i have....i usually say you either have already been down or you have not been down yet.....seems to hold pretty true.

back in 03 my wife and i bought a brand new vulcan classic. it was a kaw but my first brand new bike. i took it home in february and chomped at the bit till the weather was nice enough to take it out.

i had about 500 miles on it and i was cruising down the main drag and went to turn right. there was a car broken down on the side of the road right by where i was to turn. i didn't see it on the ground but the car had puked tranny fluid all over the street. i hit that puddle just as i went into my turn and i went right down.
i was doing about 20-25 when i went down...no helmet...was pretty lucky that i just got a little banged up.
bike was not in too bad shape...i had to put new bars, pipes, and signal indicators on it...

was scary though man cause a split second befpre it happened, i knew it was gonna happen. then, i was laying in the road as the rest of the traffic started to approach and it was like i was laying in the street waiting to get hit by a car.

i had a cell phone on me and i called my wife at work from the middle of the street and told her where i was. she got there just as the ambulance took me off.

thats my spill story

I came close to laying down my machine (just a 250cc) once, and that was like yours, a low speed situation where traffic just did something completely unexpected. Come to think of it I stopped riding soon after for various reasons.

I've crashed a few times on my -other- bike, with the skinny tires. (again all at low speed, got hurt a few times, but minor bumps and scrapes.

Glad to hear you weren't injured. Keep the rubber side down.

The main thing? "Is the bike ok".

I have been riding ever since I was 18, or more accurately for over 30 years..

I have had 5 actual accidents, 3 VERY bad ones..

1. Hit by a Drunk Driver in 1979

2. Chain came off traveling at 50mph, 1986

3. Lost it on a patch of ice traveling over 40mph, 1988

The other two were very minor stuff and not worth remembering...

I have not, KNOCK ON WOOD, even really come close on my Harley yet...

Semper

I had some stupid mishaps early in my riding career -- like the Kawi 650 mini-version of the police bike I had. Too much juice on the throttle and it would snap a wheelie like nobody's business. One day I got on, kicked it over, goosed the accelerator just that bit too much and dumped myself flat on my back in the middle of the street, with all the kids at the elementary school right next to me laughing. Yeah. That was fun. No harm done, though.

Some dingbat crossed a double yellow to beat a light and hit me head on in my lane. Broke my left leg, so I have titanium in it now, a rod from knee to ankle. That was bad, I couldn't walk for months, still have trouble with it to this day. The guy was in a brand new Volvo, too, with just a ripple in his fender, and my bike was so bad, the forks snapped and the frame buckled. I guess I'm lucky it was just a broken leg -- but I was in a heavy leather jacket, jeans, boots, and with a helmet and gloves. Let that be a lesson to you, kiddies -- there were skid marks on my helmet (which was covering my eyes when I woke up in the street so I must have hit my head pretty hard), and my leather has scrape marks up one arm and on the shoulder. My Doc Martens were already messed up.

I don't know what was worse, though, the screaming pain from my leg or having the EMTs cut all my clothes off in the street, in San Francisco, in the SOMA commute corridor, during morning rush hour. They were nice enough to leave my underwear on though. Glad I actually wore a bra that day.

i was riding a yamaha 350 bout 15 years ago
i overtook 2 cars when the bike started a tank slapper
i was doing 90mph at the time and i knew i had to accelerate to get out of the tank slapper.
i fought it for what seemed like a life time but eventually lost the fight.
i reckon i was doing around 120mph when i was threw off the front of the bike.
the best way to decribe the accident is, the extreme skiers that try to ski down a frigging mountain and mess up then they ragdoll down the mountain, well i ragdolled for about 100yards.
i actually bounced down the road, the 3 people in the cars behind me said i was getting heights of about 6/7 feet.
the whole time i was trying to keep my arms and legs in tight but the forces were to great and i must have looked like a star fish.
at one point i thought i had came to a stop because i was on my hands and knees but then i noticed the grass verge going past me at about 30mph, then i was tossed back into the air and i suddenly thought, i am gonna die here, i didnt have time to think of my daughter nor did my life flash in front of my eyes. i dont know if i blacked out at that stage but the next thing i remember was, i was running down the road to get the bike (it had dropped onto its left hand side and slide down the road, lucky bike ^^) because i remembered a car coming the other way and i didnt want him driving over it (my mind was not working to well).
anyway, everybody stopped and was amazed that i was still living never mind running, i rode the bike (yes i know) back to work and the pains started, my hands were black, gloves were in pieces, i had road rashes all over me, i was only wearing work clothes, helmut and gloves, my padded work shirt had burn marks on it, my trainers were wore threw and hanging in bits. then i started to struggle breathing so i knew i had to visit the hospital.
i had broke ribs and they also found 3 breaks in my neck, so i spent the night with my head taped to the bed.
they done CAT scans the next day and they said the neck was broken at an earlier accident.
yes i suffer very bad joint pains now and i have a fair bit of arthritis
i was a speed freak in my early days and i am suffering badly now

that was my last accident and i have never rode a bike since
i still miss the excitment of bikes but the pains keep reminding me what can happen................
funny thing is
i KNEW i would never die on a motorbike, dont ask me how i knew but i did.

spliffy

Embarrassing as it is, I had to go look up what a tank slapper was.

