[roshan_cruise]

I don't have any pics of what i am about to describe,frankly would have rather been happy if the accident hadn't happened.

After spending 4 months away from my bike, i got a chance to come back home and ride my dream 'Pulsar 150'.

For those who live in a city called Thane in Maharashtra, i guess you all would know of a place called "Upvan". Basically it is a quite surrounding with a lake and to some extent a good promanade. This is where me and my friend meet up to have a smoke and chill!!.

Unfortunately over the weekends, the area becomes a daredevils playground. While on some occasions,the stunts they do, seems to be good, there are some idiots who cross the limits and become a nuisance.

The below incident is one of the cases which happened in front of me:-

Well we were just riding to our adda from a friends home, when from behind (no double meaning please) came two riders, 1 i believe was riding a Yamaha FZ and other was riding a Honda CBR250. Now do not know what prompted these guys to play daredevil, but although there was enough road through which they could have easily passed us, they chose to see who could get closest to the divider.

My friend was riding ahead of me on his bike. While one of the guys tried to get through between them and the divider, he almost lost his balance but thankfully he made it through without any incident. His friend though was not so lucky. This guy comes between me and the divider and i believe his bike's handle grazed the divider, that when disaster struck.

In the way in which you see superbike crashes on youtube/TV, the CBR was actually airborne and it actually did 2 somersaults and landed where my friends had passed throught a few seconds ago.

The rider's condition though was a different story. Since the bike's handle grazed the divider, the bike swung closer to the divider, while the bike hit the divider and got airborne and fell away doing its somersaults, the rider was also airborne, unfortunately there was a lamp-post in his way, the guy hit the lamp-post with full force on his face and was knocked out onto the road [Both guys were not wearing helmets.].

One thing about people is although they have little regards to safety, they do have some common-sense. No sooner did they see this happen, they stopped an auto-rickshaw and sent him out to a hospital.

Although i do not know what happened to the guy, i saw that the Rs150000 bike had been depriciated to a Rs 90000 bike. Basically the bike was so banged up, even the honda designer's wouldn't be able to believe that this was a bike that came out of their factory.

My question to all:-
1) When a person can spend upto Rs 1 lac and above on his dream machine, why not invest upto Rs 4000 on a good helmet.
2) Even though the guy buy's the helmet, *** stops him from wearing it?
It's better to mess up your hair,than your life. Hair grows again, life doesn't.


Some rules i follow:-
1) When you are driving, no boose and always wear a helmet
2) Stay the hell away from dogs [This I learnt the hard way]

[amit_purohit20]

I purchased my helmet before I bought my bike, both because I don't feel comfortable without a helmet and our company did not allow parking for persons without a helmet .
Due to gods grace I have not been injured in any falls till now.

