Modern Buddy

Dumb and dangerous, in this case

A little thread to keep me honest, and whoever wants to join in. Oft times I see threads about motorist doing dumb and dangerous things which put us in harms way. But I bet we do the same to ourselves more often then we care to admit or remember. Sometimes....

Ok, my latest dumb thing to learn from is I ran a red light. I came upon an intersection ready to split lanes, traffic bearing down from behind. I choose a lane to split and the light goes green. No traffic in the intersection (yet) so I ride into it as...

...well, yeah. The light did go green. But it was the left turn arrow!! And a brain blip I have had before as a driver (i want to say "as a cager" but BuddyRaton will call me names lol) happened once more as the green registered go, and I went

I must have seemed a fool charging out of nowhere into the intersection, swerving around cars going left in front of me and realizing all the lights were RED but for the green turn arrow. Was it a dumb thing to do? In retrospect, yes. I was not mindful of changing traffic conditions and limitations, and could have paid a high price on account. I may have still went straight on the green arrow, but I think I would have caught myself before going into the intersection had I been more mindful leading up to it.

I hope I won't be visiting this thread very often

Yikes! Glad you were okay!

That would be accelerating off a light while riding my Yager and grabbing a handful of rear brake when I subconsciously tried to clutch-in and change gears. Forgot that I wasn't on the Vespa, apparently. No foul, as nobody was behind me, but the person I was riding with asked what had happened and I had to 'splain myself.

Riding after dark last night on a bike with a bad headlight mount.

I was lighting up my front tire more than the road. Discovered when I got to the meeting I was going to that I'd lost one of the two screws that hold my headlight in place.

Thankfully I had friends to ride behind me on the way home and light the way for me.

Constantly reaching for the A/C or heat controls. 5 years of riding and I still do this. I was thinking of installing some dummy switches just so that I won't feel so damned stupid.

Last dumb one I did was similar to OP...,


Headed back from small group ride, I'm in the lead.

The light turns green, and I go forward. Some IDIOT is turning against the light, so I honk and point at him. He is not angry, very confused.

Then I notice it's only the green turn arrows.....DERP!

Careful out there .

Mine was taking the scooter to the shop for service and repairs. That is, it happened when I did that; taking it in was actually a smart thing.

I had two big problems that needed fixing: 1) the battery was totally kaput, so it wasn't even able to hold enough charge to run the turn signals; 2) the front brake line had a hole, so it wasn't even able to keep the scoot from rolling. I couldn't kickstart it (the mechanism needed cleaning), so I had to jumpstart it from my car battery, then walk it down the still-icy driveway to the street (which was clear by this time). That's right: I pushed a running scooter with no brakes to speak of. On ice.

I lost my footing (or maybe the scooter did), but I hesitated to hit the killswitch because I knew I couldn't restart it (without hooking it back up to the car). Instead I just held onto the handlebars to keep "control" of the bike... inadvertently twisting the throttle as I went down and the wheels regained traction. So as I tried in vain to stop it with just the rear brake, it dragged me several feet down the driveway. That was in March. I can still see the road-rash marks on my leg.

But at least I haven't done anything that dumb since then.

I draft next to trucks on the interstate. Not in the least safe but it just comes so natural and there is nothing like doing a real 70MPH on 10" wheels.

man you don't want to be near a 18 wheeler when a tire blows. Late spring/early summer is the worst time for blowouts. I've lost part of the back bumper/ tail lights everthing just vanished.

Lokky wrote:I draft next to trucks on the interstate. Not in the least safe but it just comes so natural and there is nothing like doing a real 70MPH on 10" wheels.

I hope that isn't the last dumb thing you do on a scooter. If you take my meaning.

I take the interstate quite often, and I don't intend to stop, but I don't get to close to 18 wheelers, but I will get a bit behind them...

In 50 years of riding there isn't too much dumb stuff I haven't done over time. Not actually dumb stuff, from the point of not knowing better, but just little "space out" times... Obviously none of them were deadly as I'm still here.... but yeah, I have a number of them....LOL

The last really dumb thing I did on my scooter would have been last summer when my husband and I went to the nursery about 10 miles away to pick up some new plants.

When we came out, I put the box with the plants on the floorboard of my Buddy, secured them, started the Buddy, took it off the centerstand then proceeded to try to put my leg over the seat.

Well, this was a stupid thing for several obvious reasons, but additionally the scooter was parked sideways on a bit of an incline and I was on the down hill side of the bike.

So I proceeded to lose my balance while my right foot was only part way over the seat, fall backwards into a median filled with dirt (I was parked next to a curb), pulling the Buddy on top of me with my heel on the seat.

I got it shut off, but quite a bit of gas dumped all over one of my blue jeans legs, so after got home I still stunk of gas.

Moral of the story: Never ever take your scooter off the centerstand, start it, and try to climb aboard when you have stuff in the way on your floorboard. I typically always get on, while it's on the centerstand, then start it, then take it off and go, so I'm not sure why I deviated in this instance.

Yech! Gas smell...takes forever to get that smell out of clothes!

TVB wrote:I lost my footing (or maybe the scooter did), but I hesitated to hit the killswitch because I knew I couldn't restart it (without hooking it back up to the car). Instead I just held onto the handlebars to keep "control" of the bike... inadvertently twisting the throttle as I went down and the wheels regained traction. So as I tried in vain to stop it with just the rear brake, it dragged me several feet down the driveway. That was in March. I can still see the road-rash marks on my leg.

This is definitely the winner out of all entrys so far .

Dooglas wrote:This is definitely the winner out of all entrys so far .

Thanks?

TVB wrote:

Dooglas wrote:This is definitely the winner out of all entrys so far .

Thanks?

Todd, I'll stand with you in solidarity of runaway 50s. I bought a beat up '85 Honda Aero 50 back in '95 for the princely sum of $75. It didn't run and I spent a fair bit of time fiddling with it to get it going again. The day I finally got it to run, my dad came out to the garage to lecture me on the amount of time and money I had wasted on it. I was still fiddling with it, and it finally fired up while he was lecturing. I was sitting beside it, adjusting with the carb. I was so busy enjoying the fact that I'd gotten it running in spite of what he was saying that I overlooked a stuck throttle. Once the engine settled, it revved on the stand, dropped off and took off out of the garage. I had an arm 'round the frame, so it drug me along for the ride. Looking back, it was hella funny.

Cheer up, TVB...at least you aren't THIS guy.

If you haven't seen this video, make sure you watch it all the way to the end....