I just recently had a tragic happening... an older friend and long time rider, asks me if he could throw his leg over my bike, and before I really had a chance to think about it, he does and wind up dropping my bike for the very first time! :pissed:
Damages: scratches on my hard bags and various areas on my fairing and breaking off the end of both my grip and foot pedal feeler. Cost for the damages from that small spill = $210!
Isn't this a breach of rider protocol? That's why I never ask other riders if I can sit on their bikes. What made it worse was his inseam was clearly shorter than mine... and I kept thinking to myself, "He should've known better!" :mad:
FWIW if someone asks to sit on mine, I put it on the centerstand first, unless I know they can and will hold it up. But nobody, nobody rides it except me.
Pastor, if paints been damaged it's definitely more than 200.00 Absolutely obligated to pay the damages and also pay homage to the owner. I think also based on your posting you need to speak with this person on how you feel, in a diplomatic manner of course. (HS has the right idea,, though) :wacko:
If he's your friend, I wouldn't get all bent out of shape and ruin a friendship for a lousy $200.. But also, if he is indeed a long time rider, he should know the rules. You drop somebody elses bike, you pay for it.
A good friend of mine dropped my bike in the driveway last summer, but he had good intentions, he was just trying to get it out of the carport and next to his so we could ride. Not to mention, we switch bikes during our rides often. I lost a lever and bent my shifter, big deal, I told him don't sweat it.
[image: View Post]mk2davis, on 02 May 2012 - 05:58 PM, said:
With both bikes, guns, and ta-tas: If you REALLY want to touch it, you ask for permission and wait for an answer.
:+1: IMHO it's a matter of respect. All the above are won with hard-earned treasure, so ask before you touch. It would be different had it been accidental - then I'd just let it go.
I don't see anything wrong with letting someone else ride your bike. My mates and I have the understanding that if you bend it, you mend it; if you broke, you bought it. That being said, I think a fairly swift upwardly placed kick to the groin is reasonable compensation for $200ish. Just my opinion of course.
Definitely breach of protocol. The ole saying "You break it, You bought it!" applies here. If he didn't offer to pay for the damages without you prompting him, then to me, that is a double breach of protocol!
All I can say is if I ever dropped a friend's bike, I'd insist on paying for the repairs. Respect other people's property, especially your friend's. That said, it's $200, and not worth a friendship. I recently went through something similar (buddy dropped my brand new side case, hadn't been out of the box for even 3 hours).
Funny thing is that we were just coming out of a worship service that I was officiating, and another riding buddy who is also very experienced was walking along with us to my bike - and the 2 of them kind've gave themselves permission to get on, and I did mutter an "Oh, ok" - but without much thought. The bike came down within seconds on the right side - his feet could not get level as his legs are shorter than mine (i'm about 32" w/ boots)
He is a good man, and is sending me a check for the damages, he felt horrible! I couldn't help think the whole ride home... "WHAT WAS HE THINKING!!!" I thought experienced riders already knew not to even ask...
Edited by PastorGumby, 03 May 2012 - 07:32 AM.
I guess as the Pastor going with an eye for an eye or tooth for a tooth on the guy would violate turning the other cheek protocol. :unsure:
Glad he agreed to pay for the damage. :fing02:
WTF!?!?!?!!!!!!! The ONLY bikes I get on without express consent is my Dad's Goldwing and my brother's Ninja1000. They can get on mine too. Otherwise, I don't think I would EVEN ASK if I could sit on a man's bike. If he offers, that's one thing, but I wouldn't ask. Kinda like asking if you can touch his wife's ass or something. Just wrong.
The unwritten code of borrowing a bike "You bend it, you mend it". So ok you let him ride it, but if I dropped a friends bike, I certainly wouldn't hesitate to reimburse him the damages.
That's why most of us don't let any one near them.
If I knocked someone's bike over, I would want to immediately throw myself under it to protect the ground from the impact of the bike, so as not to mar the asphalt.
(kidding)
But I would feel so responsible as to repair any damage back to the way it was before it hit the ground.
