Most amazing save you have ever done or seen.

[Trailduster]

Thought maybe this would be a fun thread to tell your story's of near misses or saves or even a spectacular spill that didn't hurt, in my 40 years of riding I could tell many story's of going down in every fashion possible but I'm sure none of them were worth writing about so I'll start this off by telling about a friend and the best save I ever saw in my life, for you folks from the Farmers branch area,in the early 70s there used to be some trails behind the old wolf nursery on valwood parkway across from the old valwood bowl now gone, The story: I was riding my 360, my two buds were riding a TS250 and a DT400, The guy on the TS was a great rider but his bike was held together with bailing wire, he was on his own and did the best he could, there was a long tall hill climb from a creek going up and very steep, Me and the guy on the 400 climbed up first and waited for Craig at the top, so here he comes on the TS, as he nears the top he starts getting out of shape and the TS loops out, Craig somehow jumps off on the right side and hangs on now on foot as the bike turns around to head back down at a high rate of speed, craig runs with it, the bike is bouncing up and becoming airborn but so is craig by it's side, for every time the bike fly's up, so does craig, My friend and I are watching from the top knowing craig is doomed when he hits the mossy creek at the bottom but right at the very moment before impact with the creek, craig on the right side of the bike turns it hard left and guide's it to a stop while still on foot, My friend and I look at each other in shock, this hill was almost straight down and he saved it, It was and still is the best save I have ever seen, I'll never forget it.

[tricepilot]

Here's one of mine. Sorry about the fuzzy video, we had a cheap camcorder at the time:

[TwoLane]

Well I saw this once when young and watching MX races. They had just started down the first straightaway, when one rider does a cool wheelie....even wilder was when his front wheel came off with forks still up...yeah he piled up pretty quick but it was slightly amazing

[Trailduster]

Originally Posted by tricepilot

Here's one of mine. Sorry about the fuzzy video, we had a cheap camcorder at the time:

That was you? I've seen that, Bravo,

[Trailduster]

Not sure if maybe I should have started this in the story telling forum but please keep em coming, fun reads.

[tricepilot]

Originally Posted by sz rider

That was you? I've seen that, Bravo,

A video record of my crappy riding style could fill the Library of Congress



My skill level is inversly proportional to the level of enjoyment I receive riding motos. I don't care how I look or how slow I go on dirt, I just go.

[ed29]

In Big Bend while leading on River Road I got into a groove and got a little too comfy with conditions. Stopped paying attention as close as I should have to the washes. Most of them were easy, the road was in great shape a few years ago. Got to leave the KLR in fourth gear, roll into the washes at about 40 standing on the pegs to let the bike float under me.

So as we went on there was this one creek wash that was different. It had three distinct channels, the first with a three foot deep cut with sheer sides on both sides. By the time my brain processed what my eyes were telling me I was right on top of it, way too late to brake. I smacked the throttle wide open and heaved up on the bar. No way is a KLR going to wheelie in fourth gear though. I am not real clear about what the second and third channels looked like. My bike slammed into the face of the first one and kicked tail high and hard left. I kept feet on pegs and throttle open as it came to earth just before hitting the second ditch. That one kicked it tail high and hard right. Wide open throttle still as it came to earth just in time to hit ditch number three. This one kicked it tail high but straight up. As it landed from that I looked ahead and saw that the exit had a right curve as it climbed out with nasty cacti if you ran wide. I had maintained most of that 40 MPH I had going in, so I whacked the gas open as I steered and shifted weight to the outside peg, drifting the curve flat track style.

Bill (DFWWarrior) was behind me on his WR and told me later that he wondered why I wasn't slowing down. He got a good view of the underside of a KLR from three angles. Told me that he was thinking ' Oh no, Eds crashing... he's still crashing'... he's still crashing... dang, how did he keep from crashing?' After that the rear shock was blown. No compression damping at all and way too much rebound damping. Something was jammed or bent in the stack of that thing. KLR was treated to a new shock after that one.

[STScott]

Ed29 is my witness for my best save....the great calf strike of Fort Davis.

