3mo ago

Dropped my bike for the first time

Bought a new bike in June, been riding it almost everyday (when the weather allows for it) and haven’t had any oopsies with it. I have about 3100km on the odometer.

I pull into my garage and it’s a tight fit between my kayak and my car and I guess the ground was a bit too slippery or maybe I overturned (or both) and next thing I know my bike is tipping to the right and I’m not able to stop it.

I guide it down but it’s 414lbs and I am a small guy most days so it falls on my surron, knocks that over too. Fortunately nothing got super damaged and I was able to quickly turn off the engine and the bike.

My first thought was “I’ve broken the brake lever and my mirror I’m fucked”. Second was “how am I going to lift this when the hot side is down???”

Fortunately and to my surprise, the bike was quite easy to pick up. I’ve never picked up a downed bike ever. My feet slipped a bit as I was pushing but I got it back upright without a struggle.

My mirror seemed to absorb most of the impact and it just unscrewed so I screwed it back into place and readjusted. Test front and back brake and they work fine and no sign of damage.

I don’t even have any scratches. I guess maybe the foot peg also took some force. I’m a lucky dude and I feel very dumb even though it’s a guarantee one drops the bike at least once. Just waiting for the adrenaline to calm down. 😆

18 comments

You know it was going to happen sooner or later, and be glad it wasnt on the road. So, congrats! You’ve got your first one out of the way.
- Yeah in hindsight this was the best way it could happen. Out of nowhere when I least expect it at very low speed. I feel initiated.
You clearly had to layer down, no way you could of avoided it. Probably saved you're life.
- There was no clibbins but still haddalayerdown
I dropped mine as a new rider in a parking lot due to two contradicting signs (yay construction). Break light sensor on rear break getting in a weird state was the only issue, thankfully.
Dropped it in my garage a couple of weeks ago. Thought the stand was down but I guess it sprung back up. No damage to the bike, a bruise and soreness for me. I wanted to get out of the high heat and humidity so probably wasn't being as careful as I should have been.
What's interesting is that, at least at the place I went, we had to be able to pick up the bike to take license classes so I just assumed everywhere did that.
- Yeah I’m definitely sore in the left arm while trying to stop it from going down.
  For my classes they just had us walking bikes around and then lots of emphasis on clutch control and slow speed friction point parking lot stuff. Nothing on how to pick the bike up or driving faster than 40km/h.
The trick to lifting a heavy bike is to use your legs pushing your ass backwards into the saddle from the side of the bike. You kind of walk it up backwards.
There's a video of a small woman (120lbs) standing up a 600lb bike this way. This was a game changer for me and my 600lb, tall as hell bike.
- I wanted to reply with this same tip. A fellow biker taught me that out in the field. It made it way easier to pick up my 1200cc cruiser!
- Ya this trick is what I saw on YouTube and figured I’d have to do it too. For my bike though I was able to just push the saddle and hold the handlebars to get it upright. I guess by motorcycle standards it’s pretty light for a road bike at 400ish pounds.
Why did the bike lay down? It was two tired!
Better it happened at home and slow speed than on the road, but for sure it's an adrenaline inducing event nevertheless.
When I was taking lessons I dropped the driving school's bike like 4 times, broke a peg too. I have no prior experience with mopeds etc and the bike I was using was slightly too large for me to handle comfortably when learning to ride. I soon bought myself a fitting bike and finished the lessons & test on it, no problem. Since then I've dropped it twice, first one was when I was moving it to winter storage after the first season and it was parked on the road where I had to take an instant tight turn when leaving the spot. Weather was already quite cold and I didn't wait for the bike to warm up properly, so the bike stalled mid turn and I fell. Last summer I tipped the bike when parking on a sand road. I got off the bike, put it on stand, the stand is a bit wonky and moved and sunk into the soft sand and I also had camping gear on the bike so it just went. That time the plugs got wet and had to clean them before the bike agreed to start and also the casing for meters took some damage. This summer I had a close call when waiting at the lights, there was sand on the asphalt that I didn't notice and when I was shifting weight, feet on the ground, my other foot started slipping. Thankfully it was a near miss this time.
As long as you don't get hurt too bad everything else can be fixed or replaced!
- Man after this you must hate sand.
  
  Now that you mentioned it I also got sand inside the engine once when doing some repairs. I guess sand and the bike have a beef going!
  
  As an old motorcyclist, fuck sand.
  One of my bikes is tall - I look hard at where I'm stopping now. It's taught me some lessons.
- I think so! When you drop your bike, do things get damaged?

18 comments