Whats the craziest damn thing you have done on a motorcycle?

[Cruizin]

Boy, I have some stories. I'll save mine for last, what's your craziest motorcycle stories? 

[bornagainbiker]

Rode 10 miles at night on black ice.  I foolishly took my bike to work on a mild winter day, which created a lot of melt, which froze on the road when the sun went down.  Talk about a white-knuckle ride home, but I made it unscathed with only few minor slides. 

[chademinent]

Not necessarily crazy, but good stories nonetheless;

 

Rode up Pikes Peak last summer and got stopped about 2 miles from the summit by a grounds worker.  He pulled his truck out and blocked both lanes hopped out and started yelling at me, talking about how he saw me pass all those cars in the double yellow and going way too fast and calling the police, I dunno i couldn't really hear since i was listening to music lol.  I had to follow him the rest of the way up going 20mph, it was agonizing.  

 

Two weeks ago My dad and i were riding in Southern Utah, we were on 31 going up and over this mountain (beautiful road..we were hauling).  Dad was leading when we came up on a dirt biker, so we zoomed around him  on a double yellow.  A few moments later i checked my mirrors and i could see he was trying to keep pace with us, I thought "dang he must be pissed we passed him".  Five minutes later he is still back there, granted he is lagging behind a bit but I'm still thinking he is pushing that bike hard because we were doing 70-80 up this mountain.  About another 5-10 minuted later we got into some traffic and slowed way down and he was on us super fast and as i look over i see a green uniform and a badge and then a gun...yeah he was a Ranger and he was signaling us over.  So we pulled over and he got our licenses and whatnot and he was physically shaking and was having a hard time putting his words together, I think he scared himself on that bike a few times trying to pace us.  So he asked where we were from and all the BS but did not seem angry at all, just warned us of accidents and blah blah blah and took all our info, phone numbers and pictures of our plates to send to the local sheriff since his radio wasn't working.  We are from Montana so I think we got away scott-free from this one.    My Dad said that in over 21 years of riding he has never been pulled over for speeding, same with me but i only have 3 short years under my belt.   FYI the ranger was riding a Husqvarna 701, that thing is powerful.

[FZ07R WaNaB]

When I was much younger and dumber I got in a race with a guy on a road I didn't know. It was of those older roads with rolling hills.... you know where this is going. I was riding a 1982 Yamaha 650 Maxim. I passed the guy at 90mph as I was hitting a hill that sent me into a 40' long and 10' high jump (the guys I was riding with noted the distance) where I landed just before a curve with a car coming at me in the other lane. I just missed the car and blew through the curve where I hit an embankment throwing the bike into another long and high jump into a farmer's field. I stayed on the bike for awhile in the field but we eventually parted company. I so remember me lying on the ground and my one buddy asking another one "Is he dead?"

 

I went to the hospital on a wooden board with my neck immobilized, but all was OK other then another darn concussion. My bike only had about $100 damage.

 

My two take-aways are that I have never been able to do a centrifugal carnival ride since, and if it weren't for that darn curve I think I would have been fine with the exception that I might have needed to throw out my underwear.

 

And for you younger folks, a Yamaha 650 Maxim is a 500lb street bike that one should NEVER jump. Good thing I grew up on dirt bikes!

[faffi]

Oh my, where to start.... I guess the dumbest things I have done was all them crashes. With all them injuries. But there are three situations I remember because they were stupid, but nothing bad happened. Well, at least no crash.

 

1. With a week old driver's license, I went over a one-lane bridge with no visibility at all of what was on the other side until you were on top of the bridge. Hence the 30 kph (19 mph) speed limit. With my cousin on the pillion, we flew over doing an indicated 135 kph (85 mph). We didn't meet anything....

2. Riding in fog so thick I could barely see the rear fog lamp of the car 40 ft in front, doing 50 mph. Then I lost the train and had to ride by myself. Didn't dare to go slower than 40-45 mph (due to 18-wheelers doing 80+ and I feared they would not see me in time), nor did I dare go faster because all I could see was 20 ft of white line marking the edge of the road. I should have stopped, but was determined to get home. When the fog eased, I was literally dripping adrenaline. I have never been remotely that scared, before or after.

3. Riding stupid aggressive on a congested Sunday on a winding road with little visibility, passing everything at warp speed and with high risk. Came around a blind corner to find the road blocked by a stopped VW Rabbit (who must have seen me in his mirror because he had turned off the road as far as possible to give me some extra space), a family of 3 plus a stroller on the opposite side, a Ford Excursion behind them, and, in front of the Rabbit, another family with stroller. At first, I only saw the cars and contemplated what would hurt the least; running into the back of the Rabbit, straight into the oncoming Excursion or off the road on a tangent with a decent jump to the field below. Then, a split second later, I noticed the people on both sides of the road plus the fact that the Excursion had also, like the Rabbit, come to a complete stop. I managed to find a narrow gap between it all, still doing 40-50 mph, and by pure luck didn't hit anything or anybody. That is the closest I've ever been to becoming a killer. 

