While taking some new pictures of my bike I decided I needed to stand it more upright and so I did. I took a few pics and then the 100 year old asian jogger in my hood jogged by at .5 mph and my dog decided he needed to be barked at. I got the dog away and proceeded to take pics. The old chap came back so I took my dog to the back yard. When I started to walk back I saw my bike falling over on the exhaust side. The end toll is one broken brake lever, one broken PM footpeg(thats gonna be expensive), one damaged shifter peg(more friggen money), one bent shifter arm( extremely expensive) and about 10 gouges in the end cone on my previously scratch free thunderheader. I figure this photo cost several hundred bucks before it was over. I am not sure if the dog or my falling bike scared the old man more. Thought he was gonna fall over and die. Here is a beautiful photo of the pieces of bike next to my bike%^*#&@*)&*)$%*#$&^&*()%&. So Its your turn to tell us your story of stupidity. I certainly earned the "dumb ass of the day" award. And yes, that is the puddle of gas by my front tire.

http://www.harleydavidsonbikers.com/forums/images/smilies/oops.gif http://www.harleydavidsonbikers.com/forums/images/smilies/stretcher.gif http://www.harleydavidsonbikers.com/forums/images/smilies/horse%20takes%20dump.gif

Man, that sucks. The hardest part is trying to look cool as you pick it back up. :o


Bart

DOH

As Homer would say. :yikes

So Its your turn to tell us your story of stupidity.

Okay, I missed that part. Here goes:

After a nice long night flight, I pull into my driveway, go to flip down the kickstand, get my shoelaces caught on it and the bike falls over on me.

I am SO glad nobody was watching! :cry1



Bart

Damn, I like the tank Ralph has on his bike!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/Turbota/Rottenralph.jpg

:flag_ariz

was parking the bike in the garage got off to open the door (pre auto door opener) got back on and dumped the clutch to do a killer burnie into the garage but guess what





with a 20 tooth drive sproket all it would do is lift , so with the front wheel about 2 feet off the ground and twelve feet to stop in before hitting the work bench I had some quick decisions to make

well I stoped in time missed the bench and went to close the door guess what , I was doing a burnie too , never did a one wheel burnout before

still scared the hell outa me

Rottenralph- you're breakin' my heart, man! :( That had to make you sick seeing that beautiful scoot fall over. (bet it happened in slow-motion too, huh?) I feel really bad for ya, man.

I know that I probably have one of these misadventures awaiting me sometime in the future...most likely in front of a large crowd of onlookers... :frownthre

Flathead- if you coulda video taped your garage incident, I bet you'd be a millionaire selling copies of it by now! :laugh

Sounds funny now, but I bet it was scary as sh!t at the time.

Did that on a way to a bike rally. Got off without putting down the kickstand and the bike fell on me and tripped me up. I almost did a domino drop on about 30 bikes. I got my share of stupid bike tricks out of the way now. Hope this is it. I never liked the pm footpegs anyway. It is hard as heck keeping your feet on them over 90. crap happens just why always to me. Maybe the green bike stuff is real.

While taking kawasakis advice about the proper spec for tightening the trans drain plug...the wrench kept turning..I got pissed off at it and kept turning it till something gave. The small flange that makes up part of the mounting boss for the drain bolt fell off, so now the new bolt once the cases were re-drilled would have 270 degrees of mounting surface at best. So I bought oneof those steel drainplugs that has a drainplug in its center..tapped the case for that, built up the area around the new bolt with jbweld and now I have a steel on steel drainplug that in theory is tons stronger than the original one screwed into kawasakis case that might as well be made of pot metal.

:frownthre Gives me butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it.

if it fell on the exhaust side, how did the shifter peg and arm damage???

It bounced over to the other side?

if it fell on the exhaust side, how did the shifter peg and arm damage???
its an old ironhead with a right side shifter?

OOps, it is the brake peg. Thanks for reminding me that the master cylinder cover is dented too.

Maybe the green bike stuff is real.

lemee tell ya about green bikes my friend. On second thought, nahhh.

