Crash Stories anyone?

I love a good crash story.  It's gallows humor I suppose...just fun to tell about the times the moto gods decided you needed a lesson in humility.

First though, I have to admit I've never crashed a road bike.  I crashed a motocrosser on the road, but it was just a lay down, nothing serious.  My worst crash stories come from the dirt world.

While battling for third place in my first 125 expert race, I ran into a competitor that had told others he would put me into the ground before he'd let me pass.  I was all over him throughout the race but couldn't get around him.  I was young and still growing into the big bike while he was older and stronger than me.  Anyone who races knows that if a rider is all over the tail of another, the lead bike is holding up the bike in the rear, I knew this and  after two laps of ramming his rear tire in turns, I was tired of it.  I couldn't keep my front wheel down in the turns, so, my young, dumb, brain decided I should pass him in the air.

We came to a jump before a turn and I literally thought, "I'll whip it and take his line in the air before the turn."  Ahem...didn't really work.  We collided broadside in mid-air and I wound up between his rear fender and tire.  The knobbies made bloody meat of my right arm and ripped my pinkie nail off.  I was lucky I didn't get worse.  He got up and finished the race, I walked back to the pits in a blood soaked jersey.

I haven't crashed the road bike yet.  I probably will though.  We're all just a poor choice away from the short straw.

Tell me your stories.  I'm sure it's much hairier to lay down on the pavement.  The traction karma hasn't caught me yet.

quote:

ripped my pinkie nail off.

 
F**K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Yeah, it sucked.  I've broken bones but that ripped off nail hurt worse.  I puked when I pulled my glove off.  Hard to look tough when you puke...haha.

Nothing for me, *knocks on wood*, aside from the 1 or 2 drops in the first week of owning her.  Had a few pucker moments, 1 on dry land and I learned to keep off the throttle coming out of turns, and a few times in the rain going into parking lots, but you can't do a lot about those except her up.

I did almost get run over in a parking lot, but I turned it, laid it down and bailed.  broke my front brake lever, that was a fun 10 mile trip home....and the bastard floored it out of there.

Im with Dork. Never been down on the street... But been down plenty of times in the trails and sand.  Just a couple of weeks ago Me and a buddy were hitting up some tech trails when we found one that was super tight and steep runing pretty much straight down hill with a few slight turns around some trees, rocks, stumps and a couple of step downs made of rocks and roots. Well I went for it... Rear locked and playing the front so I wouldnt wash out made it around the first tree but as I came about the tree I hit a root patch. I was on the front brake too much so the front end washed out.  I went down with the bike. Then the bike rolled over me and to the side, I kept rolling and bounced off... A tree, a big rock, a stump and finally slammed to a stop against a tree. Knocked the wind out of me and bruised my forearm. But other than that it was a great ride... Err crash. What ever.  Ive also gone over the bars, bailed a forty to fifty footer in the dunes and killed it on a flat dirt road (Now thats embarrassing).

I almost had gravel take me out on Tuesday. Apparently its cool to leave a gravely mess in a sweeping curve without any signs of loose stones or anything. I guess Im lucky I saw it when I did and slowed up just enough. I ended up keeping the bike up with some help from my left foot for a brief moment, went straight into a VERY well placed driveway (had it been a curb there I would have been toast), through my apartments front lawn, and into the parking lot. Scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my 25 yrs of life thus far. I got very lucky that the drive was there, because I really dont think the outcome would have been good if I hit a curb at the 30ish mph I was doing at the time.

F*CK GRAVEL!!!!!!

It is possible to pop up on the curb like you can with a bicycle, just run the front tire into it.  I dont know about at 30mph, but I have done it pushing my bike before.

Riding on the interstate 75mph. Turn to look to get into another lane and my visor exploded right off. A sudden gush of air and bugs into my eyes. I got freaked out and pulled into a gas station to take a breather. I proceeded to forget to put my kick stand down and droped her. :|

Never wrecked a dirt bike, but i trashed my niebors yamaha blaster when i was 10ish.  His sister used to come over and ride 4-wheelers with my sister and they would always take are farm 4-wheeler (honda) since both of them could fit on it and they didn't want to ride with me.   One day she failed to mention that the front brakes were not working.  Took it over a hill through a giant thorn bush over a bank which is where i cleared the road on the side of the hill and hit 2 little trees.  Bent both A arms back and twisted up the frame a bit.  Soon after they sold my 4-wheeler since i was riding CRAZY.  Damn parents.

