r/motorcycles

Was practicing in a parking lot on my Grom when an older guy (like 60+) pulled up and started talking to me.

He noticed my clutch was off and told me to follow him to his brother’s house so he could fix it.

Not gonna lie I hesitated 😅 but I went anyway.

Took him like 5 minutes and the bike feels way better now.

Kinda made me realize how cool the motorcycle community is. Random people just helping you out for no reason.

I keep my nearly brand new XSR900 in a locked garage, secured to a pragmasis ground anchor with a hiplok DXXL along with a disc lock at the front. The hiplok is hung over the swing arm and is left on the garage floor ready to lock when I come home, the disc lock comes with me.

My routine is unlock garage, remove disc lock, remove hiplok, earplugs in, helmet one, gloves and go.

Yesterday I had to stop at a garden centre for some silly bollocks I was ordered to pick up, I get off the bike, whiz the disc lock on and march into said garden centre. It's one of those horrendous one-way system garden centre's and was absolutely jammed up with old people randomly stopping, dawdling and generally getting in the way. The experience was put me in a bad mood. Finally I make the exit, empty handed because they didn't even have the silly bollocks I was sent to get.

I return to my bike.

I look once, I look twice. What do I see?

The fucking shackle from the hiplok hanging from the swing arm!!!

Somehow I had managed to ride 12 miles down dual carriageways and twisty country lanes with the hiplok dangling from the swing arm. How it didn't end up in the spokes and throwing me into oncoming traffic I'll never know!

The bike is okay, some cosmetic damage to the paintwork on the rim which is annoying, there's are great big friction burn in the lock coating where the brake disc basically melted it away but it's still good.

I e heard of people riding off with disc locks still on, but I don't know quite how dumb you have to be to ride off with a massive shackle attached to your swing arm.

Please either tell me I'm a massive bellend or regale me with stories of your own staggering instances of stupidity! Both will make me feel better about having to get my rim repainted!

After putting it off for years, I finally pulled the trigger and booked the class earlier this week thinking since it was Easter weekend it would be dead. It was not. We had 12 people to start with in just my class and there were two classes running simultaneously. Three people dropped out right away though, and one dude was counseled out after a few mishaps. One dude even crashed into another rider on the course.. which happened immediately in front of me and shook my confidence.. a lot. I got nervous and dropped the bike on my leg at one point, giving myself a minor ankle sprain, a severe wound to my pride, and making me feel like maybe I'm just not cut out for riding. But I iced it last night and bandaged it up and wore a compression sleeve and powered through the pain. After all was said and done, I got a perfect score on my written and only got docked for going over one line at the end of the u turn set up (not during the u turn itself). Otherwise, I actually did great.. and I have this subreddit to thank for it. I read through so many threads of people discussing the course, offering encouragement and counseling, and just making me feel like I could find the confidence to do it. And after years I finally did. So thanks and a shout out to all of you. ✌🏽