What Was Your Most Embarrassing Moment With Any Motorbike?

[alans1100]

I don't think this has been done on here before so time to tell us your most embarrassing time on any motorbike. I guess most of us have had one or two. This was mine.

It would have to be about 25 years ago when I had a little 250cc Honda road bike. As I was leaving a roadhouse the rear wheel skidded sideways in some sandy gravel and the bike went down and so did I. Wasn't hurt other than a mildly sore right hand knee.

A couple of guys ran over as I picked up the bike and asked if I was ok. I was but I just wanted to get away. This all happened beside a bus load of people which was the embarrassing bit.

[Philbo]

Parked my DT250 Yamaha in the carpark adjacent to the beergarden at the pub at Stradbroke island while I went in with mates for lunch.  Locked the steering for security.  Came out after lunch, kickstarted her and rode off, then dropped the bike as I leaned one way and the bike kept turning with the steering lock on.  To the cheers of surfers in the beergarden.
Phil   

[Kev Murphy]

Witnessed an embarrassing moment about an hour ago... large group of riders in town. One fellow outside coffee shop on the foreshore with an older model Harley was having difficulty kick-starting his beast, so he gave up and stepped off and away from the bike.... but the side stand was not down...

[Brock]

Probably had the kill switch off...

[pault]

tasmania 1978 riding along with jacket undone as it was warming up. Some sort of bug flew down the jacket into my chest and started to get excited. Punched my self a few times trying to squash it. No luck , pulled up and tore off all top layers, helmet,jacket jumper shirt and tee shirt.
Watched bug fly off in the direction of two lady golfers not 20 yards away. looking on with bemused interest.

[AliSTair]

About 20 years ago, riding with a mate in South Perth we were stopped at a T –intersection waiting to turn left and merge with the busy main road…waiting, waiting,, (very busy road), waiting, eventually a suitable and safe gap in the traffic opened up and off I went…unfortunately my mate didn’t go, and as he was actually in front of me at the time, I rode straight into his rear quarter , knocked him off his bike and broke my mirror and indicator. Fortunately no damage to his bike or our selves, just my ego!

Felt like a bloody idiot, and apologised for weeks…taught me a valuable lesson about making assumptions of other riders/drivers decisions,  Don’t!

[spanner]

about 25 yrs of aGE ON A FANTASTIC LITTLE KAWASAKI 100cc .

Had long pants on an came to a stop at the red light . Put foot down as per normal and no dramas but the wind was a little strong so I had to swap side for stability . I lifted my leg but forgot to put the other leg down so over I went.

Plop!

I can not believe I in mid thought but didn't finish the thought with action.

Needless to say this was in peak hour in the middle of Townsville.

[Williamson]

..... forgot to put the other leg down so over I went .....

Reminds me of when the flaired trouser leg of my Amco jeans slipped over the kick-start lever on my TS185.  No matter how hard you try, your foot won't touch the ground.  In Mountjoy Parade (the Great Ocean Road) in Lorne on New Year's Eve in front of a packed Arab café, didn't make it any easier or less memorable.

[Kev Murphy]

As I had already posted this, here's the link  http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=7827.msg90149#msg90149

[LeaST4Me]

Gee I've got a couple So I will start with the most recent which was as a couple! I was performing a U turn on my ZZR1100 in front of the Tea House on Mt. Glorious when Leanne swivelled around on the pillion seat putting us off balance. I couldn't get my foot down to save us & over we went needless to say we decided to skip our coffees, picked ourselves up & departed the scene.

However I think the more entertaining moment of embarrassment was when I was a learner rider back in 1978, noticing the next door neighbours & their friends having a backyard BBQ I thought I would show off my riding skills by spinning up the back wheel & sliding my RD350 in an arc from its resting spot at the rear of the house to the driveway. Now anyone who has ridden an RD350 will tell you its a fine line in revs between spinning the wheel & hooking up & wheel standing, well naturally I didn't give it quite enough berries & wheel stood directly toward the neighbours who were looking on with a mixture of amusement & terror! I rolled off the throttle & laid the bike down sliding ingloriously into the fence, I sheepishly picked myself & bike up & rode away not returning till well after dark!

[stirringaxe]

Great posts..... I have a few too but I will describe two of them that happened back in the 80's.

The first the one happened while new bike shopping on my Yamaha DT175. Our main Honda dealer was on a steep hill. Some poor bugger got knocked off his bike outside, drawing two motorbike cops to the scene. Their bikes were parked next to each other so I parked my bike next to & up hill from theirs. Got off, walked about 40 feet up the hill only to hear this crunch - I turn to see that my bike has fallen onto the first cop bike & that was just falling onto the 2nd. The two cops were far from amused, but the gathered crowd thought it was extremely hilarious.

