Back in the 70's on my 2nd 750 chop, I was going after some parts to fix my OL's car. Was getting late and dark out. I was traveling down a split 4 lane Houston Tx city street and a drunk in a Pick Up pulled out and stalled blocking the 2 lanes I could use. I had forward controls back then and hit the rear brake but the front "push" rod bent to the ground. So no rear brakes. I had a small brake drum Hallcraft wheel on the front. So no front brakes either so to speak. Did the only thing I thought to do and laid the bike down and came into him backwards. Saw the sparks flying from the chop and groaned inside. My back wheel hit his front wheel and stopped me dead in my tracks. Next thing I knew, he was helping me get out from under the bike. He noticed I was bleeding from around my left eyebrow So I took off my helmet and looked in his side mirror. sure enough, blood. Ended up with eleven stitches. But funny thing was, not a scratch on my helmet or face shield. Then I started looking over my bike to find out what had been damaged. Sparks were flying, remember? I could not see anything in the dark that was wrong and the police came and went, so I decided to ride the 3 blocks to my house. Well I did see that my back rim was bent a little, but did not look all that bad and the tire was still up. But when I started down the road, I COULD TELL the back rim was bent. Kinda out of round!! was a slow ride home. After I got home and put the bike in the garage and had the lights on, I started hunting what could have caused all the sparks. What was damaged? I found the the forward control on the shifter side had the foot peg flipped up (they pivot) and a nice portion of the bar was ground off, but with the peg down, you did not see it. Then I noticed that about a quarter of the kickstand ball was gone. The only other damage was the ball on the clutch lever was gone. So other than the brake rod being bent, replacing the rear wheel, and eleven stitches in my head, I came out fairly well. I was glad I did not come head on into him as even back then the Hallcraft wheel and Amen square twisted springer were expensive. At least to me that is.

There are no stupid questions,
But there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots.