This is a story, all about how
my bike got flipped, turned upside-down.

Let me take a minute, just sit right there,
and I'll tell you 'bout how I crashed my bike just 4 days after purchase...

So I bought a brand new Road King Special early May, beautiful thing. Been riding a Yamaha Virago XV750 before, but been eyeing Harley's for a few years.
I had a pretty decent collection of whiskies/whiskeys, and a lot of those have been steadily increasing in value, to the point that I dared not open them anymore.

The bottles were just sitting there, looking pretty, but not being used for what they were intended. I figured, why not sell the lot, and buy my dream bike. So that's what I did. I auctioned them off via a whisky auctioneer in Scotland.

I'd been going back and forth between getting either a used (88ci or 96ci) Heritage Softail or Road King Classic. Couldn't really tell much of a difference between them, but I loved the look. Well, I did a bit of research and learned all about the frames, handling, etc., and I settle on the Road King.

The auction ended up making way more than I was expecting, and that put a brand new Milwaukee 8 in reach. The Road King Classic was still my favorite bike, but having had a cruiser with leather bags (which were rummaged through by unknown people pretty much every night the bike wasn't in the shed) I figured locking hard bags would be more practical. So the standard Road King it was then.

Except... I'm lazy by nature, and I don't like spending all weekend polishing chrome, so I started gravitating more and more towards the Road King Special. First in Vivid Black, then towards Industrial Grey Denim.

At some point a decision is to be made if I'm gonna be buying a bike, and I ultimately did decide on the RKS in IDG.

Now, buying a bike in Holland is expensive. Much more expensive than anywhere else in the world, because we get a 20% motor vehicle tax on top of a 21% sales tax on top of 6% import tax, which means an H-D costs around 40% more in Holland than it does in the U.S.

Then the waiting game for it to arrive, and get the options fitted I picked out. Finally, after about 2.5 months, I get to pick up my bike on a Thursday. I ride it home that night, and to work the next day. Saturday, even though the weather is awesome, I don't get a chance to ride it because of other obligations. Bummer ...

Sunday I take the bike for a good 400+ mile ride though country roads. Getting to know the bike, varying the RPM, scraping floorboards, and thoroughly enjoying myself .

Monday, taking the bike to work again. Getting more and more confident, and balancing the heavy beast at low speeds is becoming easier and easier.
On the way back home I run into heavy traffic, and that's a good time to try my hand at lane splitting. I know the U.S. isn't as civilized as Europe when it comes to allowing motorcycles to lane split, but in Holland it's 100% legal, provided you do it with a low speed differential, and only up to traffic speeds of about 25 mph. As the bike's quite wide, and still not every cager knows bikers move between lanes until they're right behind or next to them (when they will move out of the way most of the time), I do have to stop occasionally cuz I just can't fit through.

Everything's going fine, and then it happens... I'm at the front of the queue in front of a traffic light. The light turns green, and I'm off. Ahead there are two lanes going straight, and two turning left onto the freeway. A car ahead is slowing down in the first lane turning left, and I'm accelerating in the second lane going straight. Just as I'm coming up to pass the car, the driver realizes it's taken the wrong turn-off, and is maneuvering back into my lane to go straight. I hit the brakes, but it's not gonna be enough. I try to swerve, but the driver hadn't seen me, and keeps moving over, until eventually I run out of room. I hit the front right fender of the car, my handlebars snap back and forth, and I'm can't keep the bike upright anymore. I'm going down, at maybe 15-20 mph. Not very fast, but enough to do major cosmetic damage to the bike, and getting me bruised and sprained and sore for the next couple of weeks.

So, that's about 6 weeks ago now. I've recovered for the most part, but the bike still hasn't been repaired yet. It's still sitting at the Harley dealer, waiting for parts to come in, and them having the time to work on it. It being the start of the motorcycle season, and everyone taking their bikes out of winter storage and in for a service.

I'm hoping to get my bike back soon as I'm eager to take some advanced motorcycle courses and do some long distance touring.

While not quite as funny as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air I suppose, I hope I didn't bore you too much. I'll try to have more amusing stories (and, who knows, maybe even videos) in the future.

 

Glad to hear you are OK.
Hope the cager is paying for the damages and hospital bills.
Not sure how it works over there.

 

Thanks HB.
Yeah, all damages are paid for by the cager's insurance company. It's just the inconvenience of not having a bike to ride...

 

"21% sales tax?"
That would be the best way to kill an economy.

And another 20% MORE import duty too?

So much for "free" healthcare...

 

There's no such thing as "free" anything

 

Glad you are ok which is the important part. Hopefully you are able to get back in the saddle soon

 

Glad you are ok. Why don't you tell what you pay in income tax as well. Maybe some of us will appreciate what we have a little more. A taxable income of €66,421 is taxed at 40%!!

 

Sucks to hear! No rental of bike while yours is in the shop?

 

Did you at least save one bottle of whisky to soothe thy scraped & battered bod?

 

Hey BM. Wait. BM? BM = Bloody Marvelous Ohhhh, kaaaayyyyy...........

1stly WELCOME from S Florida.

2ndly u start the post saying abt the bike being upside down. U do realize it rides better right side up right? I know u r in the other country but I think u got it mixed up. You got SWITCHED lanes riding in OPPOSITE directions. NOT riding upside down. Get it?

If u need a little help with that, I can send you a video.

3rdly, GLAD u made it thru that issue alive.

4thly, THAT is exactly why anytime I see someone moving over to turn like your guy did, I ALWAY ALWAYS ALWAYS adjut my riding figuring the bloske is going to quickly turn FAST back into the lane he just left bcs he is turning in the wrong spot.

5thly, well there really is no 5thly. Juss thought after the accident u kinda wish u didn't sell all that liquor. Or u at least made it to the nearest pub. Aye?

Ride Safe and thanks for sharing with us.

​​​​​​​BuzzCap7