Want to share your crash stories?

[Molly]

There are supposed to be two kinds of bikers: Those who've been down, and those who are going down. Hopefully that's not true but since people often like to share their war stories maybe there'd be something to learn from others' experiences? Anyway, here's mine:

In April ’07 I was riding through Christchurch city centre early on a Sunday morning. I’d just been to Vic’s for my usual pre-ride fry-up. On a dual carriageway section I noticed a cop car up ahead had stopped a boy-racer-style BMW. I moved out to pass but as I did the boy racer decided he wasn’t hanging around whilst the cop checked his details and nailed a hard u-turn straight into me (I never did find out if it was deliberate).

My foot and lower left leg took the impact before the bike went off left and I landed on the grassed centre section to the right. From behind me I could hear the BMW rev up and speed off. The cop gave me a quick look then went after him. The circus ensued and I was carted off to hospital with my metatarsal sticking out of my foot (never known pain like it… split my Caterpillar boots in half). The boy racer was caught a few streets away and eventually got fourteen months in prison (he had a long line of previous convictions). My foot was pinned and plastered, and I spent seven weeks off work.

So, be careful when passing cars in the process of being checked by cops...

Anybody else got a war story they want to share?

[AllanB]

There are supposed to be two kinds of bikers: Those who've been down, and those who are going down.

Well this one time at band camp there was this girl who played a flute and she stuck it ...........:bleh:

[Molly]

Groan.... Never even saw that. Doh!

[JimO]

many years ago on a 50k street a car did a uturn in front of me so instead of following him i nailed the old kawasaki Z1R and went past him heading towards warp speed when he turned down a side street, i hit him in the back door and supermanned over the car, no injuries to me, he had no licence and i was speeding so we decided to call it quits and both left before the cops arrived, the main damage to the bike was bent forks

[White trash]

November 28, 1998.

Riding my then new fuel injected SRAD to HAmilton from Welly with a couple of mates. STraight up state highway one, as fast as Caseys FZR250 would go, the whole way.

13 kays south of Tokoroa, after the long passing lanes out of the forest, there's a corner which is NOW signposted at 65 kays.

Me and Johann had been pegging the GSXR and his Bandit all the way up the passing lanes and were side by side approaching the turn. Traveling at around 220. He shut it down at about 150 meters before the turn and slowed, I wondered "Why the fuck is he doing that" and pitched the GSXR on it's ear with the throttle shut. Just as I closed the throttle, there's a slight crest in the road mid turn. Just enough to lighten the rear end. Instantly the bike turned sideways then gripped, launching me off in what must have been the most spectacular highside of all time.

I hit the roadside wire fence on the full, going through it backwards and head first. A strain of number eight wire cut a quater of an inch into the back of my brand new, Jamie Whitham replica Bell, strangely snapping just as it made it through the fiberglass shell and saving me from decapitation. Both my boots and gloves were torn off as I went through smashing my wrist and both feet.

I thought I'd died, I've never been so fucking scared in my whole life. The cop that interviewed me asked how fast I was going, at the time I couldn't remember and was off my face on Morphine so I told him "About 110 I think" He looked at me like I had two heads. I went to check out the scene a few months later when I was out of hospital and now know why he looked at me like that.

The bike went end for end along the roadside for over 80 meters, only stopping when it shunted a half tonne boulder at the farm houses gate a foot north.

It was about six months before I could walk properly and I still can't run.

So, how many times does 220 go into 65?

[mikeey01]

White trash, Dam lucky to get away with that one.
What's the saying, "Never ride faster than your angel can fly"? he must have been hanging on to ya for dear life.
Nice read all the same.

Okay, here goes..

Head on with a ute, gravel road rounding a sharp corner. He was on the wrong side of the road! broke big toe.

