Idiot Patrol: Dumbest thing you've ever done with your bike

[TakeItEasyMon]

What's the stupidest lapse in judgement you've done with regards to your bike?

Me: I pay attention to every little detail when -on- the bike, drive defensively, safely etc. 

After pulling in to my garage following a nice ride, I brainfart and forget to put the kickstand down before I get off the bike.

I'm basically all the way off when it starts tilting, takes me about 2 seconds to see what's happening, then "oh sh!t" as I lunge to grab the handlebar to save it.

Too late, I end up 'guiding' it as it goes down for minimal damage (scratch on the left end of the handlebar and small scratch on mirror), but the handlebar pins my left hand to the ground.  360 pounds concentrated entirely onto my pinky finger.    I managed to lift the bike with one hand a few inches to remove my trapped/ smashed finger, then proceeded to curse as loud as possible as I'm seeing stars for the next few minutes. 

One of most painful things in my entire life. My pinky is now as purple as Prince and twice his size. 

It's like that scene from "Kill Bill" where Kiddo can't use the chopsticks because her hands are all mangled, except without the chopsticks

Lesson learned.


Anyone else have any stupid mistakes we can amuse ourselves with?

[Artful]

I was teaching my friend some of the motorcycle safety course skills and we were practicing the slalom. Since I don't own road cones we 'procured' a few from a local construction site. Instead of the low cones they were the three foot variety.

All was going well until I got a little close to one and it snared under my peg and hooked over my right foot. I stopped but my foot was pinned to the peg. World's slowest fall to the right side. Bent the rear brake lever and cracked off a bar end mirror.

My pride on the other hand was completely destroyed.

[redxblack]

Excited to take the first ride of the season, I gave it a little too much gas on a right hand turn out of a parking lot. Conspiring against me were cold tires, cold pavement and coldest of all - gravity. I was able to save it and right the ship, but I got it tipped pretty far over for a second. I've only been riding 5 years, so there's lots of time to screw up worse.

[avizpls]

Im generally pretty awesome and dont make silly mistakes like that.  

cept for this one time I was backing a dirtbike off of an open trailer. It was RIGHT against the rail as there were also two quads jammed on. I was walking it back with my left foot on the trailers fender. Well, the wheel dont go forever and eventually I ran out of fender and....yup. Toppled right out of the back. Luckily, I rolled away before it crushed me!

bike was all good and I enjoyed the day!

[bevel]

During my first "all day ride", I came to a stop sign where a side road intersects a main road. The side road takes a slight bend to the right at the stop line, and chambers downhill, while the main road is coming down a sweeping left hander.

Came to a full stop, and put my right (downhill) foot down, only to notice I had to keep going to find pavement, and then shortly thereafter I'm stepping off my bike as I drop it in slow motion.  

Thankfully the frame slider took the brunt of the damage, and just a little bit of rash on the stock exhaust were all I had to show for my inattention. (Hey, I'm going to just upgrade exhausts at some point, right?)

So now I try to never stop on chambered hills, and when I do, my uphill foot goes down first.

[meanmonster]

Most recent dumb thing: Popped the clutch to fast going up a hill last weekend from a stop and ended up doing a sidewise burn out up the little hill and into the oncoming lane a bit. Thankfully no traffic. Needless to say I've been practicing slipping the clutch more on hills ever since.

Dumbest ever: dropping the bike in a Parkin lot, no reason. I was just tried and forgot the kickstand. Ever since I always run though a check list routine getting on/off the bike, keeps me safer because as long as I dont forget the checklist I won't do something like that again.

[avizpls]

Oh, also one other time.....but seriously, I hardly EVER do anything other than perfection......  

I was putting my triumph on its center stand.

Stand on left of bike.
Left foot on center stand.
Right hand on rear foot rest, left hand on handlebars.
Push down with foot, pull up and back with hands.

slip foot off of center stand, THROW bike over onto its right side. A lot of the stories so far are about gently dropping in an awkward position....No. I inadvertently chucked this heavy MFer over with all my force!

