I Dropped It!

I was loading the 650 onto my trailer a week ago last Sunday when the rear wheel of the bike slipped off the ramp and the bike and I fell to the ground! I have a couple of scratches, and badly bruised ribs, but I'll be O.K. - bad news was the speedo on the bike is smashed!

We went up north last week on vacation (bike was supposed to go with us) but the problems of finding a new speedo overhung my mood. Anyway, on Tuesday we were passing a bike shop that had a bunch of old bike outside - Mary says "I wonder if they have an old 650" - I hang a U-turn and go into the store.

It is deserted - but lots of nice jackets, shirts etc - mostly harley stuff. Then an old guy appears and asks if he can help. Ripped shirt, lots of tattoos! I ask him if he has an instrument cluster for a '78 KZ650. "No" he replies, then after a pregnant pause he grins and says "but I might be able to send you in the right direction" and he xeroxes a copy of a list of cycle scrapyards and points out two of them!

One of them happens to be on our route back south. I call them and they tell me I'll have to come and look. So, Thursday morning we stop in. They show me the storage bin of old instruments and say "take a look - if it isn't there you may have to look in the field". The second one I pick up is the one I want! Took me all of 30 seconds! They checked out the speedo and tach, both work, and charge me $50! I am a happy camper!

To make a long story short - the bike should be back on the road this weekend looking none the worse for the adventure! Unfortunately, bruised ribs take six weeks to heal but I'll be O.K. - just hurt my pride a little - but that will heal too!

You are both lucky and unlucky...how does that happen?:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Wow! all that and you were pushing the bike up the ramp?? Or were you riding it up?

I rode a KZ750E up a ramp into my pickup, not enough momentum though so I gave it a little throttle, that kicked the board out, and the front wheel being in the pickup caused me to flip the bike over on top myself. On;y damage was a broken tail light lens (I cushioned the bikes fall)

Sure was embarrassing though (did it right in front of the owner) :blush: :blush:

Ouch. I might be able to do you one better, though. I've crushed myself under my bike without even touching it.

I had just finished pulling the engine out of a GS550 and decided to have a breather and inspect the pipes so I plopped myself down on the garage floor next to the KZ650 with one of the Suzuki's pipes and and rag. Normally when I put Tess on her sidestand, I give a quick backwards tug on the handbars to make sure it's securely planted but for some reason it ...wasn't... this time. I remember hearing a quick metallic scraping noise as presumably the kickstand decided at that moment (maliciously, I'm sure) to drop the bike on my back.

Luckily there was nobody there to watch.

steell wrote:

I rode a KZ750E up a ramp into my pickup, not enough momentum though so I gave it a little throttle, that kicked the board out, and the front wheel being in the pickup caused me to flip the bike over on top myself. On;y damage was a broken tail light lens (I cushioned the bikes fall)

Sure was embarrassing though (did it right in front of the owner) :blush: :blush:

EXACTLY! It had rained and the ramp/tire were wet!

Thankfully, it was 6:45am and nobody around to see it - still pretty embarassing though. :blush:

Next time I'll push it!:S

You guys have that maneuver ALL wrong!
Gotta do it like me.
Come to a stop, flip the side stand down Joe Cool fashion, put your foot back on the peg and let her lean, right in front of a bunch of biker chicks.
Feel the sudden surprise as you discover the sidestand flipped back up and now you're under your bike. Feel the eyes upon you and hear the laughter as your face turns beet red.:blush:

Hey get well soon! And congrats on finding your part so quickly.

C'mon though, loading is the easy part, its the unloading thats killer! I've twice slid the front tire off the ramp about half way down. BOTH times the ramp was wet. Being the slow learner I am I was lucky that both landings were soft on the bike. I won't even consider it now if its rained, period. And I like having two extra people, one at a minimum to help.

I had to put my 900 onto a pick up truck last year when I got a flat on the way to work.
Our mainatenance man here is a Harley rider, so natch, he had a bike ramp with him. It was channeled so the tire would stay on the ramp, but it still took three big guys to get it into the truck. My worst nightmare is getting the bike about 2 feet off the ground and then it falls off the ramp. <shudder>

A few months ago the wind blew my KZ1100 over off the kickstand onto the right side. We had gusts up to 70 mph that day. I was walking over to it at the time. Some dufus stopped to ask me where a building was. Otherwise I would have been on the bike when it happened and most likely would not have gone over. Just a few minor scratches to the windshield and turn signals....chris3

My 1100 fell over a couple of weeks ago. I was going over to a friend's to pick blueberries. It was a nice day so I rode the bike. He lives out in the country and has a REALLY long driveway. Just as I arrived, the mailman was delivering my friend's mail. Nice guy that I am, I decided to bring his mail. I left the bike running and put it on the kickstand. As I'm walking to the mailbox I hear a crash. I'd foolishly parked it on a slight downhill slope without thinking and it rolled right off the stand. I'm now in the market for both left turn signals (Z1 says the chrome ones I need are NLA). I told my friend that next time he could get his own damn mail!

No good deed goes unpunished