Did it or didn't it?

[The Pastor]

what makes people think that dropping a naked bike is cheaper than dropping a faired one?

example -

K6 GSXR1000, sent down the road at 40-50kph, damage - scratched side fairing, cost to fix - $900 (or just cover the scratches with go fast stickers)

mv augusta brutale, sent down the road at 25-35kph, damage - scratched engine cases, block, radiator, frame (all of which is covered by a cheap piece of plastic on a faired bike), cost to fix - $1 reserve on trademe because it is fucked (the labour cost alone was nearly enough to write it off, because the whole bike needs to be stripped to replace these parts)

those are slides not drops

[nodrog:Me]

those are slides not drops

pootatoe - potarto

[The Pastor]

pootatoe - potarto

not really, more potatoe and kumara

[slimjim]

watched a sales person drop a bike my mate was going to take for a test -ride ..he was going to buy it ... CB750....sales person started it up rev..rev..then hopped off on right hand side ?(don't know why he hopped off that way)..while holding onto handle bar and twisted throttle grip...haha bike gave a huge rev'.sales bloke let go.."fright" however he'd kicked sidestand up as he was warming bike up...but hadn't put stand down when getting off for mate to get on...nice doughnut on shop floor..went into gear when bike hit floor....

no he didn't buy that one...brought a kaw 750 instead..

[nodrog:Me]

not really, more potatoe and kumara

mashed or roasted?

[vifferman]

what makes people think that dropping a naked bike is cheaper than dropping a faired one?)

Well.... yes - generally it's cheaper to drop a nekkid bike, because nothing will break. F'rinstance, I dropped/crashed my first bike several times, and up until I t-boned a car, the only repairs needed were a clutch lever and gear lever.
I low-sided my VFR750 at ~35 km/h, and it broke the brake lever and did a few hundred dollars damage to the fairing. In fact, when I wrote it off, it was all fairly cosmetic stuff: fairings, dented muffler, bent fairing stay, etc. Total bill for labour plus parts was around $6k.

There are cases where the fairing will cause the bike to slide along nicely, acting as a sacrificial low-friction surface, whereas a nekkid bike might tend to grab onto the road/ground and tumble, due to sticky-outy bits.

I think Jantar's point is that many of the crashes/drops noobz will have will be realtively low-speed (or standstill) affairs, in which case you're talking about broken/bent clutch or brake levers, scuffed bar-end weights, that sort of thing. Except if there's a fairing involved, in which case you get broken/bent clutch or brake levers, scuffed bar-end weights, AND scratched/cracked/destroyed fairing panels as well.

[nodrog:Me]

I think Jantar's point is that many of the crashes/drops noobz will have will be realtively low-speed (or standstill) affairs, in which case you're talking about broken/bent clutch or brake levers, scuffed bar-end weights, that sort of thing. Except if there's a fairing involved, in which case you get broken/bent clutch or brake levers, scuffed bar-end weights, AND scratched/cracked/destroyed fairing panels as well.

and without that fairing you get scratched engine cases, radiators etc. thats alright if you have a 20 year old gn250, but if you have somthing a bit flasher and want it fixed to as new with new parts its going to cost, lots. engine parts cost alot more, especially just the labour content to repalce, its not just a 5 minute bolt off bolt on experience like a fairing.

[breakaway]

Exactly 5 months after

[inlinefour]

Following on from the threads about: Which first bike; Is a Honsuzakihasung gzxrs250 the best bike for me to learn on; Which sould I get; etc. I have maintained that a new biker should start on a mild mannered naked bike because they are likely to drop it in the first 6 months.

I am not saying that a crash is inevitable, but that it is more than likely that the bike will come in contact with the ground at some stage.

It maybe while riding, it maybe while manouvering it, or it may have simply rolled off the stand.

What I am looking for here is a good indication of whether or not your bike has come into unintentional contact with the ground at any time during your first 6 months of riding.

As the thread develops I'll work out the mean and standard deviation based on a simple bi-nomial distribution and come up with confidence limits for how likely it is that a new rider will drop their bike in the first 6 months.

Good thread! Sadly as a 8 year old I was given a Honda step thru, which as it turns out probably was not a bad thing. I was nervous and the bike was gutless, a good combination for staying upright for quite along time. Its not until I had the confidence and the TS185ER, which I swapped for the step thru as it was road legal, that crapping off became a new thing. Once I got on the dirt our attitude was if you dont come off your not pushing it enough. That and the go back and do it again until you dont come off, saw me coming off a fair bit. Thank gwad that by then I was on a MX bike that could handle it!

[kevfromcoro]

yea i dropped it/flew it... into the sea so never really technically hit the ground... what should my vote be then? 1 month after i got it too

into the sea.
thats a new one
bet it stuffed the bike....

[Jantar]

The trend is starting to show up but still not yet at a high enough significance. With the votes so far we can say that a new rider is more likely to drop his/her bike in the firs six months than not. This is still only to the 75% confidence level. If the current percentages are truely representitive, we need at least 275 votes to make a valid conclusion.

At the 95% confidence level, out of 100 new riders it is very likely that 46 riders will drop their bike, 34 riders are very unlikely to drop their bikes and 20 may or may not drop their bikes. As the TV polsters say, there is a margin of error of 10%

[Ripperjon]

Can you let me know when 66% of current newbies have crashed.

Then i'd know i'm in the 34% who won't and can start riding round like a firkin nutcase.

[Lucy]

I'm so glad the poll only asks about the first six months.....

Maybe if it was a closed poll it would be more accurate? Not saying it's not, but there could easily be a few who reckon cos it wasn't their fault, they won't vote for the second option?

[RantyDave]

Yeah. Car park going to do my restricted. Broke the clutch lever off. Not my finest moment.

I think it was within six months.

Dave

[motorbyclist]

first two ROAD bike drops involved shoes laces hooking around the gear, and then brake levers while stopped outside the closed gates of my driveway

next was hitting something slick while doing a right hander at a roundabout in the wet, at night, in heavy traffic where no-one stopped to ask if i was ok, or to even give way to let me wheel my poor fxr off the intersection

in all cases all i did was broke the wing mirror and bent the subframe holding it. bit of glue and bending and she's sweet. few scratches, who cares?

closest my gsxr250 came to the ground was it falling off the stand while cleaning it. not to worry my body was promptly there to save it


imo i'd rather scratch and/or break a fairing and still be able to ride home than leave oil all over the road where a case broke or ground through, possibly hitting the flywheel/whatever behind and leaving a mess for the next guy.

I've always thought some of those city slickers learning to drive cars that drive around at 35km holding about 100 people up in the process should instead go to some farm bootcamp where they can ride a Yamaha AG, Honda XL/XR or similar.

same here - learnt on the dirt and now very capable of keeping upright in all kinds of shit.

though luck may have a part to play