I ride a green bike , olive drab is green

Another shoelaces story. Only they got hung up on the brake AND the shifter at the same time! I'm laying on the ground and as the smartass behind me drives around he says "Did ya just take the training wheels off today or what?" :smackh

Any significant paint damage? Or did you escape that nightmare?!

Did anyone else catch which category this thread is in? "Custom Finishing"

was parking the bike in the garage ... I was doing a burnie too... still scared the hell outa meI heard a story about a local guy who did a similar trick with his BT... he wasn't so lucky though ran into the side of his three day old F-150. I think the guy who was telling the story said he totalled both vehicles :eek:

Gary

Damn, I like the tank Ralph has on his bike!


Yeah me too. Looks strangely familiar.

Sorry for your misfortune RR.

Paint is unscathed. Just a flesh wound(monty python). Forward controls a big ouch. my guess is 200 for parts(they were 1000 new). Scratch on pipe sucks but I might come up with something to pretty that up. Brake lever is toast. Foot peg and brake peg dented about 1/2 inch and look like crap. Bolt broken off in footpeg. Master cyl cap has gouge in the side. Nothing on the tail of the bike touched. I new it was stupid but if you look at my gallery you can see the new pics and notice how straight the bike was sitting.(LOL)

Dabronco. I chose custom finishing since I finished off the foot peg, brake lever, brake actuator, and added custom etching(scratches to my mirror, throttle grip, and thunderheader.

This is not about custom finishing and it did not happen on a Sportster. But it sure was a dumb ass thing I did.

Was dirt bike camping approximately 1984. I was playing on a 4 stroke single cylinder 600 popping 1st gear wheelies around the campsite while waiting for the guys to go riding. I popped the wheel too high and my feet hit the ground. Instead of letting go of the bike, I tried the run along side and recover trick. I tore up my left knee but good. Instead of going to the doctor, I sat down and drank from the beer keg we brought up for the weekend. After an hour or so, I filled a milk jug with beer and went with the girls to the beach. Next, I proceed to full asleep on the beach wearing only a pair of shorts. When I wake up several hours latter I am sun burnt from head to toe; sick as a dog from the copious amount of beer, and my knee was so stiff and sore I could not walk. It was at this point that I decided I should head home. I managed to drive my pickup with a 3 speed manual transmission without ever using the clutch. I had to pee as soon as I got on the expressway. But, since I did not have a way to clutch the truck the starts and stops were not pretty. I drove the two hours home before I stopped.

Man that sucks RottenRalph. Sorry to hear about the damage to such a nice kick ass bike.

I was just trying to lighten up my mood after this strange day. Some seem confused why I put it here but I just added some broken custom parts to my bike which is part of the finishing process. I thought it was funny. I thought if I heard your tails of woe I would not feel like such a idiot. I new it was possible because of how it was sitting and all it took was a little gust of wind. I got what I asked for and now I get new foot pegs finally, chrome levers, And a few other goodies. I hate the foot pegs so I will look at this as devine intervention. Crap happens, Enough said.

rottenralph

I feel for you Man!!! :cry1

lemee tell ya about green bikes my friend. On second thought, nahhh.

I wish someone would tell a story about kicking an old dog. :smiliesig

That has to have been the best one yet,I laugh every time I think of it,almost daily.
Don

Sorry. It is even worse when you drop it, girls are watching, you pick it up, you are almost cool, then you drop it on the other side.

Damn, I like the tank Ralph has on his bike!
:flag_ariz

Looks like he copied the tank of my Sporty!!!! :frownthre

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/missyd/missyd_ohlins_li.jpg

BTW. Did you know that a 'fallen down/toppled over' Sporty is like its baptism. This means the bike got some character and there is no need to clean it for hours anymore. Instead its down to ride it daily for several hours ... in any weather to ny places. Who cares about polishing parts!!!!! ;)

Are those dyna forks on your bike

Where are the holes in your swiss cheese tank. Looks like it ate your front fender first. My bike is starting to get too much character from stupid crap. But I would not trade with the guy who took those wonderful pics. of his wreck today. Ich hofe das du ein frohes neues jahr hast. Party voll. Viel spass bei snowborden in die Alpen.

