pulled up in front of a busy cafe on my '05 Suzuki Vstrom 1000, dismounted from the bike and walked away, forgot to put the kickstand down, luckily the only thing scraped and scarred was my ego......
Not one of my embarrassing moments (there have been several) but similar to the other disc lock stories, a bunch of us were parked, rear tires at the curb, outside a bar in Wildwood, NJ. My buddy's bike was to the left of me with a long line of bikes to his left. He and his girl mounted up. All the others were hopping on their bikes as well. He revved it and went to pull out. He went about eighteen inches, then he and his girl vaulted forward over the handlebars. He hadn't taken his disc lock off the front wheel. The bike went down to the left (thankfully, I was to the right) which caused a domino effect, sending about ten bikes, riders and passengers included, over on their sides in a sea of wildly flailing arms and legs with a chorus of screaming and cursing. No one was hurt, except for my friend's pride and there were a few scuffed bits on the bikes. They started forming a lynch mob, but cooler heads prevailed.
I never saw the show Black Widow, but I'm assuming there's a similar scene? I was thinking more of Pee Wee's big adventure when he's thrown out of the biker bar and just touches one of the gang's parked bikes causing them all to topple, incurring the wrath of the Satan's Helpers.
He was referring, I think, to the Any which way but lose… Black Widows, who had their own theme every time they had a scene…
Oh, forgot about this one... I was waiting to pull out of a parking lot onto a busy highway and it was taking far too long. When I saw a little break (maybe too little) in traffic, I hammered it. As I jammed it into 2nd, the clutch cable snapped! I was in the outside (passing) lane and the cars were bearing down on me. I decided to dive into a bank lot on the right, cutting across the inside lane. As I did, I narrowly missed the foot-high curbing at the entrance and went sliding sideways into a parking space right by the bank's front door and came to a skidding stop, but I was upright! A kid was coming out of the bank. Kid: " Wow! Did you just drift into that spot?" As my testicles had retreated northward, somewhere into my upper body, I answered in a very high, squeaky voice "Not on purpose."
Remembered this story a colleague shared around the mess table some time ago. He'd returned to biking after the usual long lay off raising a family. His new pride and joy was a used Harley Davidson. He rode from the dealers to a busy petrol station. Said he felt like a million dollars and that all eyes were watching him pull in with envious eyes. Looking super cool he drew alongside a petrol pump, put his foot down, trod on a diesel slick and promptly fell over with the bike. He was trapped between his bike and the pump unable to extricate himself. A group of car drivers came over and lifted the bike off him. "Pride before a fall " at its best or worst ?
Swinging my leg over to get off a K75 without remembering to put the side stand down first. Ended up lying on the floor, under the bike, laughing at my own idiocy. Not quite embarrassing but still quite daft... pulling the fuel tap to "on" on my Bantam without realising that the grub screw that limited the plunger travel had fallen out, resulting in the pre-mix content of the petrol tank emptying into my left Derriboot as I fumbled to get the plunger back in. Ah, them were the days...
Derri-boots… oh God, I’d forgotten about them beauties! I had a hand knitted pair of Arran wool walking sock that I rolled over the soft top of mine… I looked like compo, but my feet still got cold in winter
Just the once when eldest son got married in Vegas. Now my Ducati with its open clutch sounds like a skeleton knocking one out in a tin box but when I dropped it into first it sounded as though one of the techies. standing next to me, had dropped their toolbox.
We're off to Vegas in a couple of months and renting a couple of Harley's is on the itinerary. When in Rome, or at least Caesar's Palace...
