Dropped her!

[GreenLantern57]

The stupid things I have done. I only let the bike warm up a couple of min. after work today. Still a bit cold. So when I left the lot and hit the throttle, she stumbled and then caught right on some water. Spun hard. Ended up going 180, back and finnaly down. Probably about 70 ft. Only skidded about 5 ft on the pavement. Luckily I stayed in one lane and traffic was able to stay flowing in the next lane.
Bike - all damage on left.. mirror broke, driving light works but dented, clutch lever bent down about 3 inches, scuffed the saddle bag, bent the kickstand arm up, few rashes on the windshield ( you have to look for them). Several places scratched. But she started and no obvious tweeking of the front forks.
Me - Scrapped my left toe of boot, scuffed leather pants. Glad I was wearing them, office slacks would have been shreded. Back of hand got pinched by the clutch handle. Pretty bruised, but no apparent damage. I am same as the bike, all hurt spots on left side. Elbow bruised from bumping road. Knee the same. Think the back will be tweaked in the morning. Did not bounce off the ground, so my back and head never got punched.
Picked  her up and pushed her into the drive to see what damages she and I had. Friend at work came over to make sure I was OK. Lucky for me, there is nothing serious about the damages to the bike. I will recover but be sore for a few days. Really embarassed.

Lesson learned - warm up the bike right so it responds right on the road.

[Gear Jammer]

Good advice, especially for us southern boys   

[godfire]

Sorry to hear it, but glad you're OK!

[Valkpilot]

Been there, done that.

On my first bike, I took a hard left in front of a car wash -- where all the slop had been dragged into the street.  Rear end slid out and I low-sided in traffic.

No real damage or injuries, but great embarrassment.

[LemonDrop]

glad y'all weren't hurt any worse... better embarrassed than broken

[RainMaker]

Glad to hear the injuries are mostly ego related.  I think I'm up to 5 drops so far, so you have to step it up if you're going to keep up with me. 

[Pete]

Sorry that you had a "learning" experience. Thanks for publishing it. Hopefully we will all benefit from your mis-fortune.

Thankfully it involved limited injury and damage, our best wishes on healing for you and the bike.

Pete.

[f-Stop]

Glad to hear your OK and thanks for publishing your mishap.  My wife has dropped her Shadow a couple of times - in our own neighborhood - and went through a big ego/confidence roller coaster.  Luckily, her confidence was bruised way worse than the rest of her.  I tried to tell her that those sort of things happen even to the most experienced rider, but she didn't seem to believe me until I found a post on one of our local riding club's sites from a guy who admitted to dropping his brand new ST1300 three times before he felt confident on it...WOW!

Anyway, thanks again, and your unfortunate experience will be relayed...to the betterment of a fellow rider.

(FYI, my wife's riding is very good and we just logged a lot of good - and sometimes challenging - miles [over 300!] this past weekend.)

Charlie

[Disco]

Sorry it happened.  Glad you're OK. 

[Thalas'shaya]

yup, i can attest to the car-wash-slop hazard!  i was leading folks to dinner at the kerrville ride in the spring (of last year, ha!) and got separated from the crowd by an inconsiderate cager.  i pulled into a parking lot to wait and it happened to be a car wash.  i put my foot down in that dirty sudsy runoff and dropped the bike right in front of the entire appreciative audience.    nothing hurt but my pride.

glad you're ok and here's hoping for speedy repairs and a quick return to duty for your dragon. 

[Baldwin]

I will share my experience.  I had just gotten my Interstate and was coming back from a short overnight trip and we stopped to get gas.  I was tired and simply forgot to put the kickstand down.  Went to put it on the stand and she just kept on falling.  Didn't do any damage, but I was embarrassed as heck.  I attribute it to being tired and distracted from a late night of drinking.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Pete]

Baldwin  -  Years ago a friend of mine pulled a similar trick. He actually got all the way off the bike and was walking away , in his own driveway, and it hit him in the back of the legs. His explanation -  failure to pay attention.

I always wondered how he managed to get it to wait until he was walking away.

Thanks Pete.

[GreenLantern57]

Glad to hear the injuries are mostly ego related.  I think I'm up to 5 drops so far, so you have to step it up if you're going to keep up with me. 

Are those Valk drops, or do I get to count all the way back to 1973?

