A bit of a wuz...

[Whizz]

OK, I admit that I currently feel like a bit of a wuz. Today, when coming home from work, my beloved ST obviously felt a little tired and decided to lay down...in the middle of the car park ...at less than 1kmh!!! I was trying to turn the beast through 180 degrees when it simply decided that I was not up to it and, despite all my best efforts, it laid down!   

It was at the point that I discovered just how truly heavy the thing really is!!! Now I'm 6ft 3in (188cms for the younger ones amongst us) and I weight somewhere around 123kgs, but it took all of my strength to get the thing back up onto it's wheels again without over-balancing the other way! Not a trick I want to do too often!

Has anyone else laid their STead down in any similarly embarrassing circumstances (I'm trying to find others who've done it so that I don't feel quite so much like a pratt!).

Cheers
Whizz

 

[tj189]

not that I will own up to

[Shaun]

I have almost laid it down...too close for comfort.

The rear tyres on my bike are very low profile, so when the sidestand is down, the bike is very vertical, and a reasonable incline in the other direction can make the bike want to go over.

I got it leaning around 30 degrees, which means I had to lift half its weight. I am also 6'3" and it was quite a struggle, especially considering I was leaning over the bike to hold it from tipping. I tend to use the centre stand now in such areas. :)

Cheers, Shaun

[Streak]

should i dob in Tipsy or not....hmmm

[Down Under]

Dropping a bike is not a matter of if it's when! 

I once dropped an R1100RTP out the front of a packed fish and chip shop.  Using the super human strength that one finds in those moments I picked it up and nearly shot about 3 feet of intestine out of my clacker!  Luckily I had my helmet on.  I couldn't start the bike quick enough to make my escape.

[Dan]

I dropped my old VFR when I stopped next to some gravel.  Also, a mate of mine bought a brand new Triumph Tiger 1050 and dropped it on his first proper ride out when he stopped on a back lane and didn't realise it was long grass in a ditch when he put his foot down....

[pault]

Yep i have done the 2kmh tip over, felt it going and there was nothing i could do, laid on the ground for a bit feeling dumb to say the least, people arrived and wanted to know if i was OK, hard to say i was more embrassed than anything. no damage to ST

[Couch]

I really don't want to mention it !

Twice bugger it.......first time while stationery on loose gravel, leaned the bike slightly to put into first gear and as I did so my right foot skidded out from the loose stones underfoot just as I was letting out the clutch...........back wheel started throwing up gravel and down she went . Only damage was to the black plastic over the crash bar. Second time, in first gear at idle speed doing a u turn on a loose gravel road...not wanting to lean the bike at all I chose to make a wider turn and take the bike over a very short stretch of grass about a metre wide ...........we hadn't had rain for 3 days and it looked solid so away I went. Unfortunately hidden by the grass was a couple of inches of soft mud and as soon as the back wheel hit it, down she went.  Only damage was to my pride, hence the username "Couch" bugger it !

[terrydj]

Bloody heaps of times and when people have been watching like at a rally. Now their a heavy thing unless you knopw how to pick up a bike. A lot simpler than nyou think. So watch this.Oh yeah on an ST1100 it helps if you tie something on the rear foot peg you can make a loop with and grab.

How To Pick Up A Fallen Motorcycle

[Shaun]

Dangit I blame this thread for what just happened... 

I was moving my ST over in the garage so that I could more easily get the cruiser out for tomorrows commute (it hasn't been ridden in a while so I wanted it to have a couple of commutes to keep the engine/battery going) and of course I tip the damn ST while trying to put it on the centre stand. Luckily it rested on a side bench while I went to the other side to heave it up. My arms are pounding as I type this. That was hard work to get it up again. 

[Whizz]

Shaun, Sorry mate I didn't mean to jinx you, hope the ST isn't damaged!.

Terry, what a great tutorial on how to get the monster back on its feet! I'll remember that the next time it wants to have a little rest on its side!.

Thanks all, I am not feeling quite so silly now!

Cheers
Whizz

 

[Tackleberry]

Riding a BMTroubleU R120RT-P I went to ride over a median strip with lights and sirens on chasing some idiot that had just tried to run me over.  A mother talking with her kids in the back seat not watching where the hell she was going meant that I had to stop just after the front wheel went back onto the road.  Went to put my foot down I found the ground was further down that I thought.  Again as said by Down Under I almost flipped the thing 360 degrees as I threw it up on side stand and got back on to continue my search.  In what felt like only 3 seconds there were about 300 cars gathered as it is a major thoroughfare at 3pm in the arvo. 

And yes I caught the bugger with a little help from a few cages. 

Terry - good find on the video, but it isn't as easy as they make it look, especially when you drop it in loose gravel because you get no grip.  There is another technique we use to pick the bike us using only the handlebars. 

[West Aussie Glen]

Terry, great video now we need is for some one to volunteer their bike so we can practice

[Diesel]

Bad Luck Whizz - and others - it certainly is just a matter of time.

