[bullboy]

Just as we were picking speed a dog jumps into the road, i brake hard, still manage to hit the dog, we fall down & scrape a lot of skin on the road.

This Happened twice with me and third time escaped by just hitting the dog with crash guard and saved a 4k monitor.lol.

[anilisanil]

Had two major mishaps:

1) March 2006: I was going back home after working for 3 continuous days in office. It was a new moon day and I left at 2 AM. Generally we are not allowed to ride the bike w/o helmet, and I do make it a point to wear one, but that day I did not.

I was on Hosur highway going from EC to Silkboard on my Unicorn doing speeds upward of 80 and from no where a black dog barged onto the road, and I realized it only after hitting it at full speed! I braked after hitting the dog toppling the bike. The pillion rider flew off the bike the moment I braked (and escaped unhurt, surprisingly!) and I was pulled along for quite distance with my left side on the bike and right side on the road.

My clothes looked as if some mice chewed them off. Thick buckled belt made sure that I could get married later. And thankfully there were no other vehicles on the road except for a few bikes who too were petrified looking at the sparks that the bike spewed out and all this while I was looking, thinking and trying to escape if it was possible; I lifted my head as soon as I started falling down and thanks to all the foot ball and cricket I played, I knew how exactly to fall down w/o breaking my bones.

I survived what could have been a ghastly crash with deep abrasions all over my right hand and shoulder. My leg got stuck between brake pedal and exhaust pipe, burning it at various locations, I will have all these marks for the rest of my life.

Lessons learnt:
1) Do not drive faster than you could stop, specially in night.
2) Life's like that!
3) Always wear a helmet.

Incident 2:

December 2009: Got married in November 2009 and joined office after a break. With wife as pillion riding my bike again to office on Pune by-pass towards hinjewadi. Doing around 40 behind a huge dumping truck which seemed to have slowed down. I was not exactly tail gating the truck, but a bit too close, so was checking in the rear view mirror to change the lane, before I could the truck screeched to a halt to save the cow ahead, and I do not remember what happened next.

I got consciousness back in a car with a lot of pain in my leg. A good Samaritan in a car stopped by and offered my wife (who was fine except for a small bruise on her leg) to drop us in a hospital. After being milked down by the hospital I realized how fatal could a be a crash at 30 kmph could be only looking at my helmet with a broken visor and a crack at the opening.

I escaped with a concussion in my head which healed w/o problems and a PCL (a ligament in the knee joint) tear which still exists w/o troubling my life style.

Lessons learnt:
1) Sometimes even a helmet cannot save you.
2) Never tailgate or go too close to other vehicle.
3) If you scare the living daylights of your newly wed wife on your bike, you will have to buy a car!

[Karim Bhai]

Hi All,
Background:
Die Hard Biker. Have done lacs and lacs of KM on bikes and have owned
Hero Honda - SS, Splendor, CBZ, Karizma (88K Kms), Karizma R (20K Kms) and Karizma ZMR (6kMs Now)
Longest Ride: Allahabad to Calcutta in 23 Hrs Kind of non Stop (CBZ).
Faster Ride : dolfin Nose Kunnoor (Ooty) - Whitefiled Bangalore in through out rain in 5 Hrs 50 Mins. Karizma R with Pirelli tyres Pics attaced.
Most tiresome ride : Bangalore to Kaddappa and back to bangalore (32 Hrs) First Karizma.
I am a big fan of Karizma and this is about my 3rd Karizma ZMR. I know this bike the way I know myself. I finished my office and took the road behind Wipro Electronic City to Bannergatta Road. Reached Bannergatta road and was before Nice Circle. It was raining slowly and I had my Jeans and Jacket on with my Laptop back on the back. The Speed would have been aprox 40 - 50 KM/HR and I was on the extreme left of the road. What kept me left? It was the fear of heavy vehicles who are not much affected if the road is wet. All of Sudden a Fully Grown Dog came out of the bushes and tried to cross the road at full of his speed. May be he too didnt want to get wet or may be there was a feast for him on the other side of the road. He was really too fast to be noticed. As I was also on left and the dog came out of the left bushes there was hardly a second time I got to notice him and Stategize. All this happend hardly 2 meters ahead of me. Within fraction of a second I decided not to break considering the useless tires on such a nice bike and the wet road. I knew if I break I am down even before hitting the dog. I decided to keep my bike straight, Hold the handle hard, and Hit the Dog. The moment I hit the dog my handle went little right all of sudden and after that i was down. I remember frame by frame what happened. Bike hits the road first towards its left side, Then the left handle, then the plastic casing, Foot rest and saari guard. Till now i am on the right of the bike with my left leg still between road and the bike. Then a pot whole comes our way and the bike got detached from me. My Knees, Then my left Elbow - Helmet, then helmet comes out , My specs, Then my head and last my nose.
What Saved me :
1- A very strong Casio Metal Watch saved my wrist bone and took all the scratch.
2- Jeans - Saved my thighs to a great extend - Though all got scratch but i can imagine had it been a trouser what would have been the damage.
3- Jacket - Same as jeans.

