I will be posting up my insane stupidity too...


and, Go!!


This is not a bragging thread trying to outdo one another but a chance to
tell truthfully what a stupid dick you were and by writing out what you did
and telling us all maybe make you think about it and aim not to be that way
again. I know you are mainly very sensible bikers but we all have our
moments of madness.

did you put yourself and others at risk with this behaviour??




Jules

 

Was not happy when I read the first few lines but I think I know where Jules is going with this one. Let me reiterate ... this is not a competition nor does CBRF condone squidly behavior. But if you've done something dumb and learned from it maybe it will be beneficial to others. Please, no personally identifying details

 

Well I'm always a ***** to the Bergman crowd. I dont know bout everywhere else but here in Michigan (Detroit area) the guys that ride Bergmans PIMP THEM OUT BIG TIME !!!!! So when I see them on the freeway I usually fall in line behind them or in front of them in a low gear so the rpms are high and the exhaust is nice and loud!!!!!! Then I'll look get and the nice lane and play with them, you know like launching bike a bit saying lets race . At that point they either slow down, TRY to speed up or turn the radio up. Then I just get louder laugh and dart off........................................

 

Well... I have one experience in particular that scared the shyte out of me and taught me a bit about not getting too comfy on the bike. Late summer last year I was on my way from my home in Orlando to my buddy's house in Naples for a weekend of boating and such... about a 3-hour jaunt at highway speed.

Well about the time I hit I75 in Tampa it was rush hour and went from sprinkling to a moderate summer shower. I had already stopped and put on my rainsuit, so I was feeling good and dry and traffic had been reasonable. I was confident and unphased. Regardless, visibility was down a bit with the spray all over the road and I was down from 80+ to around 55 or 60 and was sitting up on the bike out of my usual crouched highway position.

All of a sudden, I realize the traffic ahead of me had slowed up a good bit and I'm coming up on them fast, maybe 100 feet out (way too close). I started to brake in a hurry and at the same time, as I'm in the fast lane, I move toward the shoulder in case I come up short on braking. The combination of too much rear brake, wet roads, and the inertia from counter-steering quickly to swerve left and then putting pressure back right to straighten in the shoulder kicked my rear tire out to the left of me and I performed the cleanest accidental power-slide I could have ever hoped for. Purely instinctively, without time to react, I kept moderate pressure on the rear lever and was able to straighten up without a high-side throw.

I continued on my trip after a short breather on the side of the road in some great afternoon sunshine and had a great weekend, but that little maneuver still stays with me as a vivid reminder to take heed of the conditions and ride accordingly. I was careless and overly confident that day and got off with a harmless reminder...

 

Most of my insane stuff I got out of my system years ago, although I still have the odd rush of blood to the head.
I can think of 2 examples:
On a bike club ride, maybe 300+ bikes stretched out over several kays (Highway), anyway my riding buddy overtook a line of trucks & I got caught for a few minutes waiting for my chance to go. Took a while to catch up, (he is not known for hanging around) Anyway, came around a bend & the he was at the end of line of about 10/12 bikes, I had the momentum thing going & rather than just tag behind him I dropped back to 5th & fanged it, over took all of the bikes & when I looked down the speedo was just rolling back down from a tad above 230 kph (143 mph). I had not planned this out at all, cause just as I got past the last of the other bikes (to bloody late now matey) & had to haul around the next left hander, which meant a judicious application of brakes, leaning left while the momentum of the bike was still wanting to go right & hoping the whole time that I had enough revs to poke it into the right direction. I knew that I had broken the 1st rule of riding in not thinking ahead (in my case, not thinking at all).
The 2nd example was more recent & that was on the Ducati test ride day, my 1st ride was on the Multistrada 1100 & I went a little nuts, popping mono's on suburban roads in Saturday morning traffic & later on the Freeway. I confess & admit I rode like a dick.