1st fall:
In 2003 Its end of rainy season and I with my mother as a pillion visit a relative living on Ghodbunder road in Thane,Mumbai. This road that time was a sort of a bypass road with no lights, lot of potholes and it passes through the National park jungle area with some minor ghat sections. I am on my newly purchased TVS Victor, wearing a helmet. We get late at relatives place. Luckily it rains heavily and I have to tell my mother to board a Qualis. Its 9:30 in the night pitch black, thunderstorm, heavy rains and that time this remote road filled with potholes and used mostly by Big commercial vehicles. I am driving at a meagre 30 kmph and climbing a hill. I can barely see anything outside my helmet due to the very heavy rain, night and blinding light from other vehicles. The road is filled with water covering potholes. Inspite of all this due to me being an inexperienced rider then I am still pushing (luckily alone not with my mother as pillion). Mean time my mother's qualis goes over the divider during a sharp turn, luckily nobody is hurt and she reaches home safely. Due to the incline i wring the accelerator a bit and reach 40 and I enter a pool of water and suddenly I never cross that! Bang I hear the rpm of the bike being raised to a high level, my rear wheel is in the air and am still holding the handlebars tightly. I am at an 70 degree angle and then come down again. I fall down in the pool of water where I am sitting like a Ganpatiji and submerged till waist. Just behind me a big commercial vehicle is coming with its powerful lights on, but luckily he is slow (partly because its raining heavily and he is climbing an incline) and avoid running over me by braking and turning simultaneously. I get up and pull my bike to the side of the road, switch it off. I am in a state of shock, my first fall of my life on a motorbike. My heart is pounding heavily and then.... a truck goes bang on in the same waterlogged hole. I can see his rear wheel banging the pothole and the rear wheel is in the air by more than 3 feet. The driver is unable to control the truck and the truck veers to to the oncoming lane. Luckily no one is coming that way and he is able to handle the situation. This is the second shock.
I can feel that I am not injured so dont check on myself, cant see the bike in dark so try to push it up the incline. But its too heavy to push, so I kickstart it and come to know that I cant shift the gears because of the bent footpeg. So I change the gears with my hand and ride it to a lone small tyre puncture wala shop off the road on a hill. I get the feeling that I am galloping on a horse. The small lamp in his shop is the only light source in the vicinity. I open my helmet and my glasses fall apart one from the left side and the other from the right side. My glasses have separated excactly in the middle just because of the shock. Luckily the lens are not broken.
I now have the first look at my bike, the front wheel mudguard is nearly touching my engine. The rim which banged on the 2.5 feet deep pothole filled with water has become a flat surface like a chord intersecting the circle. My footpegs have bent to nearly 90 degree. Rest luckily is Ok. The tyre wala tells me that this is a regular thing during rainy season and at least 1 accident happens every day,especially with bikers and so he keeps a first aid ready! He brings out a big tyre hammer and makes the footpegs straight, and the rim to come in 1 plane.Pulls out the forks a bit with sheer brute force and I am again on my ride. I have no other option in that remote area in night. Every time the front tyre where the rim has become flat come in contact with the road my bike goes down by 2 -3 inches and then it again raises as it comes out of that patch. Its like riding a horse. It takes me nearly 5 more hours to reach home on that horse driving throughout the night!I stay in Kandivali which is hardly 40 mins drive at a speed of 40 kmph. But it takes me 5 hours. Next day I approach the TVS showroom they estimate a expenditure of 7.5k, a local mechanic estimates 5k. I buy a new hero honda front rim for 450 rs and then straighten out the forks. All cost within 950 Rs including a proper service of the bike.
Learnings:
1) Always wear a helmet. Just two weeks after my incident at nearly the same place an office colleague falls down from his bike with a pillion. Both are not wearing any helmets, both get hurt badly. My friend just misses loosing his right eye. I could see blood lumps in his eye for nearly 6 months after the accident.
2) Never drive in night.
3) Never drive when its raining heavily or during a thunderstorm.
4) You cant predict the depth of any pothole filled with muddy water. My pothole was a mini swimming pool! It was nearly 3 foot wide, 5 foot long and nearly 2 foot deep. And I thought it was just another pothole filled with water!
5) Avoid pillion as far as possible on your bike. Because your pillions life is always in your hands and you dont want to be responsible for someone else's death/injury. What would have happened if I was carrying my mother as a pillion? God gave me good sense that day and both my mother and I reached home safely.
6) In rainy season roads become hell so take triple the safety precautions while driving. If possible avoid driving during rainy season (which I know is hard because nearly all my konkan rides used to happen during rainy season.)
7) Indian roads are filled with surprises so drive as slow as you can without hampering your properly planned trip timings. Less speed less injury as simple as that.

[jhonmathews]

First of all thanks for starting this thread. The stories here bring you back to reality if you ever decide to sway away from it.

This accident happened a little over a month ago.

I go to college at around 9 in the morning and the road becomes really narrow towards the end as it goes through a small village. I ride a stunner every morning and I always make it a point to wear a helmet(With the strap fastened, which I learnt from a friend's horrible mistake). Also, because of a recent trip I like wearing riding gloves but until that day, I used to wear them just for the "feel of it". Also, it was a little cold back in mid February or so and I was wearing a water proof jacket/wind cheater which was 2 layers thick.
I was also wearing my college uniform so you can imagine how thin it was. Also, I carry a bag with a sling and is always hung over my left shoulder and the bag hangs to the right side while riding

So this road always has water spilled on it early in the morning and I go over it everyday at about 30-40kmph and by now it became a routine and I never payed much attention to it(I usually am careful when there's water on the road).

So this morning, I was riding by as usual and I must be at 35kmph(Max) and suddenly out of nowhere the bike's rear tire just lost it's line and 'Slipped'. I tried to slow down and apply the rear brakes and that was it!
The bike skid and (Luckily) I fell on my right side, my right side of the hip bone landing on the bag. Next to hit was my head which I clearly remember because of the thud sound of the helmet. Next was the hands which were drastically saved by the gloves. Anyone who has ever fallen on an Indian road knows how easy it is to scrape your hand on it. Also, my right shoulder hit the ground followed by my right knee and elbow.