Sentimental Piece may be not relevent to this thread but want to share. When i was getting scratched and I saw i bike revolved 2 times full like a Clock Minunte handle on the road. During those 2 seconds i saw my both young (very young) kinds faces million times. when things got still. I didnt even stand up. I was afraid that any heavy truck can ramp over me because I knew the traffic and the road for years. I just crawled at my max abilities to the side of the road then stood up.

What I learned:
1- Always lock the buckel of your helmet- That day I just had my helmet on but didnt lock and thats why after taking the first impact while getting scratched it came out rolling on the road.
2- If you cant see - You cant see. Thats it. Dont assume. 40 - 50 km/hr was also too much that day. However you dont feel this speed on a bike like this but physics is same for all.
3- Have right tyres. Why I didnt get michel or Pirelli on this one?
4- When I cat runs across the road what ever it is it will neither stop or stop - A cat ran across that day just 10 minutes before accident.
5- when a dog run across - DO NOT HORN. If it has crossed half of the road also and you horn it will stop and return back and you will find it again infront of you.


Damage to Bike: Nothing I would say.
I just had to change the left plastic panel and side light - It didnt crack and just got scratched and was not looking good. Saved my left leg Would you believe the quality.

Damage to me:
1 Lac 50 K.
after my nose hit the road a bone hit an artery and made a whole which led to continous bleeding - A level 3 surgery at fortis. + Scratchs all around.
Backpack which had laptop saved my back.

Something Strange:
When i stood up my bike was like 10 - 12 meters away from me. Engine started. Wheels rotatiing - Lights on. My forehead and nose got scrated badly and i was bleeding. Whole face was red but many people slowd down their cars - Slided the window glass down and saw me bleeding but no one stepped out. I myself picked up my bike alone in that condition and rode it home. Bike said to me " Nothing happened to me I am rockiing you take care of yoruself. I will keep this ZMR with me always and this was the first fall down in my ever.

Regards,
Karim Bhai.

[Karim Bhai]

Last but nevertheleast. Never Never Never Remove the saari guard. It saves the leg as it makes a room for your leg

[shashank.nk]

My first crash where i was thrown off the bike and almost came under the wheels of a bus happened on what was to be the luckiest day, 7-07-2007.

I was overtaking a goods auto and when i was about 25% through with overtaking, the auto guy guy swerved to the left suddenly and hit my ORVM. I lost control and fell,my shirt was torn in places and i had a few bruises on my arms, back and thumb was badly hurt.

Fortunately, the by-standers helped me onto my bike and i rode back home safe. When i looked at the bike scraped on the dome, exhaust and the mirror i felt terrible. It hurt more to see the condition of my bike,than the wounds on my body. It was the first and last crash where i was thrown off the bike in my 5 years of riding.

[Wind splitter]

Crashed my bike yesterday night due to rains in Bangalore.

Scene: Lady riding in front of me in Activa mistook road hump for god knows what and locked here brakes, Activa went sliding on ground, I was behind her in my Karizma and in order to avoid crashing into her I locked my brakes (panic braking) and I went sliding on ground. Thankfully vehicles behind me stopped soon.

[The Great]

Incident 1.) 1999 on my Yamaha YBX, i was a relatively new biker then and me and my then girlfriend (now my wife) were going towards worli seaface. Rear tyre got punctured on the way by a small screw sort of iron thing. Uptill the signal i was skeptical why was the bike feeling a bit heavy than normal as i never had experienced punctures. As the signal turned green my young hormones triggered me to race with a fellow fiero bike so i throttled hard to show my skills and after about 700 meters the bike was in full momentum of about 50/60 kms. when the rear section of the bike gave away. My wife clinged to me hard and second mistake i did was to brake hard which locked the front wheel sideways. Horrible crash, ironically the fiero guy who was racing came to the rescue immediately. Thankfully there were minor scrapes to both of us. (at that time in our house no one knew about our affair...lol somehow managed to cook up a story) - MORAL - Punctures are unexpected, any change in the ride other than the normal running behavior should be taken seriously.