Hit a sheep dog on the open road, no chance to see it as it just ran out in front of me. peter pan over the bars.. slide down road... all I can say is thank god for leathers! After at least a 30 metre slide, I finally stopped, got up and wondered what the Fark had just happened... turned out the farmer who let the dog out saw it all! Honda heap of shit gone. :)

An Old man did a U-turn in front of me, he was looking behind him for cars and just planted it.. He didn't see me coming towards him head on! lesson learnt here, if ya don't see the whites of their eyes, they ain't seen ya! Katana gone :(

Sitting at a red light on Victoria Street west in Auckland out front of TVNZ facing vic park market (Nelson street end) ... again another ute hit me head on.. He was pissed to bits and ran a red light, straight into me. Bike bits all over the show / road, (closed for over an hour for the clean up) me and the bike ended up closer to the other traffic lights city side (Hobson st) I was 16 metres from those traffic lights.. estimated impact speed the cops reckon was in excess of 75kph..
The impact sent me to la la land... I woke briefly as he was trying to lift me up saying quick lets get out of here.. to which the TVNZ security guard came running out and cleaned him up :) I woke up in the ambo again as it was backing into the hospital.
It's almost easier to write what wasn't broken.. Lets just say all limbs broken, some ribs (Jae I know how ya feel dude) Ducati gone :(
Mr Thomson from Drury cranes, was the drunk and all I can say is be worried, be very worried!

This one though was my fault. On a trail bike :weird: and trying to be a crusty demon.. collar bone / ribs!

[thepom]

Just been in this fabulous country three months when I,m taken out by an asian opening his door on colombo street in chch,bmw written off and I was tossed into the parked car in front,breaking ribs and thumb,asian trying to pull me out of the middle of the road screaming in pain,guy in the ute calling the ambulance cos the asian could,nt speak english....guy in the ute holding my broken hand till ambulance came and to top it all the asian gets a ticket but insurance refuses to pay out till I take them to court.....beer and wine bought fot the ute guy who runs a paint shop in town.Still love this place...14
months ago knocked off my blackbird by a pom arsehole architect in his red porsche and two ops on my knee and will never run again.......still loving it ha ha :Punk:

[Insanity_rules]

Wow there have been some spectacular crashes here so I'll tell you a dumb one................

Riding south of Stokes Valley (Welly) on the Hutt Rd headed for the wingate round about not going overly fast but quick. Turned into the round about and the cage on my left looked at me and then planted it foward into my path. To this day I can't fathom how the stupid bitch in the cage thought she was going to clear me but there you go. I thought shit hit the commodore or the round about, thinking about it I should have hit her car as when I came to rest she planted it north as fast as she could go. She had watched the chaos she caused and ran.

Lots of road rash but nothing broken thank god. Bike hit a garden so only minor damage. No one stopped at all.

[Harvd]

1 Month into my first bike i went too hot into a corner and target fixated upon the edge of the road, beyond which was a 1.5 m drop then big fuck off rocks submerged in 50cm of sea water... so i straightened the bike up and went straight over the drop, did a front flip while in the air, landed in the water flat on my back. the fact i landed flat probably stopped me from being hurt as it broke my fall onto the rocks below slightly. munted the bike, fixed it now and it only died of salt eating in recently.

stood up soaking wet, (july=cold water) and just started swearing, it seemed to be my way of dealing with shock, the people that heard me crash seemed puzzled by it however. afterwards the deep bruising on my back and shoulder came into play and i was sore for maybe a week but was still amazed that was all it came to.

Target Fixation sucks

[FROSTY]

I'd just got me a brand new 83/84 Xj900 and was doing the meet the GF's parents thing.
After a polite quiet afternoon I rolled down the driveway to head home.
Stopped to check road was clear and fell over on my side--bike on top of me. Id stopped over a drain.
Riding into town down on a suburban street. Lady turning left along side me and another turning right -me going straight ahead. Right turn lady turned 2.0m in front of me. I stood up on the pegs and did an almost perfect summersault over the top of her car. Heels of both boots ripped of in the impact but otherwise i was fine.
the bike just crumpled the side of the car and left a bike shaped ding in the car.After car driver hurled abuse at me the police came and charged her with careless use.

[popa griffin]

My driveway, foot somehow stuck on peg, toppled over on my side :(

Little scratches, smashed indicator and broken clutch lever. Epic lulz followed.

[TimeOut]

Many moons ago, cage puts right blinker on then turns left into me.
Cager gets out herling abus(sp) and blame till I pointed out his blinker was still on:gob:
No real damage done.

[Blackshear]

Roundabout, 10k's, lowsided on my shitty kenda's <_<
Broke clutch lever, scratched mah tank and scratched mah boots!

