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Top 10 Excuses For Crashing


rchase

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Here's one I've heard: "I sneezed going into the corner"

 

One from a rider at a race practice (not at the school): "My mechanic forgot to turn on my tire warmers."

 

And here is a personal one:

Have you ever seen those big black beetles that walk around the paddock area at Willow Springs? I almost dropped a coach bike in the pit lane because I pulled my glove on and there was one of those big beetles IN the index finger of the glove, I could feel it wiggling. YUCK!!!!

 

Another coach (Mikey) saw me yank my glove off and shake it upside down - a fat beetle dropped out and then started crawling away. Mikey said EWWW!!! and then started laughing so hard HE nearly fell off HIS bike. :)

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We were doing some filming one day, I stopped on a cut across road at the track...another rider in the filming made the turn, saw me late and hit me (gently). His bike ending up standing upright, his front tire between my bike's muffler and rear tire.

 

He nutted himself on the tank, fell off and was moaning on the ground, while I'm holding both bikes upright. LMAO.

 

I'm not sure what his excuse was...

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At my last base, we had a girl on a group ride who had a bumble bee fly into her helmet from underneath and was buzzing around trying to get out. She was so distracted by it she ran off into the gravel on the shoulder and crashed. She was apparently waving both hands in front of her face at one point trying to shoe it away. She wasn't hurt so I can laugh now, but I can imagine what that whole episode must have looked like from behind! :lol:

 

And my favorite squid excuses for crashing at a track day are "my suspension settings were wrong", "my tire pressures were off" or "I'm on cheap tires". These might be a somewhat reasonable excuses if you're a second or two off the lap record pace but certainly not when you're 45 seconds off of it. <_<

 

Benny

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This is turning into a fun topic. :)

 

Ok. One of my "near misses".

 

Unloaded my brand new 600 mile BMW S1000RR from the trailer heading to tech inspection for Level 4 at Barber. A fellow BMW owner on a red and white S1000RR yells to me "hey there's something stuck in your brake rotor". I turn to look at him and grab a handful of brakes and almost dropped the bike. Somehow my super human strength kicked in and I managed to catch my balance and keep the bike off the pavement. It was one of the red shop towels I put under my tires to keep them from sticking from my chock.

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What a great thread, these are terrific stories!

 

Robert your story reminded me of an off-road riding day - my husband and I hauled the bikes out somewhere for a ride, rode hard all day on all kinds of terrain, and I made it through that whole day staying upright on the bike... but at home, while unloading the back of the truck, I caught the toe of my off-road boot in between slats on the ramp and fell all the way down the ramp. Good thing I still had on elbow and knee pads!

 

Here's another almost-crash story - went riding with a buddy in a beautiful area. As we were going down the road we saw a hawk swoop down at the side of the road, grab a SNAKE about 4 feet long, and then start struggling to get back airborne with the live snake thrashing around. We were still approaching and the hawk was about 8 feet off the ground, right above my buddy when it DROPPED the snake, practically on his handlebars. He freaked, swerved off the road and started flailing around, thinking it was on him somewhere and SURE it was a rattler. He looked like Ricky-Bobby when he thought he was on fire. :)

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My best/worst story would be forgetting to put the kickstand down, when I was a good bit younger and a lot dumber I had ridden home from a buddies house, and lets just say my mind was a little "clouded", pulled into the driveway dismounted and started walking towards the door to the house, and BAM !!!! bike's lying on its side in the driveway.

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LOL. The snake story is hilarious.

 

You have to watch out for those ramps. I'm religiously careful loading bikes on my trailer. Imagine my surprise when I accidentally did a burn out on the end of my ramp ripping the aluminum trim right off.

 

IMG_0586.JPG

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I almost plowed into traffic at the lights cause i borrowed somebody's bike, and it had no brake fluid for the front brakes.Pulled the lever and there was nothing.Had to downshift though the box and nearly ran right into traffic.On that day, i learn't how much work the front brakes really do.Lol.....

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As a teenager; I was on a borrowed 250 cc scrambler with a borrowed helmet which I of course rode without fastening the chin strap. How cool! As my confidence and speed rose at the crest of a hill, I descended with gusto only to find the bike and my now clearly oversized helmet bouncing all over the place. A smarter rider might have made some adjustments here but not me - I kept going until of course the helmet slid down and covered my eyes completely. The experienced dirt rider that I had become (in the previous 5 minutes) knew just what to do, grab that good ole front brake. This was my very first unplanned flying dismount of my distinguished riding career. I also learned how many hours of my bus boy job would it take to pay the bike lender for the repairs from my ride.

