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Bikers, Ever Ridden a Bike That Scared You?


Ceptorman

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I went with a friend to his dad's farm. His dad rode up on a dirty bike, and asked us if we wanted to ride it. My friend said "no" (first alarm) and I said "sure". We were about 14-15 years old. It was running but it sounded different from the other dirt bikes I've ridden (2nd alarm ) and it was a little larger than my old Z50 or my beat up Hodaka 125 (3rd alarm) I got on this huge beast and took off. I instantly noticed it had a lot more power (CR500) but I wasn't a ***** like my buddy. The front wheel instantly pops up, lean forward and ride it out. That was cool, so I had to show off and nail it through all the gears, like I always do to test the HP of anything I'm piloting. Holy Crap....that thing took off like nothing I've ever ridden. It didn't scare the poop out of me but I did respect it. I'm so glad I didn't wad it up. I think I made it through 3 gears!

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A Yamaha Fazer back in about 1995. Not sure if it was stock or not, looked wicked cool with the Ram-Air intakes.

The slightest flinch or I envision a sneeze while riding... just created instant massive torque output.

Power was really nice, but having never really ridden before I went with something more tame and a hundreds less, a burgandy`84 Honda V-65 Magna.

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From a posting of mine on rec.motorcycles.dirt, back in 1998:

 

>>I was wondering what the funniest thing anyone have ever see/witnessed while riding. 

 

This happened way back in the early '80's.  My buddy, who was accustomed to riding his very old Husky 250, had just purchased a used Yamaha 400 and was riding it for the first time.  The Yamaha had undergone some modifications by its previous owner, and my friend was having trouble adapting to its "toggle switch" throttle.  I was following him up a steep, rocky hill, and I had to back away because he was throwing rocks at me by spinning the rear wheel.  A good thing, it turned out, because the bike suddenly hooked-up and spit him off the back.  He managed to hold on to the handlebars, though, so there he was riding the bike Superman-style with his toes dragging in the dirt.  The bike stood-up on its rear wheel, did one-and-three-quarter pirouettes, and then shot off the left side of the trail, its front wheel in the air and my friends feet still dragging on the ground.  The bike ran straight into a tree, CLIMBED UP THE TREE about ten feet (by which time my friend had finally let go), and then executed a perfect back-somersault over my friend's head.  It landed on its wheels, again headed for the tree, and ran right over my friend who was lying on his back in front of the tree.

 

I laughed so hard that I fell off MY bike.

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24 minutes ago, Edgar said:

From a posting of mine on rec.motorcycles.dirt, back in 1998:

 

>>I was wondering what the funniest thing anyone have ever see/witnessed while riding. 

 

This happened way back in the early '80's.  My buddy, who was accustomed to riding his very old Husky 250, had just purchased a used Yamaha 400 and was riding it for the first time.  The Yamaha had undergone some modifications by its previous owner, and my friend was having trouble adapting to its "toggle switch" throttle.  I was following him up a steep, rocky hill, and I had to back away because he was throwing rocks at me by spinning the rear wheel.  A good thing, it turned out, because the bike suddenly hooked-up and spit him off the back.  He managed to hold on to the handlebars, though, so there he was riding the bike Superman-style with his toes dragging in the dirt.  The bike stood-up on its rear wheel, did one-and-three-quarter pirouettes, and then shot off the left side of the trail, its front wheel in the air and my friends feet still dragging on the ground.  The bike ran straight into a tree, CLIMBED UP THE TREE about ten feet (by which time my friend had finally let go), and then executed a perfect back-somersault over my friend's head.  It landed on its wheels, again headed for the tree, and ran right over my friend who was lying on his back in front of the tree.

 

I laughed so hard that I fell off MY bike.

Hmmmm.......    Ever watch America’s Funniest Home Videos? My reaction here is the same when I watch AFV and see videos of people attempting perilous feats and failing just not enough to harm themselves - so it is funny. Well I worked acute care for decades and got to see the multitudes of times when Lady Luck/guardian angel was not available to catch the hapless thrill seeker. Egads!! 
 

Just so ya know it is not just motorcycles. It is insane the risks some people accept in the name of a good time. Just be safe. These sorts of crashes gone wrong are big time, life altering owies. Sorry to be a downer here but I care about you folks and those you care about.

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2 minutes ago, Bosco-d-gama said:

Just be safe. These sorts of crashes gone wrong are big time, life altering owies. Sorry to be a downer here but I care about you folks and those you care about.

