[Orange Bandit]

I was reading another string of posts and remembered my most embarrasing moment on a Gold Wing. After you read this, and if you can top it (or come near it) how about posting yours!

I went to Sturgis for the 1997 ralley on my 1994 Aspencade with 32,000 miles on it. Now you have to remember that this is DURING BIKE WEEK.

I'm riding with two friends just west of Rapid City on I-90 and my Wing craps out on me. We pull to the side of the road and begin to mull over the problem. About 6 months before, I had the same exact thing happen to me and it was a bad fuel pump. After going over everything, I send one of my buddies into Rapid City to the Honda Dealer to get me a new fuel pump or a tow if they don't have the pump.

For the next hour and a half, I had to endure what seemed like and had to be THOUSANDS OF HARLEYS going by pointing, blowing their horns, yelling about Jap Crap, and even a few stopping to see if they could help sweep the Jap machine off the road!

You'd be surprised how fast I changed out that fuel pump when my buddy got back with it!

After nearly 8 years, I still laugh about this one!

 

[BrianSC]

Shoot Orange, I would have broke out some paper and put out a sign:



Temporary halt to my 88,000mile ride. I had to stop to change Fax Paper.
This Fax paper problem is being worked on by HONDA and many other fine AMERICAN Engineers.

:yes: :yes: :yes:

 

[Guest]

Not on a Wing but on my '97 Kaw Voyager had a brain fart that I can now laugh about. As mentioned on Tom Finch's post about 'sudden death' I had just had the switch short out on the bike. The bike had been taken back to the dealer for a new switch. About a week later it shorted out again. Turned out the mechanic didn't put the boot on it properly when he fixed it the first time so it shorted out again.

Now, fast forward two weeks later. Taking a nice sunny day ride through the country with my wife. In a nice low speed sweeper I hit a pot hole that jars me pretty good. Everything goes dead on the bike again. I've got lights, cell phone, etc but no juice to the starter. I'm cussing and throwing a hissy fit for about 15-20 minutes when I realize what's happened. In the process of hitting the pot hole my hand hit the kill switch. I flipped it back to 'run' and everything was fine. I still think they ought to get rid of that darn thing on big bikes. Seriously, I never intentionally use the thing.

 

[MesquiteBob]

Stopped at one of those Quick Stops in Greenville, TX while riding my '99 Vulcan Nomad. Pulled up to the pump, stuck the nozzle in the tank and filled 'er up. Thought the gas looked a little funny. About 1 mile down I-30 heading for Dallas, the bike started sputtering and quit. Somehow, I immediately knew I had just filled the tank with diesel fuel! How come I didn't know that before I pulled away from the station?

About three minutes later, a guy with dew rag and a beat up old Harley something or other pulls up behind me and asks if he can help. I already had the fuel hose off and was dumping diesel along side the road (don't tell Texas DOT about this). I asked if he could get me a half-gallon of gas. He pulls out a cell phone, calls his wife to get a gallon of gas and come meet us along the road. About fifteen minutes later, a lady in a beat up old pickup pulls up with a gallon of very welcome gas. He wouldn't take a penny for anything and, after I finally got the bike started again (you wouldn't believe the smoke), rode with me to the next exit to make sure I made it. Filled it up with REAL gas and went on my way - the whole thing took about an hour to resolve.

I have no idea who the really good Samaritan was, but I resolved I would NEVER pass another bike pulled off the side of the road without stopping to see if I could help. Which leads to my next most embarassing moment.

Just a few weeks later I was heading east on I-20 in Grand Prairie, TX when I spotted a bike pulled off on the left side of the road. I put on my blinkers and pulled up to ... yep, a traffic officer running radar. I blushingly told him I thought he was broken down. He just smiled and said, "No, just doing my job here." Since then I haven't seen a single person on a bike pulled off to the side of the road. But I still owe that fella on the Harley a payback!

 

[Guest]

sitting on my shiny new wing in the garage with the door open, a foot of snow on the ground. I was pretending to be riding down a long open road, making varroooooommmm noises when the meter reader for the gas utility walked by and gave me a funny look. Feeling embarassed I went inside and grabbed a can of beer nuts and tuned in ESPN on the tube in hope of recharging my manliness

 

[William Taylor]

I'm on the kill switch too with JJ. Accidently brushed it with a glove when dismounting to gas up, only about 300 miles on the bike, took me a few minutes to see why it wouldn't start.

