up.

All I could do was use my left hand to try and drag the thing off my head so I could see. I had to push it away from my body and down to the right...... had to do that 5 or 6 times before I got it moved far enough to see the road over it, a couple more times to get it off of me. I had to have covered at least 300 feet totally blind.

Once I got it off my body, a couple of the cars that had been behind me, pulled alongside and gave me a 'thumbs up' for not crashing; I rode on to work -- nothing seemed broken, and stopping would have just made me late, with a story no one would believe.:spank:

When I took off my gloves at work, I could see the dent accross my knuckles, where the plywood had whacked my front brake lever into my fingers..... the next day on my ride home the right mirror stalk broke off.

The only evidence I had of the incident when I got to work was the fine layer of sawdust like schlock that was all over the front half of my FF helmet, and on my gloves and somewhat on my jacket.

The truck that spewed that POS into me never slowed down.

I actually know the area your talking about. I would have for sure gone down. I'm amazed you didn't.

 

[RJ2112]

I stayed straight and steady, and worked as quickly as I could to try and rake that thing off.... nearly a 1 handed pushup to force it over and off. I was riding in the right wheel track in the 'fast' lane.... that part of Hwy 16 had really wide shoulders in that area at the time. I didn't quite cross over the fog line before I could see where I was going. I went straight, the road was bending right... so I was drifting left the whole time I couldn't see.

Now that I think about it, I pushed the plywood off to my left, rather than right. I kept my grip on the throttle. Used my left hand to push the thing away and down.

I'm extremely fortunate that it flipped 'flat' to me rather than hitting me edge on.........

 

[deeptekkie]

Dang these are good, some are LOL belly laughs. I was riding my old dirt bike many years with a bud. We were way back up in the hills doing hill climbs on a very steep hill that had cow paths running across it. I made it just to the top and as I was cresting the hill I jumped the last cow path. Since the bike was wrung WFO and I was holding on for dear life, when I landed the huge knobby bit in and I was at the mercy of gravity, flying through the air, not only with no control but no vis! (I was staring straight into my tank!) When I came down the bike just stopped perfectly vertical and I immediately slid down the seat and landed - standing up! (The front wheel came down right in the fork of a small tree with the back wheel still about 10" off of the ground - Honest!) When my buddy missed me he rode over and just shut his trials bike off. He laid down across his tank and bars, laughing so hard that he was crying! My yellow 2-stroke Suz was still hanging there, suspended by it's front wheel saying, "ding-a-ding-a-ding-a-ding", still wanting more!

 

[alanrim]

My worst was about 20 years ago, my fault...

Rounded a bend on a country lane, stationary traffic, heavy braking... then don't remember much until I found myself lying between the curb and the car that the bike had hit.

Mentally checking myself over got to my left arm just in time to see the car drive forward over my arm.

I was only wearing denim jacket, jeans, and some pull on boots that where more like shoes what a plank I was back then.

Result bike written off (3 month old GPZ550), lost one of my boots somewhere in the crash, and amazingly a bit of bruising on my arm and leg but nothing else. See tyre print on arm in attached photo.

 

[buzzbomb]

A mate and I were riding, Carl on an oldish CBR1000, me on the Fazer. We find a nice open straight road and he guns it, gets to about 200kays an hour, and then out flies a black bird. I was just taking things fairly leasurely, and all I saw was a massive cloud of black feathers ahead!
He hit the brakes, and got things back under control, threw the bird off and continued on. It flew into his path and slammed into his left shoulder, leaving a nice bruise.

A few years ago I came to grief on my bike, after riding to the South East of SA for a few days. It was my first long ride, and after the first 2 hours of riding I was already sick of the seat, so I was happy to get to my destination after another 3 hours. My bony bum was in a seriously sore state, so after a couple of days I headed home. I got to Bordertown no problem, then pushed on to Pinarroo, but by then fatigue was setting in. I slowed down to park, pulled a full right lock turn, but realised I was going a bit too fast. Brain fade meant I grabbed the front brake, instead of the rear, and the bike dropped! Before I knew it, I was standing in the middle of nowhere, no phone reception, with my bike lying on it's side! I think it was adrenaline which helped me haul the bike up, and a moment later a bus load of tourists rolled in. I wasn't in the mood to appear in their tourist photos!

I got away with just a bent rear brake lever and some scratches to my baby, as it was only walking pace.