[Macontour]

Trying to wheely my GA5(old Kawa 100) up the drive at home. Slipped off the back and crashed on the lawn. Oh how the neighbour laughed.

A fair number of slides off on wet roads etc with little damage except for some lost skin. A big slide off in Freemans bay, Auckland on some roadworks gravel. Badly sprained ankle and loss of skin. Was picked up and helped by two gay guys who lived close. This was back in the late 70s very early 80s when being gay was frowned upon. They were both quite camp and when one was putting iodone on my grazed ankle the other was going on in a very camp fashion" ooooh that will hurt" and so on.

They were really kind to look after me and I guess they opened my eyes to that alternative lifestyle. I still think of them when I pass through there and wonder how they are.

Biggest accident was running up back of a car at night in the rain. car was sitting at green traffic lights with no lights on, a drunk driver at the wheel and I had just had to push start my bike so my visor and glasses were misted up. Ran straight into back of car and flew over roof landing on road in front of car. Driver punched me in the head before I had taken my helmet off!!!!

car and bike written off, I had a sore wrist and got done for careless but the judge seemed to appreciate the fact that I represented myself and had a good reference from my Boss and could actually string a sentence together so I just got a minimal fine.

A few of my mates have had pretty bad ones though requiring lengthy hospital stays.

[Taz]

November 28, 1998.

Riding my then new fuel injected SRAD to HAmilton from Welly with a couple of mates. STraight up state highway one, as fast as Caseys FZR250 would go, the whole way.

13 kays south of Tokoroa, after the long passing lanes out of the forest, there's a corner which is NOW signposted at 65 kays.

Me and Johann had been pegging the GSXR and his Bandit all the way up the passing lanes and were side by side approaching the turn. Traveling at around 220. ....................................


Thats just stoooopid dude.

[Kirill357]

Very fresh, happened on friday night, shortly, on the way back home from drag racing, car cut me off, I slammed the brakes, locked the front wheel and bike went low-side, motorway, speed around 100ks, bastard drove off without stopping; great guy, truckie, helped me to jump to the side of motorway and dragged bike from the center of motorway, bike fucked, leathers, thanks god I wore them, thanks Quasi for supplying, fucked as well, apparently foot peg or brake lever ripped my boot and scraped junk of meat from my right foot and chipped the bone, I would say I got lucky, nothing broken. Surgery on Monday, will see what doc will say about recovery.

[mattian]

had my first and only prang (so far, touching wood) on Friday the 13th of this month (March) big queue of traffic up Onewa road. Queue comes to a stop, so went to filter up the left hand side to the next set of lights. CHecked my blind spot just to make sure no one was hooning up the gap I was about to jump into, looked front again and car was closer than it was a second ago! BANG, clipped the left rear bumper ! pulled over, no damage to his car at all. not even a scratch. Bent my horn backwards though.
Totally my fault, not paying attention. Thankfully not an off though like some of ya'll.

[madbikeboy]

I was loading Scoot onto the trailer at Taupo racetrack, it was my old poleski trailer, and when you're on a jet ski, you just ride the fucker up the trailer (since lifting them with tired arms is a bitch). So, I had a brain fart, and without thinking, I rode scoot up. Which worked just fine until I went to put my foot down where the plywood floor wasn't.

Toppled over in front of at least 100 people (who all laughed their ass off).

[driftn]

Riding down the parkway extension in Wainuiomata on my honda cb250rs with a mate on the back. Going alot faster than the 50k speed limit I approach a small roundabout that has a rise in it, usually I would hoist the front wheel over. This time was slightly different (16 years old) I thought I would try a jump. 2 up.:oi-grr:

See a line of traffic so I back off, one car goes through said intersection and a smith and smith glass van looks at me and stops I gas it getting ready for my big jump then the van goes for it. FUCK, STOP I didnt even have time to break. Hit the van square on at around 70 kph at a guess.

Mate smashed his ankle I picked the bike up and pushed it to the side of the road. Adrenaline is the best.

