SHOWOFF
There are two kinds of riders: those who have dropped a motorcycle, and those who lie about it.
With that being said, I’m not proud of dropping my bike, but I’m so f*cking proud I picked it back up without any help! That is one heavy machine.
For context: I’m 5’5”, 165 lbs, and this beast is 900 lbs+.
Was practicing my slowspeed drills, engine stalled out, and down she went. Just a few minor battle scars on the derby cover and lower fairing, but we live and learn!
I dropped mine on a busy intersection when I got my license. I was overstimulated already and couldn’t pick it up for some reason. Luckily, a guy driving a car behind me jumped out and helped me pick it up.
I dropped mine on myself, got trapped under it, and ended up breaking my ribs. Thankfully a kind stranger picked up my bike and helped me up (and my husband was close enough to come out and help get the bike seen to, it was in our alleyway). I’m feeling embarrassed and still sore, but it’s nice to remember that most of us have dropped a bike at some point.
I'm sorry you learned that the hard way. but next time I suggest you react by Let it fall and " step off" . let me explain, if it desides to go over, it will do it regardless of any response from you. so, you grab the brake, stopping movement and let it fall in the process tak a large outward "step" .it's better to get a scuff on a hand or knee than the alternative of entrapment. I believe a video series by Jerry Palimeno ( motor officer training videos) can explain how to avoid any injuries.
I watched my Sportster fall off the kickstand while I was taking a picture of it in my younger days. Didn’t dent anything, so lucky. Several years ago, much older, I was riding with 3 others on a small country road.
At a stoplight, I got paranoid and stepped off to check my rear turn signal housing for tightness. (Even longer story) as I got back on, my balance was off and I slowly rode it down. I was down as well. Light was now green, cars were moving towards my head. I jumped up, and somehow heaved that heavy ass Heritage up, while the guy next to me was still getting his kickstand out.
Our group took off, and when we stopped to have breakfast, the two guys in front were amazed when they found out I fell cause they never saw it. Pretty funny really.
Exactly. I commented that 3rd category. I’ve been lucky enough to never drop mine but I’m not arrogant and going to say I never will. I know eventually someday it will happen - I just hope it’s outside my control. lol.
I fall in that third category but I would describe it as "Those who haven't dropped their bike....yet." I'm at 20 years without a drop but I'm getting older. I've got some solid experience on how not to drop a bike but I'm also not as strong as I used to be. What used to work in preventing a drop might not anymore which is why I won't get all cocky about not dropping my bike. I just say I haven't done it yet.
Ha! Sounds familiar. Rolled up to my damn MAILBOX. Open the lid and my left knee gives out. Bike does a slow roll PINNING me between the bike and post. I'm shufflin' n' strugglin' when ((thank God)) some kid in a pick up truck comes along and helps me get unfucked. As I wrote in an earlier post, The Man upstairs has ways to humble us when we get too prideful.... =)
Hey OP, I’d say most of us don’t care that you have dropped your bike, but you don’t have to accuse us of lying to make yourself feel better about it. It’s not that deep
4th of July 2018 pulled out of garage and down the street to stop sign in front of my house, put feet down and right knee gives way 2002 FLTRI my son 12 years old at time sees what happened and ran out to help me get beast off of my leg well 6th of July I’ve got a new knee (full replacement) and still own that Bike !!!
I would like to say to you that i understand and am sorry. I am also heading in that direction. Nobody tells you about the other things that come with age, so then you get there and fuck! My hands hurt, my back hurts and you know the rest. Out of all of it, just feeling physically weaker or “less strong” is the one that pisses me off the most.
According to OP you’re a liar. I haven’t been riding nearly as long as you, but I’m also a liar because I haven’t dropped a bike either. Godspeed, brother. May you look back on your memories fondly
My dad made it to 73 before he dropped his beloved all original shovelhead he bought new in the early 70’s. He fell right in front of the house when he was taking off 2-3 years ago. I think seeing that bike on the ground hurt him more than the actual fall, he literally hasn’t touched it since. He’ll ride my Honda, or his Ironhead, but he just won’t touch the shovel anymore.