Only dumb thing I've done was the classic start in gear. Whoooops, let's not do that again.

One of my friends was pouring a driveway in the 'rich people' town of Santa Claus and saw a Bud's Harley Davidson Truck deliver a nice Road King to a neighboring house. The guy waited until the truck left and hopped on and fired it up. Popped it into gear and dumped the clutch and landed his brand new bike in a mud filled ditch. They watched him struggle with it for a minute and then went over to help him. The guy was crying saying that he had to get it out of the ditch and wash the mud off before his wife saw what had happened.

He admitted to have never driven anything with a clutch. He was the type of guy that had too much money and wanted a Harley cause he wanted one.

Sounds Like the typical 1000 miles in three year Yuppy ASS!!!! :D

ok heres one for ya's! hows bout stoping at a light thinking that your in neutral and let go of the clutch :yikes yeah go ahead and laugh but that has to everyone at one time or another :laugh


:shhhh ESCOBAR :shhhh

I never shift to neutral at a light , I hold the clutch lever in, like a man :smoke

but I guess that is something stupid :shhhh

Damn Ralph sorry about your scoot. Mabye we should start a pool where everyone sends in a few bucks for the next time the do something stupid. One time or another we will all need to dip into the stupid fund. lol

I still lover your bike even with some dings.

I gotta through my two cents in...

I was coming home on my Roadster, but I arrive to find there's two cars in the driveway... Not wanting to go inside and ask people to move and not really wanting to move the cars myself I decide I should ride up through the grass and inbetween the house and the parked cars. The grass was wet, and the rear wheel slid out from under me, and the bike tipped over, pinning me against the house. Fortuneatly the only thing that was damaged was the left mirror, my dumb ass was the cushion between the bike and the house! I didn't have any leverage in such a tight spot, and I couldn't get off the bike or else it would scrape against the house, so I had to pull out my cell phone and call my house to get someone to come out and move the car!

At our new years eve party, my buddies decide it's a good idea to do burn outs at midnight instead of lighting off fireworks or shooting off guns.

My one friend goes out on his Triumph America, and starts doing really big smoky burnouts. He takes off his hat and salutes the neighbors across the street as he's doing this, and the bike slips and he topples over, bike landing on top of him. The pipes burned a hole through his pants and scorched his leg.

He's Ok though. Best part is, I caught it all on videotape!

have had my bike since october and so far the only stupid thing i have done is try to get off without putting the kickstand down twice. first time it hit my left leg and stopped. second time i caught it before i started to get off it.

I gotta through my two cents in...

I was coming home on my Roadster, but I arrive to find there's two cars in the driveway... Not wanting to go inside and ask people to move and not really wanting to move the cars myself I decide I should ride up through the grass and inbetween the house and the parked cars. The grass was wet, and the rear wheel slid out from under me, and the bike tipped over, pinning me against the house. Fortuneatly the only thing that was damaged was the left mirror, my dumb ass was the cushion between the bike and the house! I didn't have any leverage in such a tight spot, and I couldn't get off the bike or else it would scrape against the house, so I had to pull out my cell phone and call my house to get someone to come out and move the car!
you soulda done like alley and took pics of that one

Hey everyone! This goes back to my high school days when I drove a Honda. I was riding down the street next to an open desert field when I saw this kid from school I HATED. He was on his dirtbike in this field and gave me the bird when he went by. Not to be outdone, I made a quick U-turn into the field and gave chase... mind you I'm on this big street Honda. He went through a dry creek bed, and I followed giving the throttle hell to catch him. When I got to the edge of the creek bed, I saw that the other side was not like a ramp but like a flat wall! This kid knew the territory and had manuevered around it, but I was going so fast all I could do was kiss my a** goodbye. I remember my front wheel hitting that wall and thats about it until a woman who had seen the crash was helping me up. The forks were bent, the windshield gone (among other parts), and I was pretty beat up and bloody. That little :censor never came back to see if I was ok, either! (LOL)

ok heres one for ya's! hows bout stoping at a light thinking that your in neutral and let go of the clutch :yikes yeah go ahead and laugh but that has to everyone at one time or another :laugh


:shhhh ESCOBAR :shhhh
Yeh! And notice it only happpens when 12 other bikers are around to see it.:frownthre

That little :censor never came back to see if I was ok, either! (LOL)

would you?

