General riding stupidity

[yamahappy74]

I was just thinking about how much I've changed as a rider over my lifetime. How many different times I so easily could've died. I thought I'd give you a few examples of my own stupidity. Feel free to follow suit, if you wish.
 
1) 19 years old (1994). I just bought a '93 FZR600, brand new after having only put a couple of thousand miles on a 1984 Honda Enduro. I don't even know why I felt like I needed to ride with others, but I was out with the rich kids in my high school, who of course all had supersports of varying makes and models as well. We're flying down the highway when they all decide to pass a car. I'm last in line, so I start to pass, but as I'm still pretty green, I don't bother to downshift from 6th. This only makes a difference in as much as it would've allowed me to get around the car before the oncoming car got to me. As it was, I ended up splitting the lane at 80mph on a two lane highway between the car I was passing and an oncoming car. The other riders just looked behind them and shook their heads in disdain. I was like, "what?". God dammit I was dumb. Thankfully, I sold it before I was able to kill myself.
 
2) 30 years old (2003). I got myself an R6, having not been on a motorcycle since I was 19 (see previous). I get accustomed to it really quick, trying not to be stupid. But honestly, the temptation is just so strong. So I'm out riding with 30-35 other peeps, many of them on litre bikes, and it's about 1AM. We're in the country on a newly paved road. Nice straight line, goes on for miles. Everyone starts hauling ass. So I tuck in and go WOT, notching all the way up to 6th, and they're mostly pulling away. As I look down at my speedo and realize it's registering 163mph, I sit straight up and let off the gas. I had no idea I was going that fast; it never even occurred to me. But what does immediately occur to me is that I have a baby on the way and a single deer in the country at night (extremely likely) would've killed every last one of us. So yeah, I went home for the night.
 
3) Still 30 years old. Having not learned my lesson, I'm out riding with another pack of riders, and someone gets the brilliant idea to do the "river run", which is another way of saying "run the freeway at excessive speed and see how fast we can get all the way around the city". Being a sucker for tagging along, I get on it with everyone else. Holy shit, that is the scariest thing I've ever done on a motorcycle. Construction everywhere, which means gravel all over the place, tons of bikes weaving in and out all over at speeds in excess of 100mph for miles. We somehow survive this gauntlet without any collateral damage, and I spend the rest of the night casually riding around with the few who decided to stay out. Ugh. I ended up crashing that bike in '04 after putting 10,000 miles on the clock. Oddly, I tamed down a lot after the baby was born and stopped going out at night to ride with crazy people. I crashed while riding something we call the OPUS International Speedway, which is not at all a race track. It's a business park with a frontage road that is set up much LIKE a race track, so a lot of people would saunter over there on Sundays when there are no cars to be found. I'm still 100% convinced that the suspension linkage on my R6 broke while I was leaned over and that's why I crashed. There was no gravel, I wasn't leaned over crazy but I was holding speed, and the part that broke was way off to the right of the crash while myself and my bike went to the left and skidded to a stop. Thankfully I had on ATGATT. Saved my head and arms.
 
Anyway, I'm 41 (almost 42) now and I've owned 3 bikes in the last 3 years trying to settle on something that makes me happy. It wasn't until I got the GSXR that I really got that shit eating grin again. I have no plans to get nutty anymore. I have a bike so I can ride with my wife and commute to work. I guess I just feel most at home on a supersport. I don't need to go crazy fast on it to feel good, but it's nice to have the option, lol. The howl of an inline 4 just can't be beat.
 
Anyone care to spill? How stupid have you been? Have you grown out of it (as I believe I finally have)?

[Guest 2wheeler]

Well... I'll go with my most stupid moment
 
I was with a bunch of guys out riding on roads that I had never been on before. This one guy and I would often get into races that would usually get fairly stupid. I decided to race him with me on a 82 Yamaha Maxim 650 and him on a 1000 Sportster. This was a rolling type road where ultimately I crested one of the hills/rolls around 90mph, and that's when things got interesting QUICKLY. I ended jumping off the hill with the guys behind me saying that my take-off to landing was about 40' with my rear wheel being 6-8' off the ground. I remember landing and the bike being wobbly but I was still in control except for that darn upcoming curve with a car coming right at me in the other lane. Yes, I went through the curve, and fortunately did not hit the car, but hit a ditch that caused me to do a simiar jump into a farmer's field. Some how, I didn't wreck, and I went a ways in the field which was a bit muddy before I dropped the bike. I very distinctly remember my buddies walking up to me (I was still flat on the ground), and the one guy saying "Is he dead?"
 