Riding the Fort Davis Scenic Route, a mid size calf (it's spine was even with the saddle of my ST1300) ran out of a bar ditch and cut in front of my bike....I saw it coming and instead of clutching and breaking I acclerated to carry some momentum into the collison and I am glad I did as I figure my velocity allowed me to stay upright through the impact and not go down. Both the calf and I walked away from it.

[tshelfer]

You guys are way out of my class. I consider it a great save every time I park at Walmart without tumping over.

[Sleepy Weasel]

Mine would have to be several years ago on my first Super Sherpa, the first day I rode it to work. My commute to work at the time was all surface streets, about 2.5 miles. The last 1/4 mile, however, was up a road with no sidewalks or curbs, just a dirt/grass/weed shoulder leading off into an undeveloped property neighboring my office.

I decided, what the heck, I'd hop off onto the shoulder and kick up a little dust. I opened it up a little, and was zipping along until an approaching ditch across my path reminded me that there were a couple of drainage culverts crossing under the road.

The ditch was pretty close when I spotted it, and approaching faster than I liked, so in a panic I stomped on the back brake, not wanting to wash out the front end, or for that matter, not having any real experience on loose surfaces. Of course, I forgot all about the clutch, so when I locked the back tire, the motor stalled. I got a little sideways... maybe a lot sideways, but I managed to scrub off a lot of speed before nosediving into the ditch.

I finally felt like maybe I was going slow enough to just ride through it, so I lifted off the back brake just as I started to get the bike straightened out. The DOT knobby caught, turned, and bumped started the stalled motor back to life (to my surprise), and I rode the rest of the way to work like I'd planned the whole thing.

[jqueen]

At the Flying P motorcycle park near Weatherford (now closed), "old baldy" provides 2 stories, one mine, and one my motorcycle.

For those that have never been, Old Baldy isn't that impressive, but it is a solid steady hill, probably at least 100 yards from top to bottom, that is steep enough to make you lose traction if you don't know what you're doing and keep momentum up the whole way. The adults (place has been closed over 10 years), used to have slow competitions up it, to see who could be last up the hill without losing traction and touching down. That's the main face. When I was about 18 or 19, I was 3/4 of the way up on a KX250, had taken an odd line because it looked more fun, lost momentum, and was about to drop it to the left, and downhill. I have no recollection of exactly what happened, but I got the front wheel up, pivoted 180 degrees and rode down the same line I had ridden up. Hard to describe, but it was absurdly awesome.

The other was on the same hill, but from the side. And 10 years earlier. From the side it is less than half as tall, and there is no trail - the whole hill is flat, so it's like a 20-yard wide ramp, that is still as tall as a house. My brother had invited all his friends along, and we were swapping bikes back and forth. Being by far the youngest, I had the newest bike, since we all still had 80s. We had been hitting the side of that hill pulling small jumps for a while. Generally we'd get a couple of feet and travel 6 feet or so across the top, and small jump off onto the downhill side. Until I swapped my 1986 KDX80 for a dual shock Yamaha 80 (I know it wasn't a YZ, but it was a 2-stroke). The Yamaha didn't have any low end, or powerband to speak of, while the KDX was freaking awesome (no bias). So Brad, before bothering to get used to the bike, gives it everything it's got all the way to the top (cause that's how he did his bike). My dad was on top of the hill watching, and Brad completely cleared the top AND the downhill on the other side. He landed on the flat bottom, came to a stop, put the kickstand down, and fell off to the side and didn't get up until after everybody rode around the hill to see if he was OK. He wasn't entirely sure if he was conscious the whole time or not, but he was very proud that he didn't crash.

Dad made us all switch back after that, and never let us swap out again. What you start the weekend on is what you finish the weekend on.


Granted that these stories are old, but I tried not to exaggerate the scale- anybody who has been there could confirm?

[Tourmeister]

There are the saves that were actually executed by rational thinking... and then there are the ones that leave you thinking... "How in the @#$ did I save that!?" I have had a few of the former, but many more of the latter... I have found that most of the latter happened because I simply reacted and did not think. However, BEFORE the incidents in question, I had given thought to what reaction would be correct if I ever found myself in certain situations. When I actually found myself in those situations, I simply reacted instinctively as I had visualized in my mind previously. It might not have been as pretty in reality as it was in my head, but it still worked! So I am a BIG believer in thinking about situations and solutions ahead of time.