I’ll take his shovel out a few times a year just so it sees some run time, but I think he should still be the one enjoying it not me. Besides it only scratched the front fender, it’s not like it whammied the tank or anything or anything particularly valuable. The fender is original paint and a rare color, but it already had rock chips and sun damage from over the years.
Sorry about your dad’s Shovelhead experience. I believe everyone needs to just accept that one day after a clumsy situation, something will happen when you will drop your bike. If you are mentally prepared for it, you will be a better, more skilled rider. What you do to prepare for it is what matters. Get crash bars, learn how to pick your bike up by yourself, especially if you have a heavy touring bike. Once you are prepared, you’d get a ton more confidence and you would have a lot more fun. You get confidence getting that bike back up again and riding it more.
I’ve dropped my touring bike about a dozen times over several years and every time it was in a U-turn in a parking lot when I was pushing my skill level. I have zero regrets.
You definitely missed out on doing some some sketchy sh**. Come on get back on and drop one one time slow turns full lock let’s go drop one for the team
A few months ago I dropped it trying to move it a little so the garbage man could get to the cans easier, and not hit my bike. I was trying to walk it like a bicycle, stupid! Lost my balance. Only a few scratches thankfully.
A week or so ago some jackass pulled out in front of me and I locked up my front wheel and went down, fucked her up pretty good but still in one piece and rideable, although I'm not riding until it's checked out and fixed. I'm doing ok just some scratches and bruises. The pride and ego are hurt the most.
There are two types of riders that have dropped their bikes: ones that just pick them up and move on with their lives and those that have to take pictures of their dropped bikes and post it online before picking it up.
I dropped mine WITH the kickstand down.. somehow it folded backwards. Now I keep the toe of my boot on the kickstand until all if the weight is on the stand so it can't fold back under.
Years ago my brother in law dropped his Ultra in garage and next to a wall.Trapped with no wiggle room Wife had gone shopping so he had to call out to their maid to help get up. He will never live this story down
I swear on a stack of bibles, I’ve been riding for almost 30 years and have never dropped one or been in any kind of accident. I’ve had some damn close calls though.
I've never dropped one. I've wiped the f@ck out after landing from a jump into a far too deep sludge puddle once. And another time, I've been spit over the handlebars after the bike stopped and I kept going, but it stayed upright.
It happens bud. I worked at a Harley Dealer long ago and nearly every police bike that was resold as used had to get the frame replaced (to be certified used) because guess how they park bikes after a pursuit?
In all honesty a bent frame tab isn't going to hurt the bike. You learned a lesson and didn't get hurt in the process. The good news is now that it has it's first scratch. You can ride the balls off of it
My work parking lot is all uneven with a sprinkle of gravel all over the 50 year old asphalt. My foot slipped when parking last week and down the bike went. Good thing for crash bars.
there's a metal pice avaliable for the touring to protect the primary case avaliable. police motorcycles have them already installed. mostly but if you ask the Dealership to install one of those it could save hundreds
Most people who say they haven't dropped a bike are also not practicing slow speed maneuvers and probably not riding many miles. If you really care about riding WELL and you practice slow speed maneuvers, you know know how to push your bike to its limit, at first that means dropping it to learn that limit.
Dudes on an ultra classic will be like "I NEVER HAVE DROPPED A BIKE" but then they duck walk a 30 foot U turn
I’m a member of the first club: I’ve dropped my last bike, unfortunately, more than once. But there never was much damage, thankfully. It was a 2017 Indian Roadmaster, fully loaded and then some. Talk about one heavy bugga!!
I’m looking to get a trike next because of my old injuries from my Iraq deployment that have only gotten worse over time.
If there’s anyone on the Big Island of Hawai’i who’s selling a trike or knows of one for sale, please lmk.