 

Heading home from my ex's house (6 years ago) 3am, stone cold sober, wide open highway 30mile trip home 25 of which was highway, on my busa, doing well well over the speed limit, nice and cozy ride about 65* out clear sky. I come around a real long slow curve on a well lit stretch of road, and i see a deer come walking out into the middle of the highway and freeze in the headlight probably 100 or so yards in front of me, roll off the throttle and pull in the clutch, look down and the speedos showing 143, he didnt move but i had a lane plus a wide shoulder to my right i head in a gentle swerve to the right and feel the bike starting to loose it on some loose gravel. At this point i realize i'm done, thinking i had to get away from the bike as it was heading for the ground i put all my force onto the pegs and pushed off to the left, grabbed the bottom of my helmet and tried pulling towards my chest, i remember seeing the sky and thinking this is how it ends as the bottom of my body hit the ground first and i felt my head going down...at that point i was knocked out.
A trooper was sitting along the frontage road trying to catch the drunks leaving the bar, said he heard me coming, saw the deer and called it in as a fatal accident. I slid around 60 yards on the asphalt before i hit the grass median that slowed me down some before my left leg was shattered by a gaurd rail post. Bike hit the gaurdrail on the right immediately after it hit the ground and was literally sheared in 2. Keep in mind this all happened in under 3 seconds according to the trooper, it felt like hours till i was knocked out. Had all my gear on and a leather joe rocket jacket, which is what saved my ***!!! Managed to loose a boot(HH ropers none the less, lace ups not slip ons) tore threw my jeans and rashed the hell outta the back of my legs, tore the back out of the jacket and split my arai helmet shield to the back, according to the trooper as he climbed the fence to get on the highway i was trying to get up on my right leg. Nice helicopter ride, a crap load of pins and a decent concussion but i survived. That was the last bike i rode until i bought my 900, still get the chills from time to time when i am on her but i tell you what i live with pain in my left leg everyday that reminds me to slow down, i got a second chance and may not be so lucky next time!

 

In 1992 I got my very first CBR600F2, a beautiful bike in red and white ... I had an older GPZ500 prior to this and the F2 seemed big and very fast to me by comparison. My next door neighbour, James, a guy of about 23 at the time used to always come out and talk to me when I cleaned my bikes on the driveway ... he loved bikes too but didn't own one yet and he was mesmerised by this lovely red and white F2. He used to tell me if he had a bike like that he would be out everywhere on it and never coming home.

You could see how fired up he was over bikes and he told me how he used to go on the back with a few friends several years earlier and that he was saving to buy a GPZ600. One beautiful summers evening I was just taking the polish off the F2 and he came out with a cuppa for us both. I just said on the spare of the moment I was thinking of taking her out for a spin down to the river at Chester and did he want to come on the back with me ... he was only a small guy so I knew I could handle him as pillion. He eagerly agreed and said to show him what it could do ... I must admit I loved his enthusiasm, he was always like "wow, wow, just wow" etc.

I was only 17, and bright as a shiny button back then ... and I had the best instruction from my dad on how to ride safely from road sense to counter steering ... in my mind I was awesome and obviously invincible like every 17 year old ..lol.

Ten minutes later and we are headed out of the road we lived on and turning onto the main Chester road ... a busy but fast two lane causeway in parts, I told him before we left when I open her up and go into the power band I will tap your knee ... I said this means you put your arms right around me and hold on real tight, he agreed and so we got progressively faster as I felt he was fine on the back and doing what he was told.

The road ahead cleared and went into two wide lanes, we were already doing about 70mph, I tapped his knee, he clung on and I dropped her two gears to hit the power band and accelerate really fast ... the speedo shot up quickly and the bike was pulling through 100mph in seconds, then 110mph and I could hear James wooting in his helmet ... then suddenly ahead a big four wheel drive appeared waiting to pull out of a farmers field ... he had stopped and was waiting but then beyond belief he pulled out on us, he panicked when he saw our closing speed and did the worst thing ever .. he stopped!! right across the road in front of us!! ... we had mere seconds left to live.