[driftn]

Another one more recent,
Riding my 750 SRAD (J-lo) home from a school gala day. Had no front break lever turned in to pretty much my street and saw a bunch of people and a bike parked on the foot path. Right, 2nd gear slip of the clutch and up comes the front. It was one of those cool wheelies through a slight kink in the road sort of hanging off the side of the bike. It must of looked cool (felt cool).
Any way its only a short road and at the end there is a 35/40 kph corner. AH F@#K no front breaks. Across the road up the curb through a big fence and hit the side of a house. :Oops:.
Picked the bike up after speaking with the home owners and rode the next 50 meters to my house with a very second hand looking J-lo and feeling like a real TWAT:argh:.

[vifferman]

No, I've learned my lesson. All KBers (apart from me) are excellent riders and never crash, except when they're racing and some other fuckwit is at fault. Honesty about one serious(ish) crash at 17, and several incidents in the wilds of Communterland mark me as very crash prone / a useless rider / a noob / an eejit.

[sunhuntin]

only one major one so far

was riding from the gym to work, a distance of maybe 3k max. was 3pm traffic, so you can imagine the chaos, even in wanganui.

i approached an intersection controlled by stop signs. i have right of way as travelling straight through. a row of cars in front of me all indicate to turn left, so i start overtaking them. see a movement out the side of my eye and bugger me a car is pulling out from the stop sign on my left. check speed, check oncoming traffic and decide best course of action. only thoughts were: on impact, jump! and then it was: keep eyes open so you can remember what it was like to fly [LOL]. i hit her from left headlight/bumper. had i been going slower, i would have hit either her door or the door behind.

i supermanned it over her bonnet, did a few nice rolls in mid air before hitting the road. i ended up almost on the medium strip. my top box landed less than an arms length from my face [had it landed on me, i would have had at the very least a busted nose and a few teeth missing]

soon as id done a quick body check [am i alive?] i was up and removing my helmet. tried to lift the top box, but couldnt [and it only had my jacket in it!] and staggered off to the footpath. just about passed out when sitting on the bench that was there, so lay on the ground instead. meanwhile, kind witnesses had retrieved my top box, back pack [which was on her bonnet] and bike. i remember her saying it was all her fault and shed pay all damages.
the fire engine arrived first, then the ambo and finally the cops [pretty shit considering they are located closer than any of the others] got interviewed while protesting about going to hosp... was determined to go to work. last thing i saw before they shut the doors was a girl from work. god knows where she came from or how she knew i was there, but it was so nice to see a familiar face.
got carted off to hospital. folks arrived pretty quick thanks to a co worker alerting dad when he stopped in to say hi. got xrayed and stuck in a cast for 2 weeks. my right knee, which was ignored at the time due to lack of blood and me still not feeling pain due to the adrenalin, had to support my weight. turned out the xray lens was dusty, so no broken leg. the wound on the left leg was left to heal under the cast.

the woman who hit me was preg and had at least another 5 kids in the backseat. it was only those kids that kept me from smacking her on the head with my helmet. i wish i could remember what she looked like, cos i wouldnt mind paying it back. her and her partner also refused to pay up, her partner abused us on the phone, and police advised us not to bother taking it to court. neither of us had insurance. the bike was an 86 gn250 and not worth insuring.

the end result? my bike was munted. the forks were all bent in, one mirror was gone [the pieces later retrieved by dad for my broken bits collection]. front rim was buckled beyond repair. the tank had a dent the shape and size of my knee and the bars were bent up, as was the foot brake. basically, everything still attached to the bars was rotated out of position. dad tried riding the bike when we got it back and nearly hit the house as the front brake wasnt where it was meant to be. yes, it still started and ran normally. its true... you cant kill a ginny! the rear suspensions were both screwed as well.
the bike was sold to a friend of dads for $500 i think. i would have preferred to strip and sell the usable parts.

bodily injuries: considering i was wearing thin jeans, cowboy steelcap boots, singlet, open face lid and sunglasses, i got off lightly. i had two small nicks on my hand. my left lower leg is almost entirely scar tissue. my right knee is fucked, as is my left, but not as badly. i cant squat or kneel for long periods without getting "stuck". even riding for long periods in cold weather can cause a problem.
i now avoid going that way at all costs. if i have to, i refuse to go over 40k and am always moving in the lane. the actual accident seemed like it took forever... but it likely took less than 30 seconds from impact to landing. i am glad i can remember what happened.