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So... Another not so funny at the time but funny now story...

 

One of my bikes is an MV Agusta F4 in a rare one year only color of Diamante Silver. I bought it from the previous owner who bought it new and there's was not a single scratch blemish or other abnormality on it. The guy was so protective of the bike I did not even get to ride it until the paperwork was done and he had a big stack of cash.

 

I kept it safe for many years until one day I was out riding and managed to start in the wrong gear. Normally this is never an issue as the F4 has tons of torque and can start in pretty much any gear. That's of course if you are not turning. The engine stalled and down she started to go. I was going slow enough so I was able to mostly catch the bike but I was not strong enough to lift it beyond the point of no return and keep my balance. I softened the fall but I still managed to break a lever and scratch a side panel.

 

I started sourcing some parts to fix the damage and this was my downfall. Unknown to me my parts guy "dropped the dime" to the original owner and let him know that the guy that he sold his baby to managed to drop the darn thing. I got the parts, fixed the damage and nobody but me will ever know. Bruhah ha ha hahhhhh! Yeah right!

 

When I needed my S1000RR I called up the previous owner of my F4 who was working at the BMW dealership now. I asked him what he had in stock and he told me about the bike I ended up buying. I arranged a time to come and see a few and he did not mention a word to me about the dropped F4. Phewwww. I get to the showroom and literally the first words out of his mouth were "So I hear you dropped my old F4". He was nice about it but you could tell he was more interested in making sure that the F4 was ok than selling a new BMW. He was relieved when he saw the photos and off we went to business getting an S1000RR written up and delivered.

 

Now there's two bikes I have to swear my parts guy to secrecy on if I have an oopsie. :)

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The engine stalled and down she started to go. I was going slow enough so I was able to mostly catch the bike but I was not strong enough to lift it beyond the point of no return and keep my balance. I softened the fall but I still managed to break a lever and scratch a side panel.

 

Good God RC; I did the same thing with my Ducati 996 at the end of the 2012 riding season - after owning and riding it for 12 years without a single blemish -

Now it's smaller sister, a race prepped 748 SPS w/ 853 kit hit the deck in anger a number of times but that 996, she was spotless until then.

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Good God RC; I did the same thing with my Ducati 996 at the end of the 2012 riding season - after owning and riding it for 12 years without a single blemish -

Now it's smaller sister, a race prepped 748 SPS w/ 853 kit hit the deck in anger a number of times but that 996, she was spotless until then.

 

That sucks! What's worse is that horrible surreal feeling that you get after years of being SUPER careful like you KNEW it would eventually happen! :(

 

In retrospect I'm perfectly ok with what happened. The huge thing it did for me is make it so I don't worry as much. I used to be SERIOUSLY uptight about that bike. Sometimes you make mistakes. It just sucks a LOT more when you have been super careful.

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Yeah. I'm with you there. I bought an old R6 track bike. The owner was apologetic about the rashes and bruises it had from it's life at the track.

 

I of course did not let on that in my mind I was thinking "This is perfect. I don't have to worry about dropping this one". :)

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I've had a few 'offroad' experiences. Mostly coming in too hot to a corner and saying "heck with it" and going straight off. One time my friend was behind me and asked if I was chasing squirrels. I clearly explained, "I was exploring alternate lines!" :-)

 

But the other week I was putting my bike on my Harbor Freight trailer and I was on a decline (you know where this is going, right?) and I put the kickstand down for a sec. The bike rolled forward I tried to grab it but couldn't muster the strength to stop it. It fell over right onto me and knocked me off the trailer. My legs were actually pinned under it and I was hanging upside down off the side. I had a railing I made that saved my butt here. It held the bike up enough. I was stuck there a bit, but finally managed to unstick my legs and get out and get the bike upright, etc. But it freaked. me. out. So much so that I sold the trailer days later and just got an enclosed trailer. F that! That thing was super rickety anyway. And after telling my wife about how the trailer tried to eat me, the purchase of the enclosed trailer was not questioned O:-)

 

I only scuffed a fairing a tiny bit, chopped up my grip a bit, and broke one connector. Got lucky there.

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I've had a few 'offroad' experiences. Mostly coming in too hot to a corner and saying "heck with it" and going straight off. One time my friend was behind me and asked if I was chasing squirrels. I clearly explained, "I was exploring alternate lines!" :-)

 

The most amusing I have heard for running off the track was "Having an Agricultural Experience".

 

"Exploring alternate lines" is pretty awesome though.

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