Well, I was pointing in that direction anyways and just thought I'd roll across the lawn and down my neighbors driveway. As it turns out the lawn was just watered and I ended up burning a trail into our (mine and my neighbors) lawn. Didn't realize I was riding that much power.

Kenny

Got a couple stories of my own..

I was riding a 1994 Yamaha Virago 750 when I was 17. Baggy pants were in style too.. I pulled into the gas station to fill the bike up. I get to the pump and kick the side stand out. While moving my leg back, the baggy pants overlapped the stand and pulled it back while leaning her over. Too late to catch it by this time so it hits the ground. I go to pick her up and check the damages.. nothing broke! was glad that thing had flexible turn signals!

Another oops happened while changing the tire on my dad's '89 FXLR. Pulled the wheel off and put the new tire on. We go to put the wheel back on and the bike slides off of the stand. Destroyed the custom painted front fender and ended up with the bike sitting square on the frame. Defanitely not fun trying to get the bike back up let alone having to explain the busted fender.

I also learned to not move bikes around while wearing rollerblades too but I'll save that for another time :D

I also learned to not move bikes around while wearing rollerblades too but I'll save that for another time.

Were you trying to get to the skate part on a bike while wearing your blades :eek:

I put my feet down and stood up to get money out of my pocket at a PA toll booth. My lady was on the back. Oil drips and condensation water drips from all the car's AC drains makes a VERY slippery surface. My left foot went out from under me to the side and as I fell I smacked the attendant in the chops with my elbow! Luckily my girlfriend had put her feet down and we were able to save my bike from falling and got away with no damage. The toll booth attendant might have had a headache though.

Stupid thing... rushing to get to a pick up in London riding like bat outta hell, get my knee down going round a large roundabout and whooosh straight into a patch of diesel. Bike goes down and we both slide infront of a Taxi the bike slides under a flat bed lorry and embeddes itself in some railing and I slide infront of the cab..

bugger all damage to me but the fuel hose broke and turned my bike into a flamey mess. 3 hours later back on the road with a firms bike Ah the joys of being a despatch rider :laugh Good job the lorry driver saw me other wise I'd be strawberry jam ;)

Only stupid thing on the sporster was falling asleep whilst riding down a French motorway :yikes

my stupid trick of the day was getting totaly hammered (many times) and riding my bike home from the bar , never got hurt and never went down but ......

Got a couple stories of my own..

I also learned to not move bikes around while wearing rollerblades too but I'll save that for another time :D

Very Funny! :laugh

I had just finished a complete rebuild/custom restoration of my 1966 A65 BSA Lightning. My uncle and I had scheduled a nice long road trip from Kansas City to meet my Grandparent who were camping in the bootheel of Missouri in Mark Twain National Forest. I literally got the bike back together late Friday night and we were scheduled to ride the following morning, early at dawn in late spring.

I was pretty nervous about that long a trip after the rebuild, but what the hell, we took some tools, what could go wrong? Well, on the other side of the State later that day while riding through some beautiful winding rolling hills the beezer starts a tappin', which very quickly started knockin' and ultimately started CLANGIN'!

We pulled over, stored it in a farmer's barn and continued down to see my Grandparents two up on his 1985 (I think) Sportster, solo seat and P-pad. Man my ass hurt. Anyway, in my haste during the rebuild of the Beezer, I had the oil lines crossed. When we started out, the oil level was high enough that the return line (which was acting as the feed) was submersed in the oil in the tank. But after a few hundered miles on a brand new motor she'd consumed enough oil to drop below the return line level and was starved for oil! Arggghhhh! We had to borrow my grandparents station wagon that they towed behind their R.V., drive back to the barn, disassemble the bike and haul it home. Then I proceeded to rebuild the damn thing again!