Incident 2.) - Year - 2005, I was coming from Kandivali to Matunga (Mumbai - approx distance 25kms), on my 1989 Std Bullet. It was SV road (traffic zone). At a bus stop the local bus halted for its routine stop. The road ahead was clear and so i tried to overtake the stationery bus. Suddenly from the front of the bus i saw a scooty which a lady was taking walking and she was trying to cross the road. I was on quite a good speed of about 40/50 kmph when she noticed me as she crossed the bus. Stupid lady left the bike in nervousness and ran to cross the road. I crashed to the scooty which was lying on the road and literally saw death, tumbling and scraping on the road with multiple fractures in hand skull ankle and lots of bleeding. I was wearing a helmet and even then my front 2 teeth broke which i now imagine if the helmet wasnt there my head would have banged to the ground. Just imagine even with the helmet on my nose had bleedings and my front teeth broke.

MORAL = No riding 2 wheelers without helmet. Never trust a womans instincts on road sense. (No offence meant to the ladies but this is a personal incident and a personal lesson learnt)


Other than that i have fallen many times but not so major as the above 2. Some tyre skids, some oil spills, some braking faults with front brakes applied more and so on but all the times i have never parted with my Helmet's.

Also i have witnessed 2 deaths in front of my eyes. Its a sheer bad luck that i have witnessed someone die in not 1 but 2 bike accidents. One was an 18/19 year old guy sitting as a pillion. The stupid driver of the bike broke the signal and tried to pass the road but a speeding taxi hit them and poor pillion rider lost his life on the spot in 5 mins with the driver of the bike going unhurt with minor scrapes. (Truly bad accident as me and other 2 bikers ran to help them but the boy died in front of us and i couldnt eat my food for almost a month with that shock).

One suggestion to all - In my personal opinion a helmet should always be changed after a certain period and compulsorily it has to be changed after any minor accident. Buy the best helmet there is and avoid the cheap thermacol ones.

I always try to judge a person by his helmet of how much he cares for his life or how much dumb he is to wear cheap alternatives to helmets. Believe me i have even seen people wearing half broken helmets just for the sake of traffic police and to avoid paying fines.

Originally Posted by Karim Bhai

During those 2 seconds i saw my both young (very young) kinds faces million times. when things got still.

I can very well relate to this as i also saw my beloved wife and daughters face in those few seconds.

Note from the Team-BHP Support Team: Please use the "edit" button if posting within 30 minutes of the first post, instead of creating another back-to-back post.

Also use "Multi Quote" option for quoting Multiple posts.

[parrys]

I was on my way for my Third Year BMS preliminary exams, it was 27th of September 2010 when i started off from home at 6:30 a.m. I stay in Thane(Mumbai) and my college is located at Sion. So all of those familiar to this Thane-Sion route will be well acquainted with the long stretch you get to ride on with minimal traffic.

So to the point, there was very minimum traffic since it was early morning. I clocked around 136 kmph on my 1 month old Apache RTR 180. Yes it was as thrilling as it sounds. After i clocked 136 i started decelerating and while i reached some where around 95 kmph i noticed a dog running across the road. I tried to dodge it but somehow we both managed to reach the same spot at the same time. I hit the Dog and the dog died then and there, while i tumbled down & got thrown off the bike (p.s. the factory fit tyres on the Apache RTR are also pathetic). Luckily i did not lose consciousness and got up and went across the 4/5 lane Eastern Express Highway.

Result : When i fell down, i fell onto my head section and my helmet hit my collar bone. My collar bone was cracked and had to sit at home wearing a stupid belt for 1.5 month. Arms badly bruised and i used to scream while applying that lotion everyday morning and night.

Learning : No matter what, No matter how clear the road, no matter how big the engine - please dont get carried away. Confidence can help you to accelerate but your confidence cant tell you about the potholes on Indian roads and like in my case; a random dog can ruin your Victory Lap.

Ride safe, Wear a Helmet. If possible do wear a jacket so that incase of an accident you dont scrape your arms.

Cheers!! Enjoy Riding.

(upgraded from the RTR to a Yamaha R15 2.0 : its true when they say Men love to drive, But some men simply Prefer Bikes over babes or even cars in that case)

[am1m]

I learned how to drive a full two years before I learned to ride. I never thought I'd get a bike in college, so when my mom finally relented (to my considerable surprise), I rushed to get a second-hand Shogun before she changed her mind. Learned to ride on that bike and as a result there are a LOT of corners in and around Manipal and Agumbe that have tasted a bit of my blood. I'm not proud of the way I rode those days, it was foolish and I thank heaven that I never hurt anyone else in the process.

