How many motorcycle wrecks have you had?

[Jonny B]

I've had three so far.

First one I had to lay down my Honda Shadow down as some ****** burned a red light. Almost kept it up... Almost.\

Second one I put my Heritage Softail on its side while riding during the winter. Found some ice in a very inconvenient spot.

Third one I lay my bike on it's side when a jack *** in a Ford Mustang pulled out in front of me in a construction zone. Again, I almost kept it upright but just couldn't due to all the gravel on the road. That was the only accident that I did any significant damage to my bike. Trashed the outer primary cover, broke off the left side tail light, bent the left side crash bar, wrecked the handle bar, and tore the passenger section of my seat up. Funny thing, I was barely moving when the rear end finally went out from under me.

Each and every accident I walked away from almost completely unscathed. Leather jacket, chaps, and a good pair of gloves (I don't wear a helmet).

[spade2you]

Perhaps it's a sign that you should quit while you're ahead. I used to work in an ER. I saw a few motorcycle vs. car, tree, truck, etc. None were pretty.

[iamlowsound]

I low sided. I still can't figure out how I landed. My back tire slide out on a corner (brand new tire + gravel on the road), my bike slide on the right side and my helmet cracked on the right side, but I got road rash on my left shoulder. My shirt was ripped on the right side and my leg didn't touch. The best that I can figure was that my bike slide on the pipe, leg and handle bar. Only cost me $20 to fix. I needed a new turn signal ($15+tax) and handle bar that I pulled off of a wreck. They didn't charge me for the handle bar because I had to find it and take it off myself.

OP you are stupid for not wearing a helmet. I went down doing less than 20 mph and I cracked my helmet wide open and got a major concussion. My brain would have been all over the road if I wasn't wearing it. Wear a helmet, considering that you have a history of accidents while riding a motorcycle, it will save your life.

lowsound

[Jonny B]

Originally Posted by spade2you

Perhaps it's a sign that you should quit while you're ahead. I used to work in an ER. I saw a few motorcycle vs. car, tree, truck, etc. None were pretty.

Perhaps you should just stay indoors. You never know when that drunk driver is going to come out of nowhere and broadside you. Or possibly a piece of a satellite might fall out of the sky and bean you.

Get real man.

I could drop dead of a heart attack tomorrow. What's the point of living in constant fear?

[FunkyFrosty]

1. Mounted the car in front while pulling a wheely for the lasses.
2. Slid brand new bike underneath a parked ambulance attending to a traffic accident!
3. Wiped out on a corner ditched bike - landed in corn field.
4. After having three accidents without a scratch decided my luck was well streched already and started driving cars....

[Jonny B]

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

OP you are stupid for not wearing a helmet.

lowsound

It's always nice to have choices in life. I suppose I could take a good long look at some of the choices you have made and point out your ignorant moments, but where would that get us?

I don't like helmets. They are uncomfortable. Therefore, when riding in a state that does not require them, I don't wear one.

I have friends that have wrecked their bikes while wearing helmets, two of them are dead, two of them are paraplegics because the bottom of the helmet snapped their necks in half, three of them walked away from the accidents.

I'll take my chances.

[MCBTunes]

1... my maxim 750 went into the back of a car on the highway. I likely wont have another wreck.

[FunkyFrosty]

Originally Posted by MCBTunes

1... my maxim 750 went into the back of a car on the highway. I likely wont have another wreck.

I had a Seca 750 back in the day....nice motor.....wasn't keen on the shaft drive though.

Frosty.

[CrashBang]

I was riding my Honda CB-100C to Baltimore to see Ripken break the consecutive games record and it started to rain. Though I usually ride in the rain, I pulled up under a bridge since it had not rained in a couple of weeks (pulls all sorts of oils from the road). Rain stopped and I got back on the road only to come across a person pulling a homemade trailer with no brake lights who decided to come to a complete stop on the highway. I was doing about 70 m.p.h. As I braked my rear tire slid out so that it was almost in front of me. I fought the tourque and righted the bike only to have her stall on me. Being a shaft drive, as soon as the power cut so did the tourque I was fighting and I laid my bike down. Had helmet and leather but didn't have my chaps on.

