• Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to register so that you can join the community and use the numerous features on the site. After registering, don't forget to post up an introduction!

How many MC wrecks have I had?

Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
3,600
Reaction score
4,346
Location
Bryan, TX
First Name
Dennie
Last Name
Spears
These are all my street legal incidences over the last 53 years. How many wrecks have I had? This is a long standing husband/wife argument. #1-1970, Yamaha DS250: slid down at around 50 MPH after failing to see antifreeze in a turn. Wore nearly completely through wallet, no injuries. #2-Around 1990: Bike not running, sitting on bike pushing backwards, foot slips off the sidewalk and into slick mud, I slowly do the splits while lowering the bike to the ground, sore crotch for a couple of days. Only feet hit the ground. #3-2001, ZRX: About 25 degrees, bike doesn't want to run right, seems like it's running on 2 cylinders (it was), left turn right in front of my house, first gear, 5 MPH, gas on right side of tank suddenly get sloshed over to the petcock side of the tank, bike suddenly switches from running on 2 cylinders to running on 4 cylinders, cold tires, BAM. I later realized I must have run out of gas the day before just as I pulled into the driveway. The 2 center cylinders get gas first and the 2 outer cylinders feed off the center cylinders #4-2002 ZRX-Riding double on a jeep road, too rough, U-turn, loose berm on edge of road, front slides, neither rider nor passenger touch ground with anything but feet. #5-2017 FZ10: U-turn in a parking lot, very tight, full lock, car door opens, tap brakes, BAM, only feet hit the ground.

How many wrecks have I had?
 
Last edited:
I've never made contact with a 4 wheeled vehicle.
 
#1 - wreck
#2 - drop
#3 - need more info, you didn't say what ultimately happened there. Sounds like maybe wreck.
#4 - drop
#5 - drop
 
I've never made contact with a 4 wheeled vehicle.

Wish I could say the same, however you don't need contact with a 4 wheeled vehicle for it to be a wreck. I've only contacted a 4 wheeled vehicle once but have had several wrecks. Well, crashes. Drops - too many to count.
 
I forgot one. Was just reminded by the wife. #6 Around 2012, FZ1:At a scenic view area taking pictures. High wind. Bike blows over while I'm 30 feet away. Breaks rear footpeg.
 
#1 - wreck
#2 - drop
#3 - need more info, you didn't say what ultimately happened there. Sounds like maybe wreck.
#4 - drop
#5 - drop

#3 -more than feet hit the ground. No injuries, not even to my jacket or gloves.
 
I've had exactly one wreck, which is well documented on some thread from about this time in 2010. Other than that, maybe half a dozen dunderhead drops or tipovers, and one intersection fall courtesy of somebody's spilled diesel fuel. And if you count my 1st 2 or 3 weeks of street riding on a plated enduro back in 1976, there was an idiotic fall on a gravelly road when I was showing off in front of a couple of German girls. :oops: Yup, they were really impressed. :doh:

Oh yeah. And the time I was doing a U turn on a very narrow road, and chickened & hit the brake 3/4 of the way through. In case you didn't know this, never stop with your front wheel turned unless you just really want to lay your bike down in the middle of the blacktop. :doh::doh:
 
I'd say #3 is a wreck then. #6 with the blowover, not a wreck.

tshelfer, the rules are if you say "Hold my beer and watch this" then it's a wreck. This also applies if you are showing off in front of at least one girl. If you hurt yourself and she goes into nurse mode with you and that starts you off around the bases, it's still a wreck but it's a win.
 
Sadly, they went into "American GIs are idiots" mode. No win, no joy.
 
Sadly, they went into "American GIs are idiots" mode. No win, no joy.
$10 says they were there before you started, they just wanted to see how bad it was with you so they stayed to watch how it would turn out. :rofl:
 
:tab Good question.

:tab "Wreck" is hard to define, especially if you are riding dual sport or dirt bikes. For street bikes, I'd consider it a wreck if you are moving at more than parking lot speeds when you go down. Typically, most street bikes are going to sustain some kind of damage in that case. Anything slower is more of a tipover/drop with maybe a few scratches, busted lever, or cracked fairings. Wreck/Crash makes me think of more damage.