If that wasn't enough another two guys came skidding after me, on an activa and a splendor after the traffic actually slowed down.

A guy standing by the road picked me up and brought me to the side of the road and his friend brought my bike on the side of the road as well.

When I got a grip of the situation I got up and saw what had actually happened. Thats when the injuries started hurting. The first thing I did was take out the key from the bike and kept it in my pocket because you can never trust anyone much as the stories suggest. Then I started to see the damage done.
My left glove was ripped from one side. My jacket had a hole in it on the right shoulder. The pant's knee area was also torn. The visor was scratched and the bike had scratches on the right handle and the crash guard.

My elbow had slight bruises and the right knee was badly bruised and the kneecap hurt(internal injury I guess).


So what did I learn?
1. ALWAYS wear a helmet. Even if it's a cheap one. And MAKE SURE you fasten the straps tight. Because as a friend of mine had worn the helmet and not put the straps, the helmet came off on the first blow and his face was completely bruised.
2. Wear gloves, they look cool as well as give you protection.
3. Install a crash guard on your bike. It will save you a lot of money. Or if you own a bigger bike, install sliders. They cost nothing compared to the costs you might incur if the bike were to skid along the fairing.
4. You can never be careful enough. Accidents can happen even if there isn't another person or animal on the road so it's better to protect yourself.
5. Ride safe and PLEASE WEAR A HELMET!

[Arvind6488]

This accident happened on September 6th, 2008. What I learnt from the fall? - stick to the rules and safety measures, it always keeps you safe. Well, the bike did not have a single scratch or a dent from the fall. I was driving less than 20kmph with my helmet on. One might think what would have happened at this slow speed.

I was back home at 6 AM from my night shift. I was owning a TVS Star City and recently had booked a TVS Apache RTR which was awaiting delivery by september 8th provided I submit two more documents to complete the Loan formalities. I hit the bed as soon as I reached home and dozed off. Around 9 AM the current went off as well as my sleep. I came to know there was a maintenance work planned in my area and that the current would be back only by 5 PM.

Suddenly, the idea of submitting the documents struck me and I got ready to ride till the TVS Showroom near K4 Police Station, Anna Nagar. As it was September it was drizzling in the morning and the weather was awesome. I was nearing the Lucas junction and due to the drizzling the vehicles were moving one behind the other very slow.

I was enjoying the drizzles that were falling on me and they were very soothing. But I forgot to realize that my lack of sleep made me doze off when riding the bike enjoying the soothingness of the drizzle. I still recollect my eyes closing inch by inch and things fading out in front of me. But what happened after that is what I am still unable to recollect.

When I came back to my senses I was told that I was unconscious for 20 minutes by a near by Cap Vendor who made me sit at a corner of the road and had given me water. I had a look at my bike that was parked nearby and noticed that there was no scratches or dents or any sign of a fall or accident. However, I had a noticeable pain in my right abdomen area.

I immediately called up my uncle who took me to a small nursing home near Anna Nagar. The doctor did a basic scan and informed that there might be an internal bleeding and I have to be operated. Since it was a nursing home I was redirected to a hospital near Chinthamani. Here is where the action and fear factor begins.

I was admitted at the Selvarangan Nursing home near Chinthamani. We were waiting for an hour during which I was given all first aids. After an hour's wait we met the doctor who informed that he has operations lined up and that he would be unable to attend me till 6pm. By this time my abdomen started to have a numb feel and upon touching felt like touching a stone. It was becoming rigid.

On the doctors reference, I was transferred to Sundaram Medical Foundation at Shanthi Colony. The CT scan was done there and I was informed that around 40% of my liver has got smashed. I could never believe this as I was sure and under the assumption that the fall at such slow speed would not end up in some severe impact. The nurse and staff dressed me up for the operation. But then on seeing the scan reports the doctor who was to attend me informed that this is a major operation and that they do not have expertise who can carry it on and advised that it would be better if I be shifted to Apollo hospitals, Greams Road. By this time it was 6 Pm in the evening and almost 2.4 litres of blood got clotted in my abdomen area and I started to get Breathing trouble.