I walked away but I had to u-haul my bike back to Boston (complete loss, hole in the engine from sliding on the highway caused metal shavings in my engine, handle bars bent, all directionals and mirrors gone, front forks and tire ruined). As I was taking a cab to the u-haul place the driver, in a turban asked why I looked so shook up. I told him and he said

Originally Posted by spade2you

Perhaps it's a sign that you should quit while you're ahead. I used to work in an ER. I saw a few motorcycle vs. car, tree, truck, etc. None were pretty.

"It was not you Gods time to take you"

Keep on riding, when your God decides it is time to take you it does not matter if you are riding, sleeping or playing your bass.

Al

[MyUsernameHere]

Originally Posted by CrashBang

"It was not you Gods time to take you"

Keep on riding, when your God decides it is time to take you it does not matter if you are riding, sleeping or playing your bass.

Al

But what if its not my God, but some other guy's God, who has something against motorcycles, that decides my time should be up.

I've heard through the grapevine that Thor hates the new Ducatis. Just a warning.

[stoo]

Only had one involving any other vehicle - about 6 weeks after passing my bike test I hit a car that turned right across my path while I was overtaking a (seemingly) stationary queue of traffic. Totally my fault, and a good lesson learned.

I still ride like a twat most of the time, but try and be a bit more careful where I do it. It's been the only get-off where I've needed to repair me or the bike afterwards, and I'm hoping to keep it that way!


Had plenty of minor offs - one with a flat rear tyre. A couple with cold tyres when I tried a pair of Michelins for a while and couldn't get my head round how feckin' long those things took to warm up. One in Corsica when I let myself get too tired in the heat, lost concentration and ended up stepping off the bike on the gravel verge rather than heading over the edge of it into the ravine Countless others too, but only while on the dirt or on the track - so they can't really count.

[guy n. cognito]

Originally Posted by Jonny B

Perhaps you should just stay indoors. You never know when that drunk driver is going to come out of nowhere and broadside you. Or possibly a piece of a satellite might fall out of the sky and bean you.

Get real man.

I could drop dead of a heart attack tomorrow. What's the point of living in constant fear?

There's living in fear, and then there's taking unneeded risk simply to prove that you don't live in fear. That description always seems to fit the people I've met who refuse to wear a helmet.

[Jonny B]

Originally Posted by guy n. cognito

There's living in fear, and then there's taking unneeded risk simply to prove that you don't live in fear. That description always seems to fit the people I've met who refuse to wear a helmet.

For the record, I am not trying to prove anything. I prefer to not wear a helmet. It is a personal preference. What about that is so hard to understand?

Why do we need to keep revisiting this? If you like people or the government telling you how to live your life, fine, put on your helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, don't run with scissors, and blah, blah, blah...

[iamlowsound]

Originally Posted by Jonny B

For the record, I am not trying to prove anything. I prefer to not wear a helmet. It is a personal preference. What about that is so hard to understand?

Why do we need to keep revisiting this? If you like people or the government telling you how to live your life, fine, put on your helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, don't run with scissors, and blah, blah, blah...

I just don't understand it, you go fully decked out in riding gear, yet you don't wear a helmet. I don't like wearing a helmet, and if it wasn't a law I would still wear one. IMO if you aren't going to wear a helmet, there isn't much point in wearing the jacket, pants or gloves either. Like I said before, wearing a helmet saved my life and with your riding history, it looks like one will save your life in the future. It is a personal preference, but it sure isn't a smart one. It could be my personal preference to snort cocaine and shoot up heroin, but it wouldn't be a smart one. Yes, riding a motorcycle without a helmet is just as dangerous as doing hard drugs.

lowsound

[Depth_Charge]

One. I was 15.

I was riding pillion, my Dad was riding in the middle of a 2 lane road and as we came through an intersection showing green, a guy in a ute (sedan pickup) forced his way through the traffic to turn right, practically in front of us.

