Honda Africa Twin Forum banner

Dumbest fall ever!!!

13K views 33 replies 22 participants last post by  ommoran 
#1 ·
#2 · (Edited)
Dang...sorry to hear!

Which beach is that?

I have a 29" inseam but I don't understand this part:
...to top it all my left foot slid on the sand and down I went.
So, after you kicked the kickstand up with your left foot did you switch footing to your left and that's when you slipped?

I'm really sorry for your spill but if it that happened to me I'd take a broken collarbone over damage to my bike. Only because I really enjoy the healing pains of broken bones (collarbone/ribs). Besides they heal quick. Sorry for the sick humor but I've broken bones so many times I've grown accustomed to it. LOL

That and I feel blessed to even bones to break and know it'll be healed when there are others who probably wished they had said bones to break. That's how I look at it.
 
#5 · (Edited)
This was at Marina State Beach. yeah, I had my right leg halfway across the bike with all my weight on my left foot when it slid in the loose sand and I fell back onto my left shoulder.
gotta get this
May I ask what kind of footwear you had on?

Honestly, I know exactly the feeling of trying to mount on a slight slope with our short inseams. The motorcycle parking spot by our work is on a slight slope. I didn't realize it was slightly sloped towards kickstand till I tried to upkick the kickstand with my left foot--foot couldn't reach the kickstand. D@mn these short legs of mine!!! :laugh:

So I walked it over to what looked to be slightly less sloped area and mounted from left, positioned over to my right foot, then up kicked the kickstand and took off from the right foot. And that would be my suggestion to you: Don't switch back to your left foot.

This being my first ADV bike I didn't understand why the kickstand didn't have a toe/heel kick arm on the kickstand like on sportbikes.

Like so:


I plan on having my fabricator weld one for me after I install all my goodies.
 
#6 ·
I almost did the same thing backing out of a really steep parking lot. Now I just push my bike from the side or reverse park when I am in this situation. You can see why they put reverse gears on those big tourers, imaging trying to push around 350kgs plus.
 
#7 ·
Onlookers helped my up and got the bike upright.
Onlookers - oh dear! When I had my own 'dumb fall' experience turning the bike on a sloping road, at least no-one witnessed the debacle! I managed to extract my badly bruised foot from underneath the bike and heave the AT upright before anyone appeared. A broken handguard and slight fairing scratch (heartache!) later, I was on my way. These bikes are tall and slow speed/carpark drops are all too easy, even for those of us with enough experience to know better!
 
#10 ·
1. Always plan your parking. Don't just blindly pull into any parking spot without observing and thinking. Look at slope and things that can cause slipping like sand or oil. I never pull into a spot that is sloped down unless I can pull forward out of it. If that is the only spot, then I back it in. Sometimes that means dismounting and walking it back in. But usually, i look for a wider space, like 2 or more adjacent parking spots, and do a sharp u-turn so that I end up facing out without having walk it back much if at all. And, with a bike like the AT, you can ride over sidewalks, berms, etc. to get into or out of a spot without backing up.

2. Drink more milk.
 
#11 ·
#13 ·
I was shocked at the force of the impact on my shoulder when I landed as I was fully geared up in this https://shop.revzilla.com/motorcycl...2q1QrOVD-8-pdXA3WT0ROEJwbtInDaahoCPNAQAvD_BwE with shoulder armor!
Granted all crashes are different I personally do not trust foam padding. Though they may be okay on dirt.

From personal experience, hard shell armor provide better protection on pavement than foam padding. Which is why I inserted a hard shell on top of the foam in shoulder area and removed the knee padding and wear a stand alone hard shell knee protector. Still trying to find a hard shell elbow armor that will insert in elbow area.
 
#14 ·
Get better soon....

