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bike dropped at 0 mph, questions????

8K views 19 replies 17 participants last post by  CGHEMWICK 
#1 ·
I had dropped my 01 KRS last week twice in one hour :mad: . What can I say, I still can't believe I did that. But anyway I wanted to ask your experienced opinions. First I for some reason couldn't put it on the center stand (doing that before without any problems) and dropped it on the right side at the parking lot. Then I got so mad at myself so I decided to cut my planned trip short and took some unfamiliar canyon and at the very sharp unexpected turn downshifted, stalled the bike and dropped it again on the same right side on my leg. The BMW boots did its work and need to be replaced. I broke the foot peg and the rear turn light. The right throttlemaister has to replaced since it got scratched pretty hard. Amazingly I got some practically not noticeable scratches on the side panel and some scratches on the passenger peg housing. It didn't take too much time to replace and fix all of that.
After these touch downs the left turn signal knob on the handlebar when in locked position started slightly touching the tank. It has also been already adjusted but I still think if anything got bent. The dealer who did the adjustment said the bike is fine but you know that this is the best place to get opinions so I would like to hear yours.
I think it maybe not such a big deal but anyway this bothers me. The last thing you want to happen to your bike is to bend something.

Any thoughts???
 
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#2 ·
Dropped bike

Sorry to hear about you dropping your bike.

Mine was a controlled drop, the bike got leaned too far over while stationary and I couldn't hold it up so I let it down gracefully. I ended up with the turn signal actuator on the left side in contact with the tank at full left lock.

I loosened the fork tubes in the triple clamps, removed the fork brace, removed the front wheel, and removed the handlebars from the bike on both sides. I put it all back together carefully and the handlebar was straight once I reassembled everything.

It is likely that someone else will know a better way to address this problem than what I did and perhaps I did not or should not have removed as much as I did, however in my first two efforts to straighten the handlebar I removed only the handlebars from the upper clamp and could not get them straightened out so the on the third try I removed and loosened everything I thought might casue the problem.

I don't know what caused the problem, I found nothing that was obviously bent or loose or broken and the handlebars are staight now, the bike has no handling or tracking problems so I am fat, dumb, and happy.
 
#3 ·
If it rides and handles good it should be OK.

My get off.
I was on Cali. 178 going east just past Onyx.
I see the BIG sign that said 20. But I thought it read 30 MPH.
(tell me you could read that sign at 100 MPH.)

And the “U” in that sign, well shit, that’s all the warning they give on a 65MPH road.
A sign should be 200 ft before the turn like: “you are about to take a real U turn and you better SLOW your ass down to 20 MPH”
ONE SIGN in the start of the turn? None before it? Bad News.

I grab some brake and slow to 60 MPH, down shifting to fourth gear. Thinking this will be fun with a 80 or 90 degree turn.

I thought that big sign read 30 MPH. On a bike 60 is ok, but not for a 20MPH turn sign!
Then I enter the turn and start to sense, Hmm this seems way tooo fast.
I got the bike dragging the peg and the luggage bag is scrapping on the pavement. That can’t be good!
I start to drift over the double yellow line and know that this turn is not going well.
(I have learned that you always want to look at where you want the bike to go. If you look at that tree, that will be the crash site, you will hit it. So I always look at the place I want to go. The exit of the turn!)

I can not see the exit of this turn cause it’s a FUCK’N U TURN.
With NO warning sign till I get on top of the turn at 100 MPH and slow to 60.
I am now in the world of “BAD SHIT IS GOING TO HAPPEN!”

At this point in the turn I feel it’s a good time to leave the out-of-control 600 lbs. gorilla.
I depart my fine motorcycle to try out my BMW ridding gear on the pavement, hoping that it’s worth all the big money I paid for it.
I am wearing the finest that BMW makes. 3- PHASEN, (that’s what it reads on the label) woven fiber pants and jacket including knee and elbow protection. Joe Rocket racing boots. I can’t say much for the gloves. They are just gauntlets to keep my hands warm. Not racing gloves with carbon fiber buttons. Of course I have on my SHOEI helmet.
As I push off from my beloved ride I flip the kill switch. I wish it well, thinking all the time, shit-man this is going to scratch the paint.

As I am sliding my ass on the pavement the only thing I was watching was, where the hell I was headed in this very out of control thrill ride. Sliding along I notice this very big tractor trailer headed my way. Well, it turned out it was only a day cab tractor with a 30ft trailer, but when your ass is sliding on the pavement, looking up, it look’s real big.
The tractor trailer was traveling in the other direction coming at me, but he was able to stop, just to watch my wreck. A profession truck driver.
But let me tell you, when your sliding on your ass in the wrong lane of traffic and see anything coming at you, never mind a BIG RIG, you really want to get-out-of-the-way.
As soon as I slowed down, my ass meter said “get up and run you fool”.

I got up and ran, then realized the Big Rig was stopped. Thank you, Thank you.
I saw my bike lying in the lane I had been traveling in. If anyone was coming around that that blind turn things could get ugly. I picked up the bike and pushed it off the road. The trucker kept asking “are you OK?” I said ‘yes”. I know my adrenalin was high but I was OK. I had no pain anywhere.

I inspected the bike and found it had:
half a clutch lever, a hole in the valve cover that is leaking oil. Plus paint scraped off the fairing and some luggage bags that don’t look too good.
A very nice guy (former biker) stopped to help me out and give me some good advice on how to use JB weld to fix the valve cover oil leak. Only problem was, I was 1,000 miles from no where.
I had to go back about 50 miles to Lake Isabella for material to fix the bike. Oil was leaking out of the cracked valve cover, on to the bike and my boot. Got the JB stuff put it on, no more oil leak. Rode back to the curve and took those pictures. ( don't know how to post them) the Bike felt OK and I rode it home to Las Vegas.

