08-23-2014, 10:18 AM
As the old saying goes, if you ask 100 motorcyclists if they've ever dropped a bike, 50 will say, "Yes," and the other 50 will lie.
I dropped my Deluxe two weeks after I took delivery, but I was glad I did. A nice (really, she was) middle-aged lady driving a silver Malibu pulled out of a gas station and turned left towards the cross street. I was traveling in the same direction, to the same intersection. Of course, she "never even saw me!"
We both approached the stop line at the same speed, with the same destination in mind; the light was red in our direction, and she was on track for a full broadside. I banked right but I couldn't turn onto the crossing street due to thru-traffic. The shoulder fell away steeply to the inside of the turn, with a gravel-covered ditch at the bottom.
I decided stopping on the incline and putting my right foot down on the slope was better than getting creamed on the left. But of course, my stubby little 29-inch inseam legs weren't even close to adequate for the task. Inexorably, gravity took control of the situation and my bike and I hit the ground with a sickening crunch. Fortunately, that sound wasn't my leg but the gravel shifting as the right bar end, front brake lever, foot peg, and crankcase cover ground to a stop. But I picked it up (using the backwards-leg-lift technique) and rode it home, the nice lady's apologies drafting in my wake.
Cormanus may be right about droppage frequency. I waited three weeks for the front brake lever and foot peg frame to arrive at the dealer--those parts were on back-order.
Oh, and my bike now sports a set of Moriwaki frame sliders Takashi sent me lickety-split after my order. I had them in five days.
I dropped my Deluxe two weeks after I took delivery, but I was glad I did. A nice (really, she was) middle-aged lady driving a silver Malibu pulled out of a gas station and turned left towards the cross street. I was traveling in the same direction, to the same intersection. Of course, she "never even saw me!"
We both approached the stop line at the same speed, with the same destination in mind; the light was red in our direction, and she was on track for a full broadside. I banked right but I couldn't turn onto the crossing street due to thru-traffic. The shoulder fell away steeply to the inside of the turn, with a gravel-covered ditch at the bottom.
I decided stopping on the incline and putting my right foot down on the slope was better than getting creamed on the left. But of course, my stubby little 29-inch inseam legs weren't even close to adequate for the task. Inexorably, gravity took control of the situation and my bike and I hit the ground with a sickening crunch. Fortunately, that sound wasn't my leg but the gravel shifting as the right bar end, front brake lever, foot peg, and crankcase cover ground to a stop. But I picked it up (using the backwards-leg-lift technique) and rode it home, the nice lady's apologies drafting in my wake.
Cormanus may be right about droppage frequency. I waited three weeks for the front brake lever and foot peg frame to arrive at the dealer--those parts were on back-order.
Oh, and my bike now sports a set of Moriwaki frame sliders Takashi sent me lickety-split after my order. I had them in five days.