Biggest learnings over the past 12 years and 3 bikes (I still have all of them, the Shogun as well):

1. There are days when you will get away with anything, but there are days where you will "know" that you are not riding well. Experience is all about identifying those kinds of days early and being overcautious.

2. Big crash guards look silly, but help when it counts. Helmets save lives.

3. Know your limits, accept the fact that you aren't a spectacular rider. Accept the fact that your bike has limits. And stay well below those boundaries. Everyday.

[simplyself]

I was travelling at about 40 kmph. A man riding a moped came across. I slowed down. On seeing me, he stopped. On seeing that, the man suddenly started and came right infront of me. I braked hard. Bike stopped, I didnt.

Moral : Brace for a sudden stop if you ride a Pulsar.

[bblost]

Fallen a lot of times. Only one lesson. If you try to do something stupid, you will fall. if you are lucky you will end up with road rash and not broken bones.

But even road rash hurts a lot. So ride safe. If you cannot see over a turn, slow down. Don't trust anyone else on the road and that includes hidden angels as well.

God gave them wings....instead of bikes. So they are jealous of you. Always remember that.

[aaggoswami]

Crashed many times, but will mention the latest one.
Date : 7-Dec-2010.
Time : 8:30 am approx.
Location : Patel Square, Arunachal Road, Vadodara ( Subhanpura area )

I was going to college and was in hurry of downloading a few stuff from torrent, mainly movies. Moreover, on 6th night dad and mom just returned from a 1000 km. trip in one day ( they started on 6th morning and came back at night ) in Waggie CNG. The morning time was spent talking to dad how was Waggie as compared to baleno.

In this process I got late for college which is around 15 kms from my place. So was rushing on the road. I was at full throttle, 5th gear and doing around 80 kmph or so since my speedo is not working since two years. I even crossed a busy junction at high speeds. Suddenly a small kid on bicycle tries to cross the road and changes lane from left to right. I brake hard. By habit I pulled the front brake level fully, the front disc of my zeus came in full effect and wheel locked. As soon as there was a slight hit to bicycle, I fell down, rotating around 5-6 times and in between the rolls I could see my bike lying on road and fuel leaked.

Neighboring residents came to help, but since the place was around 1.5 kms. from my place, I called up dad.

It was a nasty crash.
Damage to Bike : NONE
Damage ( other ) : Helmet broken, woolen jacket torn, trousers torn
Damage to ME :
BIG.
Both knees I had wounds which were quite deep, so deep only white skin was visible, this means a lot of skin was lost due to friction with road.
Cuts on lips and nose.

It took me more than 2 months to get normal. Yes, more than two months.

Lessons : Speed is bad. Never cross 40 in city. Have excellent tyres. Have disc brake at rear also.

IMP : Those who drive car and bike both very frequently have to be cautious. Because when one is driving car, the brakes need just a touch. That similar energy touch wont work in bike.

WE NEED ABS in Bikes, that is firmly my view.
Box section swing arm bikes are more stable than my tubular swing arm bike.

[aargee]

Apt thread that popped up on the right time; My latest, this morning 7:15 AM!!!

Lesson learnt - The front brakes of STD CBR 250R is ridiculous, the tires are stones & unreliable on high speeds; had a very minor crash & landed up with broken & tilted headlamps towards right though the bike & me didn't fall; but there goes my agony of indefinite waits for spares :(

[W.A.G.7]

My first crash was on my Splendor. I was driving along a super smooth concrete road lazily at 45kmph, when I see water on the road ahead.

Not a moment too soon, without warning an Indicab darts into my path from the left forcing me to brake hard. It's an instant recipe for disaster, no sooner than the brakes locked, I almost kiss the Indicab's rear and in an instant I am staring at the sky! Thank god, I did not slide underneath the Indicab from the rear!! Right now I can joke about it, but I was s* scared for those 5 minutes.

Lessons learnt

1. Splendor has no brakes. Or negligible brakes that lock easily in an instant.
2. Indicab drivers have no respect for anyone on the road!
3. Thin rear tyres do nothing, but turn laterally to the direction you are driving. And Splendor has really skinny tyres.
4. Concrete surfaces are no good for your bones. My right knee had a hard whack when it banged into the road surface. Fortunately, no broken bones.
5. Water + Concrete surface = very bad idea for hard braking.
6. Murphy's law: If anything can go wrong, it will !

[bullboy]

Last but nevertheleast. Never Never Never Remove the saari guard. It saves the leg as it makes a room for your leg

I agree with karim Bhai .saree guard and crash guard are fracture savers and also bike saver.Trust me its from my own experience.I wanted to remove it from the bike ,But never did .It saved my leg many times when i had skids.