Met a guy that just bought a bike and he then crashed minutes later

I stopped in at my dealer today to have some valve cover shields installed. While I was there I got into a conversation with a fellow about my age, maybe a little younger, that was taking delivery of nice used BMW F800ST. He was heading home to Brampton and said he did not want to take the 401 so I suggested he head north on Clarke Sideroad and then through Thorndale and head to Cambridge K/W area. I was just paying for my stuff and he phoned that he crashed. It is the way I take home so I saw him a few minutes later and it looks like he navigated a S curve but failed to negotiate the left turn part of the turn and ended up in the ditch, maybe he had a case of target fixation. Good news he is ok with just a damaged ego, bad news after 5 km ride he broke the headlight, picked up a lot of grass and put some scratches on a formerly immaculate bike. The dealer had come out and was going to ride it back and fix it, I guess the last time he rode was 2003. Glad he didn't get hurt but maybe he needed to spend some time in a parking lot before riding on the road.

Gerhard

That sux's but glad he's good for another day. Man, I bet his ego is down.

Expensive 5km ride - could've been worse. Maybe he'll sign up for a refresher course now.

This kind of crash probably happens more than you hear. Mainly from embarrassment and pride you do not hear to much of it.

My neighbor bought a new cbr600rr sport bike. The dealer brought it to his front door and unloaded it. He got his gear on and jumped on for a ride. Now he is an experienced rider,mainly dirt and vtwins. But that little bike packs a wallop , combined with new tires and a fresh rider gave the following result; Accelerated to the end of the block about 250 ft took a quick left turn, bike slipped out from under him and was totaled. His pride and gear all ripped to shreds as he limped back to his house. Quick as that around 1 hour of ownership and the bike was done.

Moral is get a new bike , take it really easy until you have gotten used to it.

Good that he is ok but riding skills are perishable.
Rider refresher courses are a good thing.

Wow that is not the way to get back into riding.

The tires weren't scuffed up yet and most likely slipped out.

that was something I feared when I returned to riding after a 19 year leave from it. I even had a friend who had been riding many years test ride the bike I was buying and then ride it to my home (bought it in town). Then I spent the next week or so just riding very carefully around the neighbourhood until I was confident enough to take it to work... on only side streets for the next month before I ventured out on the highway. I did take a refresher course also. I've read many times of new riders thinking it would be easy to just take off and ended up crashing.

My son bought a brand new NC700 this year. Local dealership knows him well. He's been riding 2 wheels since age 5. And past 18 years. Road out of dealers garage right after they assembled and check out bike to front of store. Laid it down hard on the left side. Scratched a lot up. He didn't get hurt except his pride. He took the bike to a friend preacher and had it blessed. Lol

Something very similar happened to me years ago. I was at a garage to pick up my brothers car after they repaired some damage. While we were waiting for ours, another customer took delivery of his freshly repaired and painted cage and drove of. 20 minutes later said cage was back at the shop on a trailer. Totalled.

S**T happens I guess

Similar story: My nephew dropped of his car at the body shop for some work. When it was all done, his father (my brother) drove him down to pick it up. Lacking a parking spot, he parked in front of his son's car. When his son started his just-repaired car, he just dropped the clutch because he never left it in gear (did I mention manual transmission). Well, the body shop left it in gear (as you should), the car jumped forward and into the side of his father's car. The body shop picked up 2 repair jobs that day.

This is my riding buddy's story: http://www.hngn.com/articles/113006/20150727/2016-mazda-mx-5-crashed-minutes-purchase-free-replacement-offered.htm

Once in the '80s I was at a MC dealership and heard a loud crash of metal. For a second I didn't know where it came from, then I saw several people running off the lot out into the busy five lane street in front of the dealer where they helped a clearly novice rider who had just pulled off the lot on his brand new bike set it back up and wheel it out of the street right back onto the lot.