 

Understood. Just so you know, both my friend and I emerged unscathed.

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There was a KX500 that changed hands a few times between some friends of mine. At least two times, the bike was bought off of the owners while they were still in the hospital (both were serious crashes (one had to have his shoulder reconstructed)). I know of a few other experienced riders who tried to spank that bike, and they got spanked. 

 

The closest to sacred of a bike was when I was riding 2 up on a HD dresser. Being that I had a date with me; I wasn't familiar at all with the bike; I knew it didn't have the ground clearance that I was used to (picked the bike up straight off of a newer CBR600), and the HD was as nimble as an elephant. I couldn't wait to finish that ride. Give me something that I can drag knee pucks before bike parts scrape, I feel a lot better.  

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Suzuki RM250;  Didn't realize my skinny butt was on a beast of a dragon until I came up on a wash board caliche road. Was already going crazy fast.... no, make that stupid fast (more appropriate) and tried to power through it before getting bucked off. Still don't know how I made it back to the house.

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I bought a used 2005 Yamaha FZ6 20K miles for my 64th birthday Feb 2020.  The thing makes 98hp at 12, maybe 13,000 rpm.

 

The throttle is not a light switch but the clutch is.  It has nothing-nothing-nothing then it has about 1/4" play until full engagement.  I had to rev it up to about 5,000 rpm just to get it moving.  Even as a former motocrosser and street rider, It scares me to death.  It's way too fast for me.

 

Anyone want to buy a used Yamaha? I'll knock $500 off the KBB price.

 

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3 minutes ago, wvu80 said:

I bought a used 2005 Yamaha FZ6 20K miles for my 64th birthday Feb 2020.  The thing makes 98hp at 12, maybe 13,000 rpm.

 

The throttle is not a light switch but the clutch is.  It has nothing-nothing-nothing then it has about 1/4" play until full engagement.  I had to rev it up to about 5,000 rpm just to get it moving.  Even as a former motocrosser and street rider, It scares me to death.  It's way too fast for me.

 

Anyone want to buy a used Yamaha? I'll knock $500 off the KBB price.

 

Adjust the clutch...

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1 minute ago, billybob said:

Adjust the clutch...

 

That's not the problem.  The clutch lever cam is engineered with that short throw.  This is a well known issue with this bike and there is a fix.

 

You can buy a cam from a later year Yamaha  (not sure which year) that will drop in and significantly widen the amount of engagement.  It's a $30 fix but I decided it's still not the bike for me.  I need an old man's bike.  :cool:

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2 hours ago, Ceptorman said:

I instantly noticed it had a lot more power (CR500)

This was the last dirt bike I owned. It was the last year of production with air cooled engines before they went water cooled. Was tricked out every way possible at the time.

There is a large sand hill where lots of people gather here. NO ONE could beat me to the top on that beast. Could ride wheelies in every gear. My kids were very small at the time and when I realized how crazy, stupid, and brave I was, I decided to watch my kids grow up and sold it.

Sure was a blast tho...that was number 11 of my dirt bikes and the last I owned.

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5 minutes ago, TasDom said:

Sure was a blast tho...that was number 11 of my dirt bikes and the last I owned.

 

There is a resurgence of vintage 2-strokes in the vintage racing bike world.  That 500cc 2-stroke Honda is a legend and is highly sought after.

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1 minute ago, wvu80 said:

 

I'm sure you know there is a resurgence of vintage 2-strokes in the vintage racing bike world.  That 500cc 2-stroke Honda is a legend and is highly sought after.

Yup, hindsight is 20/20 but I'm still alive! :P

One thing I also miss is the smell of that 2 stroke oil/gas mix....good stuff!

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1 minute ago, TasDom said:

One thing I also miss is the smell of that 2 stroke oil/gas mix....good stuff!

 

I started racing MX in the late 60's.  All the exotic European bikes were there.  Maico's, Husqvarna's, Bultaco's, CZ's, all running straight expansion chambers with no mufflers, all running Castrol  in their premix.  The Castrol was a bean oil and the wonderful smell as they went by is forever etched in my mind.

 

Great memories.

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11 minutes ago, wvu80 said:

I need an old man's bike. 

I am enjoying my 2014 V-Strom 650. Not too much power, still enough to easily ride 100 mph all day on the interstate (the KLR needed more). Very neutral riding position, Givi side and top cases... wouldn't bat an eye at touring on it. I have a larger bike for long rides, this one is ideal for 'fun' rides.  

