A few weeks ago i went to visit my friend in Richmond, Virginia. They had a few days of really good weather down there (~60 degrees in January) so we decided to start his Honda VFR800, which he had winterized in his parking lot, under a cover (with winters like that i don't blame him). After all, it's only good practice to start your bike ever so often during winter time.
It had rained that morning so the ground was quite wet. We went out, took the cover off, put the battery in, and after a few attempts at the ignition, it started. At first the sound was a bit off but that's because it wasn't ridden it in a few months.
Minutes later the sound normalized and the Leo Vince underseat dual pipes were singing. My friend hopped on and went for a few laps around the apartment complex. He finally came back noting the tire pressure was quite low. Nonetheless it was my turn now, and seeing his bike for the first time (he just bought it the past fall), i surely wasn't gonna say no. I put on the helmet, and off i go. I twist the throttle a bit - it goes, a twist it some more - it goes faster, nothing surprising there even a bit disappointing coming from my GSXR750. It felt bland but friendly, the upright seating position certainly inspires confidence. I shift to second, third, it's ok but there's not enough road to get the feel of it, so i decide to at least try out the first gear and see what it's got. I'm going about 20mph, i twist the throttle about third to half way in, the bike screams and the back wheel spins out of control sliding to the left, putting the bike at about 40 degree angle to the direction i was going, like so: \-> . It delivered way more torque than i expected! I coulda sworn it felt like it would be stable for up to 3/4 of the throttle if not more. I instinctively release the throttle and the slow motion starts. I fly over the handle bars, landing on my chest and my palms, sliding on the asphalt. A few things go through my mind: "i can't believe this is happening", "my palms are gonna be scrapped off", "i'm so ashamed i'm crashing my friend's bike". As i'm going i look back and see the bike coming at me on it's left side. "damn, it's gonna hit me!" i think so i quickly push myself out of the way. Slow motion stops. I get up and try to asses what happened. I feel myself, everything in its place, i check my palms, they're not bleeding, the wet asphalt saved me some skin. Lucky. There was a 15 feet long scratch on the asphalt and the bike was laying at the end of it. To my surprise it did not hit any cars parked just a feet or two away. Lucky again.
My friend, surprisingly cool about the whole situation, walked over, asked me if i was alright then proceeded to check his bike. We looked at it for a few minutes then proceeded to getting it up. Not so lucky here - it wasn't looking good. There was a puddle of green liquid on the ground under the bike - coolant we figured. The bike did not have frame sliders so almost all its left side was trashed. The mirror and the foot peg were gone, some feet away, the gear lever bent, the handle bar smashed into the gas tank leaving a dent about an inch deep, all the plastic on that side - broken or cracked. It's amazing how fast a perfectly good bike becomes completely trashed. We pushed it back to his parking spot, and went inside. He had insurance - very lucky. We did not know if we had to report it to the police so we called up the insurance company to ask them. They did not know either but said it's better if we did. An hour later a patrol car shows up. We explain the situation and the cop tells us it's better for everybody if he doesn't do anything. He explained that because no one was injured, no property was damaged (besides our own) it makes no sense for him to file the incident. It would go onto my friend's driving record + we would have to pay a fine of about 400$ for failure to operate a vehicle safely or smth like that.
Quite a few factors played into this: the wet road, low tire pressure, unfamiliarity with the bike. Still i feel like a douche. I have been riding for 2 seasons now, first on a suzuki GS500, and currently on a GSXR750. I have also ridden a variety of bikes including ninja 250, honda ST1300, harley sportster 883 and bmw R1200R. I have been quite careful all along, i have taken the BRC as well as the MSF intermediate riding class (and i'm planning on taking the advanced one too). I just got to that point where i was overconfident. In the back of my mind i always knew that's when you get yourself in trouble - that moment when you think you've got it figured out and get cocky.
So be careful everybody, don't overestimate your skills, especially in the beginning and don't be STUPID like i was trying a bike for the first time on a wet slick road. Beware of *the moment* when you get overconfident - can never be too careful! Not while riding ...
