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What's the most stupid thing you did when riding?

4K views 22 replies 19 participants last post by  Dark Raevin 
#1 ·
I'm old enough to look back on my younger days and criticise how wreckless I was sometimes. What's the most stupid thing you did that you would NOT recommend?

I had a CBR600F and was about 27 years old. I was riding up a fairly empty A15 dual carriageway in Peterborough back from town to Werrington, where I lived. Doing about 120mph I was fast approaching two cars, one overtaking the other. They were almost doing equal speeds (probably 70mph) and in a moment of madness I rode between them for the overtake!

I lived to tell the tale.
 
#2 · (Edited)
I wouldn't rate this as THE most stupid but to parallel with your riding between to pass comment.
I was under 24 riding my 84 wing from California to near Chicago because I was on leave from the Navy. While in No Where Nevada I came up to two Semi Trucks. The one in the fast lane was driven by a guy and the one in the slow lane was driven by a woman. They were flirting and talking over the radio and I could hear it for at least two miles or so before I came up right behind them. They were at matching speeds and they knew I was back there as I was positioning myself to be seen in all of their mirrors. After about 3 or more miles at 55 mph the lady finally said... we have a bike back there. We should probably let him by. The guy said. Yeah, I have been seeing him. He really wants by. If he really wants by he can ride up in between us. He moved over a little and said. Let's see if he wants to. With just enough room to go I kicked it down a gear and zipped up between them. Upshot of it was that guy got really pissed because I did. I guess he was going to show off to his lady friend or something and I had called his bluff!

Speed limit back then was 55.

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#3 ·
Good question, I'm not sure which of a handful of events would be champ. Once I was practicing my high speed shifts at night on a straight road with no light, it wasn't straight. Saved it on the gravel shoulder on the opposite side of the road, I was in 6th on my F2. Same bike, yrs later, leaving a small town I ripped through the gears into a sweeper I'd only taken once before...wasn't really a good sweeper,little bendy.Went right off,down into the ditch up and straight into a plowed farm field, shocked to still be upright I geared down and rode it out.Over a hundred yards ,I slowly aimed my way back out and got stuck with about 10 feet to go. Couple locals pushed me out, front wheel was packed solid with mud to the fender,had a few pounds on the rad too.Lost the pics of the bike when my old pc crashed.
 
#4 ·
  1. Coming down our fave little baby mountain here, Arthurs seat. Tight windy. 1978. XS500E yamaha. Looked too long in rear mirror for mate and looked back to see myself heading towards and down the ditch on the inside of the hill. 50 metres or so of ditch beside steep hillside and out of control flailing legs, stopped by stormwater drain. 1 bent fork leg! And a laughing mate.
  2. Windy twisty road northern nsw summer following brother. 1978, same bike. He came to a really sudden stop. All I could do was scream to halt right beside him with no space to put my foot down. both bikes toppled with me sandwiched. Why did he come to a halt? 2 feet from my pinned body was a bloody big python stretched across the whole road.!
fun thread, keep it going...
 
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#5 ·
16 years old running dirt roads out where I grew up. Old 69 chevelle hauling along. Best friend setting shotgun 3 big hills. Hit the first at 55 got some good air. Second at 70 even better air 3rd 100 got the best air which was a good thing. Guy in van was on the backside and pulled out. We cleared but not by much. Good thing it has full perimeter frame. The landing wasn't much off Dukes of Hazard style.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Hadn't had my BB long (t'was back in '97). Picture the scene in your minds eye (soz no dash cam back then):
German autobahn… powering up through the gears, bright dry clear day, sparce traffic, climbing up to 120mph. Warm soft wind pressure starting to build, passing 140mph, air flowing more like water now around my shampoo (Head & Shoulders) as the pressure builds.

Loving it so far, comfortable, secure, though starting to have to work harder re the wind. The odd speck of a car out in front streaking past in a smeary blurr into rear view.

Still I thought, the bike's built for it, I've gears and throttle left to go. So I twisted my right and popped another gear… 150... 160… 170mph… BAM… my head was almost wrenched off sideways as it flipped violantly to the left.

What bird strike or flying piece of road demris had struck me so voilantly? Nope, t'was my pillion. They had switched from looking over my left shoulder to looking over my right to see the speedo and the change in airflow had caught me by surprise as the air forced my head left in responce to the new position. Then the bugger began bear hugging me until I literally couldn't breathe!

Throbbing with pain in my neck and disappointed as fk as I still had a gear and throttle to go but couldn't hold my breath any longer, I eased off and finally pulled over.

