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Post by donkeychomp on May 17, 2021 21:53:52 GMT 1
We've all been idiots, and me more than once...
Aged 16. Honda SS70 with the drum front brake, but I got a cable operated disc front end from a breakers. Bolted it on and went for a quick test ride down the road. No lid, but what could possibly go wrong? The throttle jammed fully open and I grabbed a fist of front brake. Nothing happened and I hit a kerb, flew off the bike head first into a brick wall. Claret streaming down my face from a rather nasty gash in my forehead. Couple of lessons learned that day!
Alex
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Post by jon on May 17, 2021 22:01:58 GMT 1
Almost the opposite.
Had a sh##ty plastic crash helmet that had a scratched visor. The scooter of the time was sprayed black with orange bits. Thought I’d do the helmet to match. Black helmet and orange visor.
Riding down the road and it started to spit rain. Instant reaction was to close visor. Managed to come to a halt before hitting anything.
Jon
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Post by steve63 on May 17, 2021 22:08:14 GMT 1
There's been dozens. Getting a wheelie completely wrong on my TS100 and crashing into a lamp post was a memorable one. Flipping my 350LC whilst only wearing jeans, and trainers and not even wearing a T shirt, helmet or gloves was another low point. I suppose not learning the lesson from the TS100 makes that last one even worse 🥴 Just thinking about it now I think the only wheelie related injury since was attempting a mountain bike wheelie about 10 years ago at Dalby Forest when again it ended in pain.
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Post by steve h on May 17, 2021 22:29:38 GMT 1
Stupidest thing you've ever done on a bike?..... errr... fell off it?
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Post by pedheadfred on May 17, 2021 22:39:00 GMT 1
At 16 flying past the row of shops on Broxtowe lane going up hill on my rd50m. All my mates were waving jumping up n down, great I thought impressed with the speed I was doing in a 30mph limit. I was doing about 48 🤣 felt like 100mph to a young Turk who knew no better. Anyway top of the lane was mini roundabout I managed to go around it knee down sparks off my expansion chamber 😂 then flat out down hill chin on tank before coming to a stop by locking my back wheel up. My mates were shouting waving excitedly. I pulled the bike on its stand and climbed off to see a police bike behind me 🤪. He went mental said your gonna kill yourself riding like that before asking what cc is your bike It's a moped Mr he didn't believe me and told me to take it to the police station to be checked over by there garage. He said I was doing close to 55 down that road before stopping. I became a legend of the Chipshop 😂
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Post by JonW on May 17, 2021 22:42:57 GMT 1
I once bought a CB400N superdream... In my defence it was cheap and i bought it to do up and move on, which i did. But, yes... it did happen. Stupid.
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Post by itsnick350 on May 17, 2021 23:36:58 GMT 1
Ok, I’ll play….
After riding my RD350 31K from Bordeaux to St Mali to find the ferry’s we’re not running due to a local strike I then set for Calais, in the rain and dark, during the journey I was so tired I convinced myself that it was a great idea to ride along closing one eye to rest it and repeating it for the other eye…..somehow I made it to Calais and after sleeping the deepest sleep of my life on the boat ride back home to east London.
I know.
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Post by tacky1 on May 18, 2021 5:02:36 GMT 1
Flipped an rd500 one night pulling a 3rd gear wheelie 2 up. Completely destroyed the bike. Still hurts.
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Post by veg on May 18, 2021 8:13:26 GMT 1
Where do I start, rode my gs550 katana to London to see a gig (zodiac mindwarp? ) clutch cable snapped coming through London rode 2 up like a t**t jumping lights etc, got caught at 137 mph on my zxr750 on the A46, raced my dad on his zzr11 on my cbr1000 down the m45 he left me for dead, oh bought an ex demo Harley sportster within the first 5 miles realised I’d made a huge mistake.
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Post by steve63 on May 18, 2021 8:33:28 GMT 1
Ok, I’ll play…. After riding my RD350 31K from Bordeaux to St Mali to find the ferry’s we’re not running due to a local strike I then set for Calais, in the rain and dark, during the journey I was so tired I convinced myself that it was a great idea to ride along closing one eye to rest it and repeating it for the other eye…..somehow I made it to Calais and after sleeping the deepest sleep of my life on the boat ride back home to east London. I know. I've always found it odd that whenever I've done big mileage on a bike I've never suffered from falling asleep even on the motorway but sometimes I only have to get 40/50 miles down the motorway in the car and I struggle to keep my eyes open. Maybe it's the amount of concentration required on a bike or the wind on your body?