The second rebuild lasted 12 years until I sold the bike! Needless to say, I've never ever crossed oil lines again.

T

sorry about your bike. by the way, it looks freakin great. i haven't dropped mine yet but have sped into garage before door was completely up and hit my head twice. i was wearing a helmet.

I had also once tried to start the bike while in gear. Luckly it went forward about 4 inches and then came back to me because I was parked on a slight downward grade. The other was trying to take off in 4th gear from a stop sign. I killed it. Then I down shifted and still no go so I down shifted again and took off only to have no pickup so I had to once again down shift. I almost droped my bike while I was trying to stuff mail into my jacket from our mailbox to take home. I caught it halfway down and I dropped all the mail in the process. I learned from my mistakes.

Only stupid thing on the sporster was falling asleep whilst riding down a French motorway :yikes

How do you fall asleep riding a motorcycle?:dunno


:drinkup ??????

So Its your turn to tell us your story of stupidity. I certainly earned the "dumb ass of the day" award.

Well, I decided to jog by this biker guy down the street that has a dog that likes to bark at me... I think he was taking pics of his bike... :p


I really am sorry to hear about your bike. :(

Ouch...my sympathies!

I've done plenty of stupid things...one of my best was stopping on the side of the road for a stretch and a smoke, and leaning against my bike. The bike wasn't leaning much because of the slant of the road, so over we both went into the ditch.

Trying to put a chrome battery cover back on after I had it off to hook up a battery tender...it was one of those stupid moments that I was in a hurry and couldn't see the forest for the trees. I got so pissed off at the tight fit, I covered it with a towel and gave the edge a good whack with a BFH and it still wouldn't go on. Walked away, came back and realized I had been trying to put it on upside down. :doh

Man, that sucks. The hardest part is trying to look cool as you pick it back up. :o


Bart



:doh :laugh :roflblack :roflblack :roflblack

I know that feeling!!!!

I vote for this picture as pic of the week... sorry about the bike, we've all done things we wish we could take back.

Hopefully you get all the odds and ends fixed up. Your bike is one of my inspirations... hate to see it hurt.

BIKE OF THE WEEK PIC...

Submit it........

rode an old kawasaki we had rebuilt (we called it the retarded harley). was kind of showboating tearing up and down the road cut across the grass into the drive way started to hit the brakes to makes a quick stop just feet in front of the people watching....well i found the one little wet spot in the grass about 8 inches from the cement. bars did a left turn then hit the pavement causing the bike to body slam. I went over the bars and landed just inches from the spectators.....on my face....luckily nothing on the bike broke....well that wasnt already falling off anyway...but i was a hurting embarrassed wreck for some time after that

Happened just this weekend, I live in florida which means my yard is mostly loose white sugarsand, real fine sand. I pulled my sporty behind my work truck (like I've done many times) to get some stuff out of the truck. Got back on and let the clutch out a little too quick and the back tire just sunk like it was in water. So there I was on a nice sunny day with all the neighbors out and I got my bike stuck in my own yard. Couldn't even push it out..it was stuck. SO with my pride already brused I use the autocrane on my work truck to lift the rear of the bike and put a piece of plywood under the back tire. So I got my "Dumbass" award this weekend too....DOH

How do you fall asleep riding a motorcycle?:dunno


:drinkup ??????

No drinking, try riding for 35 hours with only petrol stops for rest !

last summer I was cruisin' the other side of the big lake I live on (lots of private little beaches, all dirt roads) . I was in 1st gear going just faster than zero mph but there were girls around so I had my feet up on the forwards when the front wheel sunk into a soft spot and fell right over..... when it hit I heard a crack and sure enough, the clutch lever broke off almost up to the pivot.......its tough to ride through all those little back roads with a lever 1 inch long.....

