I was out riding in the hill country today with a friend i've know since elementry school and one of his friends i've never met before. Both of them on sportsters. We Made a stop in bandera at the hangin' bra saloon to have a few beers. Typical biker bar/country bar. When we parked, I didn't park my bike facing the street, I parked it facing the sidewalk. I typically always Park that way. So long as the road doesn't have a grade. This one had a slight grade, and there was a little uneven and slight gravel on the rd. But I chose to park that way anyhow, BIG MISTAKE! It didn't help that I never have set my bike to my height 5' 7". When I'm sitting on the bike am pretty much only touching the ground with the ball of my foot, not quite tippy toeing. "Need to fix that." drop it 1-2 inches? Maybe 3. Been riding it like that since I restored it. I know. Not very smart. Anyway, I start the bike up and start to back up, it's a little hard to do so, as there's a slight grade and uneven rd and loose gravel. So I'm pulling back and walla I lose my footing and before I know it, the bike is falling to the left and I can keep it from falling over. As it's falling it felt like slow motion and I'm saying to myself this is not happening. All I could do was try and slow the Impact as best as I could. My friends buddy that was with us watched the whole thing happen and jumped off his bike to help me pick it up. My friend didn't see it as it was going down. But got off his bike to help once he noticed my bike laying on the ground sideways. I'm dreading what it's going to look like when we pick it up, and to my surprise, it was barely scratched on the left front wing inlet, scuffed up the left foot peg and and a little scuff on the rear plastic jack spool. I couldn't believe it. I thought for sure the left turn signal and body panels were going to be scuffed up or cracked. What took the majority of the hit was the bar end. I had some aluminum ones on it. It shifted the left side stock clipons about a inch. It probably messed up that pin that lines up the clipons with the forks, will loosen it up tomorrow and inspect it. I felt like a dumbass, especially at a biker bar with all those harleys, not that I don't care for them, it's just the people who tend to ride them think that there shit doesn't stink. Luckily no one in the bar saw it happen, but there was a elderly couple that was walking by that did. So all in all there was 4 people that did. How embarrassing. I couldn't stop talking about it to my friends when we went to get a bite to eat. They damn near were going to start dowsing themselves with gasoline cause I wouldnt stop yapping about it. Hehe. What can u do, it was a healing process as I just lost my pride, and felt totally stupid. Earlier that day i was talking about riding time and bikes with my friends friend, Somwehere in the conversation i said there are 2 kinds or riders. one who hasn't gone down and one who's going to go down. The irony. My buddy was even complementing me on the resto of my bike and how good it looked before we left the bar. My buddy's friend said there are 3 kinds of riders, one that watches his friends bike go down. True, true... So I guess if ever ur bike is falling to the left or right, from a stationary point try and keep those bar ends straight as u go down, as that took the brunt of the fall.
Dropped the 749D today, while backing up :(
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749d
Took the Triple tree and the clipon to work today and took out the sheared rollpin and replaced it with another.. Here are some pics of the bike after I put everything back together. The camera has to much contrast on it. It is actually alot better looking in person. Much darker. I didnt mess with the settings on girls camera. What do you think of the rear Tie Rod link? Is it the adjustable type? I only has a few threads on either end, so i would not think going either way would do much for the ride height? I want to lower it at least 1-3 inches if possible. My Downloaded manuel says that the 749D tie rod link is not adjustable. Does this look stock to anyone who is familiar with stock settings. Have not measured eye to eye, It has a yellow line on the link, donno it that from the factory? I am on the ball of my feet almost to the point of tippy toeing when sitting on bike. The front forks are at the 2nd line from the top of the tripe tree. I am 5' 7" weigh 184 lbs. I finished restoring this bike in may of 2009. got about 6k on it so far. Original miles that engine had are unknown, as the bike was crashed; bent frame, rotor, rim cracked, body panels were missing or broken and cluster was toast as well as no keys. I had to by a donor setup. Painted bodywork with Dupli-Color Bumper Black, with Krylon Flat Clear, gas tank with dupli-color ceramic low gloss. Good thing is it only cost 50 bux to paint, so repairs will be easy to do.
Took the Triple tree and the clipon to work today and took out the sheared rollpin and replaced it with another.. Here are some pics of the bike after I put everything back together. The camera has to much contrast on it. It is actually alot better looking in person. Much darker. I didnt mess with the settings on girls camera. What do you think of the rear Tie Rod link? Is it the adjustable type? I only has a few threads on either end, so i would not think going either way would do much for the ride height? I want to lower it at least 1-3 inches if possible. My Downloaded manuel says that the 749D tie rod link is not adjustable. Does this look stock to anyone who is familiar with stock settings. Have not measured eye to eye, It has a yellow line on the link, donno it that from the factory? I am on the ball of my feet almost to the point of tippy toeing when sitting on bike. The front forks are at the 2nd line from the top of the tripe tree. I am 5' 7" weigh 184 lbs. I finished restoring this bike in may of 2009. got about 6k on it so far. Original miles that engine had are unknown, as the bike was crashed; bent frame, rotor, rim cracked, body panels were missing or broken and cluster was toast as well as no keys. I had to by a donor setup. Painted bodywork with Dupli-Color Bumper Black, with Krylon Flat Clear, gas tank with dupli-color ceramic low gloss. Good thing is it only cost 50 bux to paint, so repairs will be easy to do.
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I've also done this, except on my triumph which then fell into my 748 smashing the front fender and pinning me between the two lol.
OP, glad to see you got it all sorted and didn't have more damage. Being able to ease the bike down and onto the bar ends definitely saved the fairings for sure.
I have also heard that the Dark did not have an adjustable rear ride height link. It does look 'adjustable' per say, but it look like it's either been dropped about as far as it can go, or is considered 'non-adjustable' as there is simply no room for adjustment maybe?
Maybe someone with a regular 749/s/r can chime in and shed more light on that.
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8,735 Posts
I always try and pay attention to the parking spot and make sure exiting is as easy as driving in, especially when on my 950 lb hunk of metal Road King. The 999R feels like a Panther, but it can still bit you in the butt in the parking lot. The first danger sign is the slope the second is the gravel under your feet, my boots have slipped out more than once because of gravel.
The "few beers" had nothing to do with the drop, right? Just me but the thought of having a beer or two when riding a sport bike is the most non appealing desire I can think of, even on a hot day. However, for some crazy reason it sounds pretty good when riding the Harley and acceptable behavior. Obviously there are differences between how you ride both bikes, so that has a lot to do with it.
Glad the damage was minimal. My 916 fell over once when the kickstand went through the asphalt and it fell over like a sack of cement. I would say the resulting damage was major, just that "little" fall. I guess you can say it was like dropping the bike on it's side from 4' - a free fall.
The "few beers" had nothing to do with the drop, right? Just me but the thought of having a beer or two when riding a sport bike is the most non appealing desire I can think of, even on a hot day. However, for some crazy reason it sounds pretty good when riding the Harley and acceptable behavior. Obviously there are differences between how you ride both bikes, so that has a lot to do with it.
Glad the damage was minimal. My 916 fell over once when the kickstand went through the asphalt and it fell over like a sack of cement. I would say the resulting damage was major, just that "little" fall. I guess you can say it was like dropping the bike on it's side from 4' - a free fall.
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