..at a junction going into a major but not busy road. One car driver behind me, wife pillion. Not exactly sure if I was in the wrong gear or just not enough throttle but stalled and lost balance and went over at virtually zero miles and hour.
Wife fine, my ribs hurt for some reason, strain, trying to hold it up maybe, not sure why exactly. Pride still in the gutter. No damage, got up and rode on.
First time ever I've dropped a bike, feeling like a bit of a dick.
I once crashed mine on my own driveway. Slightly ran a policeman over. Also fell off in tebay services because my leg had fallen asleep- thing is, I knew perfectly well my leg had fallen asleep, that's the only reason I pulled into the services but that didn't stop me from forgetting my leg had fallen asleep, trying to put imy foot down, failing, and just tipping over instead with foot still on peg all the way down.
And none of those were as bad as doing the brake lock thing.
You're in good company @jon1973. As long as nobody's hurt. I find it helps wearing a helmet too as nobody can see your face!
Also remember a few drops when i first learnt to ride on a KLR650. Once on a steep hill, blind corner waiting to turn right. Shit myself picking it up hoping i didn't get hit by a car.
Had an awesome crash on my driveway timber bridge once. It was almost as if i'd fallen asleep or something. Front washed out and handlebars shifted. I had to ride back to the shed with the handlebars askew 🙂
Been there a couple of times.
Don't sweat it
Don't sweat it fella. First timer o dropped mine was at a garage, filling up. I waved enthusiastically at my old instructor who helped me pass my test the week before, then promptly dropped the bike.
Twice so far… once was just after I got it and it popped a side of the indicator. The second time was last Friday when I slightly missed the paving the center stand normally sits on and it, very slowly, tipped away from me.
My girlfriend is borrowing it to commute while I am working from home and dropped it again last night trying to park it. I was sad.
Years ago at some lights watched a short-arse pal in front drop his bike.
I'd told him it was too tall for him, always on tip-toes - but he was too tight to get the seat lowered an inch or so.
For me, all my 'drops' were at speed...
I've crashed plenty, some big and fast, some slow and daft.
My funniest was when i wasn't even on the bike... i ran it over with my own car !!
It happens to us all though, we've all been there and done that. In the same way we've all crashed in the car park at a trailcenter/start point.
I dropped my Goldwing the other day, the bigger surprise was I picked it up on my own too!!!
I dropped my XS 11 outside a hairdressers (rocking it off the centre stand).I threw myself underneath to stop it getting scratched then had to shout for help getting it picked up.Any biker cred that I had earned while chatting in the hairdressers earlier evaporated.Bike was ok though 😀😃
I passed my test with a sidecar attached. then i took it off, went out for a spin. first set of lights i fell over. I forgot to put my feet down
I dropped my Goldwing the other day, the bigger surprise was I picked it up on my own too!
Well done. Do they sort of "roll up" on various contact points? So you're not lifting too much of the bike at once?
And did you have your back to the bike, lifting in a wall-squat position? Best tip I've seen for getting a heavy bike back up. Only had to do it once so far with the big sports tourer. So far. Fingers crossed.
It gently came to rest on the crash bars so I didn't have to lift it too far! Yep, back to it is the best way.
😀
Don't beat yourself up @jon1973 we've all done it and will most likely do it again at some point. Last time for me was in a busy car park last year, coasted across the car park, knocked it down in to first and just as I was about to stop I gave it a bit of throttle to pull forward into a space, lots of revs, no movement, confusion, over I went. I'd knocked it into neutral and hadn't noticed.
Yip. We've all done it. My best was forgetting to take the disc lock off my ZZR600. Pull off, front wheel gets half a rotation... KLUNK... fall over sideways in the pub car park
I dropped my Goldwing the other day, the bigger surprise was I picked it up on my own too!
Technically, that's powerlifting, isn't it?
I’ve seen a friend do it.
Plastic bag had blown onto his foot / footpeg when riding up to some lights, went to put his foot down and couldn’t move it.
I dropped my Blackbird in the garage...on my bicycles! Which I was more annoyed at. No damage to any of them.
I had a ZZR1100 parked on the drive. Wife let the nephew sit on it whilst on the side stand. It tipped over in slow motion. Indicator lense and clutch lever... <sigh>
On the ZZ I hit some gravel whilst braking quite hard (ahem) right side rearset and brake lever + slightly scuffed exhaust and plastics <tears>
That's it for my faux pas. I helped a bloke recently on (off) a giant trailee who stopped at a junction then slow motion barn doored to one side. He was really, really embarrassed and I felt a bit sorry for him.
Dropped the griso parking up at work after the first time I brimmed the fuel tank. As heavy as it was normally with a full tank it was properly top heavy.
Half the tank pissed out of the breather while I was trying to get it back upright - the flagstones outside the office stank for weeks
I once did almost exactly as the OP described. Pulling out of a side street and hadn't kicked all the way down to first. Got about a yard and stalled, the centre of gravity was over such that I couldn't...
quite...
keep...
it...
and I laid it gently down on its side in the road. If I'd 'crashed' any slower I'd have gone back in time.
I once dropped my bike - an Orange Evo2 with freshly-fitted SPD pedals - I rode up and down the road and stopped to speak to a neighbour then fell over in slow motion as I couldn't unclip.
My neighbour looked very bemused as I fell sideways in front of him.
I’ve dropped mine twice. First time was on such a cold day that the side stand was stuck down, I was off the bike just trying to manoeuvre it and I was having to hoof the stand so hard to try and get it up, lost the balance of the bike the other way. Second time was in front of my mates after filling up, moved off from the pump, stopped to wait for them, on a slight downslope and my left foot slipped on gravel - cue a slow motion sideways topple to everyone’s amusement.
Still, could be worse, two of my riding mates are advanced police motorcyclists and have dropped police bikes in front of members of the public - can’t be worse than that!