Yeah, each day you get on the bike, it's a risk. And it's probably a thin line between skill/luck and inevitable. Ah well, can't say I'm ready to give it up.

 

Meggers, it's the ones that think it'll never happen to them that worries me. Those tend to be the ones who ride beyond their skills... sometimes beyond their bike's skills too.

I just say "**** it, its gonna happen one day", take whatever steps I want to minimize the damage and go on riding. If it never happens again, I'll settle for being pleasantly surprised

 

I went 5 years before dropping my bike. Just a freak accident, hit a plastic reflector in the middle of a corner and back tire slid out. Always wear your gear!

 

you will go down...its just a matter of time and if your wearing gear.

 

my first time laying a bike down was just that. ha ha turning around in a dirt drive way front end kicked out and i kind of guided it down. ha ha bout a week after i got my first bike (96' katana) then bout a week later i was turning around in my work parking lot and accidentily grabbed the front break and it popped forward and leaned down hill. ha ha i couldnt hold it it got past that "point of no return" and down it went. haha. getting frame sliders for my 900 so that i dont mess up the fairing if that happens again. haha i must have looked funnier then a retard eating hot wings. haha.

 

Mine was a wet corner in the mountains when the rest of the road was bone dry... while trying to slow way down for the wet corner I lost the backend (heavy right foot), then released the brake and stood the bike up to bring the backend back in, was then unable to make the corner... went wide by like 2 feet... bounced along on the soft shoulder (dirt and loose rocks).... almost held it but a big dip and then a big rock lifted and skewed the front-end and down I went. Entered the corner at about 70km... crashed at about 10-15km/hr. busted up the upper left fairing and bent the birdcage a bit but I rode it home and fixed it up with duct tape and plastic welding cause I had to do my final road test on it the next day (passed the test)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOkYu04R_kQ

I've been riding off and on for many decades. Although I've had my share of crashes (nothing ever serious) I'm not looking forward to having one with my new bike that I haven't even ridden yet. Perhaps the years of learning the hard way will help keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down, as they say.

 

It used to amaze me how often I thought I had made eye contact with someone waiting to pull out of a side street and I proceeded to continue on the main road, only to have to slam on my brakes because they started to pull out in front of me. This happened both on my motorcycles and bicycles.

I've since conditioned myself to expect them to pull out and am surprised if they do not. However, I am now more ready for it when they do. Some study one time said that although drivers might "see" the motorcycle, bicycle or whatever their brains do not perceive it as a threat because we are smaller than a car and somehow the object does not get processed as actually being there.

 

Yeah it sucks and for a while with my new bike I was catching myself slowing down waiting on them to hit me ... No I think I am over it but its always in the back of my mind and always will be ... Now I just do just that ..... I just look for a out just in case

 

Already done it a couple hundred times on my dirt bike, so I think I'm good.