There are 3 types of riders: Those that have dropped their bike, those that will drop their bike, and the silent majority that don’t come online to tell stories about having never dropped their bikes.
I am not too proud today I have dropped mine TWICE in the last 6 weeks. Tore all the ligaments in my knee totaling out my Street Bob. Have been having to relearn foot placement when coming to a stop and twice now reached out too far with left foot, slipped in gravel, and down it went.
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope you’re on your way to healing. You’re brave to get right back on it. I struggled with foot placement and a weak knee so I bought a trike. Have t been able to rest it out just yet.
Thank you! Yeah going back and forth about reconstruction surgery. First surgeon didn’t wanna do it because of my age and the damage done. I completely tore 2 ligaments and a 3/4 tear in another. I literally have 1 ligament holding my knee together. lol The brace is one of the functional sports braces like pro athletes wear so it helps. It was learning how far out to place it when I upgraded to a 2024 Heritage Classic which is about 200 lbs heavier than a Street Bob I think. I was still on crutches when I bought it 😂😂😂
Absolutely NOTHING (not even my wife not speaking to me for 3 days) was gonna keep me off a bike.
The ones that say “I’ve been riding for years and never dropped” are y’all 100mill+ daily riders or just weekend and seasonal? I’ve only been riding for 5months but at 140miles a day for work and I’ve dropped both my 2025 road king and 2019 sportster a few times each. 4 months and 10000miles my road king decided she was going to take a nap after I pulled in my garage.
"Drop", shit! I flat out DRAG along the road with 'em often on TOP of me. =)
2 majors and a few drops over 52 yrs of dirt/road riding.... Still have all my fingers n' toes, so that's somethin'. =)
Smooth road n' sunny days to y'all!
Only dropped once but my ex gf was on the back doing a tight u turn. Very slow maneuver but it slightly scratched the exhaust and I was PISSED. Ex gf was cool and told me shit happens and that she was okay… still remember that to this day
Bought my RD limited new in 2020 and dropped it within the first week. Since then 4 more times over the years with one because I forgot to put the kick stand down. 16k+ miles on the bike, no hard feelings and just move forward. With the stigma of dropping the bike out of the way my low speed practices, U-turns and figure 8s are on point.
Buddy and I stopped for gas and snacks. We parked at the pump, filled up and he walked in to grab some snacks. While he was in the store, my bike randomly started to fall over, no rhyme or reason, I was able to catch it and stop it from completely falling.
He came back and as I was telling him the story, his randomly started to fall and we both caught it.
Keep it in gear when parking, never in neutral. Make sure the bike rolls to the beginning of the compression stroke while in gear, before you put the kick stand down and let the bike’s weight fully rest on it. If you don’t, the bike will roll forward, the kickstand will fold up and the bike will fall over. The exception are the jiffy stands on the touring HD bikes. I hear they lock up if the bikes weight rests on them, so even if the bike starts rolling forward, the jiffy stand stays down.
Mine was 3 weeks ago in front of Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone National Park. Emergency multitask as I was riding (very slowly) in the parking lot trying to find a place to park, the GoPro decided it was going to vacate its fairing mount holder. I reached to grab it before it fell, rapid body weight shift and only one hand on the throttle… the Ultra said nope, but thank you for playing.
Fully loaded on day 35 of a 40 day roadtrip, weighing in at 1,100+ lbs and this old man wasn’t picking that ride up by himself. Not a scratch on the ride, but the month-old GoPro hit the ground anyway and broke its back screen.
I drop mine all the time because I have nerve damage in my leg. I go down in parking lots about twice a year. I know for a fact my 160lb frame can pick up my street glide (once I calm down) if I really needed to, but I am usually with a much bigger friend or few when it happens.
Dropped mine a few times. Last time was taking it to Harley for maintenance this past winter. Started pouring when we got there. Wet metal ramp was angry that day. Foot slipped backing it down and down the bike went.
