When not if?

Question

So the old attage says its not if you will wreck but when, so i am curious;

1.How long have you been riding?

2. Number of times, if any, you've wrecked

Answer 1

Almost 30 Years with 1 long break. I crashed in 1982 and again in May 2008.

Answer 2

In my sixth year, totaled one bike two years ago.  Was wearing FULL gear, walked away with some bruises and was able to work the next day.

No gear would have put me down. That's a lesson I didn't have to learn; I already knew it.

Answer 3

1. 8 years.

2. Never had a high speed wreck. I've lost my footing on gravel and dropped a bike at a standstill. (I'm 5'5, it was a 32" seat height. Dangit!)

Answer 4

I've been riding for about 2 years. I have wrecked once. But it wasn't bad at all. It actually occurred in my driveway!!!! I will never use my front break on gravel again!!!! ;-)

Answer 5

39 years.

dozens of time when I was riding trail bikes and motocross bikes, but I was wearing armor.

Once on my Honda 350 (little full dresser) when I was 14. Came off the highway (I didn't say I was riding legally - but who was going to stop a girl on a bike way back then?) after a truck that was spilling something greasy on the road. Light rain. Had to come off the road about a 40 degree turn. Saw it coming, yelled to my passenger "JUMP" which she did and I did. We both rolled off into the grass on one side of the road and the bike went into the other. No harm, but the bike did get a few scratched.

Dropped my bigger bikes more times than I like to count (I don't like to count past one), but that means dropping (as in moving less than 2 miles per hour).

The old adage is not if but when about wrecking. It's about dropping. There are two kinds of riders; those that have dropped their bike and those who will. Dropping a bike generally hurts only one's pride and may cause a scratch on some chrome. Think Artie Johnson. If you don't know Artie Johnson, look him up. He and his tricycle are legend!

Answer 6

Been riding 27 years both on and off road.  To date, only one fall on a "public" road but that was a well traveled dirt road.  I hope I am not dooming myself here but I have yet to fall on the blacktop.  I have had your typical countless gravel grinding, tree hugging, double jointed rag doll tosses in the dirt.  I will tell you one thing to consider if you are just curious and thinking about riding.  Maybe you have been riding for years and are just taking a poll?  Anyway, if you are just thinking about riding, you will never enjoy yourself the way you should on a motorcycle if you are worried about wrecking.  Part of the fun about riding is the times you cut loose, when no one is on the road but you and you are letting it all hang out.  I am never satisfied cruising the highway with the traffic at 55 and I am never happy just rounding the corner on a dirt or gravel road.  The more gravel that sprays, the farther the rear tire is pitched out there and the closer the peg is to the ground, the more fun I am having.   Yeah, I get a little concerned at times and think I should slow down and I do but I understand that at any time I could be piled up on the road.  Don't necessarily want that to happen but I am willing to accept it.  Don't be paranoid about falling down, it will put a damper on your fun.  I personally don't know anyone who rides who hasen't tasted terra firma at least once.

Answer 7

I have been riding 30 years and I had my first accident this past Jan. I totaled my road king. I already have an Electra Glide as a replacement.

Answer 8

Six years 2 accidents one was not too bad another was pretty bad.

Answer 9

I've been riding for about 40 years and was always a hard rider so I've crashed a lot. The crashes that hurt the most though were the ones when I was just easing along and slipped on a puddle of anti-freeze in a turn. Or while I was riding along eating an ice cream cone and waved to my Mom who was in her car pulling out of our street just before she pulled out in front of me. Or when the beautiful and shapely girl in the purple bikini stepped out of her house just as I was rounding the turn in front of it.  Oh, and the time I was rounding a turn in the middle of a dark and cloudy night where a opossum, crossing the road, had been freshly obliterated. I was leaned way over, dragging the foot-peg , my headlight illuminating the poor animals splattered remains, as I spied a path through the fur, the blood, the guts and brain matter without running over the fully intact opossum heart laying in the middle of it all. I wasn't going to slow down. I was going for broke. I headed hot into that messy turn with metal scraping and my line through the roadkill targeted and locked on. That's when the heart JUMPED at my headlight! AAAAAAAH! I went down sliding off the turn making sparks like a kid with a box of sparklers before coming to rest in a dirt field.......Dam TOAD!

Just ride sanely like you have some sense and your crash will be just a tip over in the driveway.

Oh, and buy a good helmet, gloves and leather.

Answer 10

40 years

0 wrecks

Answer 11

about 10 years total. Dropped 1 turning around and like has been said......no injuries except to my pride. Note to self: remember to downshift! Dropped one in gravel parking lot. Crash bars held it off the ground. Note to self: slow down when turning into a parking lot! Hooked my front tire on a berm (dirt bike riding) and spilled myself and a passenger over the bars with the bars on my left hand and buried in the dirt. Tore all the muscles in my back and sprained my wrist. Not to self: be familiar with the place you.re riding or slow your wild a$$ down!. Dropped on doing donuts in a clay parking lot. (dirt bike) Minor abrasions to my right leg where the rear tire hit it and spun burns on it. Note to self: Wear long pants ALONG with the tennis shoes? Actually I only got hurt real bad with the back injury. Still waiting and dreading the one with a car. Not a matter of if, just when. Been too close too many times but hasn't happened yet

Answer 12

riding over 30yrs wrecked more times then I can remember. Try not to be young and dumb anymore, does seem to help.

