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T-boned a peasant, er, pheasant a few weeks ago. Was pulling feathers out of my brake calipers after that. Unfortunately it disappeared into the bushes, so no free dinner. Not really an almost crash however, as I didn't. I had what I suspect was birdstrike in Scotland back in the day - bombing along somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Fife with no-one around and something I never saw hit my helmet just in front of my left temple, hard enough to give me a headache. I suspect a sparrow and a combined speed at impact into 3 figures was responsible.
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Nov 3, 2011 12:49
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| # ? May 15, 2024 10:26 |
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On the topic of bird strikes. Friend hit a huge owl when we were out for a group ride, almost knocked him off his bike. When we went back a week later it was still on the side of the road, pretty sure it was a great horned owl. I've hit a few smaller ones. One hit square in the headlight on the SV and cracked the front glass. Other one hit me in the shoulder and left a nice bruise.
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Nov 3, 2011 14:44
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An owl, that's nothing! Buddy of mine hit a golden eagle. Then he had to wrestle it into submission, Crocodile Dundee style.
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Nov 3, 2011 16:55
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I thwocked into a Scaled Quail two mornings ago. I went back to the scene of the crime to check on the poor guy, but he was gone. All that was left was a featherpile. His friends were off in the grass eyeballing me though...
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Nov 5, 2011 15:22
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Did 2500kms in five days, today as i was pulling into Grafton for lunch I was heading towards the turn off. being a small town it wasnt well signed and i started to take the street before the main road, half starting to lean and braking from 80 to a more manageable 40 i realised my error and started to lean the other way when i noticed the corner i was on was covered in scree, covered. In milliseconds my brain processed that there was no way i was going to slow down or turn any direction now without skidding and falling down, gently caress, as the rear started to lock up i eased off the front brake so i didnt front skid and decided the best course of action was to simply hit and run over the slip lane devider directly in front of me and hope for the best. i hit that sloped curb at about 50kph and the front shocks took the force dissipating the energy, the front tyre bounded over the divider and the exhaust pipes landed on the concrete and stopped me. The bike was hung up on its pipes, hugging the divider with both tyres. recovering was a trivial matter and i was relieved to find no damage other than some fresh scrapes on my exhaust pipes. 
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Nov 11, 2011 14:29
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A true Hoon would have just stuck his leg out... (Congratulations on your lucky escape!)
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Nov 11, 2011 14:36
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What the hell is scree?
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Nov 11, 2011 15:45
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Ziploc posted:What the hell is scree? Well that's Australia, so I can only assume it's some kind of marsupial.
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Nov 11, 2011 17:03
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Ziploc posted:What the hell is scree? It's smaller rock than talus. Loose gravel, usually on a slope. Generalized to any kind of runoff debris.
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Nov 11, 2011 17:26
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:It's smaller rock than talus. Loose gravel, usually on a slope. Generalized to any kind of runoff debris. I figured it was the sound Kommando's sphincter made whilst skidding uncontrollably towards a curb. scrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! 
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Nov 11, 2011 17:53
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A couple of recent near misses. I was riding down a deserted road in the National Park pushing it slightly and significantly above the speed limit. I spied up ahead what looked like a stick.on the side of the road, but then moved and resolved into a goanna, who then decided to be scared by the bike and to run straight into my path. I tried to go out wide to avoid him (can't imagine hitting a 5 foot lizard would be too much fun, plus they're cool). I almost ran off the road at high speed and there wasn't much run off there - moral, don't ride at silly speeds on roads where you expect wildlife like this this to be around. The other one was this morning on the way to work. Lovely rainy morning, feeling a little hungover and I'm following the car in front way too closely but not at any real speed. We we approaching a set of.lights that had just gone orange but there was plenty of time to make it through, I (wrongly) assumed the guy in front would go through and i could follow and make the light. I glanced away at something else for a second and then he decided to stop at the last minute. I grabbed a handful of brake and tried to scrub off some speed but noticed I really wasn't slowing enough. Ended up hitting his rear bumper at maybe 15km/h. He got out had a bit.of a look at his car, and then got back in without saying anything and drove off. I had a bit of a look over the bike but can't notice any damage. Guess its a bit of a wakeup that i haven't been leaving enough space and i really shouldn't try and get to work 5 minutes earlier.