Back tyre still steaming from the heat, pillion mad as hell as I'd forgotten we'd agreed I wouldn't go over 140 mph with them on board.

And the most stupid thing about it? The agreement. It was that if I did ever go too fast for them the'd simply cover my visor with their hands until I slowed down. How suicidal was that idea! Fortunately they were too petrified to let go to do that and chose to bear hug the air out of me instead.

Took several weeks for my neck to heal. Although the :poop: stain in their pants pressumably wasn't permenant either, the dint in their courage is irrepairable 😂. They rides HOGs like Driving Miss Daisy these days not crotch rockets!
 
#7 ·
Drinking and Riding (n) Pretty stupid in hindsight but back when I was ~24 yo drink driving at low levels wasn't seen as that bad as we only had a 0.08% BAC limit and no booze busses and few cars with BAC testing equipment ;)
I was at my local cricket club during a warm summer and running the bar and had a few too many while serving the other players :rolleyes:

Anyway I jumped on my old 83 CB750F with 900Fmotor and snaked across the dewy grass then took off down a backstreet into a downhill left hander that was off camber and cranked the throttle open and the back end stepped out about a foot it felt :oops:
Just as I thought I was going to be sliding down the road in my t-shirt and shorts the rear suddenly gripped and after a short bit of wobble and headshake I managed to hold on and keep her going down the road where I then took it very easy and went home to change my jocks :poop:
 
#9 ·
many years ago on my '87 vfr700 i was lane splitting between the # 1 & 2 lanes on the freeway behind another bike for a few miles. after becoming annoyed at them not letting me by, i moved over to the #2 & 3 lanes to overtake. # 3 was a merge or exit lane and sure enough an early - mid 90's ford taurus (non foldable mirrors) started moving over as i was along side. caught the driver's side mirror with my brake lever, smashing my last 2 digits, bars instantly turned full right and i fell over to the left. thankfully, i was going only about 30'ish and didn't cause much damage beyond that mirror and some rash to the fairing. think i dinged the tailpipe of the car in front the bike slid into... other driver's insurance called me but, i declined to file a claim as i felt mostly at fault.

patience, something we're still developing while young...
 
#10 ·
Mine is probably only a few years ago!
My left hip was a mess and I had a chunk broken off my pelvis. 4 weeks to go before I could be repaired and I had a holiday in the South of France booked.
Getting on and off the bike was agony (I couldn't move my leg without extreme pain) .... so I decided to go on holiday.

Managed to fall over outside my garage with my Bird on top of me .......... and still went.

Petrol fill ups were a 'gentlemanly affair', my wife jumped off her bike and put my side stand down, I refilled the tank, she paid for me and then pushed me upright so I could ride off. :)

Covered well over 2000 miles like this and got back intact, the holiday was worth all the pain.
 
#11 ·
As a young (mid teens) crazy motorcycle courier in downtown Wash DC in the early 80’s there isn’t enough room on this thread for all the crazy stuff I/we did. Downtown DC was our motocross/race track. Rode a few 9-10 hour days through a number of significant snow and ice storms, I rode UP the Exorcist stairs in Georgetown, we used to make side bets who could get to a pickup across town first. We’d race wide open through downtown DC running any red lights just to win the bet. It was a blast (at the time) and I remember thinking I’m going to be a motorcycle courier forever because I get to ride all day AND get paid for it. I did total a number of bikes from accidents but somehow (amazingly/thankfully) was never seriously injured myself. I also got arrested years later because I had so many moving violations I never paid (long story in itself). I could easily write a book about all the good, bad and crazy experiences of that time.
 