[LittleAngel]

I was loading Scoot onto the trailer at Taupo racetrack, it was my old poleski trailer, and when you're on a jet ski, you just ride the fucker up the trailer (since lifting them with tired arms is a bitch). So, I had a brain fart, and without thinking, I rode scoot up. Which worked just fine until I went to put my foot down where the plywood floor wasn't.

Toppled over in front of at least 100 people (who all laughed their ass off).

:rofl: Bling! That's hilarious!! It's only ever where there are witnesses!

Last year we had an open home next door with people everywhere!! I was on the street just trying to bring my old bike back up the driveway to park in the garage but I was struggling with a very sick 'slutty' bike at the time!!! After it stalling (mechanical not rider!!) around 10 times I was a little frustrated and pissed to say the least! :angry2:

It got the better of me, so while swearing very loudly I ended up rev'ing the guts out and dropping the clutch (:weird: hind sight ... wasn't the best decision I have ever made) and of course this time it actually stayed going which then had me launching into our hedge and then promptly falling off and landing in the gutter! :doh:To which all those at the open home stood there on the street with the :gob: looks on their faces!

And then there was this this voice of behind the hedge (my husband) saying "do you need a hand!?" :Oops:
(he had offered to bring the bike back in but I was determined to do it myself!)

:rofl:

No injuries, just damaged pride! And a new bike!
(damage to old one = bent brake lever, indicator and foot peg).

[Pwalo]

Friday afternnon, homeward bound up Ngauranga Gorge. Indicated to go into the right lane, checked, started to move, and the next thing I'm aware of I'm in the back of an ambulance.

Witnesses said that I wasn't speeding (rush hour traffic!), and that I was indicating, and that I was hit form behind. Still got a ticket for dangerous lane changing, which puzzled my wife. Wrote off my bike, and all my gear except my boots.

I discovered that it's very difficult to speak coherently to your 16 year old son on a cell phone with two broken hands, whilst going in and out of consciousness.

Still I was sent home after two nights in hospital, and thanks to a good surgeon, and physiotherapist I've still got all my fingers, and about 98% useage.

[madbikeboy]

There seems to be two common themes - accidents caused while commuting, and accidents caused from stupidness.

[vifferman]

There seems to be two common themes - accidents caused while commuting, and accidents caused from stupidness.
I could give you an "accident caused by stupidness while communtering" story, if you like. Although, on reflection, it was more "brain malfunction due to prescription drugs" than stupidity.
Unless you're talking about other people's stupidity. :confused: I've had...lessee... two involving cars, one involving a bicycle, and one involving a pedestrian. Then there was that stupid squashed can....

[driftn]

There seems to be two common themes - accidents caused while commuting, and accidents caused from stupidness.

Hit the nail on the head with that one.


My most recent one,

Same corner as the 750 only going the other way and on a k3 thou.
On my way to work 50 to 80 meters from my house tip in to corner (right) front end says im not going to play these games today "get off".
All of 40kph max! as I knew tyres were cold blah blah blah. Broken left leg and ankle in to places enter surgery (see avatar). Bike came off much the same, broken clutch cover and clutch basket oh and the scratches of course but you all knew it would have those.
I have come to the conclusion that when I am going slow I mess my self up more than when going fast and cant for the life of me work out why :no:.
Any way you wont here any more crash stories from me as thats all of them in over to many to count years of riding so im not doing to bad.

[Burtha]

Couple years ago lookin my best on my beautiful vmoto scoot, went to zip around the inside of a turning car when she suddenly decided to stop again as someone had cut her off. My handlebar clipped her rear indicator and I went sideways.

Have a nice pick of the beaut bruise on my butt and legs but can't seem to find it. Will post it up when I do ...
Was quite painful - bike only had a few scratches as I took all the weight of the bike also.
For some reason I don't ever go down that road on either bike now!

[peasea]

Lucky?
Went out to a beach party one night, over a dozen bikes. All was good on the outward ride. Next day, coming back along the same road we rounded a l-hander to find p-metal everywhere with NO road works signs. We hadn't spotted the gravel on the way out the night before and it was only in the outward-bound lane. Five bikes went down, mine included. I went down onto the left side, the bike hit a bank front-first (bending the forks, naturally) then went up into the air, over me and the ex and completely missed us! We also missed a fairly large culvert about 10m further down the road.