You would not even have to ask, it would just be done.
I have had my first ever, MAD case of vertigo for about a week now. (wound up in the hospital for a couple of days trying to figure it out) For some reason, when I came home from my last ride, I parked my bike on my wife's side of the garage. She left her vehicle outside the first couple of nights but obviously wanted to put it in after that. I had to ask my father and my wife to move it into the shed along side the garage. These are two people that have never moved a bike before. I was having a coronary attack watching the two of them while I was holding on to the house to help stop the world from spinning. At least I had one person on each side as a back-up for the other. What a cluster futch!
Edited by The mailman, 03 May 2012 - 10:34 PM.
I believe the situation called for a swift kick to the ding ding, then compensation for the damage.
All grown men should know the rules: No mounting my lady or my bike without express written permission. Otherwise, a swift kick to the ding ding is likely to occur.
He made a mistake, and paid for the damages. It was a breach of protocol, but you can bet he won't do it again.
Damage done, repairs paid for, nothing worth getting upset over.
You're seriously lucky it was only $200 worth of damage.
Based on the description provided of the damage sustained, I really don't see how $210 could cover repairing or replacing all of it.
While it's good to hear the person offered to pay for the damage, I'm guessing PastorGumby could only be replacing the hard parts and may be simply living with, or just touching up the cosmetic damage done to the bags and fairing.
While I've habitually swapped machines w/some of my long-term riding companions over the years, experience has taught me I can't rely on others to be as careful with my motorcycles as I am. Over 17 years and 91k miles I can honestly say that other riders (and passengers) have caused most of the (thankfully) few scrapes & scratches on my ST1100. I can also appreciate how disheartening it can be when someone else drops your bike.
About 15 years ago I was riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway just south of Mt. Pisgah with a friend who also owned a ST1100 at the time. That afternoon we decided to swap motorcycles for a while to compare the handling characteristics of the different brands of tires we were running. Later when we stopped at an overlook to compare notes, after I dismounted my friend's ST and walked toward him suddenly I watched in horror as my ST rolled forward off the side stand and went down hard w/a sickening thud. As you may have guessed, before dismounting the other guy left my ST in neutral with the front wheel pointing downhill.
That day I gave thanks to "Mother Honda" for designing and including the ST1100's tip over "wings" in the package. Luck was clearly on my side that day for the left-side tip over wing performed exactly as designed. So when my ST went down nothing touched the asphalt except the bottom of plastic piece that covers the wing and the two tires. That's it! Amazingly none of the fairings, mirrors, saddlebag, exhaust can or even the clutch lever suffered a scratch!
About an hour later as my riding companions and I were checking out a motorcycles-only campground nearby, we heard a commotion and followed behind a group of people who were running toward the main road. Once there we spotted a Kawasaki Ninja ZX11 completely submerged in a rock-filled stream beside the road and a rider who was gingerly crawling up on all fours. Thankfully, the rider was wearing full leathers and he didn't appear to have suffered serious injury.
The really sad part of this story was that based on what I overheard the ZX11 apparently belonged to someone else. The campground was located just past a curve which was preceeded by (I'm guessing) a 3/4 mile straight stretch of roade leading back to a twisty section down to the bottom of the mountains. Apparently the rider got to the bottom of the hill and decided to grab a handful of the ZX's throttle. I'm assuming he may have panicked as he realized he was approaching a curve at warp speed.
One of my riding companions suggested Kawasaki should consider renaming the ZX11 to "ZX Too Much". In any case I have no doubt that I ended up being a lot happier after turning over my motorcycle to someone else that the unfortunate owner of that ZX11.
Edited by smoothsailin, 04 May 2012 - 10:00 AM.
The reaction is always unpleasant- to be witness or to be on the receiving end of this type of accidental damage which was totally preventable. Yes, i'm just retouching all the scrapes... hopefully it won't look too badly. Lesson learned, I will never allow anyone to do that again. I'm glad no one was injured, just a bruised ego.
End of thread · 29 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 16 Jun 2012