#12 ·
Mine are pretty tame compared to the other posts, but here goes.
1. Probably the absolute stupidest thing I've done--I wasn't even riding at the time. I was a skinny 5'10" 145 pound 20-year-old when I bought my first big bike: a shiny, brand new '81 CB900F. Previously riding experience had generally been limited to bikes under 200cc. Got the bike home from the dealership and began to wonder how much gas they had put in the tank. No gas gauges on bikes in those days, but I had learned (on much smaller bikes) that you could take the gas cap off, look in the tank for fuel level, and if it was really low on fuel, you could rock the bike back and forth to look for splashes in the tank. So I took the cap off, and looked in the tank, but couldn't see any fuel. I started rocking the bike back and forth to see if I could see any fuel splashing around, but unfortunately, I was not accustomed to doing this on a 600 lb. bike. I rocked it a little to far to the left, but by the time I realized I had gone too far to bring it back up to center, it was too late, and all I could do was keep my left leg out of the way and let the bike down on its left side as slowly as possible. Broke the left front turn signal, and scratched up the left crankcase cover, and I had only owned my shiny new bike for about 10 minutes. Worst part was my friend, who had given me a ride to the dealership and followed me home, was standing there watching me make a fool of myself and laughing at me.
2. Couple years later, same bike, had been drinking all evening with friends and we were nearly out of beer, so I decided we should go on a short beer run. Grabbed one of my friends to ride on back to carry the beer home from the nearby store, and decided to get cute after we got out of the driveway and pulled a wheelie. Nearly went over backwards. That was the very last time I ever attempted a wheelie. Also one of the last times I ever mixed alcohol and riding.
3. Still same bike, roughly same time frame, regularly making the 40 mile commute to college with the speedometer pegged at 85, and calculating my speed (generally in excess of 100mph) off the tach. Never had any mishaps, but in retrospect, riding that fast that often was probably pretty stupid.
4. Taking up motocross for the very first time at age 40. Local motocross track had an Over 40 Class on their monthly race day that I raced in. Was never very good (didn't have to be in that class), but did manage to win several 2nd and 3rd place trophies. It was a lot of fun, but I gave it up after a couple of years because my muscles were so sore going to work the day after race day (and sometimes a couple of days after race day) that I decided I was getting too old for that young man's sport.
These days, I ride my 'bird like the old man that I am. Never any insane speeds, just the occasional acceleration burst to just barely into triple digits on backroads, then quickly back down to legal speeds.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Cheers all,

Thinking back over 4.5 decades of mistakes (learning opportunities ;))...... the biggest faux-pas I ever made, that could have ended my life as Iknew it, was when I sailed through a STOP sign on a crest of a lonely backroads hill in the southern state of Victoria, Australia......... I was on tour with my mate and his wife. I was lead bike on my Yamaha FZR1000 5 valve ex-up, and even though we had CB radio comms between us, I still looked down at my tank bag map pocket trying to read which turn to make at the stop sign :rolleyes:............ When I looked up it was too late for the 6 piston calipers to stop me flying through the intersection, and I thought to myself, :poop:, I'm dead.........

As I rolled to a stop on the other side, totally unscathed, I was white faced, feeling sick and more than a little pissed off with myself for doing what I knew was a stupid, and needless thing - TAKING MY EYES OFF THE ROAD...... I simply could have made the stop at the sign and looked down at the map while pausing at the intersection..........

One lucky sob that day......... kiss my ass for luck eh?

:whistle:

PS Traded that Yamaha in on a BB and became a very good rider from then on........... (y)
 
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#14 ·
First year I had the bike, tearing across Salisbury plain at 59mph or so performing every overtake I deemed safe.

I didn't go for a naughty overtake but as I went for a spirited 3 car one, the back wheel slipped on the white lines very suddenly and the whole machine bucked very hard indeed. Stayed on, just, didn't hit anything/anyone, made the overtake but it frightened me and made me way way way more cautious.

Other hairy moment is again doing 59mph or so in Savernake forest in the dead of night. Know the A4 like the back of my hand but I don't know the movements of its deer population. Plenty of lean on, no chance to change line, committed. Round a corner and there is a large fallow deer buck just starting to cross the road. All done in the blink of an eye but had I been a second later - venison and blackbird pate... I could see the globules of moisture on its snout and its eyelashes. It was very close indeed. Gave myself a very stern 'F***ING SLOW DOWN!' talk the rest of the way home.
 
#15 ·
Easy, Back in 2000 my wife bought me a 1997 fireblade. the night we went to pick it up I was dead excited. Riding home she was behind me. we were approaching a roundabout, I thought I was in 3rd gear going steady as you would on a new bike. A car approaching from the right I knew if I snicked 2nd gear I could easily cruise across the roundabout with no worries or panic. I proceeded to do so, Cue front end going almost vertical, I flew across on the back wheel, got it down and pulled up at a set of lights with my heart beating out of my chest and discovering in the process that adrenaline has both smell and colour. Problem was a police car pulled up next to me with the driver laughing his head off. He talked me through my mistake and all I could do was nod and shake my head. I was in 2nd and dropped into first he said, I nodded in agreement. Guess how I know says the cop. No idea I reply. He says I did exactly the same thing last week when I picked my blade up, now take it steady and get home safe. A real good cop for letting me off.
 
