Have you or will you be in an accident?

[mcatrophy]

Not counting zero-speed drops, of which I've had too many, the only accident I've had in my second life of motorcycling was a minor low-side in April 2008, published here, some 43000 miles ago. Ok, I don't ride enough, but still high by UK standards.

In my first life, I was very young, therefor totally indestructible. Even so the only "accident" I remember was a low-side, pulling out from a junction with a rapidly deflating rear tyre. With, would you believe, my mother on the back. My poor Tiger Cub. My poor mother!

 

[gixxerjasen]

Here's the thing. Survey people around you and find out how many have been driving or riding for any significant amount of time and have NEVER had an accident. You'll not find very many. This means that the odds of having an accident at some point in time in your life are pretty high. Granted, some don't but that's a very low number.

Also the big logical fallacy in that myth is that just because you fall into one group, you aren't in the other. If you've had an accident it doesn't mean you won't have another.

 

[russperry]

4 for me. 1 in college, second one in 2000, third one was the dumbest - spun in some gravel near home in a left turn after a stop and high sided doing about 10mph. Fourth was the worst - in 2011 with Bugnatr and others, high sided at about 50 after hitting a tiny patch of unseen sand on the road to Quincy. My FZ1 held up pretty well but I was knocked around a bit. Luckily none of mine involved another vehicle or animal and I haven't hit anything hard other than the ground.

I expect more but hopefully not on the street! I've got a full track day schedule planned this year and though certainly not planning on it, I'm prepared mentally for the possibility.

 

[tcfjr]

In 1975, when I was 18 and had maybe 1000 miles of road riding under my belt, a car made a u-turn from the curb right in front of me on a suburban street, and I low-sided when I over-corrected the avoidance maneuver. I was going maybe 25-30 mph, on a Yamaha RD350. Unfortunately, being young and naive I wasn't wearing adequate shoes, and the top of my right foot got scraped up to the point I needed a nickel-size skin graft to close it up.

Nothing else in the 120,000 miles after that, and I'm ATGATT ever since that first one.

 

[Geezer]

"Accident" is so vague. Originally started riding enduro on dirt trails, and if you hadn't been "Down" - You just hadn't been riding enough.

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the title. I think the word 'crash' is more appropriate.

Personally, I have ridden a total of about 250K miles and only crashed once. That was a minor deer strike. I've had a lot of close calls and a few tip overs where I toppled over while stopped for various reasons.

 

[Old Guy]

I taught MSF classes from '80 through '95 and had a few old timers with hundreds of thousands of miles with no accidents. I'm not one of them. I'm an old timer for sure, but I've slid it down the highway a few times. Luckily I've only had one very minor altercation with a car; the rest were my fault from my own errors.

My last one was the fall -- uh, er, Autumn -- of '08. New tires, foggy, cool day, curve at what I thought was a reasonable speed -- ow!.

 

[leclairk]

I'm less than 10K miles with 2 get-offs. Both times downhill, sharp curve, going too fast. At least I'm consistent. The lesson? Slow down, speed kills or in my case, hurts for a few days. I sometimes go back and forth on whether or not I should ride a motorcycle. The problem is I absolutely love it. The speed is intoxicating. The only thing I love more are my wife and kids, that's sort of the problem. Motorcycles are dangerous, anyone who tells you different is not being honest with themselves. I will continue to ride. I have to. It's one of the few things that really makes me feel alive. I'm just hoping my next accident will be minor and I can continue to ride.

 

[MCRIDER007]

I'm less than 10K miles with 2 get-offs. Both times downhill, sharp curve, going too fast. At least I'm consistent. The lesson? Slow down, speed kills or in my case, hurts for a few days. I sometimes go back and forth on whether or not I should ride a motorcycle. The problem is I absolutely love it. The speed is intoxicating. The only thing I love more are my wife and kids, that's sort of the problem. Motorcycles are dangerous, anyone who tells you different is not being honest with themselves. I will continue to ride. I have to. It's one of the few things that really makes me feel alive. I'm just hoping my next accident will be minor and I can continue to ride.

I'll give you high marks for honesty but you are an accident looking for a time and place to happen. Sell your FJR and buy a track bike where you can get the need for speed out of your system and crash in semi-controlled conditions.