And lastly, thank lucky stars because bike # 2 in the row of 4 (where Triumph in question was #1) anyways, #2 was pulled forward thus averting an otherwise likely domino-effect

[zooom]

stupidest thing I did with my old street monster was hanging around with some Japanese bike fellows for a while and got into a very bad habit of spinning my bike around on the kickstand....when my Kickstand finially started giving away cause the bolt going into the case had wallowed, I realized I had a problem. I rode home and put the bike on the rear stand and realized I had to do something right away. I borrowed a TimeSert kit from the Wurth rep I knew from work and put that in and all was good from then on out, but damn did it suck when I want to put the kickstand down that 1 time and it started to go over on me. Never again did I spin that Duc or any other on the kickstand.

[pennyrobber]

Broke my wrist mountain biking. Got tired of not being able to ride my motorcycle, so I tried to ride with a cast on. Dropped the bike a low speed, luckily only a scrapped up slider and stator cover.

[RBX QB]

Decided that the sign that said "PAVEMENT ENDS" was only a suggestion, and continued 6 miles down a logging road before turning back. All this on my new bike, with less than 1000 miles at the time.

Never did more than cover the thing in dirt and dust, but I was doing a LOT of cursing in my helmet, and chanting "stupid, stupid, stupid" in my head.

Lesson learned. My bikes like paved roads.

[the_Journeyman]

A loading mishap resulted in me doing a summersault and a half and landing on my neck and shoulders upside down in a pile about 10 feet from my truck.  While this was going on, the triple of my Monster was sliding into the bed by using the bedrail as its guide.  Zero damage to the bike.

JM

[Nomad]

Only been riding two seasons, but so far at least once each year I try to start the bike while it is in gear and I'm standing next to it.  So far no damage other than my pride and maybe slightly longer arms after I make a grab for it and get yanked a few feet.

[Speedbag]

Tried to kill a deer.

Almost got me too.

[Goat_Herder]

That sucks, TakeItEast.  Cracked me up a bit since similar thing had happened to me over the weekend.

I was cleaning the garage on Sunday.  I tried to move the bike around to create a little more room to get to a shelf.  Without thinking carefully about how I am manuvering the bike, the bike started to tip over to the right (I was standing to the left of the bike).  Losing balance, I thought "oh crap, I am going down with the bike and landing on top of it". 

That's when I noticed the Triumph Bonneville parked right next to it.  I took my right hand off and grabbed the rear seat grab bar, hoping I can leverage it to lift up the Monster.  ANd then the monster handlebar landed on the back of my right hand, between the knockles and wrist.  SON OF A pregnant dog!

So there I was, leaning on the Monster which was resting on my hand, in danger of tipping both bikes over now.  I gained some footing and managed to picked upt the monster off the Bonnie. 

Right hand swelled up and I couldn't make a fist.  The Wife asked about what happened to my hand.  Do't want to tell her how stupid it was, I just said I sprained it cleaning the garage...   

[Two dogs]

Year one on my first monster
Thought it was really cool to start my bike while I was standing next to it for a while 

Until .............leaving work late at night the bike is on a slight hill checked for the neutral light
fast idle lever is on full as it was winter.
hit the button.......false neutral

Bike drops into gear and takes off I lunge after it as it heads for the fence get my hand on the clutch
as it hits the fence and over it goes.
I dived under the bike stopping it from hitting the ground

Only problem now great saved the bike from damage but Im now pinned under the bike with the engine running in gear trying to hold the clutch in
FAARRRKKKKKKKKKK Im yelling my head of until one of the Brazilian kitchenhands  comes out with the garbage and pulls the bike off me.


So embbaressing Mr cool with his new Ducati that looks like a complete make the beast with two backstard.
Lesson 101:    NEVER start your bike when you are not safely seated on it.