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1 hour ago, Woofers and Tweeters said:

I am enjoying my 2014 V-Strom 650. Not too much power, still enough to easily ride 100 mph all day on the interstate (the KLR needed more).

 

I know your Vstrom 650, it was my ideal bike. Lightweight, good power with plenty of low end torque.   I tried to buy one several years ago and due to my ignorance I got the street version with the low handlebars.  I could have swapped bars to something higher and pulled back but then the cables would have been too short.  Too much hassle.  Instead I sold it a week later for $1000 more than I paid for it.

 

It is a vertical twin making it nice and narrow.  I also know the Kaw 650 but when I rode one the single cylinder vibrated more than I would care for, and of course Kaw had not updated the engine in a quarter of century.

 

I'm going to get out of the motorcycle riding business but if I got another bike the mid-sized engine Vstrom would be my first choice.

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I was going to say No, I’ve never been frightened, but then I remembered the time I took a Harley sidecar outfit for a drive.  This was sometime around 1998-2000.  The owner was a paraplegic guy (injured in a pickup truck crash) and fulltime wheelchair user.  He had a brand new Big Twin (I don’t recall the exact model) rigged out for him, with an electric shifter operated by a toggle switch on the left handlebar, inboard of the clutch lever.  To back up, there was an electric motor that could back it out of a parking space, and minor stuff like that.

 

I hadn’t ridden in a few years, since I got injured myself, and it was a beautiful sunny summer day, so I decided to go for it.  The bike and sidecar were a very bright yellow colour, and nothing said Summer like that situation.  I got onto the seat and he got himself into the sidecar.  The guy was either 6 foot 3 or 6 foot 5, so any movement by him had an effect on the outfit.

 

I should point out that a bike and sidecar are not like a trike.  Trikes also have three wheels, but whether the pair of wheels is in the front or the back, the machine is symmetrical left-to-right, so the steering and handling are pretty much neutral, so turning Left is the same as turning Right.  When you speed up or slow down, it usually keeps going straight ahead, or close to it.  Not so with the sidecar outfit.  I’ll explain in the next paragraph.

 

We headed out, and I found that coordinating the clutch lever and the gearshift toggle switch was a bit tricky, but I was able to manage it.  We got onto a country road, with very little traffic, so it should have been an easy ride.  However, sidecar outfits are weird things, neither bikes nor cars, with the drawbacks of both and few of the advantages of either.  The sidecar is a big weight on the right side of the bike, so whenever you accelerate, it wants to lag behind and make you turn right, so you have to aim the handlebars to the left somewhat, until you get up to your steady speed, and then it takes just a bit of left handlebar to keep going in a straight line.  Luckily, the bike had pretty wide bars, because lots of leverage was needed to do nearly anything.

 

When you slow down, the sidecar wants to pass you, so you have to apply some right handlebar to keep going straight, and maybe apply some sidecar brake, if it has one.  This outfit did, so that’s one more thing to remember.  Oh yeah, you have to go slower on right turns than left ones, so you don’t lift the sidecar off the road, unless you want to.  It can be fun.

 

 The only time you can just relax and enjoy the ride is when you’re travelling in a straight line at constant speed.  I was doing just that, when Buddy in the sidecar decides to rock the sidecar on its springs, just for the fun of it.  It had its own suspension.  When a great tall guy rocks a sidecar back and forth, the outfit tries to turn left and right, so I was wrestling with the bars to keep us on the road and out of the deep ditch on one side or the oncoming traffic on the other side.  I’m about five-nine and 160 pounds, so struggling to correct for what the 230 pound guy in the sidecar was doing was hard work.

 

We were only rolling at around 100 km/hr (62 mph), luckily, so things were manageable, but when I asked him to cut it out, he thought I was kidding, and after all it was his half-ton or so of American iron, so he could do whatever he felt like.  He felt like rocking the sidecar harder, so he did, and this time it was a real struggle to keep it in the lane.  Snapping the throttle shut or hitting the brakes would probably have made things worse, so I had to just do my best to keep us on the road until he’d had enough fun.  I got the impression that it was much easier for him to control the outfit when he was driving it, due to his being much bigger than me, so he probably didn’t realize that he could have put us off the road with his fooling around.

 

So that was one of the very few times I’ve been scared on a bike, or a kind of bike equivalent.

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