:tab When off the pavement, well... you are going to fall down. Ideally, you fall down at lower speeds. So again, I think speed is generally the factor when deciding wreck versus fall. Although, there was this one time where I blew a corner going pretty quick and launched out into these REALLY tall bushes. They were REAL thick. I must have shot 50 feet or so out into them before they quickly slowed me to a stop. It was like a giant catch net. Once stopped, the bike just gently leaned over against the bushes and I stepped off. I stopped about five feet short of water that was probably three or four feet deep! It took five or six guys to push bushes over out of the way and to drag the bike back to the road. No injury to me or the bike and I never "went down". So... ? :ponder:
 
Scott, that last one was a wreck, a lucky one.

:tab Well, had a DPS trooper been there, they might have called it "Failure to Control Vehicle"... and yes, I was VERY lucky! I remember thinking that at the time. Right up to that point, everything was going fine. I wasn't pushing or getting the adrenaline up, but as I started to come around a right hand corner, I spotted a truck coming the other way and he was going to make a right hand toward me. In that moment of wondering if either or both of us might run wide and meet between the corners, I lost my focus for a fraction of a second. The next thing I knew I was heading out into the bushes long before he got to the middle of the corners. He actually saw me leave the road and stopped to tell the guys behind me that one of their buddies just disappeared. They never even saw me. I was out in the bushes wondering how in the world I was going to get back to the road when some of them came bush whacking in to find me. It took some serious huffing and puffing to get it out of there!
 
I tend to not keep track of the dual sport incidents that I have had. There have been quite a few times that my KLR or WRR have hit the ground. Some would be tip overs, and some wrecks by the speed standard put forth a few posts up.

My one street crash was in 2014 on my big trip. In New Mexico on 149 riding towards Emory Pass from the west. Nice slow easy Sunday morning where I am the only vehicle on the road for miles around. Cruising the winding road on my R1200GS at around 30 to 35 MPH. Come around a blind left curve wondering why the pavement has changed color ahead from black to brown when I realize too late that it is mud on the asphalt. A mudslide had happened overnight leaving about an inch of slick as grease wet mud on the road. As I approached it I closed the throttle, bad choice. Again I was just a half step late getting on the gas as the bike went sideways. Out washed the front and down I went on the left side. Years of crashing on racetracks sharpened up reflexes enough that I got my leg out of the way before the bike landed on it. The bike and I did a one turn spin as we slid to a halt. Only damage to gear was my left boot, and damage to the bike was limited to the windshield, turn signal, and a broken mirror. Naturally I took a picture of the bike on its side, later noticing that ed29 had crashed right at mile marker 29 on that road.

Now to open another box of what-ifs... Early on in my wilder days of street riding I over cooked a few curves, crossing the double yellow. I was lucky enough that nobody was coming the other way. Later on a fellow rider described that has a wreck without a crash. I see his point. What say y'all? Is that a fair assessment?
 
Now to open another box of what-ifs... Early on in my wilder days of street riding I over cooked a few curves, crossing the double yellow. I was lucky enough that nobody was coming the other way. Later on a fellow rider described that has a wreck without a crash. I see his point. What say y'all? Is that a fair assessment?

:tab That is one way to look at it that emphasizes the "what could have happened" aspect to get people to take staying in their lane seriously. On many rides I have seen riders cross the double yellow in a corner and get away with it. I don't think ANY of them were intentional. So they got lucky when they could just as easily have been involved in a head on collision. So like I said above, "Failure to Control Vehicle"... Sometimes you get lucky... Sometimes... :huh2:
 
A couple ...

I have deformed ribs from trying to jump a drainage ditch on a Yamaha HS-1 - Ran out of talent
Huge scar on the back of my hands when I fell from a CT70 at about 30mph - Ran out of talent
Bit my tongue in two when I endoed climbing a hill in a gravel pit on an SL175 - ran out of talent
Destroyed my pride showing off in front of some girls on a KX175 - ran out of talent
Low-sided taking a turn too fast CL360 - ran out of talent

Non-wrecks ... or crap that quickly comes to mind and was a wreck waiting to happen ...
I got 3 days for riding a Kawasaki F-11 250 out of the school auditorium.
Srs. were using it as a prop in a class play.
Seemed like the thing to do at the time.

I got another 3 days for jumping the same Kawasaki over a dudes new Z28 camaro in '77 (actually just over the hood).
I guess you had to be there to understand.