Like Tack correctly points out, it's OK to try this in the comfort of your garage - but you'll have to make some huge allowances out in the world if it was gravel or a sloping table drain that made her kiss the dirt.

Here is another interesting thread we had on this very subject....

http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=163.msg1133#msg1133

No one was actually hurt (well long-term) in the making of this thread!   A few pride's were casualties though.       

[West Aussie Glen]

I still remember when NSW police were riding Honda 750 fours seeing a policemen walk up to his bike that had laid down, grab the upper most handle bar and simply pull his bike up, guess they were a little lighter in those days but still impressive.

[Whizz]

What an interesting subject this is turning out to be, and I'm sorry I didn't find the original thread, some interesting stories. Just goes to show no matter how good you think you are fate has away of putting everyone firmly in their place!

Tackleberry, you say there is another method using only the handlebars, care to describe it for us, please?

One last diversion in this, may years ago whilst on a CD250 through Southampton in UK, I was riding down the outside of a line of parked cars when a d***khead stepped out in front of me. I yanked the bike to the right and the back wheel caught his foot just as he put his weight on it. Bike flipped, and I did the great flying W over the handle bars to land unceremoniously in a heap on the far side of the road... luckily no on-coming traffic!

Picked myself up, the dumb pedestrian having vanished into the ether, straightened the handle-bars, got back on and went to work. Passed out at work whilst removing my gloves and woke up in hospital with a shattered left wrist and having removed the top of my right collar-bone. Two operations, 7 inches of platinum wire and  6 months in plaster later I was back on another CB 250...we simply do not learn do we!? In the accident described I was doing all of 20 miles an hour on a damp road, early, misty morning with little traffic in either direction.

There is an understory with this about me being having my left wrist in plaster and my right arm in a sling, my first wife going shopping and leaving me at home with my Monster-in-Law and a call of nature. But I really won't go into that in this forum, don't want to put anyone off his cornflakes! 

Cheers all

Whizz
 

[terrydj]

Tackleberry, mate. Years ago I just pulled out of that big servo out of Brisbane heading North when a a minute down the road a coppa decides to take the short cut over the medium strip in the middle of the road?????? so off he goes and its a touch up hill, and as he's about to get on the bitumen on the other side he loses it and falls down.
So what am I to?????????
I pulls over, he looks, I laugh, he shakes his head and laughs, I laugh again. Hmmmmm never hung around to see if he got the bike back up. I laughed everytime I thought about it untill I got up to Moura.
Just had another laugh as I'm typing. Suppose you just had to be their eh

[Tackleberry]

Whizz the method we use only uses the handlebars as a contact point for lifting. 

In gear, tyre turned "outwards" (front towards the sky) both hands cupped under the lower bar end weight.  Straight back, rock the bike on ground until you have enough to lift with your legs and bike comes up pretty quick with the momentum you have gained from rocking.  The last rock when the handlebar is low you really give it a decent shove and I have seen some small people push up a bike weighing nearly 300kg.  This gets away from the slippery gravel issue, as your feet stay still until the bike is getting closer to upright and you are stepping towards it for extra support. 

Believe me when you have the adrenaline running this becomes a lot easier than when you're just practicing.  A lot of these videos that make their methods look easy have attachments to their bikes, that a lot of people don't normally have which provide a great grab point.  If we look at the video that Terry provided, how many ST's have a grab point around the pannier for us to use this method, and remember your panniers are only just hanging pieces of plastic really. 

Terry we all do it, and anybody that says they don't is either a miracle rider, or a straight out bloody liar.

[JohnoJ]

I must be accident prone with you all. My first drop was with my CB750 K2. I had my future wife on the back who was telling me to slow down as I was travelling through the sand. I could have crawled faster but as I turned slightly to go around a bend the bike moved she jumped off and the bike fell across my right knee. I was pinned until I could smell the flesh burning and was able to flick the bike off. 
Another time I was visiting some one in Fremantle Hospital. I was driving into the car park and a car drove straight across in front of me to an empty car bay. I lent the ST onto the median strip, It did not fall completely to the ground.

[terrydj]

Tackleberry, spot on bout no where to grab around the panniers.
I have tied and occy a few times and made a loop with a few turns around the rear pillion footpeg that helps heaps wih the lift

[Tipsy]

  py
and thats why they call me "Tipsy" not for the  that I enjoy although could be one and the same ,

   say no more

Tipsy

[West Aussie Glen]

My "bygdawg" tip over bars will make a great lifting point when the time comes.

[Marcus]

Yes and I couldn't lift it back up, without the help of three much bigger guys.

Watched this vid and the next I lifted it by myself in about 30 seconds

Maryland Motorcycle Dealer | Lifting BMW R1200R Motorcycle

Well to be honest it wasn't this video, it was this website where 50 year women were lifting them...Sigh