So, I’ve decided to get my mid-life crisis over at the age of 29, and am considering a motorcycle. It has little to no practical value in my life, as my commute is 12 minutes and I would have to find excuses to ride it. But, no matter, I’m sure I could find such excuses.
I’ve been reading the many threads with bike suggestions, and the issue of buying a relatively inexpensive, used bike to start with has come up because, it is said, “dropping” the bike is a foregone conclusion when you are starting out. Road rash is brought up as well.
So, I guess my question is, isn’t it really bad to fall while riding a motorcycle? I mean, broken bones and such? It can’t simply be dust yourself off, collect your pride and get back on, can it?
Assuming I’m not a total jackass going 85 mph, how bad is falling on a motorcycle? Any stories?
You’re more likely to die than if you were in the same accident with a car.
Car hits car, both going 25 mph you are likely not going to get ejected. Bike hits car going 25 miles an hour, you may feel like superman for a few moments before your cranium impacts the concrete.
Don’t even get me started if the road is wet. Stay with 4 wheels unless you are evry confident of your riding ability. Some folks here are accomplished riders, decades under their belt. They can shed more light.
That much I understand, but a large number of bikes I look at used, mention that the bike has been dropped before. It seems very common, and that was a bit surprising to me.
Believe me, I would take every safety and training course in the world before I spent a dollar on purchasing a bike.
Well, unless your a complete moron most people aren’t going to drop their motorcycle going 70mph down the highway, riding in a straight line.
Of course there are other idiots out there that might make you lose it but that’s a different story. If we’re talking strickly about the RIDER’S error; then most of the time it’s when your going realitively slow, like taking a turn and not noticing the loose gravel on the road or not leaning with the bike etc…
Or if you’re a real moron like me a couple of months ago; I had stoped my bike to park. I * thought* I had put my kickstand down. What I didn’t realize was is that it had snaped back up; so when I went to leaned the bike over towards the kick stand; it kept right on going all the way down to the pavement; whith me in tow. :smack:
Just remember when you lay your bike down: LET GO! It’s not like a bull you’re riding in a rodeo.
My dad used to ride a bike (much to my mother’s horror) and he fell a couple of times, at least once because some kids jumped out in front of him to scare him. He was scratched up, but ok, but I think he was going pretty slow. Same with a friend in highschool, who wiped out on a patch of gravel, and looked horrible for awhile, but was ok. I know my dad was wearing a helmet, which makes all the difference in the world.
The other thing I’ve heard is to wear good heavy shoes, and thick pants like jeans. But yeah, if you run into a stationary object at high speed, it’s a crap shoot. From anectdotal evidence, almost every rider has fallen at least once. I don’t have any statistics, though.
I am not a rider, though I’ve been around those who do for my whole life (which is precisely why I don’t ride).
As most bikers will tell you, no matter how well you ride, you can expect to dump your bike at least once in your riding career. And it may not be your fault at all. Motorcycles are harder to see in traffic, and as a result many accidents occur involving them that may not have had the rider been in a car.
And they can happen at slow speeds. My mother dropped hers going around a corner at about 15 mph when she hit some loose gravel. My step-father dumped his when a car ran a stop sign and nearly T-boned him. Friend of the family was killed when his front tire inexplicably burst while doing about 35 and he went face first over the handlebars (no helmet laws in Idaho).
About road rash, as I understand it, chaps are pretty much required. Wearing shorts is just silly, but apparently just jeans make road rash worse. That layer of leather makes a big difference I’m told.
As far as bikes being dropped, it does happen fairly frequently, and it’s amazing how costly one little fall can be… They’re precariously balanced on that kickstand and it doesn’t take much to topple it, not to mention that some of them can get pretty heavy and difficult to balance for smaller riders.
Oh, wanted to add, in response to the question in the OP about dusting and getting back up:
If you’re dressed right and prepared for the eventuality, it is possible. I’ve known several people who’ve died in accidents, and I’ve also known several that have been on a new bike as soon as the insurance check was delivered.
In the incident where my step-father dumped his bike, he was thrown over 20 feet, and slid another 30+, but survived with nary a scratch on him because he was clad head to toe in the right gear (thick leather jacket, chaps, boots, helmet, gloves, etc.).
Dropping a bike implies (at least to me) that either the bike fell over at low speed or it low sided, where it slid out from under the rider. I’ve low sided twice, both times in the rain, going about 30mph on old oily asphalt. The first time was on a Vespa scooter; I shifted from second to third, and the change in power was enough to break the rear wheel free. The second time was on a chopper while rounding a slight bend in a road. Both falls made my hip hurt where I fell on it, but the road was slick enough that I just got a little rash here and there. The biggest problem was that I was sliding down the street on my back (remember, don’t stand up until you have a handful of nonmoving ground!), and either time could have been worse if I had been going faster or if the bike had washed out before an intersection instead of on an empty street.
