My Crashing career.

Hi Folks,

well im off work with a nasty flu type thing so thought i would amuse (bore) you all with my bike crashing history.

My first ‘incident’ came at 16 when i was on the way to college on my 1988 FS1 (fizzie yayay) I was watching the brown metro in front well enough, i watched him brake as a guy pulled out in front of him, unfortunatly the little tiny drum of the fizzie was having none of this stopping in time lark and i managed to run up the back of him a bit, smashed my headlight, bent the bars and ripped off his exhaust back box. I picked myself up and the first thing he said was……………”Blimey I thought you were dead”
I suspect he wasnt insured as even though we swapped details i never heard from him again.

Second incident, same fizzie, had got to college this time, was on college property and i chucked it into the 90 degree right that took you to the car-park. I was bit late and the outing i was supposed to be on was waiting to set off, so a minibus full of my mates watched this one happen, Went in a bit fast, lean more, not going to make it, lean more, footrest starts dragging, still not going to make it, try to lean more (wont work if the footrests already down will it) so fall off. No real damage just a very very red face.

Third incident……..

By this time im working for a franchised BMW bike dealer and general used bike shop. We had this organised ride out thing going on for customers and staff, I decided to take off and catch the front group of bikes up, only problem is what i thought was a 50 mph curve was a 20 mph hairpin. Not gonna get round it becomes obvious that i shall have to bail as im running wide. Try to sit it up and aim for a little driveway entrance to avaoid the curb. No missed it, bike hits curb full on front wheel, snaps the forks, throws me clear (very lucky) flips into the air and hits a handy tree, lands (still running) with a rear subframe now about 10 inches out of line with all the other damage, a write off, shame it was a 500 mile old brand new R1100R demonstartor. the funny thing was the next guy round the corner was my MD and boss, who gave me his bike and told me to carry on, got a lift back for the van with another staff member to do the recovery, TOP BOSS!!!!!

Number 4……..

My own bike this time, a 1996 Suzuki bandit 6, bought at a year old and about 18 months old at the time. Following a mate on his 900 monster and it was clearly obvious he knew the roads, well.Id dropped back a bit as i decided i was not going to keep up, I came round a bend to find a car on the wrong side of the white line (he obviosuly thought he was using the racing line) and had to do a bit of quick avoidance, which put me into the verge at about 40 mph. Managed to keep it all up right to the last minute when we went down bending the r/h bar upwards to 90 degrees. No other damage at all, lucky boy. So i rode on to my mates house with a very odd bar angle going on

So thats it, apart from the usual list of near misses and idiot tin box drivers trying to take you out and numerous off road spills (which dont count) i havent come off for about 8 or so years – im gonna try and keep it that way (touches wood)