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Dec 12, 2011 00:12
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I had a good one this morning: Splitting through slow traffic and a car starts slowly drifting to the right toward me. I slide over as well and watch my right hand so I can get past the car to my right, look back over and HOLYSHITBALLS the other car has moved right over to block me. Left hand smashes into their mirror which flicks the bike right and my leg bangs into the car on the right who swerves away, opening up a gap, so I pin the throttle and bail. Got the heartrate right up that one did. e: Ridin' like a dong, they be hatin' 2ndclasscitizen fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Dec 14, 2011 |
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Dec 14, 2011 02:05
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I've had a couple of close calls now when splitting, so much so that unless things are really bad I've stopped doing it when cars are moving at all (mostly just use it to filter to the front at a traffic light where I might have to sit through 3-4 rotations to make it through). The absolute most hilarious thing happened to me the other day though: I was sitting stopped at a red light, and a car actually split between me an the car next to me and popped in front. I thought he was going to hit me at first when I saw him coming, but cracked up when I realized what he was doing.
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Dec 14, 2011 15:51
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The other week traffic was all hosed due to the BET awards, so I started splitting to the front of about 10 cars backed up at an intersection. One pair of those cars was awfully close together. When I got to them, I did the mental check: knees will fit, side boxes will fit, go for it. I proceeded slowly until I accidentally whacked the lady on the right's side-view mirror with my bark guard. I muttered "sorry," adjusted, and kept going.
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Dec 14, 2011 16:08
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I rode from San Francisco to Napa and back last night/this morning during rush hour without health insurance (COBRA ran out Monday, haven't reupped). This is literally the stupidest thing I have done in my entire life.
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Dec 14, 2011 20:56
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Talking on your mobile phone while driving got banned here a few years ago. Since then it seems like every workvan driver (who were the worst offenders to start with) have decided that no matter where they get a call, they stop, pull over and make that "not my fault, they banned driving while on the phone" look at anyone who dares show their disdain at their inconsideration. This morning on the way to work in the pissing rain this attitude was exemplified by a cleaning van driver who had stopped on the exit of a blind left hand corner (we drive on the left, or 'correct' side) so that he could talk on his mobile. The car in front of me slammed on its brakes; I think he must have had ABS because he stopped quite sharp and didn't lock a wheel. I ended up locking the back, I kept it locked and concentrated on modulating the front while trying to correct the slightly alarming drift towards the (occupied) oncoming lane. I managed to keep it all controlled and came to a stop that probably looked more dramatic than the KTM made it. And drivers wonder why I flip them off when they wont stop tailgating me in the wet...
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Dec 16, 2011 17:45
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I was riding (like a dong) in a residential neighborhood. I was turning right from a stop sign when my front wheel hit something like a stone or a fat stick and slipped out from under me. I stomped down with my right foot and the bike recovered with minimal drama, but it scared the piss out of me (I'm a little gunshy considering I broke my left leg going down in the dirt over the summer). Is it SOP to scan for debris in the road? Would the bike have recovered by itself without me stomping the ground?
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Feb 1, 2012 16:12
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Safety Dance posted:Is it SOP to scan for debris in the road? Would the bike have recovered by itself without me stomping the ground? It is SOP for me. Most of the time I'm looking for sand around corners. Who knows if it would have recovered. Maybe, maybe not. Just depends on how much traction you lost and how much grip it re-established and how fast you were going. Could have lowsided or highsided depending on how it shook out but it sounds like you made it through ok.
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Feb 1, 2012 16:56
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I'm always dodging plastic bags and other trash when I ride around the city. I don't know how serious it would really be, but I've heard stories of people slipping up on things like that so I don't take any chances.
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Feb 1, 2012 17:40
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Yes, always scan for debris. Just make sure not to target fixate when you do eventually come across something. As an aside, try to get out of the habit of stomping your foot down like that ASAP. I instinctively did that a couple of times when I first started riding; nearly broke my ankle when I did it one time at about 45mph when I hit a patch of gravel up in the mountains. If you just let the bike do its thing and don't panic it will recover most of the time.
