Face it, Adventure Tourers are frequently the motorcycle equivalent of the SUV. That is, they are more “show” than “go” when it comes to off-road adventure.
We found the following Imgur on Reddit this morning and found it both amusing and frightening … the rider gets up fairly quickly. Perhaps, this was his infrequent taste of off-road adventure. Ouch.
See more of MD’s great photography:
When I started riding (way back before lane-splitting) they told me to never put my bike anyplace a car driver wouldn’t expect another car to be. I know that thinking is kind of obsolete now but I’ve never had anything like the above happen to me either.
I’m seeing this as just a moto version of the J-hook turn dreaded by bicyclists everywhere.
I still think the rider was a knob though, being in the right doesn’t do you much good if you’re dead.
This happened to me once only I was passing a broken down car on the left median.
The driver decides to exit the vehicle, swinging the car door open directly in my path.
It’s always an adventure going to the hospital.
Dummy, on the bike. That’s why passing on the right is not allowed in USA.
Agree!
Why the title”Adventure Fail”? The bike seemed to do just fine leaving the pavement and scootin’ around the cars! Coming back from Adventure mode to real world mode….that’s where the real “Fail” kicked in and cooked his goose! I’ll bet that “Fail” happens just as often to “Squids” passing on the left when someone decides to turn left into that same kind of parking lot situation…..that GS did not fail, in fact most bikes other than an Adventure bike would been much more of an “adventure” just leaving the pavement! It seems to me the guy fell victim to what makes most Adventure riders “Fail”…The feeling that you can do what ever you want on one of these bikes! Please reference that guy you guys turned loose in Scotland or England to test a new Adventure that tried to jump the stone fence……there’s no version of ABS or traction control that replaces common sense.
You guys don’t understand…It was 4:55 and Starbucks was closing at 5:00, and he was supposed to meet his other ADV buddies there, but this stupid traffic was holding him up.
I can pass all these cages by blasting up that walking path on the right, he thought, might actually get some cred if there is some dirt on my wheels. It wouldn’t be risky because this is an off road bike and from my perch high atop the seat of the big Beemer I have a commanding view of the traffic to my left. Look up ahead a little jump,focus on it so that I hit it just right.
Unfortunately I missed seeing the cars turn signal indicating they would be turning in. Whoa look at this idiot car driver turning in front of me. BAM! Going to be late for Starbucks I’m afraid. Hope my buddies don’t leave without me.
yea, you are probably closer to the truth here
Counterpoint to those saying he shouldn’t be doing this in the first place – whatever. He’s taking a liberty which I expect most of us riders do some form of whether we admit it or not. We’re not kids on Jalopnik so we don’t need to pile on the guy for that. Now, as for taking a liberty and doing so STUPIDLY….
And, further, there’s actually a trail there. Wherever this is (note the white centerline, so not the USA), I have to presume it’s not that out of the ordinary. He doesn’t seem to be doing a temporary blast-around, just riding along. Failure to properly anticipate car turning is the error, but riding alongside, I’m increasingly unconvinced.
The trail was probably created by that same guy, from all the times before when he got away with it!
True, it’s not in North America (anyone know where this took place? Poland, maybe?), so who knows what’s accepted over there. But in any case, it’s all on him.
Of course we’ve all done stupid shit on our bikes. (Well, there’s a couple of goody-two-shoes here that would swear they’ve never, ever broken the law. Whatever.) Fortunately, most of us got it out of our systems before the Viral Video age!
It was in Poland. Blasting trails alongside the road is normally not alowed there, as well as crossing continuous line additionally without right hand side check, just because driver found empty parking slot. If we can believe info relased by motorcyclist on local forum, police stated car driver’s fault.
OK so it’s not normal/allowed, the guy still was pretty casual about it. That said, I find it absurd that the car would be at fault here in any case. Yeah the line is solid but come on, like a car should have to yield to an unexpected vehicle like that (I never meant to imply this wasn’t squarely on the rider, just that he should have been smarter about his um creative riding) regardless of the solid line… Maybe it’s different in Poland but I’ve always understood the solid line at the edge of the road just to be a “fog line” letting you know where the edge is as opposed to a “don’t cross this” traffic control line e.g. separating a merge lane etc.
Please see my answer to Scott below- white line wasn’t a major problem. It was ignoring right hand side priority rule and it was stated on police report. Emotionally, I would also take car driver’s side, but emotions would change, if we modify scenario, and swap crazy motorcyclist on kid with a bicycle… As by so many cases, accident was just coincidence of two mistakes made by two road users at the same time. Luckilly this time with no people hurt.
Agree 100%
More importantly..what bike was he riding? Anyone?
BMW R 1200 GS
Looks like a BMW oil head ? Rider an airhead !
this is the best reply!!! LOL!
dumb ass move…period ! totally his fault..needs to be be more patient in traffic..patience will keep you alive !
I always stand on my pegs when I do that.
With your knees locked, right?
Odds are the adventurer believes the car driver “should have seen me”.
Got to ask. How many of you seen bicyclist riding fast on the right shoulder blasting across an intersection without slowing down assume the person making a right turn will see them?