 

I can very honestly say that the thing I am most grateful about in life is that I have never hurt anybody else in traffic, only myself. But that is down to luck, not skill or common sense. Only during the past few years (born '64) have a reached a level of responsibility that should have allowed me to steer a motorized vehicle on public roads.

 

 

[Cruizin]

This thread is getting good. Hopefully more people will share. 

 

I'm still trying to narrow down which crazy story to share. I have some doozies. 

[pattonme]

In some regards I should have used up my 9 lives...

 

* 128mph on a 8 lane highway - went into a vicious tankslapper because of improper loading, unbalanced fork spring preload and quartering wind. Crashed 12 miles from the local sev-1 trauma center while no other civilization to be found in 50+ mile radius.

 

* no headlight at all at 11pm July 4th in the middle of nowhere VA and so pitch black on tight, twisty, 2 lane roads you could cut the ink with a knife. Navigate by amber turn signals

 

* trying to stop on ice and snow-covered roads, alternating front and rear brake as each tire skids and city bus coming across path from left. stopped about 2 feet shy of getting broadsided. The bus was making no effort to slow or stop.

 

* hit under-overpass ice sheet in rush hour. bike went sliding up the middle lane of an Interstate as I stared down 3 lanes of oncoming traffic going 60+mph and praying they would stop.

 

* fell asleep riding on city street and drifted into curb and thrown from bike. stopped rolling a couple feet short of telephone pole

 

* fog so thick visibility nearly zero (20 ft? just enough to see lane marking) alternating hands on the engine block because summer gloves in 5C is a poor combination. 

 

[DewMan]

One of several stories I can think of:

 

Setting the Stage: 

While riding on busy downtown 65mph speed limit Interstate highway with continuous curves and lots of lanes while heading into the sun, I was wearing a full face helmet, gloves and Aviator sunglasses (It was the 1980s) under the clear visor that I had cracked open one notch for air in the hot Florida summer.

 

The Event:

Everything was fine... until the bug flew into my helmet and  up under my sunglasses and imbedded itself in the only eye that I've been able to legally see out of since birth.

 

The impact of it on my only good eye causes it to immediately start to tear up and blur my vision as I'm trying to see to drive these curves in fast heavy traffic through an eye that I can now barely see out of.  I can't immediately get to the bug due to my gloves, visor and sunglasses in the way.

 

While still trying to not get run over or run off the road of my own accord and afraid I'd get run over if I slowed down enough to pull over on the narrow shoulder, I dug into my helmet with my gloved hand to snatch my sunglasses out of my helmet and flung them away so I could then, with my gloved hand, work to get the bug out of my eye. All while still dealing with high speed heavy traffic.

 

Miraculously I was able to work the bug out of my eye and get my sight restored enough to work my way over a few lanes to take an exit ramp.

 

The pucker factor was high on that one.

 

Lesson Learned:

Always were proper eye protection.

[Cruizin]

Still trying to decide upon which stupid thing to share. hmm

 

In the mean time, keep em coming. Im enjoying these stories. 

[Bigturbomax]

I used to commute 38 miles each way to work back when i still had my katana 600 (pig of a motorcycle). I guess i was 24 or 25. It was all highways and lots of switch overs. First couple weeks on my first proper street bike, i was scared outta my witts....especially on the flyovers switching highways. There was one specific one tho, switching from mopac north onto 45 toll heading east. It was a long sweeping right, 2 lanes,  prolly 200ft? Above the ground, ya know a big high scary turn on a bridge. Speed limit was 55 mph and i followed it....until i got comfortable.

 

As you know, confidence begets stupidity. After a few months i was less and less afraid of this turn. Daily i started clocking through there a mile an hour or two faster than the previous day. So one day i come whizzing round that bend at 6 am doing a cool 90mph or so in the right hand lane with the bike cranked over to what i believe to be the edge of my 140mm bridgestone and see a camry doing about 40mph in my path. No biggie, i just head check the other lane real quick and release some pressure off the bars. Im thinking the bike will gracefully run wide into the left lane wher i can resume pressure onto the grip and remain on my trajectory.  

 

But the my back tire hits one of those cool little white reflectors that mark the lanes. This resulted in the bike hopping sharply 4 or 5 feet to the left with what felt like no ground contacted on the tires. It lands down and wiggles. Hard, like real hard head shake at 90. 200ft off the ground and the barrier wall about the height of the seat on my bike. I held on the the throttle and threw my body weight to the right. By some miracle the bike completed the turn and settled itself out of the head shake. I dont know how i didnt fling myself off a bridge that day. I was pretty darn sure that was gonna be the end me. I NEVER went that fast throught there again lol. Thats prolly not the dumbest, but one of my scariest. 