Funny?
A mate from way back riding through downtown Welly, spots a nice piece of tail, does a double take for a perv and smacks into the back of a big red bus! No excuse.

[monkeymsea]

Very fresh, happened on friday night, shortly, on the way back home from drag racing, car cut me off, I slammed the brakes, locked the front wheel and bike went low-side, motorway, speed around 100ks, bastard drove off without stopping; great guy, truckie, helped me to jump to the side of motorway and dragged bike from the center of motorway, bike fucked, leathers, thanks god I wore them, thanks Quasi for supplying, fucked as well, apparently foot peg or brake lever ripped my boot and scraped junk of meat from my right foot and chipped the bone, I would say I got lucky, nothing broken. Surgery on Monday, will see what doc will say about recovery.

HEy mate was this up the bombay hills? If it was I was one of the firemen that helped you on to the stretcher!

Nice leathers!!

[batboy]

Two of my more memorable crashes happened back in Zimbabwe.
At the time was riding an early 80's XT500 all set up with road tire on the back and knobbly on the front.
Was out on the open road, head down full noise, and felt something hit my let, looked down and backto see the side cover bouncing down the road behind me, so i think bugger, i look forward to see i have drifted of towards the side of the road, i think bugger, so i brake in an effort to scrub off speed before the enevitable happens, but having a drum brake rear and slightly wet road the back locks at about 130km/h (speed limit over there is 120km/h) i think oh bugger, the back starts swinging round as it does it hits a cats eye and flips the bike over me, so im sliding down the road tring to avoid the bus stop pole thats bearing down at a rate of knots towards me and the bike is doing sommersaults on the verge.
Came to a stop nothing broken neither me or the bike hit anything solid, i has less about 10m2 of skin the bike had bent bars and pegs, and shows how good they made the old thumpers i managed to ride it back home to mummy to get patched up haha, took all the skin off my ass and could not sit down for weeks

The second also in Zimbabwe involved me coming upon a police roadblock on the other side of a blind rise.
Now police roadblocks over there involve no warning, all the consist of is 40gallon drums painted black and white and poles on top blocking each lane, on the verge there are road spikes and hidden in the bushes is generally two cops with AK47's for the people who do runners.
So anyway bombing down the road come over rise to see said road block, once again wet road so on go the anchors, whichc leads to suprise suprise you guessed it locked rear, so i low side it and slide down the road into said 40 gallon drum, bike hit cop car, im bleeding like a stuck pig from my had where the brake lever had gone through my hand and from a massive graze on my leg and butt, as im trying to get up the cops run over to me bristling with weapons, i pull my helmet off and stand there dripping with blood as the cops starts yelling at me cause he thinks i have been drinking...i was so pissed off i through my helmet at him and promptly collapsed.
Thank god they did not take offence could have ended badly

[vgcspares]

so were they checking regos like the good old boys in blue here or were they actually doing something useful with their road-block ?

[batboy]

so were they checking regos like the good old boys in blue here or were they actually doing something useful with their road-block ?

haha the police in zimbabwe are very very different to cops anywhere else, lets just say i did not have a motorcylce license and did not get in trouble for it.
the roadblocks never had reasons, maybe the occasional search to find weapons, or anti goverment paraphinalia but yeah normally just a display of force

[LBD]

Zimbabwe gets a mention...And I know what the police are like in the 4th place ranked country..

Kyrgyzstan ranks 4th in the list of most corrupted countries by Forbes magazine, when Chad, Zimbabwe and Cambodia were estimated as three most corrupted countries. They are followed by Burundi, Gambia, Venezuela and Azerbaijan

Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand were named the corruption-free countries


But point of order...Mid 70's heading home from a gardening job along Papinui road I had target fixation that lead to a crash. The target was a group of SMC school girls...and I failed to see a Morris 1100 stopped right in front of me...with plenty of time for me to stop had I noticed and not been fixed on a target. I glanced the rear left corner, broke the tal light, and left a good gouge and gumboot mark down the side....