Thanks to my aunt who was working as a Personal Secretary to the MD of Apollo Hospitals. She called up the senior surgeon and got everything ready for the operation. As soon as I reached the hospital I was taken to the operation Theatre and brought out by 11 PM. The operation took close to 3 hours and the doctors informed that had I been 20 minutes late it would have been very complicated for them to handle the case. 40% of my liver was cut and taken out. By God's grace that is the only internal organ that grows back.

After 4 months of bed rest I resumed back to work and normal life. I had to cancel the booking of Apache and was also requested by my parents to sell the Star City. One thing was still running in my mind. How could a small fall at such slow speed have such a big impact. I went to the cap vendor and checked with him what really happened that day.

He informed me that I was riding with my eyes closed and slowly my bike started moving towards the extreme left. When falling down the handlebar was turned right in such a position that the Accelarator bar was forced and pushed against my abdomen area . That is when I understood that the thud and push during the fall had made the handlebar crush the liver.

I request all friends and BHPians to refrain yourself from riding and driving when you are lack of sufficient sleep. You might never know when your subconscious would suddenly get switched off resulting in such accidents.

Drive Safe and always prefer driving when you have had sufficient rest.

[arvind71181]

Originally Posted by Arvind6488

Drive Safe and always prefer driving when you have had sufficient rest.

That sir is a nasty incident and thanks to all your stars for making it out hale and healthy. The handle bar turning that way - a very freak accident.

[Team_Godspeed]

I fell over a little bridge and im still alive. Broke 9 bones and my 2nd life started on December 31st 2011 at 5.40pm. I live near carmelaram, sarjarpur, bangalore filled with 100cc bikes and riders with the mentality "my dads road".
Was in my karizma normal speed and i was thinking about the new year party so when the turning came i kept my side as i saw a tractor coming. He gave me very little space so i was adjusting to the side and while i was doing that to my surprise a moron tried to overtake the tractor with the splendor and i confirmed it was a sure shot bike to bike collusion so i braked hard and bend to the side to avoid it. He ended up hitting my handle and i ended up crashing out of the bridge and luckily my bike did not come along with me, he stayed back i went flying down and as i landed i went unconscious.
i suffered minor injuries according to the fall i took(9bones).
What saved me was my helmet alone and some good prayers.

1.Wear a helmet! Wear it loss some hair go bald but wear it.
2.Save the thinking and dreaming after or before riding.
3.Set your friends number on speed dial! As after the crash i couldn't see anything, it made my vision blurred(couldn't read anything) and eventually i passed out but my roommates number was on speed dial and that helped me.
4.Slow speed helps you,your pocket and the bike.

[sharc_biker]

It was an accident involving 4 vehicles. I am doing around 80kmph on my pulsar 220 on a four lane highway and a Tata 207 pick up truck on the fast lane hits a car and the rear end swerves into my lane. I braked and d rear tyre locks up and i did a hard bend to the left but still the right side of my bike's fairing starting from the headlight assembly rams into the 207's rear.

The next thing i know is i am lying down on the road and the bike is on my left leg. The entire right side fairing from the bike is gone!

Just as i thought the worst was over, two aged men on an old CD100 are uncontrollably proceeding towards me threatening to run over me!! In an instant, i pull my torso up and they brush against my back and crash against the 1 foot high footpath.

Miraculously, the helmet and the bike's crash guard saved my legs! It took all the impact. I escaped with minor scrapes to my wrists and later came to know i had a hairline fracture on my hip. I even drove back home after the accident! Put the entire right fairing on the fuel tank n drove home my 'half-naked' bike. It isn't my first accident. But the crash guard saved my legs in all.

1. Always wear a helmet.
2. Have crash guards on your bikes

[Sanjunair5]