[robbo10]

So, there was this 17 year old idiot:- My bike was in the back garden (yard). I needed it on the patio - about 4ft higer than the garden. Ah yes, I thought, a plank over the steps up would do it (45deg.!). I had about 12ft from top step to the house glass doors. Off I went with some gusto. The plank slipped down and left me a top step riser to clear. The bike did a stoppie against the riser, but then mounted it and flew forward at the doors. How I stopped the bike safely against the doors threshold I'll never know, but I did - heart apounding! 61 years ago and no detail ever forgotten (bike as avatar).

[208MT07]

So far, just my 100mph run on a small section of freeway leaving downtown on my way home from church this morning... first time hitting triple digits on a bike. Bike was actually more stable than I expected at that speed, granted I only held it for a couple seconds. Figured with no traffic I might as well give it a shot lol.

 

 

 

[Cruizin]

I was a kid when Evel Knievel attempted the Snake River jump. At the time I was like 8 years old and had a little Honda 70cc dirtbike. There was this large field between my house and the local Highschool and the football field was also next to it. The Football field had flooded pretty bad and next to it in the field they had to dig down to the buried culvert pipe that was like 15 feet deep underground.  They left this big gap uncovered over the weekend and it was like 10-12 feet wide. 

 

I saw the failed jump of the Snake River canyon and thought to my self that it looked an awful lot like that big dug out culvert gap in the field so i got to work building the shittiest ramp you have ever seen out of scrap wood and crap. 

 

Bt then all the neighborhood kids came over to see what i was up to and word spread a nice crowd of kids developed to see if i would kill myself trying to jump the little canyon there in the field in Maine. 

 

I couldn't chicken out. Besides all my friends being there this girl named lisa was also present and i had this serious crush on her. If I chickened out it would be bad rep. 

 

I took as long of an approach as I could get and hit that shetty ramp at full speed which was probably around 50 mph, I cleared the gap and crashed the front wheel and flipped over at a high rate of speed about ten feet beyond the gap. 

 

I broke my left ankle, my right wrist, and two ribs that the handlebars jammed up into. I also split my chin open and knocked out two teeth and had blood all over my face. I was knocked out, the handlebars took all the wind out of me and the force of my chin slamming into the ground knocked me out cold. 

 

The force of the impact also broke both front forks clean off from the bike.  

 

This was the absolute dumbest thing that I have ever done on a motorcycle.  But my reputation at school went to a full 10 on the charts. 

 

My reputation with my parents dropped to an all time low. 

[shinyribs]

My first street bike was a '76 CB750F that a friend gave to me. Got her all spruced up and saw where the internet said they were only good for about 110mph in good tune. I didn't believe that, so I ziptied my phone to the bars to a get a gps verified speed.

 

First run only got me around 110 or so  because my bookbag was flopping around wildly like it wanted to pull me off the bike. So I dropped it on the side of the road and tucked down as low as I could for another pass. Fifth gear pinned and I was barely seeing 120. Feel like the bike had more, but it just wouldn't pull 5th gear ( too much wind, not enough hp)...so I clicked down in to 4th and ZING!...135mph. Score!

 

I didn't think it was all that crazy at the time,  but looking back and my old wobbly spoke wheels, questionable chain and 5 year old tires and patched up inner tubes....wasn't my brightest moment. 

[Beemer]

#1. It was about 1976 when I had borrowed a friends full face helmet that didn't have a visor on it. I was going down Round Barn Rd. just south of U.S. 40 in Richmond, In. one day doing about 40 mph. when for an instant I saw a dark spot to my left with my peripheral vision and as soon as I saw it, it hit me in the left eye and both eyes immediately teared up so bad I couldn't see anything. It hurt like hell also, felt like someone had thrown a 90 mph. fastball at my eye. come to find out it was a bird flying across the road that dealt the blow. 

I managed to slowly steer to the right while slowly applying brakes until I felt and heard the gravel and I went just a little more to ensure I was off the road before I stopped. after a few minutes my eyes cleared up enough to ride and I slumped it home like a whipped dog. Amazing how a little 2.5 ounce or so bird can whoop your ass!

 

#2. My first standing wheelie! My best friend was showing me how to do wheelies while standing on the pegs and then I tried. (his bike, lil Honda 70)

 

I was in a gravel parking lot of a baseball field, I went across a small hump in the road that had a drain pipe running underneath it. The peak of that hump was the optimal point to give the bars a yank as I hit the throttle. Well, I guess I yanked a little too hard in that summer heat with sweaty hands (no gloves) because as the front end came up my left hand came off the grip (O-face  ) and before I could get my hand back on that grip the front end came down but the pressure from my right hand pulling back on the bar had turned the wheel to the right so the forks locked to the far right when the tire touched down and I went for my very first ENDO, YAAAAAY!!