My luckiest save was a NASTY tankslapper while riding two up with Beth on her Triumph Legend 900 shortly after we bought it. There was a side road on the right just before the entry to a fast left sweeper (65-70mph). A truck pulling a boat had turned onto the side road and I did not realize it trailed water out of the back of the boat. RIGHT at the point where I started the lean, the front tire hit that water. The light conditions were such that it was invisible from our approach and we did not see it until we went back. So we enter the corner at about 65 mph and the bars are going almost full lock back and forth. Beth almooooost came off the bike but managed to hang on with one leg and pull herself back up. I managed to hang on to the bars and stay on the gas rather than panicking and chopping the gas (Thanks to Keith Code and Twist of the Wrist II!!) It came back to me and we pulled over on the shoulder. I could hardly step off the bike because my legs had totally gone to rubber. We sat for a while realizing how close we came to getting real intimate with a barbed wire fence... We were both fully geared up, but it still scared the pooh out of us!

Then there was the time on the 1150 GS, heading out to Big Bend on some road by the Pecos River... a herd of sheep behind the crest of a hill where the road drops and turns sharp right as it drops. There must have been 75 or more sheep. HUGE rocks all over the place and I was going way too fast I remember literally screaming in my helmet at the top of my lungs, "STAND UP!! STAY ON THE GAS!! LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO GO!!" It worked... The sheep freaked and scattered. I managed not only to make the corner without thrashing myself upon the rocks, but threaded between the sheep without impact. Then there was the deer a few miles later... I hit that one at about 65 mph I NEVER saw it until the split second before impact and essentially had enough time to cogitate that there was a deer milliseconds from impacting the left jug of the engine. I had no time to tense, brake, swerve, or react in any fashion other than to think, "Oh crap!" In retrospect, that was probably a good thing. It bounced back and SLAMMED my left leg into the bike. I thought it might be broken as I managed to slow and pull over. It did not appear broken, but the ankle was swelling fast. So I put the boot back on REAL tight and popped a few ibuprofen and was good for the rest of the weekend.

Then there was this Turkey Vulture that hit me square in the headlight on the GS... It died. I did not go down. Then there was this dog in Arkansas when I was on the KLR rocking along at 70mph leading a big group ride... It died. I did not go down. Then there was this ATV in Arkansas that hit me head on... The KLR had seen better days... It stopped cold as I went over the top and landed on the far side of the ATV. It did not die. I was wishing it had... The forks were pretzeled. Then there was this deer on the way home from work the week before I was supposed to leave for the MexTrek trip with Richard in Oct 09. The KLR came out pretty well. I got screwed... literally. My ankle broke when the bike fell on me and had to be screwed back together.

There have been many other "exciting moments" while riding, more saves than crashes. I find that I work harder at avoiding the need to "save it" nowadays

[gixxerjasen]

Note to self: Do not ride with Tourmaster and his KLR.

I have two, one I saved with skill and one I saved with dumb luck. Both happened on the racetrack.

First one was a February trackday at TWS on my birthday. Wife had gotten me a trackday for my birthday and it was dang cold out there. People were riding stupid and sliding off the track all over the place. I watched a guy on cold tires (we'd been waiting 20 minutes to restart our session after another wreck) pin the throttle on turn two and slide right off the track.

So...cold track, scary enough right? Oh yea, I had a brand spanking new rear tire on the TLR that I'd put on the day before. Eeek, unscrubbed cold tire on a cold track. First session out I'm behind another bike and I'm taking it easy because I do NOT want to ruin my day on the first session out.

We are riding through the horseshoe turn...don't remember the number but if you've ridden TWS you know which one I'm talking about...and all of a sudden the rider in front of me lowsides. This really left me one single option. Standing the bike up and getting on the brakes would lead me into his downed bike. Holding my line would have me trying to surmount the rider while I'm leaned over. My only option was to lean it in and keep on the throttle.

I realize this is my only option and freak. The guy went down in front of me with the same leanangle and speed, how exactly am I going to stay upright while leaning harder and tighter on a brand new tire? I figured smoothness would have to get me through and oddly it did. Many bikes went down those first few sessions and later in the day when it climbed up into the high 60's I had a blissful trackday with half the riders now off the track leaving it open for those of us who made it through the day.