My first bike was a Hero Honda CBZ (Feb 2000). Though only about 12BHP it was quiet a lot in those days and honestly I was too inexperienced to handle such a big bike. Needless to say I dropped the bike several times. I will list down all that I can remember.
1. On the very second day of ownership! Bike had just 36 Kms on the odo, I slipped and crashed into a kerb. Bike suffered some serious damage, a twisted handlebar, during the crash the stopper on the chassis that stops handle bar from touching the tank bent and and tank had a small dent due to handle bar hitting it, a bent leg guard, broken fairing, deformed heat guard on the exhaust, broken front mud guard, a slight bent on the front disc break and one of the front suspension got bent too. I had bruises all over. It took me about three months to recover from shock!
2. I used to live in a rural area and I had to pass through a native or adivasi village. So once late in the evening I was coming back from work when the second incident happened. There was a little girl waiting to cross the road, I had seen her and I thought she has seen me too. I must have been doing about 35kmph when I realized that the girl had not seen me. She jumped right infront of me and I frantically applied all the breaks I had. I went flying in one direction and the bike went in another direction. I was helped back on to my feet by some helpful villagers. Some sensible ones among them told me that they saw the entire episode and that I was not at fault. They asked me to immediately vacate the scene before the little girl's folks arrive, they said the girl was okay. I jumped back on the bike and left. That crash left more marks on my fairing and exhaust, I never repaired those and they were there till I sold it off in 2012. BTW in 2012 when I sold it it had only 48K kms on it, it was practically not ridden in the last 7 years, may be about 3500 kms (mostly by friends and relatives).
3. Third one was pure stupidity. Again once late in the evening on an absolutely barren road I saw some one crossing the road at a distance. I don't know what made me sudden break when the person was a good 25 meters ahead of me. The front tyre skidded and I came crashing on my right knee, tore my jeans and suffered a very very deep bruise.

Besides these I fell down several times and I guess that made me a wiser and safer rider towards the later part of my ownership. One important lesson I learned was to let go of the bike the moment you sense you are falling to avoid getting dragged along with the bike, avoid landing on any joints like knee, elbow or shoulder and to roll the moment you hit the ground. This minimizes changes of grave injuries. I always used to wear a helmet.

I still have a helmet though I don't have a bike anymore, have not been on a bike in the last 6-7 years and am itching to get back on one

[PetrolRider]

My daily ride to office is a Honda Stunner with front disk. This incident happened in July 2010.
I was going to office in the morning and I have not checked the speed I was doing. As I travel in Bannerghatta Road in Bangalore I don't think I was doing more than 20 at that time. There was an Inova on the left side and the front wheel of my bike is just behind the C column of the Inova.
The Inova suddenly decided to take a right turn and put the indicator and turned right (like most taxis do, use indicator only when they turn their steering wheel ).

1. Mistake One: I applied the rear break with full force and turned right. The Road had gravels and the rear wheel skidded.
2. Mistake Two: I got panicked and applied front disk with full force. The front suspension absorbed the force and stopped the bike on the moment (I was doing very slow speed and already applied the rear break).

Result: As the rear wheel was already skidding towards left, on the moment the front wheel stops moving, it skidded even more forcing the bike to tilt on right side. It was too late to use my right leg for support. I fell directly on the handle bar with the bike on its right side.


No damage to me, I was wearing jacket, full helmet and leather boot. All the impact was taken by the leg guard and handle. Hence both were bent.


Lesson learned:

1. Rear brakes are not for panic breaking especially for bike with raised rear. This will lock the rear wheel and lose your balance.
2. Front disk are best for panic breaking as the front suspension is there to take the impact and retain your balance.
3. Double sure, when overtaking a big vehicle in busy roads, they may turn any time and they have much powerful brake than a bike.
4. Do wheel balancing in regular interval as this reduce risk of skidding.
5. Buy a bike that sells a lot hence you do not have to depend on your authorized service center for the parts. Though the leg guard is repaired, I am still waiting for the handle bar which is still bent, thanks to excellent Honda service center .

[ApacheWolf]

I've dropped my Apache 160 HE some 4 to 5 times so far.

Out of this, I'd like to share about two of them coz the rest are just skid falls thanks to jolly jay-walkers.

The first one was rather dramatic. I was joining the 100ft road from a residential area. I had to take a left to join the road. People generally go above 50kmph at the least here so I revved up and took the left.

There was a Honda City that was just passing me and I joined the road after him. Unfortunately for me, during the whole time, the car was blocking my view of a barricade, so brilliantly placed, on the other side of the road next to the divider!

I saw it once I came over to the car's right but it was already too late to avoid it. But for some reason, once this realisation struck me, everything became slow motion. I was able to keep calm and so I decided to use the friction of the rubber tyre to the max and braked. The non abs rear wheel locked and I was skidding sideways towards this barricade.
When I was closer to it and couldn't slow down anymore, I dropped the bike towards the barricade so as to launch myself in the air. Thanks to some matial arts training, I was able to execute a rather crude but helpful kick(picture a chubbier Bruce Lee doing a dragon kick flying in at 40kmph) and impacted the barricade with my foot, cushioning the blow and landed on the divider, getting a non bloody gash across my torso.
I was helped up by a couple of onlookers and then rode off.

