CLASSIC ACCIDENTS

[cobbadiggabuddyblooo]

Well after chatting to Kayla I had this vision of a great new topic.. (Oh I've seen the light... maybe of an oncoming car) What are some of your classic accidents over the yrs of riding.
One of mine would have to be...
After taking of from a set of lights down Stanley st in East Brisbane(four lanes of one way traffic) one morning and it was raining I was short shifting to minimise wheel spin and was in 3rd just after getting through the intersection and at bout 50/60 kph when I had the car on the left hand side merge over on me. After dancing with the side of his front mudgaurd I decided well the bikes goin its own way and I'm bailing out here and dived of to the right and aquaplained along the road on my back till I stopped. Because I pushed off to the right and the mudguard was on the left the bike managed to somehow keep in a straight line and bounce it's self off the guard and continue down the road by its self at 60k's in third for about 250m till it got to the next intersection where it ran up the back of a maxi taxi stopped at the lights.
Just as well cause it was all down hill from there down past the famous Gabba cricket grounds and it had only drifted over one lane so i'm sure it would have continued for quite some time if it wasnt t boned going through the intersection...
Only just got the bike back a few weeks earier from Dave Kellett engineering after having it straightened from another dood doin a u turn infront of me. In that incident I was braking heavily and just nicked the back corner of his car(left a small rubber mark was the only damage to the car on the rear corner) but was enough to whip the bars to full lock and ended up doin sliding along on the front wheel at full lock and the rear end a metre off the ground from bout 60k's and luckily slid like that up a driveway and stopped on the footpath bike still on the front wheel and rear in the air and fell to one side... As maxwell smart would say...Missed it by that much(well really hit it by that much)

[G Beale]

Not sure if this qualifies as a "classic" but it's the best/worst one I ever had.
Woman in a mini travelling towards me at night turned in front of me across my path. I don't even think I had time to brake. I hit the passenger door with enough momentum (speed ) to tip the car over onto its roof. I chipped my 2 front teeth (despite wearing a full faced helmet) on the car roof as I performed a forwards somersault over the whole thing using a 2 post road sign as a crash mat. I hit the sign, upside down with my back, bent it 90 degrees and came to rest outside a pub doorway on the street corner. The front forks & wheel were ripped off my 2 week old bike... . a Suzuki GS125 ! I can laugh now (21 years later) but at the time I spent 4 months on crutches & had 6 months off work with a broken leg. Happy days.
To this day I cringe whenever an approaching vehicle is signaling to turn right wether I'm in my car, van or on the bike.

[schmiffee]

"Classic"??....I dunno, but it hurt.

Riding home from the beach on Australia Day last year when a female (fact, not myth) driver decided that she wanted to do a U-Turn in front of me, accross 2 lanes of traffic in my direction, accross a solid white line (illegal in Queensland). Travelling about 80kp/h I jumped on the achors at which point she locked up the front end, threw me off wearing joggers, t-shirt and boardies as the bike continued to slide under her now side-on car.

Bike was a statutory write-off and I had a broken collar bone with very few de-barked patches (very very lucky). She was un-insured and I am still in the process of finalising personal injury claim....year before came off my bike (not as bad) on the same weekend. Lucky my bike is still in the re-build stage for this years upcoming A/D week-end.

"Classic"? Maybe not....."Lucky" YES!...."Thankful" YES!...."Wiser" YEP! YEP! YEP!

Ride safe people

[idl1975]

I had someone try to repeat Schmiffee's accident on me - in the dark, in the pissing rain in Edinburgh, but with a Mitsubishi Shogun. Luckily, the driver completed the u-turn, but it was a matter of feet. I've had two car drivers since then try to kill me doing unindicated u-turns out of a parking space or the side of the road opposite. Don't trust them, folks! If you see a car coming, the best course of action is to park up, take cover in a bush and call for artillery support.

Anyway, none of my two actual accidents (both self inflicted) were very classic or exciting.

I did once start to turn into a bike park on the Duke, not noticing that some bastard had left a black plastic paint tin lid on the tarmac. Back wheel hit it with predictable results - I completed my turn with the back about 30 degrees out of line, going about 7 mph. The bike snapped back over to the other side, with me squeezing the front brake, stopped inches from the fence in front of me, and toppled slowly over. Thankfully it was the Duke, so I put my outside foot on the ground and gently lowered it onto the bar end. No harm done, except a wee scratch on the brush guard. I'm sure it was amusing to watch.

The most flabbergasting was when a mate test rode an urban tiger 'blade and we went up to the scenic A198 (in happier, less trafficked days) to find some corners. I sneakily borrowed it for a quick blat down the twisties and, having done so, turned around in a side road. The Arstra in front of me pulled up to the junction. The driver then looked into the mirror, put her car into reverse, and backed straight into me. She then got out and complained that I had been too close to her (i.e. the normal meter or two... ), before driving off. The 'blade then decided it didn't want to start (not my fault guv!).

Luckily my wallet and powers of explanation weren't to be tested that day. Honda's engineers cunningly made foxeye blades with soft, bendy plastic mudguards (or is it fenders? ), having anticipated the exact circumstances of this "accident". A hard stare and a magnifying glass revealed a bit of tell-tale spalling, but otherwise the Arstra's bumper (or is a fender? I am confused! ) had left not a mark.

