Dropping your 250 road bike

[pzkpfw]

It was an RD350LC, on road tyres, coming down-hill and around a curve on a freshly (deeply) metalled country road, with my Girlfriend on the back; and neither me nor my bike had any licenses. (The bike was way more experienced than me.)

So I dropped it.

And yes, I used to be mentally challanged.

[Usarka]

PS Love your holier then thou attitude just because you have been LUCKY enough not to have crashed yet!

Why thanks you, but where did i say i hadnt crashed?

And btw - there is more to not crashing than luck alone, i'm just concerned that the message to noobs seems to be "you will crash".

[Trudes]

I don't know if all noobs crash, however being aware that you may could help. I remember when I first learned to ride thinking I was pretty hot shit after about 3 weeks of riding and started doing some pretty stupid stuff, until I had a wee accident and realised just how much I had to learn. Cockiness is dangerous.

[Madness]

Fucken bullshit, I don't personally know ANYONE who dropped their first bike, so I thought i'd see who has.

So you still think the advice is fucken bullshit? Do you still think that if you haven't had personal experience of something it must be a crock of shit? Do you still think your mates represent the entire biking universe?.

I hope my house never catches on fire if you are an example of the level of intelligence in the N.Z Fire Service.

As I said before, go ride your Hyobag.

[Blossom]

I have not dropped a bike yet at all.
My current bike is my 2nd. Yeah I am a nana.. Dont care. I like to cruise and am convinced everyone else on the road is trying to kill me.
I imagine I am a pain in the arse to ride with. I don't even like riding with other bikes as they get a bit close for my comfort.

[firefighter]

So you still think the advice is fucken bullshit? Do you still think that if you haven't had personal experience of something it must be a crock of shit? Do you still think your mates represent the entire biking universe?.

I hope my house never catches on fire if you are an example of the level of intelligence in the N.Z Fire Service.

As I said before, go ride your Hyobag.

perhaps you should go have a cold shower mate, your acting like a baby.....

[Ragingrob]

I still don't see the stats as so overwhelming that you could advise new riders that they WILL drop their first bike.

On my 3rd bike so far and haven't dropped any. And I have short legs, so should theoretically be more prone to dropping.

[disenfranchised]

I dropped my first bike...but it took 2 and a half years...and I'm still on my first bike.

Was a stupid mistake on my part, while the roads were wet.

I actually agree with firefighter a bit though.
While a lot of people might drop their bike while they're learning, if you're sensible there's really no reason to....so you may as well get whichever bike you want, regardless of fairings or not etc...

Besides, I'm sure all learners would get insurance...so it doesn't really matter what the damage costs to fix does it?

[Madness]

I actually agree with firefighter a bit though.

Well you would wouldn't you, Hyobag riders are all the same, aren't they?.

[vifferman]

Yep, I dropped my first bike. I was a wafer-thin 15 year old, and actually dropped it in the owner's rose garden at the end of the test ride.
Can't remember other 'drops' (but probably did when riding it off road). Also wiped out once on gravel on a corner (obscured by pedestrians standing on the road in front of it), and ran over a cyclist (turned abruptly in front of me), a car (didn't see it, coz I was wearing a tinted visor at dusk, and it was a Mini, so almost invisible ) and another car (it failed to give way).

[klingon]

Do you encourage young drivers to crash their cars too - to find their cars limits?

Nope. He didn't ask if we crashed our first bike, just if we dropped it. Big difference.

I dropped my bike for the first time while practising emergency stopping in a car park about a week after I had learned to ride. I shouldn't have been doing it because I hadn't even mastered normal stopping yet! Anyway I dropped it and broke the clutch lever.

Several months later I rode out of my driveway and across the road just as I had done hundreds of times in the last few months. Went to put my foot down and apparently someone had moved the road. It wasn't a big bike, and I'm tallish so I should have been able to stop it falling but somehow I couldn't. The bike fell onto the grass verge so no harm was done.

Big deal. I'm not proud of it, but nor am I ashamed.

And I have never crashed a car (or a bike) and never intend to do so.

[Usarka]

Nope. He didn't ask if we crashed our first bike, just if we dropped it. Big difference.

Huh ??????

If we are only talking about dropping from near stationary then how does that tell you anything at all about the bikes limits?

[firefighter]

I dropped my first bike...but it took 2 and a half years...and I'm still on my first bike.

Was a stupid mistake on my part, while the roads were wet.

I actually agree with firefighter a bit though.
While a lot of people might drop their bike while they're learning, if you're sensible there's really no reason to....so you may as well get whichever bike you want, regardless of fairings or not etc...

Besides, I'm sure all learners would get insurance...so it doesn't really matter what the damage costs to fix does it?

yeah after that long on the same bike, well yeah accidents can happen, I find it really pointless advising people to ride a bike without fairings because it's their first bike, whoopty shit from what i'm reading the same majority didn't drop a bike until it was their 2nd + bike, so they may as well buy what they actually want and be happy with it, if they drop it they should be insured anyway.

[Rosie]

Besides, I'm sure all learners would get insurance...so it doesn't really matter what the damage costs to fix does it?

It does if your bike is off the road for 5 months waiting for repairs

[gijoe1313]

What will be will be, we obviously don't intentionally plan to do daft things, but the best of intentions is like a condom with extra large holes for aeration, practically useless when confronted with reality!

If you drop it, you drop it - it's just the biker gods way of giving your bike a little rest and some humility to filthy biker scum. Everyone has heard or had a good story about their drops.

All part of the patina of life that paints a passing parade of pain over the plaudits that pose as perfection!