I was taken to the hospital via ambulance where I got out later that day. Strangely enough, I did not cut or break any part of my body, and just had a few bruises. I defintely did have a concussion though. More strangely, I did only $125 damage to the bike. I blew out my aftermarket shocks which somehow were warranted.
 
I'll blame youthful stupidity as it happened about 30 years ago.
 
 
 

[hobbs]

Only really have done 1 dumb thing via motorbike and it was pretty ignorant.
 
A couple years ago, got back home around 10 o'clock after a wedding. Stopped drinking a while ago, but I was still pretty toasted, to the point where you pass inebriated caution/a good buzz and become "that dude" who's like, oh yeah I'm good, I'm not drunk.
 
Anyway I was pretty angry over earlier events and just wanted to hit the back roads to clear my mind. Ended up being not more than a 10 minute ride. Very quickly it set in that I really, really shouldn't be doing this. So I turned around and went home.
 
No injury, no foul - but damn was that a stupid decision. The 1 and only time I'll ever swing a leg over after drinking, that's for damn sure.

[roadrash]

After 2 years of riding my first bike (ninja 250) I upgraded to a zx6r. My best friend called me at work one day soon after I got it and asked if I wanted to go for a ride with him, my bro, and another friend. Everyone else at work was away at a conference at the time so I just left early to join my buddies. We ended up going riding to the top of a mountain with my best friend leading the way. He was a little slow in the corners because he had upgraded to his cbr 600 after just a couple weeks of riding a 250, and for some reason I felt like hot shit so I passed him in a corner. After that I rode like demon and had a tank slapper on a sheer corner but recovered. Probably could have died there pretty easy, but I kept going and soon after I lost traction on the rear during a knee drag left corner, and lost the front right after. Probably because I didn't adjust the suspension (didn't even know how to). Ended up sliding and tumbling into a ditch after my bike and fractured my lower vertebra. It could have been so much worse and I was so lucky my buddies were around to call an ambulance. I wasn't well acquainted with my machine and it was my first time riding that road, and even after a near miss with the tank slapper I didn't learn my lesson and slow down. Stupidest thing I've ever done and hopefully will ever do.

[thomascrown]

I started riding in my 30s. So minimal stupid behavior on my part. If I got a bike at 19, I firmly believe I would be dead right now.
 

[twowheeladdict]

I have never been a pack mentality kind of guy so I guess my story is boring compared to others, but I got my first street bike when I was 19. Never was into the racing or crazy riding. The bike was a XS750 triple with full touring kit.
 

 
Mine was the silver one, but had all the accessories on the red one as well as king/queen seat, pull back handlebars, engine guards with highway pegs, etc. A lot of bike for a 19 year old.
 
I rode around in flip flops, bathing suit and half helmet (required). Oh yeah, I lived in Daytona Beach. Most of my riding was done at 30 mph but you have to remember that the National Speed Limit was 55 mph.
 
If riding nearly naked wasn't stupid enough, the drinking age was 19 so it was not unusual to put a 6 pack on ice in the saddlebag and ride along the beach up to Saint Augustine drinking a beer while riding.
 
I guess I was very fortunate that I never went down while dressed like that.
 
The fairing and crash bars turned out to be a great thing the day my front tire decided to suddenly deflate while in a curve. I ended up side swiping a pickup truck. Slid down the entire side of the truck and only dropped the bike after coming to a complete stop because the handlebar happened to snap in two at the mounts. No damage to me at all.
 
Another time I was following too closely a car on a 25 mph road. He/she braked suddenly for a squirrel. I couldn't stop in time so I swerved around the car as another car approached. Threaded the needle between them and was very lucky that day.
 
Now, I have 30 years of skill, wear ATGMTT, leave 3 or more seconds between me and the car in front of me, etc. I still enjoy the curves, but do them at my own pace.