Bought a new bike in June, been riding it almost everyday (when the weather allows for it) and haven’t had any oopsies with it. I have about 3100km on the odometer.
I pull into my garage and it’s a tight fit between my kayak and my car and I guess the ground was a bit too slippery or maybe I overturned (or both) and next thing I know my bike is tipping to the right and I’m not able to stop it.
I guide it down but it’s 414lbs and I am a small guy most days so it falls on my surron, knocks that over too. Fortunately nothing got super damaged and I was able to quickly turn off the engine and the bike.
My first thought was “I’ve broken the brake lever and my mirror I’m fucked”. Second was “how am I going to lift this when the hot side is down???”
Fortunately and to my surprise, the bike was quite easy to pick up. I’ve never picked up a downed bike ever. My feet slipped a bit as I was pushing but I got it back upright without a struggle.
My mirror seemed to absorb most of the impact and it just unscrewed so I screwed it back into place and readjusted. Test front and back brake and they work fine and no sign of damage.
I don’t even have any scratches. I guess maybe the foot peg also took some force. I’m a lucky dude and I feel very dumb even though it’s a guarantee one drops the bike at least once. Just waiting for the adrenaline to calm down. 😆
Ya next time I’m letting it go. I basically did that but I tried wrestling it as it fell. Once I realized it past the point of no return I fell away from it. Even that made my left thumb and surrounding area fairly sore. Like a bad headache. It’s a bit stiff today. The weight is no joke.
We all do it man, like it’s easier said than done, trust me. Anytime my bike goes to tip over, I usually naturally begin to try and fight it too. But I’m trying to be more conscious in just letting it go. I ride a dual sport, it’s meant to go down and it’s not even really all that heavy (~250lbs). Still will rip your damn arms out though, if you’ll let it.