What is the most humbling moment on a bike? Here is mine.

I left my work (I am a server at TGIF) on a Friday night. The Parking lot had a group of people hanging outside, many of which were cute girls. I start my bike, let it warm up while I put on my helmet on, jumped on my bike and put the kickstand up. I then realized I forgot something inside. I went to put the kickstand down and I must have missed it because when I layed the bike over, I really layed it over. The bike fell on it's side and EVERYBODY looked! Ouch...my pride!!

This happened 2 years ago. It was on my GSXR. I now subcontiously look at my kickstand every time I kick it down.

 

In 1982 bought a new Yamaha XZ 500 V twin & just after I got it, heard that they where going to release a model with a full fairing. I thought that it would be great add on for the 160 kay (99 mile) daily commute.
About 6 months after I got it, I was in the local yammie dealer & he told me that he had a used fairing, but had come off a bike that had a crash.
It was cheap though, picked it up in this bloody huge cardboard box, sight unseen.
When I finally got to look at it, it was ok except for some real damage to left side. never done anything like this before, but got a fiberglass kit (that's wot the fairing was made out of) & spent days replacing & filling the thing with fiberglass resin.
Next came the weeks (after work) of sanding down, prepping it for painting, laying on the primer. Lined up with neighbour who had a spray gun & another neighbour who knew how to paint (total cost so far, $150 + 1 fiberglass kit & 1 carton of beer).
Had I guy where I worked mix me up & match the paint (1 carton of beer) + 1 month or more of work.
Next came the time to mount the fairing on the bike, luckily everything came in the box including the wiring harness, 2 days work solo.
Anyway, looked good worked a treat, 3 days later, I was at work & this girl that I worked close to came in & said "Is that your bike laying on the ground in the car park?"
Rear tyre had deflated & as it went down, righted the bike, which then feel over on it left side, smashing the fairing.................................
Took it to the bike shop & had them repair it, total cost of repair $450 (& this is 1982).

 

My moment happened in 05. I had my 1000RR for about 4 months and my friends and I went to "Tail of the Dragon". We made a pass through checking the road out. On the way back, I started getting more aggressive. I started dragging my knee on just about every corner. It was great. I was getting really confidant, getting a good rythm.

I was going along at a really good pace, then I look in my mirror, and I see a motorcycle behind me. Seeing that someone is a better rider than me, I let him go by. It was at that moment, I realized just how "unskilled" I really was. As the bike goes by me, I get a better look at, and its an Enduro. Yep, a guy on an Enduro, wearing a tank top and shorts.. Here I am, wearing full gear, riding a liter bike, and I get caught by and Enduro. Not only that, after I let him go by, I try to keep up. It was no use, I lost sight of the guy within 2 minutes.

So thats my experience. getting smoked by an Enduro. The only saving grace was the guy had local plates. But even that didnt help.

 

Nice!!

About two years ago I was riding a GSXR up North when I seen another sportbike ahead of me. It looked like an old, and i mean old, Ninja. I rushed to catch him and when I did we cruised at the speed limit for a while. We slowly increased the pace until it I couldn't hang anymore. I would catch him on the strait stretches, but when we got into a long stretch of twisties he went out of sight quick. About 30 miles up the road I seen the guy and his bike at a turnout. He had to be 80 years old and his bike looked about the same age.

I don't consider this my most humbling moment because nobody was there to see it, but it certainly took me down a notch!! I guess it is the rider that wins races and not the bike. DUH!

 

Awe that's funny! I don't mean to laugh but I can just imagine the Demoralizing effect it must have had on you! Ya know ya think your doing great, no one can touch you, you think your all cool and chit and someone goes by whistling and sitting up straight and all relaxed like they are just out for a Sunday ride.
I had something like that happen to me. I was doing great, I didn't think anyone could do any better on this road, didn't even bother checking my mirrors I was so into it. Then something goes by and startles the Hell out of me! The Hell was that? This thing was screaming loud! He was gone! What really killed me was the guy had to be 350lbs. I get to the end of the road where there is a store, I look over and see the same guy getting off a little RZ350. At the time I had a GSXR750. But he looked over at me and I couldn't even acknowledge him, my tail was between my legs and I just got the Hell outta there. I just could not catch this guy. I downshifted many times trying to but it was useless. He just flicked that thing over and over and I just totally lost focus and gave up. Lil' Bastid! Ruined my whole day cause I couldn't get over it.

 

most humbling?

I'd have to say the time that I went to pass a honda hatch, not really in much of a hurry, had not downshifted or anything, just straight passing, I got up next to him and he decided that he wanted to race to the curve, I forgot to downshift and ended up behind him as he flipped on his flashers.

damn ricers.

 

on that road a good rider on a 250 can smoke a 1k easy lol. That wouldnt humble me much, be glad it wasnt the dude on the vrod draggin knee with the best of em up there lol

 

OK this is kinda just the stupidest moment of my life.

I just got my licenes and i was realy really excited to go riding with my friends. well after a good hour of riding and collecting around 25 other bikers that i never seen in my life. we pull over to a gas station and rest a bit. We also ran into a few girls at the gas station and they were quite the lookers, of course they loved bikes and i offered one of the young ladys a ride. All of the bikes deside to get riding and all. and i wanted to make a good impresstion and kinda show her i was a ok rider. well i start my bike up around the same time all the others did, they all leave at the same time, when it was my turn to get moving i put my bike into gear and it died!!! so i quickly put it back into N and started it back up, and yet again put it into gear and ounce again it died! By this time im freaking out and all my friends have left. about fifteen minents go by. some of my friends relize i was not with them so they returned to the gas station to find me and this random girl looking at my bike trying to figure out whats wrong. one of my good friends asks whats going on. i there continued to show him what happends when i throw it into gear. My friend just looks at me and says "really, your side stand is still down. its a safty feature on the bike" Well i felt like a idot and the girl i was with left. by far one of my most stupidest moments.

 

Back in '96 I bought a new Ninja 600. One day I came home, feeling all cool and tough, and pulled into my driveway. I turned off the bike and kinda threw the bike over on it's sidestand. Well, I forgot the sidestand. It didn't go all the way over, I still had a good grip on the bars when I realized what I had done. There I was, all 145 lbs of me, struggling to get this bike up. Turns out I couldn't do it. I had to gently lay the bike down (with a leg underneath it) and climb out from under it. Worst of all, somehow my helmet ended up under the bike, too. Once I had both feet on the same side of the bike I was able to barely lift it back up.


I had another incident similar to this, but that time I had a girl on the backi of the bike, and some people saw it happen.

I rear ended someone.

I dropped my bike in the mud.