Not recently, but back in the day I dropped my beautiful 955 Daytona. Scuffed exhaust and snapped indicator.
I dropped someone else’s bike once. Been MTBing and driving home when we came upon a lady who had dropped her Bonneville coming out of a junction. Nobody was stopping so we did. She and I lifted the bike up but then the weight carried it straight over the other side! To add to my bad deed the exhaust landed on my ankle and burned it. Not my finest moment
Save for the last two I dropped every single bike before that at least once…
Dropping bike is a yearly occurrence for me you’d think I would have learnt by now. It’s that 6 inches at the side of country lanes that always gets me, either side-stand sinking in, bad camber meaning bike parked too upright and wind taking it over, or getting the front wheel off the tarmac when trying to make room to pass oncoming traffic.
Last incident was two months ago in the Yorkshire Dales when side-stand sunk when I stopped to take a photo, fortunately it just rested on grass so no damage. (And before you say it, yes I have a puck I could use for side-stand but for photo and pee stops I make sure I’m on tarmac or firm ground, though obviously I’m not 100% diligent ).
Yes very easy to drop your bike, I feel your pain. I’ve ordered new levers (waiting on delivery) and confirmed with WofT that they have a rear brake pedal in stock. Haven’t pushed the button on it yet cause I’m going to try and straighten the one on the bike.
The main issue is the right side bar end mirror, which the fall has damaged the barrel inside the handle bar. Need to get the right side controls off before I can assess the damage.
I’m also encouraged by the number of people’s stories about dropping their bikes, which does ease my pain
We all drop bikes, you are just more honest than most of us and tell about it.
Ive dropped most of my bikes, including the last one. That decided me to lower the bike - 3cm.
It’s Catholic biking mate, it’s not a case of if but when…
It least the main bits like engine casings and the tank are ok mate. I’m surprised @Tigcraft hasn’t come up with some 'T Yorkshire bolt on Bracketing
Maybe he’s working on a prototype as I type…
I found pucks to be too much of a faff to use regularly, so I always fit a side stand foot enlarger to my bikes now. I don’t know why manufacturers generally put such small feet on their stands: it’s just asking for trouble.
Well immediately after posting my last post the postman (actually she is a very nice lady) arrived with my new levers. I got a pair from TEC and fitted them on the bike immediately.
They look just fine and better than the alloy oem ones.
Looking good Steve, I bet you were looking at getting some anyway. If the old ones are still usable might be an idea to keep them stored on the bike as get me home spares?
Thanks Ade, yes the thought had crossed my mind about putting aftermarket levers on, the drop kinda forced my decision.
Edit. Not sure the old ones are fit to keep, so I will scrap them.
6inches at the side of the road (snigger)
That is neat Wim
I’ve got something similar on my GS Wim, just be careful while you get used to it as the bike won’t lean so much when on the stand now. I have to be very careful about the camber of the road especially if I’m parking facing down hill which normally isn’t a problem for me as we drive on the left, but as you drive on the right it could make a difference?
It’s worse if your in the Southern Hemisphere
Not quite today - Sunday last, actually - but, hopefully, you’ll allow me some literary licence?
Another Blood Bike story but, worry not, it’s MUCH shorter than the last one!
Famous last words?
“I’m going up to bed, Hun., see you up there.”
My wife almost invariably goes to bed quite early – usually between 9 and 9.30 – and since, allegedly, I snore in the most disgracefully loud and disturbing manner …… though I’m not sure I believe this as I haven’t yet heard ANY evidence to support the claim …… I tend to stay up for around an hour or so in order for her to enter that wonderful phase of deep REM sleep before I seek the solace of my slumber.
“Yep, should be up soon – it all seems quiet on the phone.” Famous last words? That “quiet” phone rang less than 5 minutes later …………………………
“Hi Pam.” Pam was duty controller that evening.
"Hi Adrian, I have an URGENT for samples from RD&E (Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital) to North Devon District Hospital – are you OK to do this?”
“Yes, of course. It’ll take me 15 minutes to get ready and get the bike out so I should be at RD&E before 10. That OK?”
“Yes, that’s fine – I’ll see if anyone in North Group can do a relay, if you like?” South West Blood Bikes has organised Groups in North Devon; East Devon and South Devon giving us full coverage of the whole county and easy access, if required, to neighbouring organisations in Cornwall; Somerset and Dorset.
“Yes, sure, that would help and might save some time overall. M5 Junction 27 if they can?”
“OK, will let you know.”
I needed a warm polo neck on so I had the opportunity to get one from the bedroom wardrobe and let the better half know that I’d got a call out and would be back at around 23:00. This is, I guess, the hard bit for both of us. It would be SO easy to slip into the nice warm bed, snuggle under the duvet and slide gracefully into the comforting care of Morpheus but I knew when I signed up for this role that there would be good journeys; bad journeys and probably downright awful journeys – this, I felt, was definitely going to be one of the latter!
It was cold, wet and windy but at least the motorway seemed fairly quiet at this time on a Sunday evening – just the usual “heavies” and vans raising dense clouds of swirling spray through which the Honda Deauville none too gracefully ploughed.