 

[RichDoyle]

Like some others, I'm not sure how to answer these two questions, given their wording. I've had a few crashes, but what constitutes an accident? In something like 300K miles, I've never been seriously injured, never broken anything, never even had so much as a bandaid as a result. I've had 3 collisions with cars (one angled head-on, one sideswipe from a car, and was rear-ended once). The last two I didn't even go down, and only the first one caused the bike to be undriveable (for a few days). I did have a slick road single-vehicle crash in 2005, maybe 40K miles ago. That was the last crash of any kind I've had. But it totalled my first ST1300 (crash bars that bolt to the engine produce mixed results in this kind of crash).

 

[bluesdog]

Two in more years/miles than I care to contemplate. Both result of oil(?) spill in road. First one my headlight got nailed by the high back end of a pickup, with no damage to the pickup, and I didn't drop the bike. Second was a low side, resulting in a broken front left turn signal. Got a couple of bruises from that one, but no serious damage to bike or self in either accident.

 

[petey]

I don't wanna talk about it...

I will say this, almost all of them where my fault

and made me (IMO) a better rider...

 

[fjRaven]

Really, did you have to bring this up?? Trying to jinx someone?

 

[Justin]

Really, did you have to bring this up?? Trying to jinx someone?

Jinxes only work if you're superstitious. :lol:

 

[airboss]

I don't wanna talk about it...

I will say this, all of them where my fault

and made me (IMO) a better rider...

I'm with Petey on this one.

Gotta say crashing is a sh*tty way to buy a new motorcycle.

 

[timk]

First few years,starting in 1966 I was on my ass regulary, as I thought motorcycles were to be ridden WFO. Lat 400k have been accident free, except parkin lot ease overs.

 

[Chuck35]

In my late teens / early 20's i rode a bicycle full time and had quite a few "mishaps" most were a result of my irresponsible actions. The others could have been avoided.

(knock on wood) I have never been involved in a motorcycle collision on public roads. I have no freaking idea how many miles I have ridden.

 

[Richouse]

I've had 1, well maybe 2 accidents while on a bike. Both of which I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. 1st. one I was at a stop sign completely stopped waiting for my turn when this older gentleman misjudged the distance between us while pulling up behind me. He bumped me just as he came to a stop. It startled me for sure but I managed to keep the bike up. Only damage was a bent license plate.

2nd time I was a little less fortunate. I was on an on ramp to a major interstate yielding to some merging traffic. I was going about 5mph (just fast enough to not have to put my feet down) when this F-150 SLAMMED into my rear going about 20-25mph. After sliding about 50 feet on the side of the bike it came to a stop on its left side with me laying on top of it. Bike was totaled...

 

[beemerdons]

My two road accidents are forty years apart and both were caused by these dirty, rotten and miserable *******s: Western Mule Deer!

In Marin County, CA in 1972 on my Harley-Davison Sportster XLCH and in 2012 near Torrey, UT on my BMW K1600GT - Forum Ride!

 

[James]

I've had 3 accidents in around 250,000 miles. First in '89, going back to work after lunch a car turned left in front of me and I was about an inch from missing him but caught his rear bumper and tore it off, going over the bars in the process. Bruised, but had the officer who handled it give me a ride to work. Second in '99 when I cut a deer in half on the way back to camp from Chaco Canyon in NM. Long story short broke my L. shoulder blade and collar bone. Third was in '11, guy turned left in front of me on my way to work, missed him but went down in the sand in the intersection. Broke my R. shoulder blade and 3 ribs. So I figure I'm due in about '21 or so .

 

[BkerChuck]

First accident, 1995, leaving a hearing regarding my divorce proceedings, mind not where it should've been, rear ended a stopped car. At this point I'd been riding about 10 years on and off and had about 15k miles experience.

2002, came around a corner and hit a deer standing broadside in my lane. Oncoming car in other lane, guardrail on my right. Speed was within posted imits but I had no viable escape route.I was actually on my way home from a doctors appointment and just found out I had a hernia. Overall, not a good day.Probably had 60k miles under my belt.

2010, carrying on with a buddy of mine on my Buell, grabbed a little too much front brake and it taught me a lesson by washing out the front end.Aprroximately 80k miles experience.

I've been very fortunate to have never been seriously hurt besides breaking my wrist in the first accident. First and last accidents definitely my own fault and I accept full responsibility. The deer, I don't know. I've replayed this in my head for years and still don't know of anything I could have done differently taht would have changed the outcome. My speed was appropriate, I had on the right riding gear, I was sober and alert.