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Post by JonW on May 18, 2021 9:29:32 GMT 1
Where do I start, rode my gs550 katana to London to see a gig (zodiac mindwarp? ) clutch cable snapped coming through London rode 2 up like a t**t jumping lights etc, got caught at 137 mph on my zxr750 on the A46, raced my dad on his zzr11 on my cbr1000 down the m45 he left me for dead, oh bought an ex demo Harley sportster within the first 5 miles realised I’d made a huge mistake. This i remember, and its what I thought you would lead with! Ok, a real one... I snapped a clutch cable on my mates ER50 (80 or 90cc kit fitted, thing flew). Decided to go to shop and get a new cable on it as my bike was off the road for some reason. My sister was bored and wanted to come too. er, ok... I paddle along and bang into gear at every light and drop into school to see a mate on the way, probably to pick up some cash he owed me or i owed him or something. Riding up we spy him thru the tall fence having a crafty ciggie so rather than go in properly we chat thru the fence. After 30mins we say goodbyes and I start bike, sis jumps on, I rev up to leave 'properly' ie 'with some gusto' as my mate is there 'as you do', next I pull in the clutch and bang it into gear... yeah, spot the mistake? I did at that point too... no clutch cable doing anything useful at all and we are now passengers. I see the trees getting taller, now their canopy unfolding, some clouds, and now its all blue sky, hold on the clouds are back again along with the tree canopy but this time its upside down... weird... and then while my brain is still trying to catch up and work out what the hell is going on we land on the ground. My sis has cushioned my fall perfectly and we are pinned down by the bike's mirrors. I turn my head and my mate is curled up rolling round on the ground convulsing with laughter. I gain superhuman strength and push the bike off us. To this day my sister says she had the softest of landings and never noticed the huge gouge in her elbows that would leave scars... and be the source of countless questions by our folks. hmm... I bought the new cable 5mins later at the shop and fitted it there and then, we still laugh about it.
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Post by headcoats on May 18, 2021 10:51:42 GMT 1
Putting a new bike under a car in 24 hours and no insurance will be my ultimate shame !
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ajh
Thrash Merchant
Posts: 415
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Post by ajh on May 18, 2021 10:56:11 GMT 1
Where do I start, rode my gs550 katana to London to see a gig (zodiac mindwarp? ) clutch cable snapped coming through London rode 2 up like a t**t jumping lights etc, got caught at 137 mph on my zxr750 on the A46, raced my dad on his zzr11 on my cbr1000 down the m45 he left me for dead, oh bought an ex demo Harley sportster within the first 5 miles realised I’d made a huge mistake. you must of missed the story where you got a bang on the head that caused you to buy a lump of American pig iron
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ajh
Thrash Merchant
Posts: 415
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Post by ajh on May 18, 2021 11:01:51 GMT 1
Used the back brake only on my fizzy going down a steep hill in the wet. Duh! (probably didnt have a front brake at the time) - Locked the back wheel. Vividly remember sliding down the hill on my arse and watching as my fizzie overtook me
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Post by steve63 on May 18, 2021 13:03:57 GMT 1
I went round to a mates house on my RD200. My mate had a TS125.
His brother had a KH500 in the shed that my mate liked to show it to his mates and would start it and rev it up in the shed for our entertainment. It was a 1976 KH painted in the lime green/dark green H1 colours and had Lester alloy wheels and a twin disc conversion. At the time to us it was like his brother had a genuine Kevin Shwantz RGV500 in his shed and I was star struck with it.
After we'd finished playing with the 500 my mates Brother turned up. I'd never met him before and he asked for a ride on the 200. He sat on it, started it up and started revving it up. Then he put it in gear and released the clutch a bit sharpish. The 200 did like 200's do and reared up, hit the garage door and dumped itself on the floor with the rider underneath it, the engine revving it's head off and turns out the tyre spinning around on my mates brothers leg.
We untangled the two of them and his brother disappeared into the house.
My mate then pointed out that his brother had been in the pub all afternoon and asked why I didn't smell the beer on his breath. Being a bit stupid I never twigged.
Apparently the burn/graze/infusion of tyre rubber injury took months to heal properly and turned out to be a lot worse than it looked. I don't think he ever rode a bike again.
I ended up buying the KH500 off him a few months later and ended up selling the KH to buy a brand new 350LC.
A few lessons were learned that day, two of which are; don't let someone who stinks of beer ride your bike even on their drive and if you get a graze especially with rubber/oil/grit in it get it thoroughly clean or it will not heal properly.
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Post by reedpete on May 18, 2021 13:06:55 GMT 1
Maybe not my stupidest....difficult how to rank everything in the ‘should have known better’ stakes.....but the first stupid mistake was first time on a bike, on the lawn in the garden......Being more inquisitive about how to make it go than how to stop... ended up all thorned up in the rose bed...
