Things to bear in mind before switching to reserve...

....make sure it's not already on reserve. And don't try and coast down a
hill til the fuel starts flowing because you'll just have to push the
fucker back up again.

Doh.

 

Haha. My MT hit reserve on the way up to Derby.

Knowing these have knack-all reserve on them, I was much relieved to
see the "services" sign just ahead.

Rocked up. HGV stop only. The dirty smelly derv bastards ...

Paul.

 

Think I know the place. Had a similar experience.

This time I was looking at the odometer thinking "it's giving remarkable
mileage this time, must be due to go onto reserve soon".

To cap it, I managed to lock my house keys in the garage when i got
home. Grr.

 

I had a good one years ago. I had bought one of the first Blackbirds
into Australia. I'd gone out to the local racetrack to play silly
buggers then was riding home with a mate. I asked whether he wanted to
give the Bird a try. I knew I could trust him as he is an ex-racer and
very skilled. So I got on his VFR750 ratbike and off we went. He
immediately wheelied the Blackbird up the road and was gone, I just
pottered along (well pottered compared to him).

This was one a 40km stretch of beautiful unpoliced tarmac they built
to my doorway with little traffic, so we were sitting well over 200
km/h (that's a lie orrificer). Get to a straight and the VFR starts to
cough. I'd owned 3 VFRs before that so could feel for the tank mounted
fuel switch and turn it to reserve. "Must remember to tell Steve the
bike is on reserve when we get to the pub".

Guess what I forgot to do when we got to the pub?

Next day I get an email. "Thanks bastard".

He'd ridden the 40km back into Hobart the next day to go to work and
just coming into the city the bike starts to cough so he reaches down
to switch to reserve. Oops.

Thankfully he was coming down a hill towards the main bridge crossing
over the Derwent and had enough momentum to change lanes and slip off
to the right before he hit the bridge (in peak hour) and coast down to
a petrol station.

I bought him a few beers the next time

 

Heh I did the similar coasting on a trip over the cat and fiddle
pass. Just left buxton and was about 1 mile onto the hills and it cut
out. Seems I was also on reserve. Tried calling the AA and the phone
ran out of battery. Thought I should try turning round (certainly no
point trying to push it towards Macclesfield) and did so - coasted all
the way down, through the left hand turn without stopping (had to
stand up so I could see over the dry stone wall at the junction to
make sure it was clear) before coasting in to the service station on
the right further down.....

 

alternatively, when going slowly through traffic, and feel the bike
about to cut out, don't reach down for reserve, fail to find it, look
down to the left of the bike to look, and run slowly into the back of
a Fiat Breva just as you realise/remember the bike you're on doesn't
actually have a reserve switch.

No harm done, fortunately.

 

That's a classic

About 10 years ago I was following a mate who is a damn good rider.
He'd raced in national series here in Oz in the 80s and has damn good
bike control. Never had a road accident.

We were doing a 4 day tour around Tasmania and had arrived in
Launceston, small city up north of the state. I've got another mate's
wife on the back of my Blackbird and Mick is in front of me on a
Thunderace solo.

We're riding into the centre of the city and can see Mick looking to
the right. WTF? I can't see anything of interest there. But what I can
see is a Mazda 323 stopped ahead of him waiting to make a right turn.

By the time he turned his head back he was too late to pull up. I'll
give him kudos for doing a damn good attempt to stop, but it was just
way too late. Bike was not badly damaged.

But dropping your defenses just because you are travelling slow
compared to the stupid speeds we had been doing out of the towns is no
excuse.

The reason for his head to the right? In the 80s he had live briefly
in one of the houses there and he was looking for it.

To finish the story, 2 days later we are down on the west coast of
Tasmania in wet conditions in a remote area but lovely roads. We had
spoken before (there were 5 bikes on this run) and mentioned that Mt
Arrowsmith was notorious for taking out bikes. A couple of the riders
were newbies so we wanted to caution them. Mick and I would be the
most experienced. So we told them exactly which part of the end of
this run was dangerous.

Guess what? Come around corner to find a Thunderace on its side. Much
more damage this time. He was able to ride it home minus right hand
footpeg, front brake lever, shit like that.

His wife turned up about 20 minutes later in the 4WD that was carrying
all our gear, my wife, guitars, etc. She was both happy to see he was
OK, but furious he'd managed to drop the bike twice in 2 days. This
time the fairing damage and other bits meant the bike was technically
a write off. Mick bought the bike back from the insurance company
after his claim, repaired it and still owns it to this day.

They still remain the only times he has had a bike accident on public
roads.

Oh, we also wrote off a ZX9R on that run. Entertaining few days. I
stayed upright.

 

Kevin Gleeson wrote:

"Wot, no armed roadblock", &c.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, ogden

Look, it was the high point of your life to date[1], fair enough.

But you can overplay your hand, OK?

[1]Notwithstanding dating assorted psychopaths.

 

And to think that I thought the quotation marks, the dubious spelling
and the 18th century abbreviation might indicate a degree of self-aware
irony.

What more do you want, ffs? A fucking smiley?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, ogden

Yes please.

 

No - very remote roads. Probably saw about 10-12 cars on the entire
100km run.

The good thing is that just after Mick dropped the Thunderace and had
got it off the road, a HYOOOGE truck came down the road carrying a
railway carriage or something like that (can't quite recall, but
whatever it was it was massive). 5 minutes difference and one squished
rider and bike.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, ogden

You're a gent.

 

My experience has been that if you are still going when you're tired
then the accident you have will always be in the car park right at the
end when you've relaxed slightly and your observation drops.

 

Precisely.

They say that most accidents happen within a few kilometres of home.
Well duh, percentages say that most of your riding/driving is going
end up with you going home.

But yeah, I agree that most people start to drop their attention as
they get close to home.

My worst bike accident was 400m up the road from my house. So guilty
as charged.