That was all before I graduated high school ... and I keep getting back on that horse ...

I could go on, but the picture is pretty clear.
(see avatar)
 
Last edited:
So machinists and motorcyclists are very much alike.
QC manager at work after admitting to have wrecked a machine in his day asked a machinist present "how many machines did you wreck?"
Machinist "I haven't wrecked a machine"
QC manager: "You never ran the turret into the chuck?"
Machinist: "well, I've done that"
QC Manager: "so you had a wreck"
Machinist: "I've done that but the machine wasn't wrecked"

On that note, neither of my two low sides nor my getting off the bike and hooking my boot on the backpack strapped behind me tip over are wrecks.
It cost me a bent shifter one time, a mirror and a pair of rain over pants the other time.
Tip over Sunday cost me pride.

Bikes always ran fine afterwards, no injuries, so zero wrecks.

Yes, I'm a machinist.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
My memorable, non-dirt accidents:

1. 1976 - Tank slapper on a Kawasaki Mach III, went down at 75mph, should have died but ended up with a scrape on my elbow. Cost about $400 to repair.
2. 1978 - T-boned a car who turned left in front of me, he didn't see me. Probably should have died, but only a bruised ankle. His insurance paid for everything.
3. 2012 - El Boson, Argentina, hit a bus which was going the other way, combined speed +/- 140mph. Probably both our faults since we were both in the middle of the road. Probably should have died, but only a scraped elbow and bruised toe. $300 - 400 to replace crash bars and hinges on boxes.
4. 2017 - Casper Wyoming, 1 or 2 mph pulling into a parking lot. Little girl threw open a door and I stopped before I hit her or the door. Bike tipped over because it was to heavy to hold up at the angle I stopped. Bike fell on my wifes foot and fractured it in seven places. So far well over $10,000 for medical deductibles and haven't even tried to get the scratched case and arm rest fixed.

I explain that to say, sometimes speed isn't a factor, and luck has a lot to do with it.
 
The slo-mos are really frustating. Once in Germany, I went down at about 5 mph - idle speed - while I was looking for an address and the back wheel just went out from under me. Never did figure out why, but I tore a hole in a boot at that low speed.

My slowest? 0 mph. On a very windy day, in a library parking lot, I had just lifted my old VStrom off the kickstand when a massive gust slammed me, and the bike tipped right. I put my entire being into keeping it from falling into, and damaging, the car parked next to me. I managed, but that cost me a separated shoulder that hurt for about a year.
 
I put my entire being into keeping it from falling into, and damaging, the car parked next to me. I managed, but that cost me a separated shoulder that hurt for about a year.

:tab Learning to ride dirt on the big R1150 GS taught me that when you get to a certain point, EJECT EJECT EJECT! Trying to save that big pig could result in a serious injury. I just let the crash bars do their job. Once down, I learned to just let it sit while I waited for the adrenaline to come back down. Trying to pick it up right away was a good way to get hurt.
 
True dat, Scott. But I was valiantly and selflessly protecting somebody else's paint job ----- and maybe a claim against my insurance. Next time, I'll let it topple and call Progressive. Flo and I are on a 1st name basis. :-P
 
I guess my definition of "wreck" is that some visible damage to man or machine happened. So, a low-speed, off-road tip over that results in no new visible marks doesn't count. A parking lot tip over that dents or scratches paint DOES count. So, the identical mishap on different machines can make it either a wreck or not. Scratching parts that are already damaged also causes no new "wreck". Yeah, maybe that's a definition I can live with.

By this definition, I've had two wrecks:

#1 Lime Creek Road about 3 months after getting my first motorcycle. Took a gradual turn faster than I was comfortable with, front wheel hit some gravel and slid a tiny bit: I panicked and locked the front. Rode it home, but both bike and I were uglier than at the start of the ride.

#2 Low speed, super-slick water crossing outside of Junction. Scratched the end of the clutch lever.

I've been sideways in dirt or low-water crossings plenty of other times. But I can't point to any dings on the bike, so they never happened :)
 
I ride as little pavement as possible so maybe not really in the game but...

I've brought home more dirt samples than anyone should have a right to. From a bunch of places, too. The apron around my wash pad could probably grow pretty much any crop you'd like. :doh:
 
Back
Top