I always plan my parking, it?s just so hard to park the Africa
Sometimes the side stand won?t extend, so I just park on the other side of the road when possible, less stress
Ran into a tri-color on the way to Yosemite this past weekend
A lot of riding the last month.
Solvang via 166
The Southern border via Julian & Sunrise Hwy
Lake Isabella via Caliente Bodfish
Benton Hot Springs & Yosemite via 395 & 120
Just racking up the miles 18k+ miles now
 

Attachments

#18 ·
Yikes that's a bad one hope you get better soon and back riding again. I had one where I was mounting the bike in a parking lot from the downhill side on the left side of the bike. I tossed the ol leg over and couldn't slide into the center of the seat and fell over on the right side since I couldn't get enough of my foot on the ground. It's good to get your weight biased on the uphill side to try and insure you'll fall on that side if something goes wrong. Get lots of calcium, glucosamine, chondroitin, and collagen into ya.
 
#20 ·
I find if I relax my body and try to hit the ground like a limp sack of jello, I don't get beat up as much. I never try to stiffen up and fight the gravity/earth thing. Don't try and stop the earth from rushing up to smite thee. You lose everytime. There's a reason why drunks are usually the sole surivers of horrific car accidents. I've tossed my sack of jello (ME!) a few times now on the Twin. Either doing a j-turn with power or stopping and trying to dab the earth with my downhill boot being a foot or two too short.
"And down goes Frazier!" .Again...Booo.
 
#22 ·
So the Morale is if you ride an AT you need to work out, or Don't Stop Movin! Sorry to hear about your accident by the way. I am 17.5 stone and used to work out a lot, but I feel the weight of that bike sometimes. I think as previously said the height of the bike doesn't help. I bought it though cos it fits me and my oldest boys bike (A Yamaha MT07) feels like a toy. I have found it much better to manually handle the bike keeping it nice and upright rather than walking it, didn't feel that way at first but with a bit of practice even on decent inclines it becomes easy (or easier) but its certainly not the easiest bike to handle.
 
#23 ·
I'm also very short-inseamed... 2 things that help me a lot are: I leave the kickstand down for on/off the bike. Left foot on the peg, then up and over. Seems almost like cheating, its so easy! If I do happen to not pay attention, and leave myself in a spot where its just too awkward to get out of (eg: on the stand, me on the bike, but the ground slopes away on the right so I can't reach over far enough to get the stand up, without falling over on the right) - with a heavy bike, especially on a grade, I'll start it up and "walk it" under power to a better spot. Which with the DCT is super-easy!
 
#24 ·
Great advice, guys! Still mad at myself a week later. I should have had the sidestand down and should have slowed down instead of rushing onto the bike in less than favorable conditions (slope, sand, recent exertion) Sill looking at gaining an inch or two via lowering springs and/or lower Sargent seat plus pillion delete.
 
#26 ·
#27 · (Edited)
If you find the bike too tall for you and you have exhausted your seat options etc. you can still lower the bike on its regular suspension. If you are road riding on reasonably surfaced roads you don't need your full suspension travel, many regular road bikes have a 1/3 of the travel that we have and manage fine. You can back off your preload on the front to the absolute "minimum", setting the front end at its lowest height, check your rider SAG %, i.e. it might now be 45% at the front, depends on your weight/load, now match that SAG % at the back for a neutral bike stance by adjusting the rear shock preload. Test ride and just tweak the rear preload up/down a few clicks to suit yourself. That may give you another 10mm-30mm off your ride height (depending on where you were set in the first place). Either way, back off front preload to minimum (anti-clockwise) and adjust the rear to suit for a lower seat height. If you are going heavy off road you will want to get that travel back of course but that takes just a few minutes to readjust. There is no reason that the forks will bottom out at minimum preload riding on regular roads, if you have any worries there you can always increase the compression damping a little but it will be fine.
 
#30 ·
I'm shocked how many riders buy motorcycles that don't allow them to place both feet on the ground. I guess because I'm 6'0 with 32" inseam I haven't ran into a bike I wanted that I couldn't put both feet down. I'm 60 years old with no falls on the street in 35 years (knock on wood.) I had many slow falls and drops in my 3 week motorcycle academy but thats because they were pushing us past our comfort level so we knew just how far we could go safely once released on the street. If a rider couldn't put both feet down on the ground of the motorcycle we were operating at the time, you could not be in the program. After reading this post I went back into the forum and saw just how many guys are breaking bones falling off their bikes at slow speed. The common denominator is seat height and the size of the rider.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top