I still remember though, seeing an entire faceshield filled with huge eyeballs as the guy spun around and saw a huge pig of a TLR headed right at him.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Second story, just plain dumb luck, but I looked a lot like the guy in yellow in the video above. Another trackday with a new rear tire...I need to stop doing that.

OldTLSDoug invited me out as his guest at a member trackday at MSR. We show up and they are running two car sessions and a bike session at 30 minutes a piece. A bunch of cars were out there but as it turns out, only two bikes showed up, me and Doug. What an awesome day for sure. Nothing like being able to head out and either ride with your buddy or if he's halfway around the track being able to ride with the entire track to yourself.

Naturally in this type of situation there will be some talk between buddies, and it usually is in the form of ribbing. Doug has his KTM Supermoto that is still fairly new at the time but he's feeling really comfortable on it now, and really knows the track from being down there nearly every weekend as a member. He's running slicks and I'm not.

So Doug's been giving me a hard time about how short I am (goes with the territory) and how slow I am. I determine that I know he's faster than I am but I refuse to let him just leave me in his dust. Bad move. We are ripping up the hill in the back and it happened. The incident happened so fast that I was all in the middle of it before I knew what was going on. It's one of those instances where your perspective changes so fast your brain has to catch up. Kind of like crashing but not knowing you crash till you determine it's dark because that's the road now passing directly in front of your face. That kind of thing.

So I'm hot behind Doug and now I'm looking down directly at my bike with an overhead view. I can see my hands are still hanging on to the bars but my feet...wait, they aren't on the pegs. Wait, my feet, where are they? Oh, they seem to be higher than my head. At this moment I had that realization of "Well crap, I'm going to crash, spectacularly as well and no one is here to witness it and Doug won't see it."

And then I fell down. And I landed sitting on my bike somehow with each leg on each side of the bike where it belonged. I fumbled around and manged to get my feet back on the pegs and slowed way down and waited for the shakes to take over. Doug looks back and we both pull into the pits and I explain what happened.

Near as I can tell I must have gotten over onto an unused part of my newish tire and it stepped out on me. Sadly, I'd just put away my helmet camera as I was having some problems with it on the previous session.

[Eric2Tex]

Best save I ever saw was about 30 years ago. Playing softball with friends in Houston. One guy, aptly named scooter, had the baddest bike around then. A Suzuki GS1150E, basically a naked bike with that godzilla motor

He got ready to leave and was parked on a sidewalk that ran around the perimeter of the field. Revved it high and dropped the clutch. The rear end broke loose and drifted off the sidewalk into the dirt, causing an immmediate low side. Sparks flew in the cloud of dirt that resulted but when it cleared he was still upright, he turned around and came back while we all scratched our heads wondering how the heck he saved it. Checked the bottom of the bike and sure enough had in fact laid it down, but caught the sidestand tang before he completely got off the sidewalk and that popped him back upright. He just laughed and shrugged it off.

[ed29]

Originally Posted by STScott

Ed29 is my witness for my best save....the great calf strike of Fort Davis.

Riding the Fort Davis Scenic Route, a mid size calf (it's spine was even with the saddle of my ST1300) ran out of a bar ditch and cut in front of my bike....I saw it coming and instead of clutching and breaking I acclerated to carry some momentum into the collison and I am glad I did as I figure my velocity allowed me to stay upright through the impact and not go down. Both the calf and I walked away from it.

That was quite a sight seeing that calf arch around the front of the Honda breaking both mirrors off the fairing at once. Then it rolled up the fairing and exited the bike feet up over Scott's left arm, slamming into the road on its back. Mama cow was making ugly noises on the side of the road.

We taped the cracked fairing up, taped what was left of the mirrors back on (one still had unbroken glass), and finished the loop.

Oh, one more tasty morsel.... We all ate steak that night for dinner.

[TWTim]

When I was 10 we were racing around on our dirtbikes and minibikes in an open field where we'd cut some trails. My minibike's footpegs were essentially just a steel bar welded across the bottom of the frame and had no 'give' whatsoever. You can probably see where this is going.