They sued me for damages, which I successfully fought in court, defeating the charge "that I had parked unsafely" by arguing "well they were parked there first". They asserted "that I was reckless in my parking by not making sure the bike was stable on its side stand". I replied "that it seemed perfectly fine when I got off. The other cop bikes hadn't fallen over & that I was really quite some distance away when my bike fell onto theirs. I also argued that it may have been blown over  by a gust of wind".

The judge ruled in my favor, calling it an act of god.
 


The 2nd embarrassing moment, that I still really chuckle about a today was..... 

On the above outing I purchased a gorgeous black Honda 500 Four.
It was a beautiful 1 owner bike with chrome everywhere.
I was totally in love.

I left my mate sitting on the back while filling up the gas on a busy petrol station forecourt.
I paid for the fuel, returned to the bike, threw my right leg over the seat & my foot went straight into the turned up cuff on the bottom of my mates jeans. Momentum had lifted the bike off the side stand & we just went helplessly straight over onto the concrete with indicator lenses & untold damage to exhausts & other bright work the result.

I have never been so embarrassed since. 

[STroppy]

A year or two ago after many days of riding, almost home, refueled at Cooma Servo, paid, moved over to parking to wait for BMW Paul to finish refueling.

Still stradling bike, I decided to reset odometer and fuel usage settings on dash n GPS.

Finished, decided to dismount n wait for Paul, started leaning bike over on to sidestand . . Only I had not deployed the sidestand.

By the time I realised this, I found the bike, now completely full of fuel and nice and top heavy, was past the point where my strength and now with only one foot on the ground position, was too much for me to move back into an upright position.

Only choice was to gently lower bike onto the nice flat and level concrete in full view of all the cars refueling. I hoped they believed I was practicing my corner angle lean that I had watched Jorge do with such ease . . Mind you he was at 200 kph+

Paul eventually came to my rescue and we managed to get bike upright and onto recalcitrant sidestand . . only bike damage some slight scratching on edge of tip-over-wing. Plus very large bruising to male ego!

Lucky helmet was deployed!

[ST.George]

About 3 years back, not long after rescuing (buying) Wyvern the Dragon STeed from the BananaLand heat and humidity I was reversing out of a Wollongong shopping complex car park having to reverse-right very sharply coz the motorcycle parking was almost directly in front of the double entrance 2 the carpark and therefore a fairly constant stream of incoming vehicles. I must have overdone it a little coz next thing I know I couldn't stop the bike from falling 2 the right.
I got up on the wrong side of Wyvern and didn't think of going round the other side and putting the side stand out in order 2 stand the bike up securely.
Instead, I stood the bike up and then slowly tippy-toed round the front while at the same time trying very carefully not 2 lose balance again!
The really embarrassing part was that cars were waiting 2 get in2 the car park and right adjacent 2 me was a car washing crew that was observing the entertainment.
Anyway, I slowly got 2 the other side and deployed the side stand, got on, had a good look around and no-one, not one, person was laughing - or even looking at me. I guess that they empathised and we're glad that it hadn't happened 2 them. Just a few minor scratches and a big dent in the pride.
I use this carpark all the time and have learnt 2 be xtra careful reversing the STeed in either direction.
I'm pretty sure tha car park staff have noticed how careful I m these days.

[StinkyPete]

We are all mortals, and I'm happy prepared to share one of my embarrassing moments.

On the day that I purchased my ST in Cairns, I rode it south towards Innisfail, to get a feel for my brand new shiny red bike.   I took a quiet road off to the right to somewhere that I can't remember, and eventually needed to make a "U" turn.   The combination of a bike much heavier than I had ever ridden before, a slope on the road, and an embarrassing lack of skill, led to me dropping the bike in the middle of the road.   After just about busting my pooper valve, I could not pick it up, so I sat on the side of the road and waited for someone to come along who could give me a hand.    First one car stopped, then another and another and another, at what was looking to them like a crash site.   It was getting out of hand, and I was beating off the people asking "Are you hurt...."  and so on.   Eventually the message got through to someone that I simply needed help to stand her up, and I did not need an ambulance.  We got her back on her feet and the crowd began to disperse.   I was seriously pissed of with myself for dropping and scratching my nice new bike, and deeply embarrassed at my lack of skill.  I could not get out of there quick enough.

I later did some slow speed rider training, but she's still been over a couple of times since, usually from my grounded foot slipping on loose material.   Experience has taught me lots, including the fact that "Shit Happens"