Yeah, the biggest problem with that is that some people, not you of course, will then use that to assume that all cyclists ride like that, or use it to justify a dislike of cyclists, even though it was just one person with poor decision-making skills, just like the individual in the video above. Imagine if people judged all motorcyclists based on the video above. The real problem is our propensity to stereotype people and label them instead of treating them like individuals. That guy up above was a doofus of an individual, it doesn’t mean that all motorcyclists are doofuses.
Never – mainly because bicyclists know they’re one step away from death at any moment. They are generally more aware and smart than most motorcycle riders, and we’re all smarter than cars and pedestrians.
On a positive note, the red car was unharmed.
Ha
Hahaha! That’s a funny video. Karma is a be-otch. I’ll put my money that the driver with the dash camera didn’t stop after witnessing the accident.
From the legal point, both made it wrong. Motorcyclist shouldn’t ride there with such a high speed and car driver shouldn’t cross white continuous line- he was allowed to do it just 6-7 meters further on dotted line, but same time respecting vehicles that can move towards parking place. According to rider’s comment under original link he is OK, as well as the bike- just bruises and broken fairings. However, both will be penalized by police, or just a car driver (if police haven’t seen a movie and rider explain that he just started from parking place)…
Just in from the court of common sense. Motorcycle rider bumped, bruised and wrong.
You are actually kidding, right, KenLee? Please tell me you’re just being facetious…
I tried to publish a link to description with more pictures (incl. damaged VW, BMW GS and police car), posted by involved motorcyclist on local forum, but my post here was removed by moderator. According to ADV rider, policemen found car driver guilty of that accident. True, or false- no idea, but looks possible. Sometimes legal reality might be surprising.
If that’s true, it’s one of the most insane things I’ve heard. Passing traffic on the right, on a dirt shoulder: No problem! Turning into a parking lot 20′ before a painted line becomes a dashed line: Go to jail!
It’s not about crossing wrong line only. Parking is not placed directly on road edge. There is kind of manouvering lane between. Car driver entering it even trough doted line, should check his right hand side first and give way to any vehicle moving there. Police interpretation: no matter how biker apeared on manouvering lane- car driver should respect him. They were probably not aware of speed assumed of moderate damages.
Tat “dirt shoulder” is also called a sidewalk. He’s an idiot.
Ron White said ‘Ya can’t fix stupid’, and here’s one more proof. In a way it’s better than I thought it would be: I figured he was going to try and get back left onto the asphalt and nail that last telephone pole !
Very low situational awareness.
He would have been fine if he lowered the rear tire pressure.
Awesome comment. “We’re not worthy!”
go speed racer!
It’s idiots like this riding illegally and stupidly that make non-motorcyclists hate us. If you don’t have some patience then you certainly should not be riding a motorcycle among cars and traffic. Obey traffic laws and show respect or end up like this fool.
Adventure riding had become something like fashion lately and some people over-do-it. I was taught in childhood: “do everything with measure”. This is kind of application of the opposite.
I pulled the identical trick on a downtown street when a station wagon pulled into a parking place. I was 15 and doing a wheelie on my NSU Super Max for the crowd filing out of Rebel Without A Cause. Broke my left leg, drew a big crowd, “is your leg broke?”, my foot was pointed backwards. It actually got worse from there with two excited cabbies driving the ambulance, playing with the siren, me on the 4 wheel gurney banging side to side, front to back and yelling “Slow Down!”
Oklahoma, 1955.
Great story! Especially the ambulance drivers. Glad it all turned out alright for you.
Dumb ass. Live and learn. ADV bikes still good!!
Good video but nothing really connects to your setup (i.e. Adventure bike). This really could’ve happened no matter what he was riding. Doofus on a motorcycle. Although, I will say, I could not tell if the car had a turn signal going or not. That’s about the onlfy potentially mitigating aspect thsgat might keep him from receiving a Darwin Award. But even if no signal…..he comes shooting up on the right without a lane to call his own………doofus!
This has nothing to do with the capability of the bike. It has everything to do with the stupidity of the rider.
Exactly. I’ve seen people doing similar stuff on full-on MX bikes…
It’s all good fun…until someone gets hurt.
I’d call him an a**hole, but that’s not nice, so I won’t.
Fool. If his left leg is not broken he is beyond lucky.
re: “If his left leg is not broken he is beyond lucky.”
see, those R bike jugs sticking out are good for something.
Absolutely 100% the rider’s fault. A total fail.. a fail of common sense, riding skills, observancy, self-preservation… you name it. Fail.
This was less about the bike’s off-road capability and more about the rider’s awareness of street conditions.
Or his awareness of, you know, the law.
It’s just like all those bike accident compilation videos on YouTube – I’d say about 50% of them involve someone passing someplace they have no business doing so. Drivers can barely see us when we behave in normal, reasonably predictable ways.
More like 90% from the ones I’ve watched. Funny thing is that a large number of them are probably perfectly legal, since they are often from outside the U.S. where lane-splitting (safe and unsafe) is common and traffic laws are perhaps less defined. Heck, a lot of the ones that appear to be Asia or India don’t even have what Americans would consider “lanes” anyway.
Note this is not a commentary about lane-splitting. I can’t do it where I live and I rarely ride in cities anyway so I don’t have a strong opinion. I’m just noting that you can’t watch those compilation videos without suspecting a strong common denominator.