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Post by Gitram on May 18, 2021 13:31:03 GMT 1
Maybe not my stupidest....difficult how to rank everything in the ‘should have known better’ stakes.....but the first stupid mistake was first time on a bike, on the lawn in the garden......Being more inquisitive about how to make it go than how to stop... ended up all thorned up in the rose bed... my mate did exactly the same but buried himself and a honda 90 into a hedge.. all we could see were his feet and the back mudguard poking out.. how we laughed.. marti
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ajh
Thrash Merchant
Posts: 415
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Post by ajh on May 18, 2021 13:39:02 GMT 1
Maybe not my stupidest....difficult how to rank everything in the ‘should have known better’ stakes.....but the first stupid mistake was first time on a bike, on the lawn in the garden......Being more inquisitive about how to make it go than how to stop... ended up all thorned up in the rose bed... my mate did exactly the same but buried himself and a honda 90 into a hedge.. all we could see were his feet and the back mudguard poking out.. how we laughed.. marti yep same, first time on a bike at about 11yrs old, I ploughed my mates dirt bike straight into a bush after telling him how I knew how to ride
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Post by JonW on May 18, 2021 13:51:00 GMT 1
A mate and I had some older sit up style step thru scooters and late one night on the way home from the city bars another mate wanted a lift so we installed him on the rack on the back. We'd had a few (you could then) and each traffic light we raced flat out to the next one. After about 10 mins we noticed our mate wasnt with us any more, he'd been dumped off the back early on and was not happy when we went back. Ahh the joys of yoof...
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Post by veg on May 18, 2021 14:20:24 GMT 1
On the back of my younger brothers de restricted ns125r, we’d been to the pub he hadn’t drank, I was w##k##d I’d got a full licence etc Coming into a decreasing s bend I knew well. I told him faster faster and stupidly he did. Big crash, loads of gravel rash pushed the bike home. Drunkenly fell asleep when I woke up my sheet was stuck to my back and covered in blood. He’d only had the bike back from being repaired 3 weeks previously. I had so many close calls as a kid including compound fracture to tib and fib that has left me with a leg 1 1/2 inches shorter. Paying for it all now I’m in my 50’s.
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Post by tipfinchy on May 18, 2021 17:11:10 GMT 1
at 17 i managed to put my KH125 in a dyke (no not a rug muncher) out the back of the Romney Marsh flat stick at an indicated 75 , i managed to get my head above water and luckily there was some old chicken wire or something in there and pulled myself out , then it was a case of wheres the bike? until a blob of two stoke oil made it to the surface i was clueless of its location , surprisingly it never ran that well after
mart
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Post by pedheadfred on May 18, 2021 23:30:34 GMT 1
Another memory was at a pub Bramcote village Nottingham Jan 1984 on my rd125lc. Had gone to see my bird of the time who was wearing a bit thin with me as she was very needy centre of attention type. Well she had been getting on my TATS! All night with her College student mates. Came to kicking out time and I was wanting to vent my frustration by giving some t**t a lumping, then thought ditch the bitch and show everybody how fast a tuned 125 can go. So oi! Amanda your dumped you self centered sad bitch 😜 in pub carpark before firing up the lc. Here mates shouting you horrible bstrd at me then some Scarf wearing Laky Student giving Billy big bollox started pigeon chesting me 🤣. So my Bellstar helmet sat him on his arse with my head inside it 😤. I Mounted the Lc and shot at the crowed of idiots they were like rabbits in my headlight running in all directions 😇. I then let them all exit the car park and walk a fair bit up the road while i Warmed my engine up. I pulled out the carpark full revs not thinking obviously still in a rage, as said January. Well next thing I know my bikes sideways wheels spining like a mad thing so I changed gear obviously no way was I going to touch the brakes. I was still spining but bike had straightened up so thought third gear will drop revs n stop spinning (not on black ice). I thought blip throttle and back wheel came round again 😳 fknell I thought it's gonna hurt in a minute when I come off. As luck would have it the next thing i Know my bike straightens up stops spinning revs drop off I went home. The next time I went to that pub a couple of locals came up and started speaking to me saying mate you are mental were you learn to ride a bike like that ?? My reply which was true me dad he used to race bikes in the 1960s 😇. That night on the way home I crashed the bike through a hedge down a country lane ending up in a muddy field full of Cows. Ripped my jeans lost a boot and tore my leather jacket scuffed my helmet bruesed grazed legs. Bike ripped seat bent forks smashed front mudguard bust indicators bent bars. But managed to still ride it home 😵
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lc2
Weekend rider
Posts: 84
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Post by lc2 on May 21, 2021 10:04:00 GMT 1
At Oulton Park in the late 70s at a Transatlantic Trophy meeting a group of us Camped over and in the early hours we were woken up by the sound of bikes on the track as someone had found a way to get onto the circuit. Anyway ten minutes later I had my kit on and joined them, it was I interesting seeing the security staff in a mini vans trying to get folk off the circuit. Many years later I enjoyed the circuit legally road racing but that memory stays with me .