#16 ·
Ive sadly got far too many stories as a young bloke but thankfully still here to tell...
19years old, second bike - 1984 Honda CR250 with Boyesen Power Reeds, worked engine, second ride on a mates farm after already stacking it doing stupid shit the first afternoon I brought it home..anyway my mate with same model bike got out in front of me - we were racing on a dirt road. Something didn't feel right with the gear change lever, I looked down, then looked up to see my mate stopped in the middle of the road and had pivoted his front wheel so he could look back to see where i was. I clipped his front tyre, end over ended it, smashed through a rotten fallen tree and came to rest against a barbed wire fence. Thank goodness I had my motorcross cage and armour on. Only thing that broke on my bike was the front disc brake cylinder. My helmet peak was broken, I was covered in sticks and dirt. Boy did I go off at my mate for stopping like that in the middle of the road while we were racing...laughed about it around the camp fire later that night.
 
#17 ·
I bought a second hand '82 CB900F when I was 21 years old. Its was bored to 1050cc, running 95 octane, shock kit, etc. It was definitely a step up from a '76 RD400 twin I rode for 4 years.
Was feeling crazy one afternoon for some reason, so I went for a ride and found a nice straight stretch of hwy outside Kitchener Ontario.
I started to exceed 200km/h in 5th gear near red-line when the front end coming up on me suddenly.
That completely scared the crap out of me so I slowly backed off the throttle, with my hands shaking nervously.
One "feeling crazy day" in my 40s with my '00 Bird, I had it doing 200km/h with no problems, rock solid on the road. I guess that Bird fairing makes all the difference.
 
#19 ·
going at 160 mph plus on the interstate on my Kaw ZX-11 at night and hit a 2" X 2" piece of lumber that fell off a truck. Never saw it the front of the bike came up and when it came back down went into a tank slapper.Didn't go down but when I got it stopped I found the front rim was bent in far enough to see the edge of the tire bead. This was many years ago in 1992.
 
#21 ·
+1 on what pbz said, not really stupid as such although some wowsers would say doing 160mph is stupid :rolleyes:

I had a similar thing happen about 24 years ago on my 83 CB750F (with 900F motor), was giving it some stick at ~120kmh on a highway at dusk when I hit something similar or a brick I'm not sure but it was enough to launch the bike and my ~130kg arse up into the air off the road :oops:

Thought I'd saved it after a bit of a slapper moment but then I went to brake and slow down and I was on my arse sliding on the ground at ~100kmh o_O
Funny thing was as I'm sliding everything was in slow motion (Tachypsychia) and remember thinking as I was sliding "Oh both my rims are badly dented and my tyres have deflated and that's why I crashed" :unsure: Next thing I thought was Oh shit this could be bad as the bike was sliding towards me :oops:

Eventually, though it slid off one way and I slid/rolled into the other lane and came to a stop with the contents of my Gearsack spread all over the road and blocking both lanes o_O
Luckily I was quite a way ahead of any traffic and it all stopped and a good samaritan helped me pick up the bike and roll/drag it to the side of the road and pick up all my stuff (y)

Then had to call a mate and get a trailer to pick up the bike and head off to the Dr's as my shoulder was badly injured ;)
 
#20 ·
Not that hitting a block of wood at 160mph is aligned with being stupid but it is funny how a lot of these happenings are in our 20s and 30s. They say god protects drunks fools and little children. Im not that religious but that statement has always rung true for me.
 
#22 ·
Circling the drain towards another Bird, surfing Birdland, I see this thread.
The stupidest thing I did on a bike happened in a mix of alcohol and madness so I won’t detail how many laws were broken that night.
Suffice it to say nobody got hurt and when I woke up the next morning, oh, I didn’t sleep that night, when I sobered up in the morning, I made a successful point of never getting drunk and riding.

Now that aside the stupidest thing I’ve ever done on a bike was to ride through a herd of 35 or so bison on the Alaska highway.
After waiting 20 minutes for the herd to move, a couple of vehicles moved slowly through the crowd. Then the herd closed off the path behind the vehicles.
Talking to a couple of drivers about going through on the bike, a semi driver says, go for it, but whatever you do don’t hit the horn. You think he drove through in the safety of his truck, nope.
Next an RV slowly eased its way forward. Behind that was a pickup truck. I got the brilliant idea to go in right on the pickup bumper.
As we got into the herd I thought,
DON’T MAKE EYE CONTACT WHITH THE BISON!
Sure enough I looked a big guy in the eye and his head swung towards mine. Its head was huge. We were face to face just three feet apart.
I looked away as quickly yet gently as I could.
I would have never thought that the most adrenaline hair raising, and probably stupidest thing that I would do on a bike would happen at 1 mile per hour, feet paddling on the highway.
 
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