Nothing broke and a bit sore at the wrist, knee, and elbow. Ice and heat compresses rotated last night and put on a compression sleeve for bed. Wrist is not swollen, but tender.
Thanks for the good thoughts! Now is just time to polish and replace some parts. 

[QOTFU]

Ouch! Sorry to hear that. I've "parked" like that before too.

[asfltdncr]

I will share my experience.  I had just gotten my Interstate and was coming back from a short overnight trip and we stopped to get gas.  I was tired and simply forgot to put the kickstand down.  Went to put it on the stand and she just kept on falling.  Didn't do any damage, but I was embarrassed as heck.  I attribute it to being tired and distracted from a late night of drinking.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

At least I'm not the only knucklehead who has done that.  I think it's very important to stick with a routine and not be distracted at those moments.

[godfire]

Are those Valk drops, or do I get to count all the way back to 1973?

Just Valk drops here....

I test drove my Valk for a weekend (put 500 miles on her). The next Monday I met the previous owner at the bank and soon I was a proud owner of a slightly used Valk. I left the bank with my head held high. About two miles down the road I decided to pull into a local motorcycle shop. At least three people were standing outside the shop as I took a sharp right into the parking lot and promptly dumped my new Valk! …. Two miles into ownership, I dumped her…. What a guy

Without thinking I picked her up, jumped on, and rode off in shame…..

Live on to ride proud another day

[roboto65]

Hmmmm well glad you are ok at least you remembered to unlock the steering before driving away unlike some other dummy on here 

[franco6]

the first time i got the ST back in shape after son wrecked it (3 days new)  i droped it backing out the garage ,broke the winshield on the right . so i cut the left side to match
also droped the valk on a cold start stall ,in the grass, no damage
then i also droped it on the left foot once ----- 

[GreenLantern57]

Question????

That arm that comes off the kickstand. Should I heat it up to bend it back?  The kickstand itself does not seem to be tweaked. I broke the clutch handle trying to bend it back, but assume the kickstand is better steel, not cast aluminium. Went at lunch to David Browns' and ordered a new clutch handle. Only 123 bucks for a left side engine gaurd. That will have to be later. Makes you wonder why a stamped steel fender is 430 bucks. Have not looked at the kickstand bracket yet for any cracking.

[Houdini]

Only 123 bucks for a left side engine gaurd.

Here's both sides for $50 + shipping on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HONDA-VALKYRIE-ENGINE-GUARDS-OR-CRASH-BARS_W0QQitemZ130357466655QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotorcycles_Parts_Accessories?hash=item1e59e9161f

[asfltdncr]

A couple of quick ones:
We pulled into a packed parking lot at Cook's Corner (Orange Cnty,CA) and my friend was on a BMW Lt.
He was backing into parking space and dumped it in front of the whole crowd.

It was the day of taking my motorcyle safety class riding test.
One of the students pulls up for his own test in full racing leathers color -coordinated to his brand new Hayabusa.He pulled into the lot to park and promptly fell down in front of us all.

You always look around real quick to see if anyone saw you do such a stupid thing-there's always someone there-----and now you've shown them your face.
Thankfully, the motorcycle community seems to get it and come to your rescue rather than shaming you.  Maybe that's because everyone has been there-done that

[Saphire]

I will add my own embarrassment here...

First decent road trip on the Valk, Summer of 2008, riding thru the moutains of West Virginia I think it was the weekend of Inzane in Knoxville.  I was pulling into a gas station, lot was full so I was going real slow.  Pulled up to the pump, very slow speed, turned to get in close to the pump..... and I hit the front brake.    The valk fell, I couldn't stop her but I was going to die trying.  Ended up with a nice 3 inch scratch across the windshield where she hit the gas pump.

Same trip, on the way home to Indiana.  My riding partner and i had been talking about replacing the windshield because of the scratch.  We pulled into a Wendy's for lunch.  Odd little slope to the parking lot, so I pulled ahead and did a nice slow turn to get the valk positioned right for the slope.  Then what did I do...... you guessed it, I hit the front brake.   Down we both went, and this time the tank was lower than the wheels on this slope and it took both of us to stand her back up again.

After that I decided to leave that windshield on..... it's my reminder to not hit the front brake in a slow turn, ever, ever, ever again.

[GreenLantern57]

Vermithrax , I will keep an eye on that one! Thanks!