Answer 13

been riding 15 years, never wrecked or dumped my bike or any one elses

Answer 14

I've been riding since 1967, let's see, that's 41 years.  

I had one serious accident in 1971.  Coming back to my college dorm after a weekend at home.  Stupid woman turned left in front of me.  I flew over her car, landed on my face, broke two teeth and twisted my leg badly enough to keep me on crutches for 8 weeks, then walking with a cane for another month or so.

Since then I have been PARANOID.  I pretend I'm invisible.  I -expect- people to pull into my lane, into my path.  And sometimes they don't disappoint me.   I've had the occasional lose-it-in-gravel, low-speed lowside, etc., but nothing serious.

Answer 15

riding for 22 years, crashed about 10-12 times. none serious(to me anyhow. wrecked a few bikes) replace a lever or 2 and a mirror maybe, and away you go. be sure to wear a good jacket /long pants (no shorts) and a full face helmet. these will save your skin(literally)

Answer 16

I have been riding 35 years, and during the first year or so, I wrecked twice.  Once when the idiot in the rightmost lane of a 5 lane road (2 lanes in each direction with center left turn lane) made a left turn across directly in front of me. I tried to make that turn, but there was trench in the shoulder, and I could just make a driveway.  Idiot hit me anyway.

The second time I was on my way to college, after we had just taken my son to the hospital.  I was a little distracted.  A car in front of me slowed a little and I started to pass, and he turned into an alley (which I was not expecting).

I got a ticket for that one.  No excuse, but try not to ride a motorcycle if you are distracted, or tired or any of a million things are going on in your ordinary life.

Answer 17

riding for 20 years.

Had a couple of incidents:

First due to lack of experience making a left hand turn hit gravel and dumped the bike (rode away with a couple of scratches and a bit less pride)

Second, got ran off the road by an RV on I-10 just east of Blythe, CA - bike totaled, needed new helmet, gloves, leathers, gloves, pants, etc few minor scrapes.

Third, got hit by a red-light runner - mangled the front end damage to the tank, pegs but nothing that wasn't repairable.  Some road rash from the fall as the car only hit the front end and not me I was able to walk away from it.  Ended up with an injection (MRSA) in my leg that almost took the leg just above the knee.

Fourth, just happened - blew a tire about 15 miles south of winslow Arizona at 65 - no injuries of any kind - tire shredded, under side damage that I have to get a better look at - killed the rim as I had to limp the bike a couple of miles on the rim to get to an area with cell phone coverage.

Answer 18

15 years.  Five wrecks.  

1) Stupid newbie

2) Stupid raccoon

3) Valuable lesson re: riding alongside wet train tracks.

4) I wanna say "Just bad luck", but it was a single vehicle crash, so it must have been my fault.  Danged if I can say what I did wrong, though.

5) Stupid landlord left a pile of stupid leaves in a striped parking zone.  Sure, it's no parking, but there's nothing illegal about driving there, and there certainly shouldn't be a leaf pile.

Answer 19

If wreck = can't ride it home, none.

Answer 20

18 years, 1 serious wreck (as was said before - can't ride it home - also ambulance involvement) and and a couple of non-consequential embarrassing incidents.

The wreck was a classic "left-turn-in-front-of-me" situation.

Answer 21

Actually it's not "wreck" it's that you will at some point drop your bike (and that's addage, not attage).

I got my bike 2 yrs ago, but went just over a year without riding it so say I've been riding almost a year...stayed upright so far. There are times I tire of hearing how I'm GOING to drop my bike though, that I want to just let it go (in the grass, of course) over and get it over with. LOL!

Answer 22

Fifty six years, about 1/2 million miles.  We won't talk about falling off in the dirt.  On the road, 2 accidents, both caused by cars not being where they belonged, first one passed on an S curve, as I was coming the other direction. He was following another car, pulled out to pass in the middle of the S, as I was coming the other direction.  Second, a car turned left into a driveway, just before the top of a hill, as I came over the hill, the opposite direction. I got off to the right as far as I could, without going into the ditch, he pushed me into it.

A lesson to be learned from these, please read and do not laugh, or ignore.  First one, I was riding a reasonable speed, on my side of the road, but was looking at the countryside.  We were outside Asheville, NC, in August.  Beautiful country, but not where you want to wake up in the hospital, after enjoying the secenery. Second, was not far from my home, a country road, in mid Tennessee.   Rolling country side.  I topped a hill at a good rate of speed, a car procceded to turn in front of me, into a parking lot of a church, which set on top f the hill.    I got as far to the right as I could, without going into the ditch, he hit me, pushed me into the ditch.  Now this one would have been hard to avoid, unless I stayed at home.  I came over the top of the hill, he turned left in front of me. If I had not been going about 115mph, do not know what would have happened, I would have hit the side of his car, instead of him hitting me in the side.  Do not want to try that again.  

Both these were a long time ago, still ride, sometimes go pretty quickly.  Still my life.

Tomcotexas.