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Feb 1, 2012 17:50
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I always seem to disappear only to come back when something goes bad heh. I was riding home yesterday and was not a 1/4 mile from work when my chain jumped and got caught between the rear sprocket and the swing-arm. It locked the rear wheel up on me, but I didn't drop it. I had a little warning when the bike suddenly stopped responding to throttle, so I started trying to get off the road then. It didn't lock until I was in the bike lane, and slowing down luckily. I'm really surprised this happened. I check my chain every time I ride and had done an adjustment last weekend. I hadn't noticed any issues at all with it, but I was loaded with more stuff than is normal on the way home this time. The funny thing is I just did my taxes and will be getting a good bit back this year. I'd been talking about wanting a new bike all day. Although mine is completely repairable, this seems like a good opportunity to pick up a DRZ and sell off the little Honda (once fixed). My wife is on board with that idea, so if anybody in Cali is offloading a DRZ or something along those lines drop me a PM... (I'm really trying not to buy another R1, but god I love those bikes.) I can't think of anything I could have done differently to prevent this. The chain was lubed, the sprocket was in good shape and it was all tensioned correctly. Any thoughts on what I should do in the future when working on chains that might stop this from happening again?
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Feb 1, 2012 20:17
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What do you ride again?
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Feb 1, 2012 20:23
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Your chain may have been tensioned, but was your rear wheel aligned properly? Pretty freaky sounding regardless, good to hear that it wasn't entirely catastrophic.
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Feb 1, 2012 20:24
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BlackMK4 posted:What do you ride again? It's a 1981 Honda Twinstar CM200T with around 29k miles on it. AncientTV posted:Your chain may have been tensioned, but was your rear wheel aligned properly? The wheel should have been properly aligned. I checked it on Monday the 23rd when I re-tensioned the chain and it was fine. To the best of my knowledge nothing had changed. I was commuting every day around 13 miles each way to work and hadn't had a problem before this.
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Feb 1, 2012 20:49
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Ponies ate my Bagel posted:I can't think of anything I could have done differently to prevent this. The chain was lubed, the sprocket was in good shape and it was all tensioned correctly. Any thoughts on what I should do in the future when working on chains that might stop this from happening again? If this happened, your chain wasn't tensioned correctly, wasn't in good shape, or there is some issue with assembly. I've run chains ragged and only had them jump the sprocket once, and that was when it was REALLY bad, like, bad enough to have 6+ inches of play at one rotation, and tight spotted to proper adjustment at the other spot. It's not enough just to check tension in one spot.
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Feb 1, 2012 22:02
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Z3n posted:If this happened, your chain wasn't tensioned correctly, wasn't in good shape, or there is some issue with assembly. I've run chains ragged and only had them jump the sprocket once, and that was when it was REALLY bad, like, bad enough to have 6+ inches of play at one rotation, and tight spotted to proper adjustment at the other spot. It's not enough just to check tension in one spot. I think you're right. The chain wasn't in bad shape and I checked the tension multiple times in different spots, but like you said it has to be tension. I was so pissed off last night I shoved it into the garage and just left it there. I'll go look at it tonight and see if I can find any other "cause". As it stands now it definitely sounds and acted like a tension problem, so I guess I just screwed it up. Anybody have recommendations for a youtube video or something on the "proper" way to tension a chain? I'd like to make sure I don't do this again, it's not fun.
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Feb 1, 2012 22:17
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Was it a non o-ring chain? One of the kids at Jennings when I went last month had a brand new non o-ring RK on his SV650. They were having to adjust the tension after every session. Eventually the chain came off mid-session about halfway through the day. Granted this was on a track, but the bike wasn't being ridden that hard.
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Feb 1, 2012 22:37
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-Inu- posted:Was it a non o-ring chain? One of the kids at Jennings when I went last month had a brand new non o-ring RK on his SV650. They were having to adjust the tension after every session. Eventually the chain came off mid-session about halfway through the day. Granted this was on a track, but the bike wasn't being ridden that hard. I'm pretty sure it is a non-O-ring chain. I have had to do several tension adjustments since I got the bike maybe 6 months ago. I've done it at least once a month, while putting around 400 miles on the bike per month. I probably do ride the Honda to hard for what it is.
