First Face plant:what bike,which road,who's fault..
 

To steal VDM's topic title...

After a year of crashing dangerously....when did you pop your crashing cherry?

First crash; summer 1991 - GPX250, main road, daylight, into the back of a car turning right, I was watching two police bikes following me, worried they were going to pull me...nice of them to stop and pick up the pieces...

1989, FS1E-DX, school playing field. I learnt that brakes and wet grass are not a good combination for upright stability. Damage: Mum clipped me round the ear for grass stains on my trousers.

Same year, 1989, Susuzki 50cc Scrambler (Awful thing) I seemed to spend more time on the floor then on the bike..

Earliest I can remember is coming around a bend, hitting a load of wet leaves and ending up on my arse...:lol:

I blew the thing up, bombing down a long straight in a racing crouch, engine seized, back wheel locked, I left it by the road and walked home, that was the last I ever saw of it...:(

1978 aged 9. Second day of having the bike (Honda ST 70 monkey bike) my brother decided it would be good for me to fly around the fields in front of our house.

It was actually 2 fields but the split between them was just like a grassy bump. As the day wore on I went faster over the bump and near the end of the day took off into the air and landed on my head!

2004, managed all that time and then 2 mins from home, not concentrating coming down a hill in South London, if I was doing 4 mph (in traffic) I would be amazed - flicked head to look at girl, looked back, car in front stopped, me tugs brakes and new tyres slip sideways... gutted - £1,500 (:eek: ) the price of a look. :frog:

1967 - Honda 50 icy road

1974 - FS1E - A3 near Kingston. Found out I could stop quicker than my mate following me a bit close on his CB125.

Does flipping it doing stand up wheelies on the passenger pegs on my 125 in 1977 count as my fault.
I fell off that bike so many times doing stupid things Its hard to recall the first, though I do suspect the first time I came off it was on Ice at the entry to the Murco filling station in Late 1977, as it didn't hurt I think it taught me a certain disregard for safety and falling off bikes, amazing how a broken thigh, followed by a broken ankle and then a broken back a few years later makes you change your views.

But it was nice being young and stupid once

On a bike: 1976 - Ossa 250 MAR Trials Bike - Sundon Chalk Pits. Flat out in third gear up a very steep (too steep to walk up easily) chalk face. Throttle jammed wide open as I shut off at the top and flicked me into an unexpected jump. Remember looking down at a guy on a Honda TL125 who was waiting to come down the hill before getting pitched off on landing and dislocating my shoulder. Guy on the TL was the only other guy in hundreds of acres of chalk pit and happened to be a paramedic (how lucky was that !!!) who popped my shoulder back in - just bent bars on the bike

April 2000,Dry,3 week old KTM 640,small roundabout and a people carrier driven by a woman more worried about her fighting kids than looking where she was going!:mad: And the bitch did'nt stop:mad: :mad: :mad: Luckily only broken clutch lever and instrument binnacle:(

1978-- Byfleet-- DT175--car turns into the fish and chip shop...I go over the bonnet. :o

Melbourne - near Watsonia. 1994

I was coming around a right hand bend and there was a bike coming the other way. I was on the white line and so was he! I picked up and then locked up the front trying to slow down and dumped it.

Doh!

My brother bought me my first bike a Suzuki 1972 A50 'K' reg. It was great, I was 12 in 1977.
I pushed that bike along many a road to find a decent dirt track to ride it on. Fell off nearly every day. But got used to how a bike handles off road very soon. When I was 16, I put the bike on the road.
My mates all took the p*!s, that a bike that old still went and boy it went. It was the era of restricted bikes. 36mph flat out on your ped if you had a tailing wind. But I saw 70mph on my A50, showing off, fell off, P*!sed off. But tought me how to ride on wet autumnal roads, still bare the scars.
Still cautious round that corner now 25 years on.......

Fell off several bikes scince but that is the most memorable. Flipped many times ......... no longer do wheelees.

Oh yes. 1982, on some Suzuki trailie 125 thing. I was learning to ride with a County Council sponsored initiative, great set-up. Anyway, on a bike-school road-trip, I locked the back wheel under braking and was thrown off the bike.
The weird thing was, the first I knew of it, I was sitting by the side of the road, rolling a cigarette, and wondering to myself, "Why have we stopped? Did someone come off?". My fellow pupils and the trainers then came back for me and explained what had happened to me.
I really had knocked myself senseless. Bike was a write-off.

4 years ago, roundabout half a mile from home.

Bike? Suzuki TL1000S "the widowmaker" (the only non-Ducati I've ever owned)

Reason? still don't know. Diesel? Oil? Too fast? (unlikely!)

Short-term consequence - smashed hip socket, month in hospital, 3 months on crutches, 9 months of physio, year off bikes.

Long-term consequence - confidence never really recovered, hence now very very slow (ask Keefy...)

BC

Last time I can remember was in Spain about four years ago, entered a single lane tunnel (well you could overtake a vehicle in it ) on a good straight road,Concentrating on the overtake I miss a warning sigh that the road curved right, leaving the tunnel at about 85mph ( I gave it some stick in the tunnel cause it sounded lovely) only to see the road disapear from view as it dropped away steeply with a chicane full of bollards and railings as the road crossed a river. Felt like a few boken ribs at the time and took about an hour before I could even get me leg over,the 450 mile bash home was a tad painful to say the least. Never did get to hospital to find out . Lessons learned Don't go into tunnels LEADING a ride out :lol: 4D

My first bike Yahama RS100 back in 1978, I'd only had the bike two weeks and was travelling from Manchester along the A6 outside the McVitties biscuit factory on an icy morning, coming upto the lights with one car in front of me, they changed to amber, I thought the car would go for it but he didn't, I grabbed a fist full of front brake down we both went, the bike ended up under the back of the car whilst I was on my back with my legs against the bumper and feet in the air.
No real damage done but it was one of those learning experiences

1980s Honda CB400F on the way the the pub on a camping holiday in Devon. Landed on pillion to soften the blow and skidded up the road on my arse collecting 4 tons of cow sh*t on the way. Stood up with the help of a kind lorry driver who thought i'd shat myself when he saw all the muck I was covered in.
Still went to the pub all the same, but people strangely kept their distance that night......

Mine must have been around 1971, Honda 50 Crossville Bus stop on a right hand bend.
It was so nice of these people to position the stop in this place so that all that nice diesel and oil could collect for unsuspecting 2 wheelers.

The worst must have been the 1st Moped Mayhem in Birmingham mid eighties, 1st right hander went down on the ice, finished the race but then spent 9 months going to physio 3 times a week, never been right since !

I wasnt even born in 1971 !!