When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
1966, girlfriend on the back of a borrowed Honda 305 Scrambler...around 9PM, first Summer with a license. Following a car awar from her house, around 15 or 20 mph is all the faster I got when the drunk young woman in the car mashed on the brakes. I started left...so did she. Not sure where she was thinking of going as there were nothing but ditches on both sides of the road. I swerved back right but not quick enough and hit her car behind the left rear tire. We went over to the right and down into the ditch. By the time I hit her I had braked down to not very fast at all, and neither of us were hurt. But my pride...that was THE girl, my friends. I lost her later to the temptations of a tour in Thailand in 1970...she gave up, I learned a hard lesson, and still think of her frequently...the girl, not the Scrambler
i've been riding for over 30 years i've had 3 bad ones a few silly ones but still riding still lovein it. other then the silly ones none was my fault ........
I was 17 and put my 78 GS 750 down when a car pulled out of a T intersection without enough space between me and them, and then stopped to talk to someone standing on the side of the road, I went to go around them and hit some gravel. thankfully I was going slow (35-40) and I didn't even put a hole in my jeans.
Haven't dumped my bike at any high rate of speed but did (with the help of gravity and an 800+ lb bike) lay it down twice in loose gravel. I'm really careful now and have grown an extra set of eyeballs to watch for those little critters.
Silverrosie
Must be a rash of loose gravel in the lower Willamette Valley of Oregon. I did the same thing with my Street Bob in November '09. Started out from a stop at an intersection that I had been through 100's of times, and didn't notice the gravel - a nano-second later, I was down with the bike doing the two step on my left ankle. The bike is now fixed - $3k and 6 weeks + for a new gas tank and assorted other scratched and dinged parts - and I hear that is fast. The ankle took a piece of titanium and 6 screws and should be ready for spring. Can't wait to get her back in her own garage.
Went down once just a few months ago, lady made a right hand turn from a side street into my lane while I was doing 45 she also did it 30 ft in front of me because she though I was in the other lane. No helmet and short sleeves so ended up in the hospital with severe concussion and road rash and some broken bones/ seperated shoulder. Now I wear a helmet more often but if you walk away I'm not going to complain
Late 70's on my Kawi 500 triple two stroke, low speed on I-10 splitting lanes. Traffic doing 10 to 15, I'm between lanes and as I come up on a what seemed at the time like and freeway barge. It decides to change lanes and clips my front tire. I go down, crack my helmet, take my gloves down to my skin, bruise my hip and the old woman never stopped (I could tell by the doo). I was lucky.
I sure loved my old widow maker, seemed like a honda 50 till ya hit the powerband then then either tire smoke or wheelie, anyway one day I went down and the bike stayed up! It started alight rain about 5 miles from home the bike soon started missing, I pulled over to check the wires etc. and WHAM, sucker knocked me over the bank and down a 20 ft embankment. When I made it back up she's sitting there idling away, I carefully climbed aboard but was petrofied riding the thing home. This was my first experience with CDI ignitions
Hit a deer Aug 16, last year. I was going to work at 5 in the morning and I noticed a deer in the field up ahead on the left. I reved my bike to scare the deer off which always works when you're fairly close to them. Usually they run the other direction, as this one did. However, when I looked back in front of me, there were two more deer that I didn't see up ahead on the right. They were far enough up ahead that they crossed the road instead of going the other way. By the time I looked up, I was already on top of them doing about 60 mph. Hit the deer in the rearend, and I slammed down on my right side. Fortunately, my girlfriend was about a minute behind me in her car and found me. I was sitting up on my knees on the side of the road. 5k worth of damage to bike, shattered right shoulder blade, 4 broken ribs and 2 months off of work. Totally my fault for not paying attention up ahead, especially where I typically see herds of deer anyways. Now I pay way more attention and try to refrain from distractions like looking at deer out in the fields while riding.
HD Forum Stories
The Best of Harley-Davidson for Lifelong Riders
Harley-Davidson Fat Boy Becomes a Dark, Decepticon-Inspired Custom
Verdad Gallardo
6 Weirdest Harley-Davidsons Ever Sold to the Public
Verdad Gallardo
7 Times Harley-Davidson Chucked Tradition Out the Window
Verdad Gallardo
7 Surprising Harley-Davidson Products that Are Not Motorcycles
Verdad Gallardo
8 Best Harley-Davidson Motorcycles Ever
Pouria Savadkouei
10 Worst Harley-Davidson Motorcycles Ever
Pouria Savadkouei
Killer Custom's Jail Break Is The Breakout That Refused to Blend In
Verdad Gallardo
Crazy Bunderbike Build Looks Amazing, But Is It Impossible to Ride?
Verdad Gallardo
Harley-Davidson Reveals Super Cool Cafe Racer Concept
Verdad Gallardo
Engraved Rebellion: Inside Bundnerbike's Glam Rock II
Back in 1980 I took a turn way too fast, hit some loose rubble in the road and lost the bike. The bike slid right into a gas station and stopped at the feet of the guy filling up a cage. Scared the sh*t outta him. I got up laughing because I was unhurt, grabbed the bike and went on my way leaving the gas jockey still shaking in his boots. Advance to Aug 2007, the week I bought my glide and I'm riding into my garage and as I roll to a stop, my pants leg gets caught in the rear shifter, and down we go. The rear shifter now lives in a box on my workbench.
Many tdimes back in the day racin and trials but only twice on pavement. The last time was goin ontwo years ago. Some stupid cager decided they needed to pull in front of the wife and I doin about 50 and stop to get in the left turn lane I just missed the right rear bumper as we were going down. Anyway, thats what I'm told cause I don't remember a thing till wakin up in the medivac chopper and askin what happend. Spent some hang time in the hosp. and now after two surgeries everythings ok. Oh, that cager that started this didn't stop and no one got the plate except they were from NY.
Harley-Davidson Fat Boy Becomes a Dark, Decepticon-Inspired Custom
Slideshow: Killer Custom's latest build relies on styling changes rather than performance upgrades, giving the cruiser an entirely different personality.
7 Surprising Harley-Davidson Products that Are Not Motorcycles
Slideshow: The bar-and-shield logo shows up on far more than motorcycles, some of the company's most unexpected products have nothing to do with riding.
Slideshow: From the troubled AMF years to modern misfires, these bikes earned reputations for reliability issues, questionable engineering, or disappointing performance.
Crazy Bunderbike Build Looks Amazing, But Is It Impossible to Ride?
Slideshow: The Swiss custom shop has taken a Harley Softail and stretched it into something so long and low that it looks closer to a rolling sculpture than a conventional motorcycle.
Engraved Rebellion: Inside Bundnerbike's Glam Rock II
Slideshow: A standard cruiser becomes an intricate metal canvas in the hands of a Swiss custom house known for pushing Harley-Davidson platforms far beyond their factory brief.