On a side note i understand about the random gravel.  There is a concrete plant by work where they seem to have a problem with which way the drum should be spinning when they leave the lot.  There is always trails of concrete and gravel all over the streets by the plant.  I know my slide out is coming eventually.

Where should I begin?
 
There was the one where I lowsided due to mud at teh edge of the road......... Naw. Too lame.
 
There is that other one where me and the wife blew and exit ramp (Me really. She was just holding on), jumped a 20' embankment, landed in basically a muddy swamp, and STILL kept it up!  That's a good one!
 
How about that one where the front end gave up due to leaking fork seals? Totalled the damned bike in that one.
 
Getting stuck in the snow storm and sliding down the middle of the highway was kind of interesting too!
 
Then we get into the lowside at Deals Gap with my son on the back. He stayed on the road while I went over the edge with the bike! I STILL catch hell from the wife about that one!
 
Got rear ended once trying to be nice and show a newbe a decreasing radious corner. Ended up getting stuffed head first into a ditch which resulted in getting 3 vertebrea fused in my neck. Thanks bud! At least he paid for the damage on the bike and a new helmet!
 
Lowsided in T2 on the first lap of the day at CMP once. That was fun sliding the bike damn near to T3 and dumping the entire engine worth or oil on the track. Made me a REAL popular guy that day!
 
Latest of course was this past Saturday when my son slammed into me riding dirt. Currently have every ligament in my left knee torn to hell and back and have NO idea when I will be able to ride again!
 
Anyone want me to expand on any of those? Couple of them are pretty good ones!

quote:

ORIGINAL: meanstrk

Anyone want me to expand on any of those? Couple of them are pretty good ones!

I think it is safe to say that you're cursed.

Hey Meany, I think we can officially say you are a "wise" rider.  Experience lends itself to wisdom, yes?  Again, glad you are in relatively good shape after your recent off (and that your son is safe, too)!

havent been down on pavement yet *knocks on wood* and so far i've got 9K miles of seat time.

BUT, my '04 yfz did tend to toss me around from time to time, haha.

1st one.......in a field thumbing the throttle hard, on and off.....kicking the ass end of the quad around. went to swing the ass end to the right and realized it was coming around much further than i wanted. you know what they say....heinsight is 20/20..........well if i would have just stayed on the throttle i would have just done a doughnut. but i pussed out and let off while sideways. tires BIT! i went 8' in the air only to come crashing down on my left shoulder. never even got a hand/arm out to brace or lessen the impact. just came straight down onto my left shoulder. dislocated it and broke my collarbone. i then had the privalige of walking around for 3+ months looking like i was ready to jump from a C-130! (if you've ever broken your collarbone or know someone who has, you know what i am talking about having to wear, haha)

2nd one.......i have a pic to share  

in my area there's NO WHERE to ride dirt....so i said fuk it and stunted the quad. used to stunt w/ some guys that had sportbikes and what not behind industrial parks. so one day we are all out riding and i was doing seat standers -jump- to sitdowns. ALL DAY, no problem. well, on the last one (the following MADE this my last one of the day, haha) i somehow jumped to the left of the seat. ended up sliding down the left side of the quad w/ the bars turned. and what happened when the front dropped w/ the bars turned?! ooooooooooooover she went, ontop of me. now, here's where it gets graphic. i used to stunt the quad, and stand it up on the rear bar all the time, so my bar was thin as hell and sharp as a razor. when my quad flipped, my rear bar caught me at some point and ripped my arm clean open. it cut through my muscle aswell and could look at my arm and see my tendons. i was lucky to not cut any tendons or veins!!! took the plastic surgeon 1hr to stitch my muscle and skin back together. idk how many stitches held the muscle together, but i know there was 28 or so on the outside stitching my skin. and from all that, what did i learn...............flesh wounds dont hurt AS BAD as you'd expect, haha.
 
here's a pic from when i had it...
 



nasty pic about to be posted, GRAPHIC PIC BELOW, LOL.....

































and here it is now.....

only crashed on the track, never on the street
here is a brief summary of my assorted "incidents"
 
Crash#1 (~march 2005):  trackday at Barber, lowside in T5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bTchRfTfgA
 