The end of the story, The Flash is OK, the pants have a blemish, boots have a scrape, the valve cover has a hole (JB welded), the fairing is in need of sanding and painting “a lot”,
Need a new clutch lever, one luggage bag is no good and one has a big scrape.

I was in a right hand turn; the bike was laid over to the right in the turn, scraping the right side when I got off.
When the horror movie stopped, the bike was on its left side when I PICKED IT UP. Most of the damage was on the left.

Lesson learned; ride fast, but not too fast. Always, always wear safety ridding apparel. You never know when a turn will sneak up on you.

Bazra
aka; The Flash
 
#6 ·
Pete_Tallahassee said:
Alex, If you can, trade bikes with some one with the same model and compare rides. Or do what Gordon did. Good Luck.
Thanks for your replies guys. Since than I've ridden it for about 200+miles and feel no difference. I think in a week or so I will feel better about the whole thing. I am just amazed at how well these bikes built so with such hit the plastic side panel is almost fine. Maybe it just felt like it hit really hard but it didn't I don't know. Althogh I think the right panel has slighly moved. I think the most impact was taken by the throttlemaister and the broken peg (since it's the 2001 it has not completely foldable peg).

Anyway Bazra I'm glad you're fine. :bmw:

Alex
 
#7 ·
Bike Drop

AMATEURES!!!! I'm a profession bike dropper I'll have you know. Dropped my brand new KLT, first day home in my parking lot. BUT WAIT!! That's not all you get, how about two more time that month. Picked it up by myself too, so there. Like my Grandmother always preached to me, "never take your new 836lb. KLT off the centerstand WITHOUT SITTING ON IT"!!! she'd say. Damn the manual.
 
#8 ·
Am I being too cautious when I always kick the sidestand down first when stopped, always lean to the sidestand, then lift on to the centre stand with side stand still down? The last thing to come up before I take off is the side stand and if I forget, my interlocks work and tell me. If they don't, I remember anyway and fix them. My untested theory is if the 'gorilla' starts falling, it will fall to the sidestand and might just stay there. One thing that always makes me nervous is inexperienced pillion mounts/dismounts. I still leave the sidestand down and they mount from that side, careful of the hot can.

I'm just so sorry there's no way I could match bazra's story. Glad you got out in one piece. Developing and executing an 'exit strategy' whilst remembering the kill switch was pretty cool!



 
#11 ·
As above; bikes get dropped. Don't worry too much about it. I've dropped my bikes several times... My shortlegged (her words, not mine :p) girlfriend keeps dropping her new GSX-R (she's getting better!!)... As long as you're not dropping it at speed, you'll be fiiiine! :) For practise; push the bike around the car park. Have a friend near and practise getting on and off...

... get crash protectors... :) Maybe lower seat, higher heels :p

Don't worry; ride it! :) :ricky
 
#12 ·
Sounds all too familiar. I just finished repairing my tupperware as a result of a cernter stand mishap. BMW used tubular center stands for years, and a weak point was water entry at the rubber plugs at the end of the stand's tubes.

Well, water did enter my main stand tubes, and over time it rusted the stand out from the inside. One day the left leg of the stand broke right off as I was putting it on the stand. I watched helplessly as the bike fell over onto the concrete.

Other than a smashed fairing and right mirror, there was no other damage, and the bike operated normally.

Bob.
 
#13 ·
hmeiseles said:
I have always found that if you drop your bike as soon as you get it, it becomes predisasted and nothing will happen to it later.

Glad you are ok
I take you have watched the movie, "The World According to Garp", the airplane into the house scene.
 
#15 ·
I have come close to dropping both my RT and my K RS, both times at 5 mph turns in parking lots. At least everytime I put the bike on the side stand or the center stand I think about these message threads and tell myself "I don't want to contribute my own drop experience". Plus I am not supersticious about posting this and then droping it tomorrow.

Now I've done it. If I drop it, I won't tell you.

Ron
 
#16 · (Edited)
I remember a long tour down through the blue-ridge mountains on my first touring bike, a 1980 Suzuki GS1000 shafty (great bike...bullet proof). Towards the end of a long day, I pulled over to a scenic view, not paying attention to the gradual incline in the parking area. Fully loaded with camping gear and my girlfriend (nicknamed 'reverse'....drove me nuts, but a good pillion) I made a slooowww left to park and felt the beast easing over. Realizing it was no longer my choice about staying upright, I am shouting to the GF, "Get the F-off!" Fortunately she does before it lands on either of us. Had to completely unload to hoist her up. Totally embarassed, but minor damage. Good lesson. No camping that night...motel and hot bath.
 
#17 ·
how to drop a bike

Well, excluding my 3-speed, my first bike was this one I bought last month at age 57, a 1998 K1200RS, and I can tell you how to drop it so it won't do any damage to the bike, just fall over with the bike so the entire weight of the bike falls on your leg like I did, the bike will never hit the ground till they pull you out from under it, bike will come out fine, you will limp around for a while.
Jack
 
#18 ·
Sorry to hear you dropped the bike, and being new to this site equally glad to see guys admitt they have dropped bikes as well. It has been my expeirence that anyone who hasn't dropped a bike, probably hasn't ridden much. Sooner or later we all drop a bike, and almost always when it's creeping along. Gas stations, and tool booths are notorious, I dropped mine in my garage walking away from it thinking it was steady on the side stand only to find out I had not locked the stand all the way out. I ran back to the bike as it was going down, and was able to slow it down, but I dropped it, and got to see how good the engine gaurds were. Anyway best to just put it behind you.
 
#20 ·
I nearly dropped my freshly restored k100rt at the gas station, when the center stand broke, but....

I always leave the side stand out before I put it on the center stand for mishaps sake
 
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