[cynicalrider]

ugh speaking of dropped bikes. ill just copy and paste what i posted on another forum

o im so unbelievably pissed right now. i was at one of those lights that doesnt change unless it senses a car there and although i have a magnet on the bottm of my bike it doesnt sense it at this light. so i threw her in neutral and put the kick stand down and was pretty sure she was stable. i got off to go push the button to make the light change and from behind me i hear a loud crunch. i look back in horror to see my bike with brand new paint lying on the ground. i curse and run to her and pick her back up only to use to much muscle and lose her on the other side. i finally get her back up with more cursing and assess the damage. left mirror lying on the road and scratched lower fairings. ok not to bad i can replace the mirror and ill paint it again if i have to... then i look and see my clutch lever broken. fuck. i try to line it up and see if i can squeeze it and the cable snaps. double fuck. i push her into gear and end up havin to ride home clutch less about a half hour from my house. im so unbelievably pissed. i fuckin hate myself. the funny part was as i was tryin to ride home avoiding places where i would have to stop i cut through a gas station where a cop was sittin to avoid a light and he didnt even chase me. of course if he did i probably would have bitched him out because i was in no mood.

[MikeBetz42]

adding throttle in the corner will get you through....

I would say 9 times out of 10 adding throttle in the corner will get you through better than ANY braking.

If the throttle and some lean won't get you through, you're already screwed!

Gatta be carefull tho, I have not gone down (yet), but I have felt the bike loose some rear grip doing this... felt it twice.

Closest call, slid a little in sand left by a construction crew on a corner after they put in one of those yellow bumpy squares for the blind in the sidewalk....

[MikeBetz42]

the funny part was as i was tryin to ride home avoiding places where i would have to stop i cut through a gas station where a cop was sittin to avoid a light and he didnt even chase me. of course if he did i probably would have bitched him out because i was in no mood.

I was told in driving school, that was tottally legal... (Ticket for speeding...)

[cynicalrider]

what do you mean speeding? i rolled behind him at like 5 miles an hour?

[River]

the funny part was as i was tryin to ride home avoiding places where i would have to stop i cut through a gas station where a cop was sittin to avoid a light and he didnt even chase me. of course if he did i probably would have bitched him out because i was in no mood.

I was told in driving school, that was tottally legal... (Ticket for speeding...)

Cutting through a gas station/lot/etc, to avoid a traffic signal is legal? What state are you from? It's illegal everywhere else.

[cynicalrider]

truth. which is why i was surprised he didnt do anything. he was probably sleepin.

[MikeBetz42]

the funny part was as i was tryin to ride home avoiding places where i would have to stop i cut through a gas station where a cop was sittin to avoid a light and he didnt even chase me. of course if he did i probably would have bitched him out because i was in no mood.

I was told in driving school, that was tottally legal... (Ticket for speeding...)

Cutting through a gas station/lot/etc, to avoid a traffic signal is legal? What state are you from? It's illegal everywhere else.

California... I was in traffic school to avoid the point on a speeding ticket...

Depends, it is legal as long as you are making a right turn, but avoiding a light otherwise.... no...

[River]

the funny part was as i was tryin to ride home avoiding places where i would have to stop i cut through a gas station where a cop was sittin to avoid a light and he didnt even chase me. of course if he did i probably would have bitched him out because i was in no mood.

I was told in driving school, that was tottally legal... (Ticket for speeding...)

Cutting through a gas station/lot/etc, to avoid a traffic signal is legal? What state are you from? It's illegal everywhere else.

California... I was in traffic school to avoid the point on a speeding ticket...

Depends, it is legal as long as you are making a right turn, but avoiding a light otherwise.... no...

Actually, that's not right either, Mike. Cutting for any reason is a violation of the CA CVC, as well as in most states. Now of course, if the Man didn't see you, you never committed the crime. LOL

Check your PM too...)

[fooquestionmark]

Main reason I've dropped my bike, well the only reason I've dropped my bike is uneven pavement.

First off I was rolling it out of my driveway at my old apartment only to get on the road and have the road slant sharply up for part of the way because of uneven pavement. Dropped it there only to lift it up and drop it in the other direction. Broke both my mirrors and felt like an idiot for a week.

At my new apartment the driveway is this awful hill that rolls in more than one direction. Today I was rolling it down it backwards and I get it pointed down hill after the curve, I start to take off and stop checking for traffic. Then the bike got really heavy and fell over. Once again I felt like an idiot and had to get some guy to help me roll it up the hill because the brake leaver was broken off.

Word to the wise, live in Kansas.

[GytRDunKat]

I didn't have shoes on moving it in the garage to do a valve sync. It was like 2 weeks after I got it. I was terribly mad This, of course, BEFORE I read how to correctly pick it up. I he-manned it up and spent the next 3 days in total lower back pain!