Moral: As long as you don't panic, you can always put your training to use when it actually matters.


The second one was pretty blatant and obnoxious. I was actually going home from the dojo, doing some 25-30kmph through a narrow road(Outside Easwari Gardens, if there are any SRM fellas here). I was going to take a right so I had my right indicator on and was slowing down when an oncoming Qualis driven by an old man just plain switched lanes to mine and rammed me head on!
Again, I don't know how I got away, if I jumped up or what, coz I only remember I was standing in front of his car shouting at him and my bike had been thrown backwards! He snuck off but I noted his number down and later got him to cover a bit of my expenses from a police station.

Moral: The roads are full of idiots. We can only do our bit and hope for the best.

[Mr.Boss]

One of my worst crash, during my college days (2005)
Above snap is the scenario. It was a four corner signal and the lane in which I'm travelling is with RED signal. I was traveling in my Max100R (marked in small BLUE rectangle) at 60kmph. I could notice the signal from distance and found the left most side is free and I can cross the couple of vehicles and reach the front easily. All of a sudden another 2 wheeler (marked in small RED rectangle) crossed my way (in between the 1st and 2nd vehicle)

To avoid hitting him I turned more towards left, slammed the brakes, rear wheel got locked, bike started skidding and within a second I was lying on the side of the road. Thank God, I got up with few scratched here and there (I was wearing helmet, and the bike had proper crash guard)

Lesson learned:
Never overtake in left, that too in signals where we don't have enough visibility.

[zenren]

Interesting thread. Let me share the 2 falls I've had from my Honda Unicorn. Both happened in Trivandrum, during my college days.

Accident 1 was in 2005. I was behind another bike (Yamaha Libero IIRC) and was approaching a junction with a Green light. Countdown timer was about to drop to single digits and there was enough time for me to cross the junction. So I continued at around 40 km/h. It was a familiar junction to me and yellow gave another 5 seconds which was ample time to cross it and I had no reason to slow down. Suddenly the bike in front of me stopped immediately after the zebra crossing seeing the green timer at 3-2-1. I had to brake hard suddenly and unfortunately, I entered the white paint area for zebra crossing and had zero grip during the braking and ended up crashing into the bike ahead. The guy ahead stopped as he didn't have a license and didn't want to risk getting flagged down by the cop for jumping a red signal!

That was a huge learning for me as I had never realized that the white paint on the road could prove so dangerous in case of an emergency situation. Post the accident, I've always ensured to ride through the unpainted section whenever I pass over a zebra crossing or even the road markings (white/yellow lines)

Accident 2 was in 2007 and was purely due to my carelessness - I forgot the side stand and ended up falling in the path of oncoming traffic while getting back into my lane after an overtake, with bruises all over since I was caught off-guard. Luckily for me, the oncoming traffic was temporarily halted due to a bus stop a few metres ahead where a bus was holding off the traffic behind it. Else I wouldn't have been here typing this.

[saket77]

Dear BHPians,

Kissing the tarmac is among the worst nightmares that a rider would come across. Unfortunately, almost everyone, sooner or later, suffers a fall from his motorcycle. The question is only - When?

So let us confess when did we suffer the first fall...sure it is going to be fun! (hoping that it was not that serious)

Here's mine:

Normally ride: Honda Stunner.

Years: 4.5

Kms: Closing in 27,000 kms.

First fall: Yet to happen - Honestly!

Let the confessions begin!

[Eddy]

My first, only and hopefully the last time was on 4 December, 2002. I was on my bike and it was a hit and run by a big black sedan at 2330 hours in Delhi. This was after 2 months and about 2-3k kms of riding experience.

Almost lost a limb / life so have stopped riding altogether. I even avoid being a pillion

[sourabhzen]

Interesting thread indeed.

I learnt riding a scooter way before I attained the legal age (I was not a responsible rider back then and my dad had to go out of station for a year due to job commitment). My dad had a 1972 model Bajaj 150 and unlocking the handle bar required turning the key a full circle. Once I did not unlock it properly and turned, took a u-turn that resulted in a painful fall and 'tarmac kiss' as the handle bar got locked.

It happened in 1992 as far as I remember.