Beware of target fixation....around girls schools

[Skinnyninny]

Not much of a story but:

Was riding along, off to Browns Bay just after we had a storm so was taking it really easy. Come up to a blind corner where I see a large stick sitting in the road. Start to brake but realize that i'm riding over wet, muddy leaves and pine needles so needless to say I didn't slow down much. I then hit the stick and started to fish tail quite violently. This is when I realised that I was heading straight for the curb. Decided to pull the bike over before I high sided or before I took a bite out of the curb. Came down, kicked bike away, I went sliding almost 10meters down the road on my back while bike whent launching over the curb. Not much I could do really apart from hitting the kill switch and removing parts of the bike off the road. Wrote the bike off, ripped my jeans to shreds, almost cut my belt in half, sliced my knee and arm open and sprained my neck and back. All at 30 km/h, just goes to show really that you don't need to be going fast.

EDIT: I'm from Zimbabwe as well, Harare actually. Just thought id drop that in...

Dan

[Molly]

Accidents caused whilst commuting might be a theme here but I would imagine that's due to it being a statistical probability. Accidents caused by stupidity? Well, OK, that too... Accidents caused by blind or stupid car drivers don't feature as heavily as I thought they might.

I had a coach drive straight out in front of me at a roundabout in Lincoln last week and, during the same journey home, had some twat in a Hiace sail straight out of a junction with no attempt to slow down forcing me to throw the brakes on again (his plate spelled out something intended to read like 'INSTALLER', just in case you know the cock). Sometimes you just think everybody's out to kill you.

[slofox]

Beware of target fixation....around girls schools

You're a grubby little bugger, you know that? :nono:

[LBD]

You're a grubby little bugger, you know that? :nono:

17year old I was...hormones rumbling and all that....

[batboy]

EDIT: I'm from Zimbabwe as well, Harare actually. Just thought id drop that in...

Dan

Good one, both my crashes happend on the Harare-Mazoe rd that road was the bane of my existance at that point, bike also continously crapped out on me on that strech of road

And as to corruption......only 4th? mmm closer to 2nd i think

[Conquiztador]

Apart from crashes on speedway track I have had 2 that is worth (?) to mention:

1. In the 80's I was the happy owner of a 750 Bonny. I was riding around in Italy. Those days in Italy you did not need a helmet and as long as you could stand up after a session with the booze you were allowed to ride/drive.

I had spent an evening with some other riders at a disco (as the places were called then) and we decided to go to another place at approx 2am. As we came out the roads were wet as there had been rain. My Bonny would be more temperamental then normally when in rain, so as all others took off I was left kicking. She started but all others were already far down the dark and wet road.

So I did what any clever guy w/o a helmet and after a 6 hour session on the turps would do: I gunned her. I was happily catching them all. Partly because I was doing 140 in a 50K zone, but also because they knew the road that suddenly turned 90 degrees to the left at the beach. They all went happily around the corner. Me, well...

I had two options: ride through a hole in the rock fence or lay her down and smash in to the mentioned fence. It was one of those split second decisions that makes it possible to sit here and type it. I smashed in to the wall with first front wheel and then back wheel. My leg was under bike. Forks bent, bunch of small damage. But the sliding on the side had taken some of the speed off. When I came to there was ambulance and all the other riders. In my state I felt no pain (booze and adrenalin is a top mix!) and I wanted to ride her away. Someone had stood her up. But of some reason my right leg just would not kick.

In the end I reluctlantly agreed that perhaps hospital was the right place for me. I had damaged my ligiments and other shit in my knee and for years wore a hinge thingy on that knee.

When I got out from hospital after a week I went to have a look at the crash site. I looked at the hole in the fence and found that there was a 5 meter drop down to the beach. When you walked through that hole there was a stone stairway that turned 90 degree to the right and went down to the beach. And around it was a steel railing that the Bonny would have hit leaving me to do a superman stunt in pitch black down on a beach with sand and rocks.

The bike was at the camping ground and I limped around it using tape and tools for a week. I straightened the forks using a long piece of steel bar and she was ready to go where pointed. The forks now rigid. And a front wheel with a jump. Rode her from Italy to Sweden like that. And kicked her in to life using my left leg. The technique was a delicate one as I could not carry any weight on my right leg: Stand on the kick with left leg while bike on sidestand, kick down by doin a small jump, then jump off the kick before it hits the bottom and land on left foot.

