Modern Vespa

Been lurking for a while, and seeing all of the "finally did it" type posts... just curious: is there anyone who has not crashed, or laid the bike down?

Is this what I have to ook forward to?

...it's not a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when"

Geez, I've only had it for a month or so. Give me time.

No. It's been said that there's those who have, and those who will

I only had my LXV150 for two weeks before it hit the asphalt last weekend. So sad...for now, I have a band-aid across the scratches just to prove I have a sense of humor, and to remind me that I should have a sense of humor about it.

41 years of riding and 700,000 plus miles on two wheeled vehicles with no laydowns, wrecks or drops. I attribute my good fortune to being extremely aware of everything around me and never riding over my abilities. I know others who have ridden a lot of years/miles with no drops/accidents. Many accidents are caused by the rider who was riding beyond their abilities or not paying enough attention to everything that was going on around them in every direction.

I crashed a few times on my dirt bike off-road when I was younger, but only 1 crash on-road which happened last year when I went down in the mountains of California on a scoot en route to Amerivespa 2009. The center-stand grabbed the road in a bumpy turn and took me down with the scoot landing on top of me. Badly bruised but thankfully nothing broken. I was hurting for a while after that one. Some other MV members were there to help me out. I thought I was lucky going 17 years on the road without a crash.

XLR8:

I like your record. I'm going to shoot for that, myself.

does this count gymkana crashes cause ive got a fair share of them. If we are talking scooters (i dumped some motorcycles some my fault and some not) but when i started riding scooters i went from a kz1000 to a v90 and it seemed like a little toy so i would do power skidds in the street with it and shit like that. my largeframes i lkost a wheel on one and skidded like 30 yards on the cases but diddn't dump so that doesnt count. i hit a woman in an suv street racing, and some guy hit me with a truck and caved my glovebox cowl in. but ive never been injured really and the scoot wasn't either. theese were all over 4 years ago so i guess im getting less crazy as i age.

Hildebrant: If you ride with the philosophy that everyone you encounter is going to run over you, your chances of getting creamed by someone who is driving a cage and paying no attention to you on your scooter/motorcycle will go way down. I also got a drivers license (for an auto) in 1962 when I was 14 years old and I've never been in a fender bender/wreck etc At one point in my life, I drove 60,000 plus miles every year for ten years as a regional manager for a manufacturer. Later, I drove the southern CA freeways for 25 years on a daily basis, driving over 30k miles per year. I've seen more than my fair share of auto and motocycle accidents and my opinion is that over 95 plus percent of them could have been avoided if people would just focus and pay attention to anything and everything around them. Ride/drive aware and good luck!

I'm getting up near 12,000 miles, about 50/50 between my two scoots. I went down with the Buddy when I only had about 100 miles of experience while trying to avoid a car that ran a stop sign. In addition to the MSF training, experience is the best teacher.

I've driven extremely fast cars for almost 60 years now and only had two accidents, both on the race track. I won't even try to list the close calls though.

I think the most important thing of all is to always ride your own ride and stay within your experience level rather than trying to keep up with someone else.

The single most effective piece of safety equipment is inside your helmet.

If you answer NO or NOT YET, you are jinxing yourself

not on my vespa, but my mess around china 50cc, yeah 3 times

I always thought I was accident free until I remembered that time I was riding my buddy's Moped. Laid it down in a Gemco parking lot in 197X. It is amazing how much gravel sticks to your legs when you apply the grating effects of asphalt. I was wearing 'squid gear' - sneakers and shorts.

It took a while for all of the scabs to heal completely and jeans on scabs hurt. I guess that's why I don't mind sweating a little wearing my gear on summer days.

I know I'm going to regret answering this post.....

No, not yet... not on a scooter. Not on one of my many (over the years) BMW motorcycles.
Only on cheap Japanese bikes while standing still and only a couple of times.....with virtually no damage.

but I do push bikes around for a living, so I figure that my exposure rate is WAY higher than most typical riders.

Now I'm doomed!

Agreed. For that reason, I refuse to answer (other than this).

Bingo! I've been riding off and on for over 45 years, and my only crashes have been on dirt bikes in the woods, trying to do something I shouldn't or hadn't before. Never on the road. I don't subscribe to the "either have or will" school of thought. I never expect to, and if I do my part, I never will.

I have had close friends and acquaintances injured or killed on two wheels over the years, and maybe I tend to ride with greater caution because of that.

How many of you have never crashed?
Never crashed
Who hasn't crashed? (After riding for a good while...)

Not yet but only have 300 miles on it.

Had mine since the end of April and nothing so far. Know a girl that had her lxv for a month and laid it down four times already. One was on a rally ride with us. I have to say I'm still not 100% confident on hard turns. I still get the tummy shakes on some of those.

Thanks for not succumbing to the nay sayers....
Personally I'm a bit irritated by the sense of relief some folks seem to exhibit after they crash. If I believed it was unavoidable I'd stop riding tomorrow! Fortunately I know at least a dozen high mileage riders who have not wrecked.

After two years and 10K miles I've had no spills. I came really close once though. I was going up a very steep hill in San Francisco and turned right into a steep driveway and had to use every ounce of the power in my right leg to hold the scooter upright!! What a pain in the arse. I can't imagine I would have been able to maintain with a heavier bike. Don't look forward to doing that again!

Posting this will result in a jinx.

I haven't dropped my Fly, but I have done the following with a PTW:

-Dropped my stepfather's Goldwing... twice (once by knocking it off the sidestand in our dirt-floored barn, the other going slow across our yard)
-Backed a friend's motorcycle into a ditch (just the back wheel).

