FirST Drop - UGH!

[Fire Ant]

OK, I dropped my previous bike a couple of times, both of them my fault. This one? Not so much. I was in the parking lot at the local drug store and found a space to back into. As I was backing into the space, my right foot chanced to land on someone's crushed, discarded plastic water bottle. My foot slid out, and down she went. The bright side is that I love the way that Honda designed these bikes to rest in places where nothing's going to get seriously damaged. When I dropped the Vulcan, I busted a clutch lever and scraped up the exhaust. On the ST, the only things scuffed are the black wing on the cowl and the black part of the hard bag (and I had to search to find that, figuring that it HAD to be scuffed *somewhere* on the back end).

Picking up a fallen ST in 100+ degree heat is a whole different conversation...

All in all, the bike's a little scuffed, but at least it was on the same side that the PO had scuffed it before I bought it. I can't even tell the difference. I love this bike. Now if we could just convince people not to throw their trash on the ground...

--FA

 

[Mellow]

Welcome to the club...

 

[Justytroll]

I hate that litter on the ground. I have learned never to commit my weight to a leg until I am sure it's completely planted. Bygdawg tip over bars would have helped your pannier. Unless of course the police bike already had the bars in place.

Happy riding.

 

[Mark]

As Joe notes... you're *NOT* alone!!!

I hope you backed in to the bike to pick it up...

At least you got that 1st one out of the way too!

 

[adamk]

BTDT. One smooth rock on the ground in my parking garage. Like putting my foot down on a marble. Out went the foot, down went the bike......

 

[Fire Ant]

I tried backing into it to pick it up, but at that temperature, and after a long day at the office (as well as the fact that my last trip to the weight room was likely during the Clinton administration), it wasn't happening. Fortunately, there was another guy in the lot who rides and saw it happen. He helped me get it upright again. I *really* need to get back into the weight room...

--FA

 

[Mark]

FA,

Weight room will help you; but, this link shows you don't have to be big and strong to well... errr... get it up... so to speak...

 

[longerone]

The trick, as Mark points out, is to put your back to the bike and stand it up.
Do a search and you'll find the ins and outs.

Wonder if height is a factor in this technique, when i drop a bike, i instinctively go for the bars to lift it up, but i have to submit to STs overwhelming weight.
I imagine a lanky 7 footer might have issues with aligning his buttocks to a fallen bikes seat and still have enough vertical clearance for his feet to get enough grip to leverage the bike upright.
Not that i have the courage to lay her down and rehearse.

 

[Fire Ant]

FA,

Weight room will help you; but, this link shows you don't have to be big and strong to well... errr... get it up... so to speak...

I must not've had my butt positioned correctly 'cause the bike didn't budge when I tried it this way. Of course, I also think that I was trying to do more "lifting" than "pushing". I also have a problem where my knees don't flex as far as they did before I had the aftermarket parts installed, so I don't know if that plays a factor, too. I'll have to get some practice in, AFTER I get a set of TOBs...

--FA

 

[roadriderg]

That classifies as almost a banana peel slip!!

Welcome to the tip over group.

 

[The Professor]

I feel your frustration. I had my first drop about two weeks ago. I stopped at the roadside to plug in my GPS. It's a dash mount GPS and the cord is in the back. The bike was stopped, I was standing and straddled over the seat and leaning forward trying to get a look into the back of the GPS. I leaned too far forward and sideways to the left and then in slow-motion it went down. There was just too much weight there for me to pull it back. It scuffed the plastic tip-over guard and that was all the damage.

I had seen the videos of how to pick it up by backing into it to lift so that went well, but I was still disappointed at the whole situation. When I got home I took a file and smoothed off the scuffed plastic portion on the bottom of the tip-over guard. Hopefully that will be my one and only tip-over.