I made it to the RD&E labs window at just about 22:00 and drew pitying looks from the two young ladies whom I thought might have been awaiting my arrival. I say “pitying looks” but it ‘s more likely they were faintly amused by the dripping, dishevelled wee fella in bike gear peering over the edge of the counter like some old vagrant seeking alms for the poor!
“I believe you have samples for delivery to North Devon District Hospital?”
“Yes, indeed” said one of the ladies, lifting a sealed, plastic bag from the box on the counter.
“And we also have one for Bristol Royal Infirmary” said the other with more than a faint hint of a warm smile on her face and a subtle undertone of a plea in the voice!
“Ermmmm…… Bristol? What, now? Tonight?” I’m not sure exactly what tone I might have inadvertently conveyed but it was probably a mixture of disbelief; confusion and desperation!
“Yes, it’s an urgent.” she said.
My mind was already busily working on the likely schedule and the ramifications – RD&E to NDDH if the relay couldn’t be arranged – hour and a half with all the current speed restrictions on the link road; NDDH to Bristol Royal Infirmary …… hmmmmm ……. No sat. nav. on the Deauville and BRI is one place that I haven’t yet had the pleasure of visiting so that could be quite some time to complete. NDDH to BRI looked to me at that moment in time like it would be the very “wee, small hours” before I would even get there!!
“We’ve spoken to your controller and she said for you to give her a call when you get here.”
Yes, of course – I’d normally have sent a ‘clearing’ message once back at the bike with my precious cargo in hand and destination confirmed but, a phone call was obviously going to be a necessity now to get a clear idea of exactly what tasking I would be getting.
“Hi Pam – it’s Adrian.”
“Hi Adrian. I’ve managed to confirm a relay with Graham of North group for the NDDH delivery – can you meet him at Junction 27 services please? You’ll have seen the request for samples to BRI. I’ve agreed with Freewheelers and arranged a meet and relay for the samples for BRI –hopefully Junction 24 services at 23:15, OK? Details are in a text message for you.”
“Yes, of course – that’s excellent! Both of those would work well for me. Thanks Pam!”
I turned back to the counter and the young ladies in their scrubs each had what looked like relieved faces and a warm smile. “Thank you SO much for this …” one of them said “… we’re really grateful you can do this!” I was immediately struck by the rich, albeit unintended, irony of that expression – the fundamental reason that I (and, I’m pretty certain, each and every one of my co-volunteers in SWBB) was doing this was by way of thanking THEM and their colleagues for the work they do in the frontline NHS. I think I muttered something about there being no need to thank me – maybe thank my controller for organizing and managing the logistics of two handover meets – and made my way back to the bike.
Back on the bike and heading out on the wet city streets I slipped gratefully back into “safe mode” – no need to worry about my lack of experience of Bristol locations and lack of a sat nav now – thankfully! All I did have to do was to try to make the two scheduled handover meetings with a minimum of delay – something which was probably a bit easier said than done given the worsening weather conditions and surprisingly busy roads in the city. Motorway traffic wasn’t as light as I’d hoped it would be when I set out on the assignment and the wind and rain hadn’t eased much, if at all, so making reasonable progress on the fairly tight schedules to the two scheduled relay meets was important. Each of the 2 volunteers I was meeting – Graham from North Group, and Maurice from Freewheelers EVS - faced journeys of probably an hour, minimum, to their respective hospital handover destinations and, of course, they then had their individual journeys onwards to home. Since my handovers to the two other volunteers were going to be at approximately 23:00 and 23:30 it was clear that all three of us would be late home from this “ball” and we each had to wish there was no Cinderella clause in the contract for these particular deliveries! As it was, I reached home at around 5 minutes after midnight but I suspect my two erstwhile ‘partners’ fared somewhat worse than did I. I guess, in circumstances such as these, it’s about “sharing the pain”?
I sank gratefully into bed around an hour or so after getting home – winding down from the “job” always requires some ‘down time’ for me regardless of it being the “wee small hours”. I guess it’s all about the release of tension and pressure …… not to mention the gradual dissipation of the ‘legal high’ of self-satisfaction that I get from completing a task of this sort.
I’ve no idea if I dreamt that night – or, rather, that morning – but I’m pretty sure my wife will tell you I snored as loudly as ever. Pure nonsense, of course – I don’t snore.
Famous last words?
You’re absolutely right Ade - that did take some getting used to. But on the whole I find it a very useful upgrade.
The evenings have been getting a bit chillier lately, so I spent this morning cleaning out the multi-fuel stove in the living room, ready for lighting some time in the next few days. We usually light the stove in October and don’t let it go out until May, burning smokeless ovoids, which usually just need two fills a day, and stay in all night. Our current stove was only installed in January, so still fairly new. Cleaning it out was still a mucky job. Once I’d worked out that the side fire bricks had to be taken out before the baffle plate could be removed or replaced, it all went well. (Some bad language until I’d worked that out though!) All clean and shiny now, though, ready for lighting as soon as we feel the need.