 

When I'd stopped tumbling I didn't feel any bad pain but I do remember picking gravel out of my arms and some scrapes. I was dirty as hell from tumbling in all the dust and had a dirt brown, knobby tire print running diagonally across my white t-shirt. We both laughed about that and the small dings from gravel in his bike didn't seem to bother him. He said that dirt bikes were made for crashing and not to sweat it. 

 

#3 Ft. Hood Tx. A drunk E-6 in the Army pulls his Cadillac Eldorado in front of me and comes to a full stop so that he could survey the parking lot before he pulled into it. 

 

 

I was probably doing around 65 mph. when I jammed on the brakes. I looked down after realizing I wasn't going to stop in time and my speed-o read 45. I decided I wasn't going to lay it down and slide into a stationary Cadillac at that speed for fear of breaking bones or worse so I decided to do a dive/tuck & roll over the car just before the bike hit. 

 

I can still feel my helmet putting a dent on top of his trunk, being airborne and the weightless feeling again as I rolled off of it and the sudden thud as I hit the ground in a human ball (armadillo style!) and rolled down the highway. I was Ok but it felt like my heart was going to jump right out of my chest, it was pounding so hard. Anywho, everyone was OK and I got a new bike as the other guy got his Article 15, demotion and reduction in pay for his stupid act.

 

#4. Does seks count?

 

[mossrider]

Buddy and I are knee down +100 in a 25mph right hander. I'm on the centerline, he's going around the outside in oncoming lane. Here comes soccer mom in a suburban the other way. I tighten my turn and start to slide, bad. He deftly drifts his turn wide and goes around her on the far white line. She filled her pants and sat there in the middle of the road for some time terrified.  She was still there when we came back through.

 

Years later, same buddy now T5 para from crash, is test riding our latest build. We put landing gear and airshifter on his ZX 12 and he's velcroed on the seat. We got this. I'm following in his handicrapped equiped crown Vic. He pulls onto 4lane US highway and landing gear force him into side of pickup going 65mph. Dude looks at him like he's a lunatic (which he is). He checks up, I nearly rear end him, and shrug to the dude gesticulating at my buddy laying on the hood of his truck. Buddy zooms away and I find him crashed in ditch at next off ramp. I confiscate the ZX and we build him handicrapped Spyder. He can now be found on his second Spyder on the appropriate forums. 

 

Love that kid!

[tavisb]

 

[imkman00]

Two chicks at the same time.

[Grant31781]

My 1st motorcycle was a 70 cc Honda dirt bike. I was 7 years old when I got it. One day it rained 4 inches and I decided to take a buddy on the back down a rutted dirt road. I had no riding gear with flip flops or short tennis shoes. Cant remember if I had a helmet.  Anyway I tired to cross a rut. That didn't work out. The right foot peg went into my ankle. You could see the bone. Only took 3 stitches to fix it.

 

Same bike: We had a dirt drive way covered in crushed fine lime stone. I took the curve a little too fast and the bike low sided. I was not wearing a shirt and slide on my chest  enough to peel all the skin off. I had to wear gauss for a few weeks while it healed.

 

17 or 18 year old? My neighbor had a 1100 CBR? 70 or 80s bike. I wanted to see what it would do on our narrow  County road. The bike had a bald rear tire. I took off  in shorts, t shirt and no helmet. As I came back ringing it out, as I was decelerating though  the 80s, I threw my hands up as I went past my neighbor's house. The damn wind almost pulled me off the bike. It scared me!

 

I have done countless stupid things on 4 wheelers. The dumbest thing of all was not wearing helmets. Luckily I never broke a bone or hit my head! Not sure why the parents let us ride like that. 

[tavisb]

Someone buy Grant a helmet, STAT!

[r1limited]

What ever I did, I did it Bigger, badder, faster, longer, deeper, naked, in the snow, being chased by cops, with two chics, up pikes peak and down on the front wheel while standing on the seat all the while I was playing the piano than anyone else

[mossrider]

Just now, r1limited said:

What ever I did, I did it Bigger, badder, faster, longer, deeper, naked, in the snow, being chased by cops, with two chics, up pikes peak and down on the front wheel while standing on the seat all the while I was playing the piano than anyone else

So, you rode after dark. 

 

 

[Beemer]

12 hours ago, r1limited said:

What ever I did, I did it Bigger, badder, faster, longer, deeper, naked, in the snow, being chased by cops, with two chics, up pikes peak and down on the front wheel while standing on the seat all the while I was playing the piano than anyone else

I get it now, you wish you were Elton John.

[r1limited]

11 hours ago, mossrider said:

So, you rode after dark. 

 

 

I raced dark, what a slouch too, with my eys closed

[phanomenal07]

One year of riding already 2 crashes and no real good stories