 

[J-mac]

most embarrassing momment:

I just fall over in front of a bunch of people for no apparent reason :shock:

 

[deepfeet]

It wasn't on my wing but I was 15 years old and my dad and I just picked up my new bike. An Ossa 250. It was sweet. Moved up from a Kaw g5 100. Anyhow my dad says , Are you sure you can handle this. I said not a problem. Mounted the bike, kicked it over, put it in gear and went to take off and this baby does a wheelie gets out of my hands flys down the street and crashes into the side of the road.

All he said was two words. Nice Job.

 

[yellowwing1]

OK then, I was pulling up to Kiss Honda on my vlx to look at new bikes. You guessed it I dumped the bike on the fake driveway and was so pissed. One of the owners came out and Help ME! and my pride , but I was more concerned about my undamaged bike. Not many people but still a embarrassing moment.
The other time I was stuck in traffic (on my Gold Wing, stopped like an hour) in or around Hendersonville Nc. Thought I would visit Chef. But the road had a terrible camber and I stayed on the bike and was chatting with a BMW guy and a trucker came up and talked to me too. Well for some reason I thought I could finally get off the bike and I started to step off the left (road leanded to the right) and you guessed it again, in a second I was thrown 6-10 feet to the right. It took all the might of all 3 of us to get the bike back up to center so I could get back on the bike AND SIT THERE.
Sorry Chef I had good intentions but I was still pissed and embarrassed to go anywhere , but continue home. It was now late
Not much damage but a few scratches and a new lens for the right mirror. Joy

 

[Jeff in Ferndale WA]

I haven't had any worthy embarassing moments on this bike yet,but many years ago I had Norton 750 Commando.
I had been trying to get this girl to go for a ride with me for some time,and she finally agreed to go to the keg party that was happening some 30-40 miles away on a riverbank on a sunny afternoon.

We had a nice ride along some country roads to get there.As we pulled in to the area where the party was going on,there was a fairly large group of people standing around the keg watching us. I decided the muddy spot ahead would be a good spot to show off a little. I gave it some gas,intending to fishtail through the mud like I always did on the dirt bikes I rode.

We promptly ended up laying in the mud ,much to the amusement of the crowd around the keg.

She went home with somebody else in a car!

 

[oldguy]

I too have dropped my bike while not moving, but that is not the most embarassing moment. While still driving my 84 Apencade, I took a trip to Sedona. I stopped at a place to eat and without thinking parked downhill, with no way to move forward. When I came out I instantly saw my problem and was without help. Suddenly 4 of the most grizzled biker types walked up and asked if they could help. Well with a red face I said yeah and they told me to hop on and they pushed me back up the hill. While this was embarassing it was also nice. They didn't give me hard time and actually did it one rider to another. Nice experience in that. But, it was still embarassing.

Wayne

 

[Panther Ga.]

Wasn't my wing but my Road King. Couple of years ago was in Daytona Beach for Bike Week, was making a slow right hand turn into the side street beside the Harley dealer. A woman pushes a baby stroller right in front of me as I am turning. Had to get on the brake real quick. When I put my feet down there was a drainage grate on the right side set real low. So over the wife, the bike and me go. There was plenty of help, can you say LARGE CROWD, to help get it back up. Well got it up but wouldn't start, got pushed into dealer to learn about the tilt sensor shut off. 4:

Panther

 

[Patriot]

It's embarrasing only if you're caught. As a knew rider last summer, just 3 days after buying the bike, I decide we are going to take a 200 mile trip to St Cloud, Mn and back. Now remember, I'm a NEW rider. I was probably stupid to have my spouse climb on. But she wanted to go. Well, standing there with the bike running, she steps on; WOOPS!, the bike is on it's side. I was in shock. The dealer had demonstrated how to get the bike up if that happened. I got the bike up, my spouse climbed onboard and away we went. She didn't say much, but we figured out real quick just how she would mount the bike in the future.

 

[elkk]

One late night while repositioning the Wing in the garage, I went to put it on the side stand but the stand was up, the bike continued to slowly lean to the left as I griped both handlebars and tried with all my might to hold it up. I stood there straining and pulling up on the bars in an effort to keep from laying it over, howling over and over for my wife to come help (she never did). After what seems like a very long time, sweating and shaking, I decided to lay it down and go wake the wife for help. As I slowly released my death grip, I realized the bike was already laying on it's side all that time. As a result of my screams for help, the neighbors had called the police because they thought there was a family disturbance at our house. Two policeman were dispatched, both friends of mine, (I was a policeman at the time) they had a good laugh then helped me right the bike, and of course told the entire department about it. The Captain noticed a family disturbance call at my address on the log sheet, called me in to explain. One simple mistake on my part and everybody knew it.