Both of these incidents were in my awkward teen years before I knew anything about riding safely. The Goldwing drops were especially difficult and involved me using a jack to lift the bike to get the wheels back onto the ground. I highly doubt I would ever get a maxi-bike like that and even my stepfather downsized several years ago.

It's a bit like the gambler's fallacy.

The chances of getting into an accident on the way home from an accident are exactly the same as they were before the accident.*

As for me, I'm shooting for XLR8's record.

*assuming riding habits remain constant

Mine fell over during a rain storm earlier this year,
The centre stand slid off the flagstone and then the scooter sank into the mud.

However, There was no damage, Thanks to my Vespa crash bars and a cover.

Oh, no, I ain't jinxing myself contributing to a thread like this one!

Oh dear .....

Still, I had my share of drops and offs three decades between my first bike licence and my first scooter, so maybe I did learn something. I've come closer to dropping my scoots than any recent motorcycle - I think that's because they're so nimble I catch myself out (whereas I'm still nervous about my big road bike, even after all this time) ... so perversely, I did stupid-er things on the tiny Fly than I do on the GTS ... yes, I'm sure my time will come.

I do find myself wishing I'd remembered that a scooter can't be held by the compression of a shut-off motor before I got myslef into whatever nose-down predicament I'm trying to wiggle out of (like getting the remote door opener out while holding the scooter up while trying to keep the brakes on so I don't roll into the garage door ... )

I asked this exact same question 2 years ago before I bought mine. If you do a search you can see the responses.

Only been riding 2 years, with 5400 miles ridden, and so far so good. I have read great advice from many on this board with regards to safe driving habits.

Never while moving!

I had my scoot punted out from under me while waiting for a light a couple of years ago, and then once on my trip to Colorado this summer I pulled over to read a historical marker and to stretch (I'd been riding for a couple of hours and was tired) and my left leg collapsed under me when I put my foot down.

3,500 Miles... No crashes, No Scratches, but only 2 months of riding

The inevitable happens at different times for different folks. Some of you long time riders may be lucky to shuffle off this mortal coil before the inevitable happens

Been ridding for 43 years and have never been in an accident or have laid a 2 wheeler down. Been damn close, but have been lucky. Hope this thread doesn't jinks me.

Hildebrant,

Thanks for this thread. With so much dour news of deaths, injuries, spills and drops, it does seem as if there is a contagion causing folks to fly off their rides. Great to hear that some have ridden for decades without a fall, that it isn't inevitable, and perhaps not even probable? It's also heartening to know that a careful rider can prevent many accidents.

I've only been riding for about 800 miles with no real close calls, nothing that I couldn't see coming from a ways away. I'm sure there are some things I could do better and I'm always trying to learn more ways to be safe and practice my handling. I had one instance where a car started to make a left turn in front of me but finally saw me and I realized I need to always slow down when approaching a cager that can turn in front of me. Also always check my mirrors when waiting at a light with nobody behind me in case some moron isn't paying attention. There's always the potential for something out of your control to happen, but if you pay attention, don't drive too fast, and practice your handling there's no reason you can't significantly reduce the chances of a crash. My neighbor rode bikes for almost 60 years and never had a crash so I always look to him as inspiration that it isn't inevitable.

8 years ago when I just completed my riders course, I go to test drive this bike I wanted. Sit on it and it was WAY heavier than I was expecting plus being way nervous. It was a Suzuki GSX-R 750. I leaned it a hair to the side and it went over slow onto the guys front lawn, nothing I could have done to stop it. No damage but lets just say I ended up buying it. LOL. Only other time I went down on it was creeping down my old steep driveway. It happened to be fall and leaves were everywhere and WET.. Might as well have been butter all over the driveway. I was creeping really slow and out it went. I sat on the drive way watching my idling bike slide on it's side about 50 feet down the driveway. The kid standing across the street waiting for his school bus was a bit shocked and ran inside his house. LOL. I just flipped it off and righted it. On a hill it is easy to stand up a 750 solo. Besides just scratches on the faring, it was fine. So I dusted myself and the bike off and continued for the day. Can't let it ruin a good day.

My scooter is so nimble and light, I don't have those worries with it like I do with my larger bike (now collecting dust). All the things we were taught in the safety course are so much easier on a NON top heavy not 500+ pound bike. Best thing I can do is cover my brakes and be proactive, be full gear and not ride tired or impaired at all.

You are my hero!

I take the same approach when riding.

Don't believe it.

Think way back to that minibike or Honda 90 you started on -- that counts.

I have fallen...in love, twice.

Twice, since 1958. Both times on unfamiliar, high CG, heavy bikes while stopped on uneven, sloping terrain. Both instances due to inattention. Had the choice between trying to be more muscular than I am or letting the bike lay over on its side.

My primary flight instructor told us at the start of training:

If you think you can't or won't have a mishap - you will.
If you think that mishaps are inevitable - yours will be.
If you know that mishaps can be prevented - yours can be.

My experience over the years was that he was spot on.

Come off once on the street......I didn't replace the sidestand spring (which I knew to be loose) on my old CB500/4, and on the 2nd lefty it caught and kicked me off, onto the median strip luckily.
I religiously check bolts/tensions/springs every w/end between commuting weeks ever since, never happened again. 1 fall, my own fault, in 30 years and over 1/2mil km of riding on the roads/highways/byways. I put it down to trying to be telepathic about my own little world around me. A bit like learning how to "read the ball" playing football.

ON THE TRACK however........
I still hurt just thinking about the spills, especially the highsides