Crash#2 (June 2005):  3rd trackday at Barber, was late for my session and had to go out with the slow riders in the group.  Wound up in a massive slow moving group, one guy behind me decided to try to pass 20+ at once going into the first turn, locked up the rear wheel (shouldn't have been using the rear brake obviously) and hit me while we were both going over 100mph.  I broke a few bones in my right arm/hand/wrist about a week before starting college and had to write with only 1/4" of my finger tips sticking out of the cast.  Here is a pic of the bike while rebuilding it

Crash#3 (Nov 2006):    Again at Barber, also in T5.  I wasn't using tire warmers for the first time in about 15 trackdays and forgot about the whole "cold tires don't stick" thing.  It was a fairly cold day and it was the first lap so the rear end didn't step out it swung completely around in a split second, luckily I got some good pics of it!
track goes   <-----    lol

Crash#4 (March 2007):  My second weekend actually racing, and my first time at Jennings.  I basically went into T10 too fast and was running out of track so I braked way too deep and the front tire slid out. 
pic of damage:

Crash#5 (April 2007):  My third race weekend, at TalladegaGP.  I entered the Solo20 but before I went out my canopy was blown away and my tool box turned over.  My "pit crew" were stuck at the gate (paddock is in the infield of the track so you have to wait for races to end before crossing in or out of the paddock), so I rushed to get everything cleaned up enough to leave and threw my leathers on really fast but in the mess the tire warmers didn't get turned on.  On the third turn of the first lap, two riders in front of me touched, one went down and his arm was right in my path so I tried to tighten my line to avoid him and the front washed out (I was already near max lean and tires were cold). 
 
Crash #6 (August 2007 lol): Again at Jennings, but this time I can't really explain it.  Last lap of my first race of the day, I slowed down a bit because the rider in front of me was too far for me to catch and the rider behind me was far enough back that I didn't have to worry about him.  I was nowhere near max lean angle, wasn't trail braking, little bit of maint. throttle, just exactly how I've always gone through that corner but with less speed and lean angle but the front end washed out in an instant.  Very odd, the only thing I can figure is that it was well over 100 degrees and the track was greasy, maybe that combined with well used tires.  This was almost 3 weeks ago and my foot is still killing me so I need to get that x-rayed.  I've got another week off and then a trackday followed by 3 straight race weekends so its got a short amount of time to get healed up
crash pic:

 

holy sh1t^^^^    that highchair pic. is badass tho!
 
my crash stories isnt really a crash.. as i somehow rode off.. but it was on my cr80 i used to have, at a mx track in my area, it was a table top turn so i had to whip it around to hit a good line, then proceeded to get on the gas to clear the double step up.. fairly long one, and i only saw 125s and 250s clearing it... i hit it... came about 4ft too short, cases it and hit my swing arm on the lip of the top jump and bucked the back wheel vertical, throwing me into the bars bruising my ribs and slaming my junk into the gas cap, and spraining my wrists from the abrupt stop.
 
or riding a 400ex at pismo beach on vacation, i got a little too comfortable with jumping it, found what would have been a sweet jump but got off track about 5ft and hit what felt like a wall of sand (3rd gear pinned) when straight up, over the bars, under the quad, swingarm hit my helmet and knocked me out for a few seconds and the chain and sprocket came down on my arm and just it open a bit and came ever so close to fracturing my arm..    i had about 2hrs left on my rental.. i got good at jumping and landing with one hand ha

This happened to me recently, 2 June 2007.
 
I was US82 headed up the mountain toward Cloudcroft.  I was doing about 40 in a 35.  As I was going through the final turn I felt my rear tire get a little loose.  I leveled back up and  went for the brakes.  Got into a large open gravel area, woobble of death, relaxed myself for the pain I was about to insew and just let go as it went down.
 

 
Bent exhaust
 

 
Thrashed upper
 

 
Left side fairing
 

 
One thrashed ICON Mainframe Special Ops Edition helmet (birthday present from the wife this year).  Helmets save lives.

Here's mine. Happened just this past Sunday.
 
http://www.cbrforum.com/m_373555/tm.htm
 
 

Great stories guys... Meanstrk wins the worst injury since he damaged vertebrae, Jay gets the gnarly award and Woody gets the "back on that horse," ribbon.  But since everyone who posted is still riding, we should all pat ourselves on the back.  Tough peeps here...
 
Take care everyone.