 

[KC]

About a month ago left a friends house, pulled out in the road and lost one of my gloves...no problem I turned around pulled up along side the missing glove, got off the bike to pick it up ..........yep you guessed it , forgot to put the side stand down . The wing is a great handling bike when its moving but standing still it needs a little help to stay upright. After that it was time to go home and put the bike up..............................

 

[Amaxx]

This was on my Cavalcade in 85 and it was close to the end of a great ride in Fairfax and I am hungry so I decide to have pizza at this nice little place a few doors down from the theater and there is just no parking available so I circle and circle the block and finaly a spot opens up infront of the theater but it is diaginal parking and down hill I have had to park down hill with other bikes I have had and was always able to pull it out of such a spot so I pull in just bearly getting the trunk out of traffic so I don't have to pull it very far to get it out, and before I can even get my Helmet off the bike and I are drawing a crowd of people asking questions and admiring the bike. Finaly I am able to start my dismount and wouldn't you know it I hadn't put down my kick stand and down goes my new bike I till now had never had to pick a bike of this weight off of the ground before and it took me a few moments to figure it out before I made my first unsucessful attempt, after this I have an even bigger crowd watching me and a few people even asked if they could help but I needed to know if could right this BEAST by my self and declined there help but asked them to stick around incase my next attempt failed and sure enough it did so with some help we finaly got her up and on her kick stand and I thanked every one for there help and went and had pizza. When I came out to go home there was another crowd around my bike and I noticed that I couldn't see those 2 tall antenas sticking up and I was a bit worried and sure enough there she is laying down on her side again and all the way to the bottom of the parking spot and now I have to try again to pick her up . I assume the position and as I lift her she starts to role forward and I now have to put her in gear (she was in gear when I parked her) anyway I get her righted and I have my gear on and now it is time to pull her out of this spot and I can't get her to move an inch and now I look in front of me thinking that I will just ride over the curb onto the sidewalk and be on my way, Nope there is a light pole a mail box and a few news stands but there are plenty of people more than willing to give me a push up the hill and up we go. after thanking those that helped I put the key in and hit the starter and nothing happens and now I am frustrated and grumbling to my self. Now after what seemed like forever I noticed that the Kill Switch was off and off I went.
Some days are just like that I guess.

 

[Orange Bandit]

Real Glad I Made This Post

Some real good stories here. I'm going to have to watch this post for a few days and enjoy the laughs along with everyone else! Enjoy it guys and gals, it's great to be able to laugh at yourself and others without worring about making someone mad!!

Again - THANKS FOR ALL THE STORIES

 

[Blk Warrior (Gary)]

Just got my "Blk Warrior" about a week before my wife and I pulled in to a flea market on a Saturday mid morning (crowded around that time), my music was playing and my shades were looking sharp on me.

Had the wife on the back and realized that I was going in the flea market the wrong way. No problem because I have reverse on the "Wing" but I was on some loose gravel (Bad for the Wing), moving at a slow rate of speed 1 mph in reverse and my footing slid while trying to back up. Well the bike decided to lean a little and wanted to lean more to the right along with the wife on the back. I told her to quickly get off of the bike so now it is a little less than 800 lbs to hold (No, that doesn't work either).

It felt like an angel stopped the movement of the bike and it just stopped, thank goodness for the bars on the bike. Now all I was looking at were all of the people just looking at me while I am trying to lift the bike to it's up right position. Must have been that angel again because it was lifted to the up right position and I back out of there.

That was my most embarrasing moment and I hope not to have another, but we all know that it will happen again as long as we continue to ride.

 

[Tony in AZ]

a few weeks ago I climbed on the scooter and take off.

I wear glasses full time and a full face helmet. So I must remove my glasses to put the helmet on.

I left my glasses sitting in my lap as I take off. The glasses started flopping around and here I am driving down the dark road wondering WHAT is bouncing around?

 

[Tater]

So far no big moments on the Wing. Back in 1978 I had one of those Yamaha three cylinder 750s. At a toll booth when I planted my left foot it found the greasy spot. The bike and myself fell over. Was it on Benny Hill where the guy always fell over on a bicycle? This is how I looked. Since that time I will not ride unless by boots have deep tread.