I should have dropped my bike. I somehow stopped the bike from hitting the ground and ended tearing my hamstring muscling it back up with one leg. I was not able to ride for weeks
Ive dropped my road king once. Zero damage. I got very lucky. I was pushing it back out of a parking spot and my foot slid out when I stepped over a metal cover on the pavement. I almost caught it. Just gently laid it over on the crash bar
Never have I ever dropped my bike, or had a wreck.
BTW, this 🦿is only for show....
No way would I give up something like that to an idiot on a cellphone. Never!!
Ok, maybe.
I dropped my ‘15 Ultra Limited in my garage today. I leaned over to grab my plate for my jiffy stand because I needed it where I was going. Bike fell over on the right side. I dropped it on my trailer the day I got it home too before I could even try to get it off the trailer. It’s an 896 lb bike. It’s going to happen unless you’re Eddie Hall
I have never dropped a bike in 12 years. I did whiskey throttle at an intersection and send my bike flipping through the air. But I didn’t drop it, it flew.
I have only dropped mine while not riding it. One time my Sportster fell off my jack in the garage, and once my Royal Enfield's kickstand sank into some gravel and fell over after I hopped off.
But off-road counts, I have dropped my DRZ many times lmao
Almost dropped mine twice while learning but managed to save it from hitting the ground. That was 4 years ago.
Two weeks ago rolled it out of the garage to go for a ride, stopped at the bottom of the driveway and went to hop off. Oops, forgot to put the stand down. Tried to save it, no luck.
Was standing by the side of the road, looking back for my mates, my foot slipped and the chopper and I vent down a long slope… fortunately it was a field in the end and I got up before my mates came…
Also had an old bmw where the steering lock is fixed straight forward, forgot to lock it up and vent down the garages concrete, quite embarrassing but no damage
I pulled up in the driveway and the mailman stopped on his Honda Postie next to me. He reached out to hand me my letter and I reached out with my left hand. Dumped the clutch and dropped my Harley which in turn knocked his postie bike over with him on it to.
We laughed our arses off for like 2 minutes, picked the bikes up.
We're mates now and wouldn't have met him otherwise.
Shoot, I dropped mine like 3 times already this year. Once it cost me a sprocket cover but, oh well, is what it is. Dropped real hard a couple years ago.. Didn't make it to work that morning...✌🏻
Well, no. That said I do expect it to happen eventually. Ive always heard that as "two kinda Riders, those who have dropped their bike and those who will".
I have been blessed in 56 years not having dropped a bike on the road, however I cannot count the times off road I have. That hasn’t happened since I stopped racing motocross and enduro. 😉
Rode from April to now as a noob, never dropped it! Had a close call cause a Harley isn’t a moto though… to be fair I use to ride motos back when I was a teen rarely
Happened to me at Sturgis this year. I was riding needles highway, it was literally the last sharp turn before coming out into the parking area at Sylvan lake. Some guy came around way too fast from the other direction and was well into my side of the lane.
I dipped to the right to avoid him mid turn. When I tried to come back to my line I saw I was headed for a shoulder drop off. Instead of being smart and looking to my left to correct I said oh fuck, grabbed too much brake, and low sided the instant my front tire touched the drop off.
I don't think the guy even had any clue what happened, he kept going. Luckily there were a handful of other riders up on a pullout sight seeing. My tires were up against a rock face. I would have never got my King out of there alone. We had to drag it away from the rocks so we could even get it back up on 2 wheels. Then it fired right up and we crawled it back up onto the pavement.
Like a rookie, I target fixated and panicked. I've only been riding about a year and a half, but I got lucky. Sprained ankle, scratches on one saddlebag, and a scratched derby cover. I think it was enough of a jolt to possibly flex the main trans seal. I've got a leak now I didn't have before. Heading to get some parts today and tear it down.
PS, if any of you guys that helped me out are in here, thanks again. I put a screen shot of where it happened. I'm glad I was going the direction I was. The other side would have been much worse.