I found this short article on what to do and what not to do.

Looks like you had some bad advice, spliffy.

That's an amazing story. You're lucky to be alive.

reply to post by MajorMalfunction

---

sorry, should have explained what a tank slapper is
but you now know
there is a famous clip from a rider who has a tank slapper in the isle of man, he ends up sliding down the road (lucky git ^ ^)
as for the article, i dont know if that is correct, i am not saying i am right (well i proved it can go wrong) but, when you get a slapper going, the weight of the bike is going forward onto the front wheel and that is not good when you are banging the handle bars off the tank.
if you let the throttle off, all the weight going forward will literally throw you off the front because the steering digs into the road..

i have lived that moment of my life for a ruddy life time
and i believe if i had put a little back brake on i might have saved it, which again would have took a little weight off the front wheel, yes accelerating when you are in danger of crashing sounds NUTS but it saved me twice before (on a different bike) just not this time, bugger.
and my bikes didnt have the steering damper which would have saved me.

just dont ride like a lunatic
i pay for that accident every day of my life now
and it was not worth it

btw
always wear leathers and underwear

stay safe peeps
spliffy

Had numerous accident's when i first started on bike's the worst was on a fairly new Kawasaki kmx125 trail bike i had, i hit a hump backed bridge at around 80mph and got both wheels airborne only to find a 90 degree right hand turn on the other side DOH, the bike ended up upside down in a ditch and i ended up cross legged next to it with a broken wrist had to get the bike home and jack the tail section of the frame back into position and reweld it where it had split and was rideing it again in just a few day's whilst stil in plaster :p

Worst accident i had was on my CR125 screaming thru some rough forest track hit a log and flew over the handle bars into a tree.Woke up with the left side of my body in agony.It was getting late and i was alone so i had to pick up my bike that took ages discovered that it apart from bent handlebars it was sweet.I thought the front tire would be buckled but wasn't.Rode home in a daze went straight to the bathroom urinated blood.Got taken to the docs by my old lady and than to hospital to find i had a cracked collarbone,broken ribs and damage to my kidney that caused some internal bleeding that the doctors didn't seem to worried about.After some cool bruising and a few weeks of pain i went to see if there was a dented tree in the forest on my bike of course.

Worst accident i had were i came out unscathed.Hooning around a local track around a small lake and smacked head on into a mate coming the other way we both went flying and landed in bramble i got up sore but laughing the other guy was moaning and in a bad way.Checked out both the bikes to get some help the one i was riding which wasn't mine had a popped tire and buckled wheel the other had a stuffed buckled wheel and bent forks.So i had to run thankfully not to far and get some help.The other guy it turned out had fractured his back and had severe bruising i think he landed on something.

Worst road accident.Doing burn outs on my GPX250 when it suddenly got traction and shot between my legs catching my right calf with the foot peg.Everyone laughed and i didn't get much sympathy even though i just about ripped my whole calf muscle off haha.

haha, sadly i too have a story of pain and bicycles.

i was riding down a hill with one of my friends on the way back from playing basketball and for some reason i was messin around nd at some point m left foot missed the petal and i basically stepped onto the ground causing the metal petal to dig into my leg and launch me over the handle bars. i still dont know how i flew over them but somehow i landed on my feet trying to kep my balance and because i was riding very fast and going down hill im proud of myslef for staying up for as long as i did but it was too much too far to go so i figured a good tuck and roll would slow me down good so i tucked and rolled once and popped up with no problems ..... except for the car with the histarical laughter coming from the driver that just so happened to be passing by right as i rolled on the ground. i still have the gash on the back of my calf from the petal. this happened a few years ago.

the good thing is that i laughed then and i laugh at it now.

Bought a brand new 04 Yamaha R1, this is me on it , it was my very first bike and everyone thought I was crazy for getting it. Crashed it almost a day to the a year having it by crashing into a side rail at about 60mph. I was on a canyon road that I didnt know and hit a switchback way too fast and didnt make it. Got catapulted in the air and flew about 40 feet, on the other side of the guard raild was a 100 foot drop to a dried up river bed full of huge boulders After I got up there was not a scratch on me, I dont understand it to this day. They say that you will crash when you gain confidence on the bike and its true, it was all due to my stupidity. The insurance replaced the bike and I am much more carefull now

Lots of times!! - so many you would be board if I list.

Suffice to say I am a cheap git, I have rode every cheap ass bike I have ever owned into the ground, I have never sold a road worthy bike, but here again I have never brought a road worthy bike. I love the challenge of a cheap bike!

Best accident was one of my first, at 16, 11 years ago, MBX50 vs Vauxhall Vectra head on (ok both of us doin less than 25 - but scary still) snapped the bike brused my arse - THAT WAS MY FIRST BUILD and the bleeding insurance didn't give me FA!