[G Beale]

I've just remembered another and this is definitely a classic.
Yammy RZ250RR with pull out choke button on left hand carb. Typical chilly English morning, 8.05am so already late for work and a choke that likes to pop back in after 20-30 seconds of riding. Having pulled it out (the choke ) for the third & final time to prevent bogging down it inevitably pops back in as I try to pull out of a side road & turn right. Rather than reach down to pull it out again & risk impending T-bone from approaching car I decide to pull the clutch in & revs the tits off it just to teach it a lesson & get me across the road. Big mistake. Revs well into the power band I feed the clutch back in/out ?, rear wheel breaks traction and starts to come round on me to my left. Of course I throttle off completely in my panic which induces what might possibly be the slowest high side you can imagine. Lack of speed doesn't make it any less violent as I'm slammed into the tarmac with my hip & helmet touching down 1st. Huge chunk out of the helmet & I forget my name, where I live, where I'm going, what day it is, how old I am... . everything ! The next 10-20 minutes are a haze but I remember wondering who the ambulance was for and I remember shouting at a police woman for asking me a string of innocent questions, none of which I could answer ! When asked where I was going I looked down at my feet & spied steel toe capped boots so took a lucky guess & said "work ?"
Yay, 1 out of 5 right !

[Red Rex]

... booked a free ride at my local dealers on a Yamaha FZ600 demonstator (brand new with 8 miles on the clock !) After a 15 minute 'follow-the-leader' ride around the local twisties we ended up back at the shop. The shop forecourt was in a sort of lay-by off the main road so ... being a fully-fledged , paid-up , ex-road racer I did the only acceptable thing and put my left arm straight up to indicate I was 'pulling over' while gently applying front brake.
Then I hit the loose chippings, locked up the front wheel and threw the whole plot down the road (all in front of Mr Yamaha, Mr Dealer, and a half-dozen Mr and Mrs Punters (who didn't get to have their test ride after all).
No repercussions from Mr Yamaha and I did go back and buy an FZ600 two weeks later.

[Kayla]

... Woman in a mini...

None taken.

My stupidest accident was on my freshly rebuilt and (badly) repainted TZR250. It was my first 'big' bike and I was riding in a spirited fashion whereupon I chanced across a left hander that was tighter than it first appeared. I target-fixated on a nice soft hedge on the opposite side of the road and locked the front going into the corner. The bike went down, fortunately the kerb was overgrown so there was a bit of a ramp up to the nice soft hedge so my wheel wasn't damaged. Me and the bike finished up in the hedge and a two nice bikers retrieved me and my motorcycle from the hedge. There wasn't too much damage, other than a bent fairing bracket. Much embarassment though

[idl1975]

... Woman in a mini...

None taken.

My stupidest accident was on my freshly rebuilt and (badly) repainted TZR250. It was my first 'big' bike and I was riding in a spirited fashion whereupon I chanced across a left hander that was tighter than it first appeared. I target-fixated on a nice soft hedge on the opposite side of the road and locked the front going into the corner. The bike went down, fortunately the kerb was overgrown so there was a bit of a ramp up to the nice soft hedge so my wheel wasn't damaged. Me and the bike finished up in the hedge and a two nice bikers retrieved me and my motorcycle from the hedge. There wasn't too much damage, other than a bent fairing bracket. Much embarassment though

Glad no-one was coming the other way!

[cobbadiggabuddyblooo]

What through the hedge???

[idl1975]

What through the hedge???

Er, no, when crossing the right lane to get to the hedge!

[duibhceK]

probably a very familiar one:
with my trusty XJ900, on my way back from work I ride past a long line of cars standing in a congestion. (Perfectly legal in Belgium, since the cars were not moving forward).
At a certain point some youngster in his fully kitted out black Golf decided he had spent enough time waiting and starts a U-turn just when I pass him, leaving me with no other option but to plant the Diversion in the driver's door.

The bike was a write-off but the guy's insurance did pay for my helmet, Gore-tex suit and TDM (which eventually got me hooked on the Yamaha parallel twin engine). Daddy, who had just bought the car for his son, was not too happy though...

[Kayla]

It was lucky, yes. I had a similar thing happen a few months back on my TRX when it was 'fightered (except at a higher speed on a heavier bike on a muddier road) Darwin was right.

[Trixz]

No injuries, but certainly a 'classic' one out of the books....

It was in May of 2004, on a holiday with 2 friends in France, near the lake of Genève when we (I was on my father his bike a Suzuki GSX-F 750 registrated 1995) went out for another daily ride on the twisties. This time I took the lead for a change and because of the familiar bends in the first part of the ride I went for it. Passing car after car, but then after 10 minutes of riding (and with still no real temperature in the tyres) the rear end stepped aside going in a left turn and gave me a high sider. I could hold it, but there I was, doing everything wrong. I looked ahead instead of through the corner and just kept on braking hard. Coming on the gravel I went down . Eventually the bike stopped in the grass, inches away from some very big trees

One ego crushed..... left mirror broken, scratched fairing (just been painted by my dad ) and the indicator in pieces. It was all but a relaxing start of the trip anyway. While putting the bike on the trailer, it fell on the right side, mirror broken and scratches on the fairing. In my idea of going to a suzuki dealer nearby after the fall (80km trip with the car ), I was near the dealership, when I pulled over to look on the citymap to see exactly where I should be. After looking at the citymap, I turned to see my car no where in sight It was running at about 10km/h down the road, I forgot to put the handbrake on. I couldn't stop it directly, because it was locked and I had to unlock it first.......pffffffffff.... just in time for a crash.

My friends couldn't believe what had happened when I told them

So a 'classis - to much speed with cold tyres - accident'

Greetz
Gerben

Ps. No real accident for al the years riding, never hope to get in one either for the remaining years

[Quan-Time]

only ever had one.. Hit a kangaroo doin 110km/h. hurt like shit, but least i walked outta it. Bike was a little average tho.

[G Beale]

How was the kangaroo ?