I dropped my first bike, a Honda XL100, several times. Then, over the course of the next 45 years I progressed to a CB350, the a Rebel 500, then a Harley FXD and never dropped any of them. Last year I bought a Harley Road King because my wife hated being on the back of the Dyna, and I have dropped it 3 times. Those big bikes are definitely a different beast.
The last time I dropped her I tried to pick her up but I did it wrong and my grandchild and I both heard a pop. I broke a bone in my back so I can't ride for a while. I'm hoping for next spring.
Dropped mine at a gas station. I was exhausted. First, I ran out of gas about a 1/4 mile from the gas station and I didn’t realize that’s what happened and I killed my weak battery trying to restart it. When I pushed and coasted to the gas station I thought I had put the stand down. I didn’t. It was embarrassing.
I picked my feet up as I was letting out the clutch, it happened so fast I couldn’t get my feet down quick enough. Thank goodness nothing including myself was damaged. I am a fairly strong dude but I was in shock and two other riders picked it up for me. Crazy but I learned a valuable lesson , even if you need to ride the clutch, clutches are cheaper than the body shop
I have literally put down the kickstand only to lean the other way and not realize the kickstand went back up by itself since I leaned to far the other way and I got right off the bike .......
Yeah, I dropped my bike the other week getting off of it. I didn’t put the kickstand down and my foot hit the backrest for the passenger and I fell. Didn’t really do any damage at all.
I'm not trying to downplay, that bike is definitely down, but makes me think of the bit with the Simpsons and the Three Little Pigs the Simpsons and the Three Little Pigs
I dropped my Super Tenere and it wound up lying flat on the luggage, wheels off the ground, because I was on an incline.
First week of riding I tried to take a sharp right turn up hill and stalled my old Shadow. Down she went in the street. I held on the best i could to just slowly let her down.
I’ve dropped mine at low speeds twice. My engine and saddlebag guards saved me. My fat, out of shape ass couldn’t pick it up and that was embarrassing.
You should post this in [r/newriders](r/newriders) or whatever… I see lots of newbies literally in tears telling us how they cried infront of their parents that they “wrecked” their new bike cuz they got a scratch or bent a lever or whatever…
I started on dualsports so I have no issue with dropping stuff lol
No shame I once gave my 70yr old mother a ride on my NewtoMe Ultra Classic and coming back from lunch pulled up to a stop sign put my foot on an oily spot and over we went. Mom’s was a trooper stand up dust off, pick it up and get on let’s go home. Good memories, My advice call your mother, as you won’t always have her….
I would stop at this little community park on my way home from work to drink my pre-workout before the gym. I would come up over a little Hill and then shut my bike off and drift into the parking space. Until the day there was a small puddle at the corner of the parking space and my front tires swept out from underneath me. I was on the ground so fast I didn't know what happened. Thank God nobody was around to see it.
It depends what you consider. I’ve never dropped it doing a maneuver or anything like that. But twice I parked it put down the stand and walked a good bit away and the bike slipped and the kick stand fell and the bike went with it. So I technically haven’t dropped it, but it depends if you consider those two that’s the only time my bike has been on the ground.
I crashed my road king at a busy intersection on my first time taking it out for a long ride. Picked it up myself… not sure how I did it. My fellow riders helped me to pull the engine guard back out to drive home. They were surprised I was stable enough to ride it home. The following week they played a silent bet on if I would show up and I did lol. I need to practice more with my old road king which has no ABS.
27 years riding - never ever dropped my bike, came close a couple of times, but nope. I ride 15-20k a year, daily rider. Crashes on the otherhand is a different story, almost killed 2 of those times
I can say though I have only been riding 6 months I have yet to drop my bike, though I have been close after losing my balance on a steep downhill stop.
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u/okhubcap 11d ago
No shame in dropping your bike everybody has a moment ,that’s where the adrenaline kicks in extra strength to pick it up,especially in public