Ww

Got back from a nice ride one afternoon. Parked on the slab next to my other bike. Left the motor running while I went around back to unlock the door. Vibes were enough to move the bike off the stand - CRASH! One bike attacked the other. Heard the whole thing as I walked (now running) back from back door. Get out front - !Damn! both bikes on their sides on the concrete driveway.

ok here's my ''dumass '' move ... rideing into a toll booth , stopped to throw my 50cent in and forgot to put my feet down ,, did what i like to call the ''dead cockroch '' the bike and I just fell over ... ops and sorry to say I'v done that a few times but mostly in my yard ,, jump off bike and forget to put the stand down , ops #2

Wolf

sorry to all about your incidents, heres mine, the day I picked it up, didn't feel comfortable riding it home being my first bike and all so I trailered it using 2 tie downs, made i home no problem, thats where hell broke loose, i decided to take in down by myself and ride it. well i loosened one side at a time slowly and kept leaning the bike torwards the kick stand, well that didn't work it toppled on the exhaust side scraping the exhaust and almost falling off the trailer. well I got back up brushed my bruised ego of my first bike and went for a ride. I think we all experience this at one time or another, I just don't want to experience it again.

Love this thread!

My best was somewhere in rural New Brunswick where motorcycles still attracted quite a lot of attention a few years ago. I was riding the '59 FL across an old timey gas station parking lot, toward the pump. I noticed what I imagined to be an admiring crowd and felt like Mr. cool dude, slowly swooping toward the pump with more panache than usual and just touched the front brake in mid-swoop. Seems there was some particularly loose gravel just where my brake began to grip and my fully loaded (for touring) Hawg and I slid gracefully to the ground at their feet.

But I was not finished. We had stopped to ask directions to my grandfather's place and had to stop again at a little farm house with a front yard full of family and children and a very steep dirt driveway dropping from the highway to the front of the house. My friend Chris set his heavily loaded Royal Enfield Interceptor on the side stand on my right and I parked the equally heavily loaded Harley. When we looked around, everybody had disappeared inside the house! We were grubby but not that bad! I knocked and spoke to the woman's head and several small ones arrayed beneath it, through a cracked open door. She relaxed a bit when she found out I was looking for "kin" but wasn't coming out. Satisfied with her directions we rough fellows mounted out bikes to leave. Now Chris had quite a lot piled up on the trusty Interceptor so it was mite top heavy and, once he folded up the side-stand the bike flopped over into mine and I, in turn, flopped on to the ground, which sloped away from the bike. Luggage scattered in all directions as we helped each other regain, if not our dignity, at least an upright posture.

I have always figured that Chris and I did our bit that day to diminish the intimidating image of motorcyclists!

Brian

How do you fall asleep riding a motorcycle?:dunno


:drinkup ??????

don't ever think it can't happen! once in the wee hours of the morning on 95 going south outta lost wages, i was rudely awakened by the continuously blaring air horn of a 18 wheeler, just in time to swerve back in my lane. while contemplating a fresh change of underwear i decided the good part was that my hart rate was now so high that i couldn't possible pull that krap again. wrong! five minuets down the road, i started nodding off again and no dang truck to keep me awake. mind you this all happening while cruising at over 100 mph in an attempt to stay awake. i finally pulled over, put the bike on it's center stand and having a girlish fear of snakes, draped over the seat like a dead cattle rustler and slept till i about froze. luckily ,no deliverance types came along while i was in that compromised position. chuck

don't ever think it can't happen! once in the wee hours of the morning on 95 going south outta lost wages, i was rudely awakened by the continuously blaring air horn of a 18 wheeler, just in time to swerve back in my lane. while contemplating a fresh change of underwear i decided the good part was that my hart rate was now so high that i couldn't possible pull that krap again. wrong! five minuets down the road, i started nodding off again and no dang truck to keep me awake. mind you this all happening while cruising at over 100 mph in an attempt to stay awake. i finally pulled over, put the bike on it's center stand and having a girlish fear of snakes, draped over the seat like a dead cattle rustler and slept till i about froze. luckily ,no deliverance types came along while i was in that compromised position. chuck

:smiliesig :smiliesig :smiliesig :lolsign :smiliesig :smiliesig :smiliesig

Now that is funny sh:censor !