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Feb 1, 2012 22:52
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Just bought an ER-6N (traded in my vstrom 650 for it) and I thought I knew what I could do with that much HP. Took it out and decided to wind it out in 1st. I must have hit it too hard because the front came right up (first time ever for me) and I chopped the throttle from fright. Came down into a large wobble from the front end that had my legs right off the pegs. I kept it up but had to pull over to think things over a bit. I may or may not have been an idiot again and tried to replicate it...
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Feb 2, 2012 01:59
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Mister Duck posted:Took it out and decided to wind it out in 1st. I must have hit it too hard because the front came right up (first time ever for me) and I chopped the throttle from fright. How do you people keep doing this?  (derpaderp its easy just wring the throttle derpaderp  )
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Feb 2, 2012 02:01
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KARMA! posted:How do you people keep doing this? Well, I wasn't trying to do something dumb. I basically rode the strom for about 6 months and I was used to that. And there is nothing wrong with giving it a full turn in first on that bike. I made the mistake of thinking similar HP would equal similar behavior, which is dumb, hence why I posted here.
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Feb 2, 2012 02:06
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You've smoked the crack, welcome to the beginning of hooligan poo poo.
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Feb 2, 2012 02:30
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BlackMK4 posted:You've smoked the crack, welcome to the beginning of hooligan poo poo. The first hit is
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Feb 2, 2012 02:35
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BlackMK4 posted:You've smoked the crack, welcome to the beginning of hooligan poo poo. Once I got home I was very very glad that I didn't let my friend talk me into a Street Triple. But I learned my lesson about treating each bike like a beautiful and unique snowflake. I'll try not to get carried away with it.
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Feb 2, 2012 02:39
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-Inu- posted:Was it a non o-ring chain? One of the kids at Jennings when I went last month had a brand new non o-ring RK on his SV650. They were having to adjust the tension after every session. Eventually the chain came off mid-session about halfway through the day. Granted this was on a track, but the bike wasn't being ridden that hard. I don't get the point of a chain lacking o-rings unless you are part of a race team that can afford replacing every consumable part on the bike after use. Seriously, it can't reduce rolling resistance that much over an o-ring chain?
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Feb 2, 2012 03:59
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FuzzyWuzzyBear posted:I don't get the point of a chain lacking o-rings unless you are part of a race team that can afford replacing every consumable part on the bike after use. Seriously, it can't reduce rolling resistance that much over an o-ring chain? I'm thinking it's just economics. Good O-ring (x-ring, etc) chains are like $2/link. Dumb chains are $.3/link. If you have to replace the chain 3x as often, and it's a 1-hour job, you're ahead, monetarily. If you have to replace the chain 2x as often, and it sucks and you hate it, then the extra cost is probably negligible, or at least worth it.
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Feb 2, 2012 04:06
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Entered a decreasing radius turn 20mph over the turn limit. Ended up drifting into the lane adjacent to mine. For the first time truly hung off the bike to keep poo poo in order and followed MSF protocol: rolled on the throttle, looked into the turn, and made it out without lowsiding and now I unfortunately feel cockier than ever. Highway 17 at midnight couldn't have been a better place to have this happen though-- anywhere else and I'd have slammed into something big and hard. why people buy coffee when adrenaline is in such plentiful supply is beyond me edit: i'll also add that Z3n gave me the advice of pushing on the inside handlebar more and giving a bit more throttle if (when) i see this situation again Knot My President! fucked around with this message at 11:35 on Feb 3, 2012 |
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Feb 3, 2012 06:37
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Xovaan posted:why people buy coffee when adrenaline is in such plentiful supply is beyond me A car called destiny.
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Feb 3, 2012 11:10
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I am hosed. I just decided to go for a late night coffee after work, turned down a back street, and hit two dips that I didn't see at around 60k's an hour. Not sure what's wrong with the bike as yet, but there is literally zero oil left in it as it bottomed out; I'm kinda hoping I only sheared off a sump plug or something, but the oil is coming from behind the fairing. Going to check it tomorrow, left it where it lay. So hosed.
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Feb 8, 2012 17:01
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| # ? May 15, 2024 10:26 |
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Adding bash guard to the list of things to buy....
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Feb 8, 2012 21:54
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