High siding is a lot less fun. it’s where the bike begins to wash out, but then the wheels regain traction (either by your releasing a locked up brake, or by the wheels catching on better pavement or the grass at the side of the road or whatnot.) When this happens, the bike acts as a catapult, launching you over the top, and then tumbles after you and possibly over you. High siding may not be as bad as being hit by a car, but that’s like saying that one would rather be hit by a truck than by a train. There is an art to falling off a bike, and it’s something that most motorcycle safety classes should cover.
Beyond that, I’d throw out the idea that one rides a bike, you don’t drive it. Besides collisions or high speed falls, most of the more serious accidents I’ve heard of were made worse because the rider fought to make an out of control bike do something that it wasn’t going to do.
A guy where I work learned to ride and bought a brand-new Japanese rice-rocket style motorcycle and fell over on it the first day he had it, in the parking lot while going all of about 5 MPH. He leaned over too far while making a U-turn, and the bodywork contacted the ground, and the whole thing just kinda slid out from under him. He wasn’t injured but did look pretty silly.
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It happened to me once as well - with my brand new bike too :smack: They’re surprisingly heavy falling down!
I’ve been riding a bike for almost a decade, and I’m speaking from personal experience here: you’re more likely to drop a bike going slow than fast, and at higher speeds, it’s less likely to be your fault. So dress properly, treat your bike with respect, and ride carefully - you should be ok!
Jeans don’t do jack for you at higher speeds, so leather is definitely the way to go. And a good jacket, preferably with reinforced elbows and shoulders. Gloves, too. I don’t care how hot it is outside, the water you lose through sweat can be replaced a whole heckuva lot easier than the skin you’ll lose dropping the bike without them.
And even if your home state doesn’t mandate a helmet, wear one anyway, and not some little plastic skull cap that’s only a slight cut above a styrofoam bicycle helmet.
128 Ways to Drop Your Motorcycle.
I’ve low-sided several times, mostly got bruises and a little road rash. One time I got cut off by a car driver who ran a stop sign. Missed the car, but the bike was sliding almost completely sideways and then caught traction, and I flipped over it. Tumbled down the road about 50 feet, sprained an ankle and injured my knee. I still have the leather jacket I wore that day, it’s still serviceable but I wear jackets with Knox body armor now.
I low sided once with my wife on the back. Classic low speed, coming around a sandy corner sort of scenario. Had my leathers on (jacket & gloves) and jeans, as did my wife. I got some road rash on my knees, but the jacket and gloves took most of it. My wife landed on me thankfully, so she was not injured at all. I can only echo what so many other have said; wear leather. It really does protect you.
So leather is an every single time you ride thing, I assume?
And, “dropping” more refers to low speed (or no speed) falls over. If a used bike refers to being dropped, then it likely didn’t go down at over 15 mph?
Dropping, to me, always meant low speed fallovers. Like, you’re trying to turn a corner at low speed, and you drop the bike.
Supposedly, every new motorcyclist does this and thus the advice “buy a crappy bike as your first bike.” Everyone told me that, over and over.
I called bullshit on it. I didn’t WANT a crappy bike, I wanted a NICE bike. I took a rider’s safety course. I researched. I asked people “how many times did you drop your first bike?”
The typical answer was “never.”
I bought a nice bike - a brand new Kawasaki Vulcan. The only time it dropped was when I let a friend who didn’t really know how to ride try it out. She dropped it on a slow turn, and landed on one of the footpegs. No damage.
Well, my plan, if I actually carry it out, is to buy a decent used bike to start with. I’ve had bad experiences with buying “crappy” in the used car department, so would rather spend a bit more and go with “decent”.
I’ve seen the threads on this, and have started my research with a half dozen bikes recommended here. Most of them are pretty common bikes, and are widely available used. I’m sure that I’ll grow out of it in a few years, and want to move to something new.
Dropping (for a learning rider) to me has always meant just that – you’re at a standstill and you literally drop the bike. I did it a couple time when I was learning, as did every person I’ve taught. (Now, the bike in question was a 700 pound 750, with full fairing and hard bags; fortunately, it also had “crash bars” that took the brunt of the drops with only a few scratches to show for it.)
Well, I am not a motorcyclist, but since several of my friends are, my advice would be that the bike going over WILL happen eventually - even hitting a line painted on the road can do it if the circumstances are right and you are unlucky. In order to prevent damage to your bike, invest in a set of crash mushrooms or whatever they are called in your neck of the woods. In order to protect you, invest in a set of proper motorcycle gear - helmet, armoured boots, gloves, jacket, trousers. This investment will hopefully make a low-speed bike drop an ‘aw shucks’ experience costing only pride rather than money or scar tissue. A high-speed incident is russian roulette anyhow, but they’ll still help.