Another time just a couple of summers ago I was at an invitational "come ride our new bikes" event put on by a certain manufacturer at the local multi-brand MC dealer. It was my turn to ride and I was sitting astride the bike with the engine running while asking the representative a couple of last minute switch placement questions when the rep suddenly looked over my shoulder for a second then took off running in that direction. I turned my head just in time to see a rider astride a bike that was apparently a bit too big for him lose control while attempting to back out of a parking spot that had somewhat of a downhill slope to a drain grating. He tried to tippy-toe it backwards out of the spot and it got away from him, and as 3 -4 people saw what was about to happen and ran to catch him, the backwards momentum got the better of him and he went down with a crash in the middle of the parking lot just before they got to him. They helped him set it back up and dusted him off, and even though I don't think he was physically hurt I felt bad for him. It would be a bit embarrassing to drop your new bike (a BMW dual sport) in the middle of a crowded parking lot like that, especially with a lot of bike people around. I imagine employees at MC dealerships see that sort of thing happen pretty frequently.

I have heard more than once to always put at least a hundred miles on a set of new tires before trusting their grip. I don't know if it was rider failure or tire grip but it would be best to always ride a new bike and tires with caution. I can not imagine totaling or even wrecking a new bike so quickly. I do remember my first purchase of a new Yamaha 250 dirt bike way back when teaching me a lesson on my first ride as did my cousin find out on his first purchase of a Yamaha 490 dirt bike. Twist throttle too much and just flip right off! I think everybody should ride dirt bikes before riding on the street though. I believe it would help them to be better riders.

Glad it was mostly ego and bike damage.
I came across a brand new rider (very used bike) who dumped it within 5 minutes of getting it. New enough to confuse the controls and dumped it turning into a parking lot entrance. We had a long chat after we put the rubber side down and moved it away from the puddle of gas and away from LEO curiosity. Figured he didn't need the no endorsement complication after the err learning experience.

I purchased my ST1100 in June 2003 and my last ride had been a Yamaha 750 I sold summer of 1983. Dealer was 100km away from my house and the ride back would have involved the QEW and our infamous 401. I wisely elected to have the bike delivered to my home to avoid any potential mishaps (likely fatal on these 2 highways) on my first ride in 20 years.

Think he'll sell the bike ?

A guy bought a brand new Honda 350. Left the dealer and went for a ride. About an hour later up in the hills he slipped in some gravel in a turn and went down. Scratched the mirror and lever but rode home. That was me in 1973. Luckily I bought a helmet with the bike even though it was not legally required in those days.

MorrisGray said:

I have heard more than once to always put at least a hundred miles on a set of new tires before trusting their grip. I don't know if it was rider failure or tire grip but it would be best to always ride a new bike and tires with caution

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I wasn't there to see the accident but seeing him leave the parking lot he was super careful and not very confident so I wouldn't think he was trying to scrape the pegs 5 km later, my thinking is he wasn't pushing past the new tires ability to grip. The other thing is the damage to the bike looks like it occurred from entering the ditch upright and then falling on it's side, no deep scratches from sliding across the gravel shoulder. I think he entered the second part of the curve, panicked thinking the bike isn't steering to the left his eyes got locked on the ditch, he hit the brakes hard and lost all ability to steer out of the situation and went for a low speed crash in the ditch. All this is just conjecture on my part so your guess could be as accurate as mine. I am pretty sure he will ride again as he seemed more embarrassed by this than anything else.

Gerhard

'98PanAm said:

I turned my head just in time to see a rider astride a bike that was apparently a bit too big for him lose control while attempting to back out of a parking spot that had somewhat of a downhill slope to a drain grating. He tried to tippy-toe it backwards out of the spot and it got away from him, and as 3 -4 people saw what was about to happen and ran to catch him, the backwards momentum got the better of him and he went down with a crash in the middle of the parking lot just before they got to him. It would be a bit embarrassing to drop your new bike (a BMW dual sport) in the middle of a crowded parking lot like that, especially with a lot of bike people around.

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Sounds like something that came out of our Tip Over thread.... Its not very different at all.