[ranette]

First eon and now me, the two of us had publicly proclaimed that we intended to ride forever and never put our bikes down.

Almost exactly a year, and about 6000 miles on the Ducati add a few months and 2000 miles on my scooter and the rubber finally lost contact with the road. Thankfully, it was a low speed, almost no speed, drop; damage minimal-bent brake pedal should be no problem to bend back, scratched bar end weight and a broken brake lever, probably less than $100 total so nothing to cry about there. Was riding two up and once I realized that the bike had reached the point of no return I actually wrapped my arms around back and caught my wife who ended up piggy back, her feet didn’t touch the ground until I backed away from the bike and put her down. Not a scratch on either of us so very lucky there. Unfortunately I can’t put my finger on exactly what happened. I was on an unfamiliar piece of road due to a brain lock on my part-I had forgotten about a detour that had gone up a few weeks ago. However that shouldn’t have been an issue. Came to a stop on some uneven pavement but I remember putting my foot down and feeling secure, however, at some point after I put my foot down I either stalled and didn’t get my foot down again or simply lost my footing, for the life of me I can’t say which. I caught it mid fall and almost muscled it back up but just wasn’t quite strong enough and down she went. Inspected the damage and rode home without incident.

No injuries, little damage, very lucky…but just so pissed at myself for letting it happen.

[Munch]

not sure wether to say ..sorry to hear that or good job on saving the significant other.

[owlie]

Glad to hear you both are okay. Bummer on the bike damage.

[ranette]

Owlie, thanks, and no big deal on the bike damage. Still perfectly rideable and probably less than $100 for back to pristine, rare that a drop is going to cost you less than that. If somebody had knocked it over in our parking lot, same damage, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. Just the fact that it was my fault, and that I don’t know exactly what I did wrong that is bugging the hell out of me.

Munch it was a little of both for me, sorry that I dropped the bike, happy that my first reaction after I realized the inevitable was to make sure that she didn’t get hurt. Much to my surprise she wasn’t traumatized in the least; once I assured her the bike was fine she got right back on without any qualms. All night long, it was our anniversary, when we were sitting at dinner I kept beating myself up, “I’m such a freaking idiot. How did I let that happen?” and she kept coming back with, “Hey you dropped it, you picked it up, we’re fine, we’ll be out there next chance we get.” Guess you can see which side of the bed all the brains and logic sleep on.

[owlie]

That has been pretty much my husband’s comment each time I come back to the house after one of my misadventures. Having his support has made a huge difference in dealing with it.

Don’t spend your time beating yourself up about it. After you let it go, maybe you’ll figure out what really happened. I call it the shower effect… You always figure out things out in the shower when your mind isn’t focused on it.

[eon]

Well now, I don’t know I ever proclaimed I would ride forever without dropping it. I just get annoyed by that statement “there are those who have and those who will”. Seems to be a crutch for those who drop it to then say, oh well, not my fault, everyone drops it. Truth is it was your fault and you know it, that’s why you are pissed. I take that to be a good sign. I had the exact same feeling of disappointment/frustration but it went away after a while and I was left with just the experience. Somewhat bitter experience but it will stay sharper because of that. Now hopefully I am not dumb enough to make the same mistake a 2nd time

It sounds like you were slightly distracted with the new surroundings and did not notice whatever went wrong. Riding two up you wouldn’t have much time to catch the bike so overall it sounds like a small mistake. I’m just glad it wasn’t a crash as I feared when I started reading this thread.

And kudos to your wife for being so supportive.

[ranette]

My wife said it felt as if I had slammed on the brakes, which I am nearly certain I didn’t do. Leads me to believe that what happened was that as I was letting out the clutch after the stop sign I unexpectedly stalled, the bike fell to the right, I got my right foot off the pegs but by the time I did the bike was at too steep of an angle for me to lift it back up. She also said that as soon as I made the wrong turn and got a little flustered it was as if she could literally feel the confidence leave my body, she said my shoulders sloped and I felt, best she could describe it was shaky, she said she wasn’t surprised that I made a mistake shortly after.

Under those circumstances I don’t see how anyone, even the those who think it’s always the other guy’s fault, or believe that it’s an inevitability, could do anything but blame themselves. There was no one else involved, hell there was nobody else around, which I guess was a good thing as there were no witnesses to my ineptitude. About 30 seconds after I righted the bike a pack of teenage skateboarders came by, looked at the Ducati, proudly on it’s side stand and gave me the thumbs up. Wonder what their reaction would have been if they had come upon the scene a half minute earlier with the Duc sprawled on the pavement looking like it was waiting for forensics to come and draw an outline around it? My guess is it wouldn’t have been quite as reverential, more like “Hey, old folks, where’s your scooter?

[Eddiepowerfm]

Ranette, how much does your bike weigh? Glad to hear you are both OK. I have had one fall too, I was distracted by some people. I could not tell if they were going to walk on the parking lot or not.

[ranette]

The bike weighs 400 lbs dry, somewhere in the mid 400’s wet.

[Eddiepowerfm]

Just wondering. My bike is about the same, 440 dry. I can only imagine riding one of those 700lbs bikes. I guess with experience, but I don’t know that I’d ever want to.

[ranette]

We own a country inn. A few weeks ago a guest pulled in on a Honda Valkerie. When he parked it next to my bike it looked like the Honda had just given birth to a baby Ducati. That thing was frighteningly huge, I believe somewhere in the range of 800 lbs. Not something that would interest me but the guy loved the thing.

[Author]

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