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fubars
Drag-strip hero
Posts: 294
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Post by fubars on May 21, 2021 19:24:44 GMT 1
Setting fire to a mates CG125 back tire to do a burn out. Looked good but when he stopped it was still burning 🤣 oh how we laughed and still do 😃.
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Post by finnned on May 21, 2021 19:32:33 GMT 1
Fitting a new Cheng Shin tyre to the rear of my AR80, convinced that if GP riders go hardest on new tyres then so should I. Flat out (65mph!) into the second left hander I came to, I might as well have been riding on ice as the back end let go big time, sliding across the road before hitting the grass verge and catapulting me over the ditch and into the hedge. Dislocated shoulder, never got properly fixed and still suffering the effects 30+ years later!! Still got the AR80 though! 🙂
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Post by stinkwheel on May 21, 2021 22:43:38 GMT 1
I once bought a CB400N superdream... In my defence it was cheap and i bought it to do up and move on, which i did. But, yes... it did happen. Stupid. Could have been a lot worse, it could have been a 250N, they were really shite….. the 400N was actually faster than the 400/4 it replaced
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samdog
Weekend rider
Posts: 98
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Post by samdog on May 22, 2021 12:38:55 GMT 1
Using my chin as a brake!!!! After deciding to jump of at over 100mph.. On my 2 day old purchase 350f2 D245 NBH? Bought on Friday wrote off Sunday... 🙄
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Post by abar121 on May 22, 2021 15:52:02 GMT 1
Running out of brakes at Brands Hatch, but still carrying on.
Had some drama earlier in the day getting past scrutineering as the rear brake had left the building. No biggie, or so I thought.
First race of the day, all going well, but then I noticed the front brake lever steadily coming back to the bar, with the adjuster screw on the lever slowly backing in. I was doing well (for me), so I kept going. Each time I braked coming into Paddock hill, it just got worse and worse.
Finished the race with the front lever on the grips and thought I'd got away with it. But no, coming back to the pits through the tunnel back to the pits, the front brake went completely and I cannonballed into a couple of other racers.
Luckily we all stayed upgright, give or take a few battle scars and lots of cussing..
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Post by pedheadfred on May 31, 2021 21:25:20 GMT 1
A phone call from an old childhood mate reminded me of another silly event. Mark Thomo was given a Honda C70 from his eldest brother when he passed his car test. So as we were about 15yrs old and bike mad was straight out on it riding along the footpath along the river Leene. We could get from Basford to Bullwell along the footpath. So one day in half term we was taking it in turns riding it with other being on the back having great fun. Till one day a Policeman tried to stop us 😵, Feck! Off! We shouted at him as we sort of sped off. At the end of the footpaths we said let's go back n shout at him as you do at that age. So off we went flat out 45mph two up bouncing around all over the shop. As we got to were PC Plum had been he was not there o well we thought, I was on the back this time. As we came towards the other end of the footpaths we could see another motorbike 😎 Great my mate said race time. We then realised Police bike 😳 So turned around to obviously (out run it) on a C70 😂 two up off road but he was gaining that shocked us we were speed Demons. Next thing bikes trying to pass us so mate starts weaving about to stop him so he rammed our back wheel shooting us in to the river Leene. Right lads come here he shouted at us obviously we climbed out the other bank side and legged it like Startled Rabbits shouting Feck! off! Bacon breath catch us. He never did we was fast and fit back then. That night we went back in the dark and got the C70 pulled out the water and pushed it to my house for dad to get engine running again. Dad did get it working but engine never sounded the same my mate then sold it quick and never got a knock on the door from the police as we ran it without a numberplate.
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Post by markhoopy on May 31, 2021 21:44:30 GMT 1
We've all been idiots, and me more than once... Aged 16. Honda SS70 with the drum front brake, but I got a cable operated disc front end from a breakers. Bolted it on and went for a quick test ride down the road. No lid, but what could possibly go wrong? The throttle jammed fully open and I grabbed a fist of front brake. Nothing happened and I hit a kerb, flew off the bike head first into a brick wall. Claret streaming down my face from a rather nasty gash in my forehead. Couple of lessons learned that day! Alex I picked my used SS50 up on my 16th birthday, rode it home, parked it on the road outside the house and went in to phone a mate. Glanced out of the window just as it fell over sideways on to the kerb. Few days later it had been running really hot so I took the throttle slide out and dropped the needle a couple of notches. It then refused to start so I bumped it - the throttle slide was in the wrong way round and when it set off it was on the back wheel, without me. Bought a KTM Comet the following month and left the SS50 in the garden to rot.
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