I knew we were both dead and likely the driver too at this speed ... all these thoughts and reactions happen in mere split seconds, your mind works fast like it has gone into some kind of ninja stealth mode ... I grabbed the front brake and the rear ... my only hope was to lessen the speed of impact, somewhat ..but we would still collide at over 80mph ... I over braked and the bike went out of control, to this day I am not sure if it was a violent wobble or partial tank slapper, it was very violent and fast and I braced for impact ... there was no going over the top of this car either it was a Range Rover thing so we were going to slam into the side and die horribly, all these thoughts in about 0.25s ... the brain can be amazing with it's speed of thought process at times.

Then, a miracle happened ... at the very last second the driver must have regained composure and got the car going across the road again, the result was as we shot past on the bike I almost felt my knee brush the back of the car as he moved out of the way. The bike continued on and amazingly never spat us off, the wobble simply died out and the bike ran straight again ... I looked down to see us slowing past 70mph, we would indeed be dead had we hit.

In shock I just carried on riding ahead, I didn't brake or anything ... I just bimbled along about 60mph my heart in my mouth ... I could hear James wooting still, he was quite mad .... at the next junction I pulled over, we got off the bike and I was about to tell James that I was so, so sorry for that when he suddenly began hugging the life out of me ... he said that was amazing, he was on some kind of high or he was just insane ..lol

I told him, we nearly died back there and he was like "but we didn't" ... I told him it was no thanks to me or anything I did ... I began to cry over what I had nearly done and he sat on the grass with me for ages just talking and calming me down, what amazes me is he was absolutely fine about it, I don't get that?? ... I was wrecked and shaking, it all seemed like a bit of fun to him ... I couldn't believe it!!

To this day when I think back I don't know how we came through this ... you had to be there but it really was game over, just another bike fatality with no way out ... call it what you will, maybe it just wasn't our time, maybe our guardian angels stepped in, maybe it was nothing more than luck ... all I know is I never got past what I nearly did and to this day have never taken anyone on the back of a bike since ... the answer is no, just no!!

It is is funny writing this all down, I never told anyone ... especially not my dad ... he would not only have been mad with me but very hurt too after all his hours of instruction and drumming safety into me ... no, I had to live with what I nearly did myself and not tell anyone, it bothered me for a long, long time ... I was better than this, more sensible but I let a moment of insanity take me and nearly got us both killed, how stupid was that??

I did not get us out of that pickle that day, something else did, and it is my belief the excellent handling of the F2 saved us as well ... older bikes would have gone into a terminal tank slapper or wobble and would not recover but the F2 settled right back down again once I let the brakes go ...

To this day I question should a 17 year old be allowed to have a 100Bhp motorbike no matter how sensible he/she is ... I always thought I was most sensible but I wasn't, obviously ... I mean even middleaged people get carried away on powerful bikes ... I was a mere child at 17, the older you get the more you realise just how much of a child you are at those kind of ages ... take care out there, no matter who you are or how old you are.

I can't believe how upset I am here writing this all down, even after all these years................it just really bothers me to this day



Jules

 

Alright, I'll just put it out there right now... there's a good chance that many many people think I ride like a dick on the regular. I've calmed down a lot this year since upgrading and most of my riding like a dick actually happened when I was on a 250.

One of the dickest things I've ever done was one time I was in a town about 30 minutes away and I had a meeting with my fellow teachers. Now, a 250 tops out at around 160 mph, 175 if I'm downhill and have the wind with me (literally), but I decided I'd pin it for the whole ride back to town. The ride involved splitting lanes at full bore, several times included traffic that was going both ways since it was a two-way single lane each way county road. I also ran every light.

Before the 250 I had an incident with a 125. I was in a really pissed off mood and decided to relieve my stress by riding like as much of a dick as possible. Suffice to say, I crashed into someone and it didn't really help the stress. Now, I try to pull over if I'm ever in a really bad mood or I smoke a ciggy and take a deep breath before I ride.

I know the title is the "last time", but these two thoughts always stick out way in my mind whenever I think about the naughty things I've done on two wheels.

 

I think people here would tell me to buy a Suzuki if I actually posted up some of the story's ive had in the 9 years of riding since I was 17 lol

 

What 250 do YOU have? Holy crap I think you mean KPH :P lol.

The 250 I bought my girlfriend went 105-108 downhill with a tail wind :P