[Conquiztador]

Had two 250 cc dirtbikes. Me and my oldest took the small boys for a ride on the beach. One of the bikes would not start after a rest, so I decided to leave the boys there and shoot home to get tools and a spark plug.

When riding it started raining and I was thinking about my boys in the rain, so I opened her up. Probably managed 100k/h. The beach had a bend to the right and there was wet rocks. Last I remember for a while. Next memory is me walking around bike trying to pick her up but have no strength.

Got help from some tourists. They walked me and the bike to the local camping ground and from there I was taken home on a 4wd bike. My boys and the second bike was brought home on a tractor and trailer.

When they got home I was in bed: "Just let me sleep it off and I be fine..." Next day I could not get up from bed so my oldest, against my wishes, organised an ambulance for me. I ended up in hospital. Probably the best for me as even I can not sleep off 7 broken ribs and a punctured lunge.

[EJK]

I don't normally post up a photo of myself but since I see some good stories, I thought I'd post it up.

Just.... Yea... Picture worth a 1000 words

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=79075&d=1196747766

[xwhatsit]

Funny?
A mate from way back riding through downtown Welly, spots a nice piece of tail, does a double take for a perv and smacks into the back of a big red bus! No excuse.

Beware of target fixation....around girls schools
Oh man... that one's a regular with me. Symonds St is a very dangerous place.

[frogamic]

Well I just had my first accident an hour ago. It had just started raining and I was coming home from Canterbury university down Ilam road on my hornet which I've had for a week. I entered the school zone and checked if the flashing school zone sign was going, which it wasn't, so I carry on at ~50-60kph. I get to the pedestrian crossing and see a primary school kid waiting to cross so I put on the brakes.

Next thing I know, bike is lying on its right side perpendicular to the road and I'm standing over it. Dented the tank, scraped the right engine casing (was just about to buy motivation frame sliders, too), bent the foot brake and right mirror and partially snapped off the front right hand indicator (although no indication it even hit the road). Strangely enough, my left knee has several minuscule grazes on it, from what I have no idea.

Primary school kid walks across crossing apparently oblivious to motorbike lying on ground and nice university student helps me lift bike up (which I probably couldn't do at the best of times, being not particularly strong, let alone when slightly shaken). Hopped back on bike and went home.

[Weta]

Riding home tonight just through Newmarket rush hour chaos, it starts to drizzle, great hasn't rained for a bit so lots of crap on the road I thinks, tyres still cold and my Gixer don't like commuting at the best of times. Turn down Ayr st (really really steep st) still in heavy traffic, when car in front puts on his windscreen washers which jet spectacularly over the top of his car and onto me, which pissed me off but I could see sort of looked funny. Funny till I felt how the soapy water that was bathing my cold, front rubber afected handling.
didn't bin it but made for an interesting 100m, I hate commuting.

[Two Smoker]

Im well known for having some good crashes, this one was my worst.

12th of March 2006.

Qualifying 600 Sports Production at AMCC club meet at Pukekohe. Wanted pole in the rain. Doing a hot lap, peeled into turn 6 at 200 odd kmh. Didnt know that a previous bike had been dropping premix petrol on the track. Front tyre hit it.

Only remember a couple of things over the next 24hrs. The bike dropping onto its side. Facing back the way I had come and bouncing on the ripple strip. Throwing up the chips i had eaten before qualifying. Then White Trashes ugly facing looking at me in hospital.

Hit the armco pretty hard. Serverly disclocated shoulder. Torn rotator cuff. 5 broken ribs (3 in 2 places). Punctured lung. Internal bleeding. Bruised heart and kindneys. Swollen brain (came within 15mins of being sent to Auckland to have me skull cracked to release the pressure). 3rd degree burn on my foot. And nearly severed my Brachial Plexus Nerve.

In and out of hospital for a month. Huge amount of physio, and was lucky to get the use of my arm back (my arm was totally paralyzed for 2 months). Was back on the bike after 3 months (still didnt have very good clutch control lol). Back racing after 4 months (Qualified 2nd just behind Craig Sheriffs). Fiinally back at work after 5 months!

Still have funny tingling, and have pain in my shoulder after sleeping every few nights. Cant throw a ball for long, cant play cricket or tennis.

Still race bikes though hehehe...