[owace]

another bike runs into the back of you pushing the bike out from under you.

[scottynoface]

Word to the wise, live in Kansas.

I was born and raised in kansas too and i go to school in lexington, its horrible trying to find a flat place to park my bike

[JacknGulfport]

Re

Ive seen this waaay to many times, guy gets his bike rides a few days then tries to show out in front people ends up on his A$$ because he wanted to look cool.
A bike is a lethal machine period, respect it take care it and you will be fine. Abuse it and mistreat it and you end up in the hospital or a chalk outline on a road.

[River]

Plain and simple - a motorcycle is as lethal as anything else that comes with instructions. A bike can kill as soon as a choking hazard from a Fisher-Price toy.

[slamcool]

As the other said, wrong side stand setup and BANG...
Breaking with the front brake while turning in your driveway...

Stuff like that.

Nothing of that happened to me with my street bike, probably because of my dirt bike experience, that's were I did it all, drop the bike, fall, wrong braking, etc... I tried so many things so many maneuvers... and crashed many times.

That's why I guess I had this bike feels now in me.

But let me share my principles:
-Use only the rear brake at very low speeds. Like entering your driveway and stuff...
-When you take off from a light or stop, do it while keeping a little pressure on the rear brake to control the speed, it maneuvers better than trying to do it with only the clutch or throttle... and if you drop the cluch for any reason, wet hands or whatever, you'll still control the bike. From a stop, this will make you do very steady slow speed turns at very constant speed.
-At higher speed brake more from the front instead of the rear, it's more powerful and wont lock so easily.
-When you enter a corner, do the corner, look at the exit of the corner and focus on getting there. 2 weeks ago I was following my newb friend, we got into a corner and a car came in the other way. He was impressed somehow by the situation and focused on the car instead of the curve.... He looked at the car so he crossed to the incoming trafic lane and crashed in the car... You naturally go where you look, if you look a tree, you will crash into it. Look for the exits at all time, look for a way out, never look at the actual obstacle more than the time it takes to realize it's blocking your way, find the way around. Find the exit like you would do if chased by predators... ;P Believe me in that situation, you would not look at the wall in front of you, but the window you would jump through hehe. It's the same idea here.
-Don't be stiff on your handlebars, dont lock you elbow to hold your body like the handles were a support-stand of some sort. Hold them like your car's steering wheel, it has to be smooth all the time. If not your driving will be inconsistant depending on the condition of the road! Hold your bike a little stronger between your legs, you will see that it will be easier to hold your body and you wont tend to use your hands so much anymore.
-When you turn, bend closer to the bike. That will make your shoulders be closer to the steering and it will be easier to maneuver than with stiff arms!! Especially a low speed! You will feel more confortable and natural in doing so. I dont say, lay on the bike, just get closer to it...
-wet road = you know what.
-If doing your own maintenance, make sure you do it right, a friend of mine changed his oil and didn't shut the drain bolt properly. Eventually, the bolt fell. Guess what happens when a huge amount of oil is expulsed out... right in front of your rear wheel... Yeah, it does not help controlling your bike. Now a bunch of other things that you didn't imagine yet can happen if you do a lousy job at maintaining your bike by yourself. If you never did it, do it with a pro for the first time, then you'll be fine for the year to come.
-Dont stay in no one's blind spot... they can make you fall in the blink of an eye just because they suddenly wanna change track...
-know your reserve position... It's not the time to look for it in the middle of highspeed traffic... It wont be safe to stop on the side of the road of the brigde you were crossing just to finally find the reserve switch!!!
-Always stop your engine with your kill switch, not the key. The day you will need it, you will already have developped an instinct for it and react instantly without taking your hands off the bars! Imagine your throttle cable getting stuck wide open while doing an pretty high speed cornering or something like that! Do you really wanna move your hand that far away from the front brake lever just to stop your engine... Beleive me, if your not used to it, you wont suddently use the kill switch when someting bad happens, clutch cable, throttle, brakes etc!!! So when you reached destination, kill switch first, then the key. You'll surprise yourself at trying to start it and forget that you cant because of the kill switch... But you get used to that it's nothing... Plus you'll look really cool when a friend is cursing his bike that doesn't seem to wanna start anymore: You tell him hold on I'll try, you'll start it instantly... When he will look at you with his face of amazement, You will just tell him "I flipped the kill switch back on".... LOLLLL I did that A LOT, because people that are not used to the kill switch are always screwed when it was done accidentally while putting their helmet on the bar or something like that...

This is pretty much my basic stuff to make sure I can avoid falling or crashing when I really could have avoided it by doing the right safe thing...