I made two critically bad decisions prior to planting the minibike's right footpeg into a berm; 1.) I was carrying a passenger, and 2.) I was trying to keep up with a guy on a bigger bike.

Miraculously, as the minibike came to an immediate halt (slamming me into the handlebars), I was astounded to realize that I was still sitting on the bike at a complete stop while leaned over in the turn. It was like a complete freeze-frame time-stop of a moment.

My passenger, a kid who lived down the street, didn't fare nearly as well. He was essentially catapulted off the back of the bike and landed in the dirt. I don't recall him as having serious injury, but I do recall that he never asked to ride with me again.

I was unscathed.

[Monkey Wrench Cycles]

I was riding my dirt bike out at the rock quarry in saginaw(before they built all the housing developments in its place) and there was a big launch that landed you onto a tabletop. I was practicing tricks all day and the last one i was attempting was the superman, basically you let go of the bike completely while in the air and sorta fly like superman for a second. Well when i did it i must have pushed off to hard cause the bike went ahead of me. I flew like superman for a second but soon realized it was going to hurt if i didnt land while on the bike. I grabbed the only thing in reach, the back fender, and pulled myself back up just in time to land with both legs on the left side of the bike, and one hand on the bars. I stayed upright and the best thing about it was my buddy had it all on tape. I dont remember saying it but when we watched the video, as soon as the bike started getting away all you heard was OOOOHHHH *************!!!!

[jqueen]

Back in our show-off days, my brother and I were at a friend's house with our dirt bikes. They had horses and we had motorcycles, so we'd alternate between playing with the bikes and playing with the horses. (did that sound funny?)

So Our buddy Matt was about to take off with his girlfriend on the back of my brother's XR200. They were both wearing helmets and jeans, because we never allowed anybody to ride without helmets. Anyway, he was going to impress her, and gunned it from a dead stop. The front wheel flew up, her head flew back, and my brother literally stuck out his foot and kicked her head back up right before it hit the ground. Front wheel came down, and Matt had no idea what happened until they got off the bike.

The girl was somewhat less than impressed, but dang, my bro's got quick feets!

[cheez]

Lots of great stories; mine's not quite as thrilling but means a lot to me nonetheless.

About six months after buying my VTX I was northbound on 35E in Dallas, doing about 65-70 in the left lane coming out of downtown. I was planning to exit on 114/183, so I was staying in the far left lane (lane 5,) moving a couple MPH faster than traffic. As I started this sweeping right curve, some jackwagon in lane 4 (2nd from left) decides to dodge over on top of me without looking- seems to happen a lot, loud pipes or not. I was in the middle of initiating the lean, so I just leaned less to wind up on the shoulder and accelerated to pass him- the problem is, there's an overpass bridge in the middle of that curve, and there's a pavement transition there, where the bridge isn't asphalted but the rest of the road is, creating a 2-3" lip on the road. I hit the down-transition and it pushed me even wider, until I was literally inches from the bridge rail and oncoming traffic; there was garbage all over the shoulder on the bridge- gravel, asphalt chunks, pieces of bumper and taillight, etc.- and had to pull it even tighter while traversing that crap. I hit the up transition while still at about a 28-30 degree lean, and it almost threw me off the bike- I was solidly a foot in the air over the bike, my feet were at tank level. I managed to keep my hands on the bars and keep the bike in the lean, let myself fall back down into the seat, and forced it right off the shoulder and back over into the left lane.

I took the left onto 114/183 and exited Mockingbird, went to the Starbucks there and drank a bottle of water while hoping my heart would stop pounding before it exploded. I've had numerous other merge-overs and shoulder experiences, but none that came nearly as close to killing me as this experience did- even in my 35mph wreck I was less concerned for my life than I was during this event.

MonkeyWrench: Where's the video? I'd love to see it.

[KenH]

I must be a terrible motorcycle rider. 653,000+ miles on roads and not a crash or amazing save.

I was following another Tdubber last winter in Land Between the Lakes down a long hill, then the road curved to the right. He hit a patch of ice, put a foot down, did a complete 360* to the left, and kept on going, at 45mph. I stopped in time.