The 2 cars either side of us went around him but forced him to stop. We ploughed into him...My Dad smashed his groin on the handlebars then smashed into the tray part of the ute, rolling over it. His leg broke in several places and he had a lot of scarring and damage to his hands. First thing the guy did was get out of his ute, roll my Dad over and take his wallet to get his ID out!!

My Dad's back acted like a ramp for me and I just flew over the top of it all, doing kind of a judo roll to land head/shoulder first with only some srape damage to my left shoulder blade...I stood up to avoid traffic coming at me and was pretty much OK physically. Psychologically is another story. I ran to a nearby house and asked them to call an ambulance then went back to check my Dad was OK, then he tole me to shut the bike off and I sat with him until the ambulance came.

My Mum never wanted him back on a bike after accidents in Switzerland (including him having a sleeping driver in a car behind him push him into a train at a crossing!!!!) before we came to Aus...but he got one anyway. A Kawasaki 250cc. My schooling declined from A's and B's to D's and F's and the accident contributed significantly to my parents divorce.

And still today, despite my missus having reservations due to accidents in her family (and mine), I would still like to own a bike one day, probably a Harley or something else big and obnoxious

Go figure.

[Jonny B]

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

I just don't understand it, you go fully decked out in riding gear, yet you don't wear a helmet. I don't like wearing a helmet, and if it wasn't a law I would still wear one. IMO if you aren't going to wear a helmet, there isn't much point in wearing the jacket, pants or gloves either. Like I said before, wearing a helmet saved my life and with your riding history, it looks like one will save your life in the future. It is a personal preference, but it sure isn't a smart one. It could be my personal preference to snort cocaine and shoot up heroin, but it wouldn't be a smart one. Yes, riding a motorcycle without a helmet is just as dangerous as doing hard drugs.

lowsound

My riding history? I've been riding longer than you have been alive. I think three "accidents" is a pretty good history when you consider I've been riding for well over twenty years. I put anywhere between 8,000 to 14,000 miles on my bike every year, I commute to work (winter permitting) every day on my bike. If one day I am in an accident serious enough that a helmet would have made the difference between death or paralysis, I'll take death. If my not wearing a helmet lands me in a vegetative state, pull the plug.

I don't like wearing a helmet. Get over it already.

As far as the other gear, it has kept my skin right where I like it in my three little mis-haps. Chaps and gloves are also very nice when it comes to stones kicked up by other vehicles on the highway. My Harley has a full windshield so, no stones to the head.

[msquared]

None yet.

Several car accidents.

[Ericman197]

This is better than a thread about TBers having sex without condoms!

[Lorenzini]

1 low side. I consider myself a good rider, but sometimes that has nothing to do with it:

would've made the turn but there was gravel (to offset oil & gas spilled from a previous wreck definitely) poured right in the middle of the turn into a residential area. Was going about 35, and there were no street lights so I couldn't see the gravel. Got skid marks on my left kneecap, very similar to falling on the pavement while playing tag with my friends when I was 10.

ALWAYS WEAR GEAR, or you'll be just another squid on a bike with a few square feet LESS skin than the rest of us.

[Chad Michael]

On the street:

None in 7 years of riding sport bikes ('96 thru '02). I was always a very cautious and defensive rider, and after about the sixth year of street riding, I noticed that I was becoming more complacent. When I became a father, I sold my bike. I'm a firm believer in protective gear, and yet I'm thankful that I never had to test any of it. I believe in motorcycle rider safety courses, when my son graduates I may get another bike and take the course again.

On the dirt:

The sport of trials (thats T-R-I-A-L-S riding) got into my blood and I was a competitor from 95 thru 2001. I've gone over the bars once, fell into a tree limb once, and just fell over on my side once or twice. Due to the nature of trials riding, these accidents happened while traveling about 5 mph. Nothing more than a bruise. Trials motorcycles only weigh around 150 to 170 lbs.