We left Prague around 9:30am towards Germany. Traffic was reasonably light and before long we were in the rural countryside.
Around 11:30am we had a slight setback. We were riding down a gentle hill at about 70kph/45mph (for reference the speed limit was 90kph/55mph) and without any warning at all the bike popped out from under us and we slid to a stop on the tarmac. As I was sliding I could see the bike sliding on its left side ahead of me until it reached the grassy shoulder where the wheels caught and the bike flipped over onto its right side.
We both got straight up to our feet and looked at each other, completely perplexed and somewhat shocked. After determining that nothing hurt, we realised with relief that neither of us were injured and our gear had taken the brunt of the fall. I had slid on my left side and Zev had slid on his bottom, dragging his left arm.
A few seconds later a young chap came along and stopped to help us put the bike upright and then carried on his way. I noticed there was oil all over the engine and tyres and realised we had ridden onto an unnoticed slick of tarry oil. From the direction we were travelling, the angle of the sun made it blend into the road, looking like just another patched area of tarmac.
I called 112 (emergency line) and explained what happened and they sent out the police. Meanwhile I took photographs of the area and the damaged parts of the bike. I called my insurer and went through the details.
An hour later, the police still hadn’t arrived so I called 112 again. The lady explained that they couldn’t find where we were, and I realised in my shaken state I’d given the postcode instead of the road number. Not long afterwards a police van arrived.
The two PCs documented the scene and marked the skid-marks from the bike’s tyres and crash bars. They called the fire department to spread sand over the oil slick and then took our passports, the bike registration and insurance documents and my driving licence, and performed a mandatory breathalyser test which of course read zero.
Finally at about 3pm we finished up and I was presented with my documents and a police report to give to my insurer. I had a look at the bike together with one of the PCs and we couldn’t find any mechanical damage—the crash bars did their job remarkably well without so much as a scratch on the engine casings. However there was quite a lot of cosmetic damage and the panniers took a beating. He could not see any roadworthiness issues and donated a roll of packaging tape to seal off the broken bits of the panner and reattach the left hand guard. With that, off they went. It seems the R1200GS—even the new, allegedly more delicate water-cooled version—is a tough old bastard of a bike.
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| Looking down the road from the left side the oil patch is clearly evident. |
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| From the right side it blended in with the other patchwork. Skidmarks from where the rear wheel struck the ground numerous times on the right and from the front wheel on the left while the bike was sliding. |
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| Windscreen, air deflector and headlamp subframe all scratched up. The windscreen height adjustment mechanism still works but is fairly bent out of alignment. Both front indicators were pulled from their mounts but fortunately still function. |
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| Crash bar scratched up but did its job protecting the cylinder head, and small scuffs on the top of the radiator cover, the air intake and the BMW emblem. |
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| Knackered pannier but still opens and closes. No longer sits level and expansion mechanism fused. |
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| Oil from the road which sprayed up from the tyre onto the engine casing and exhaust. |
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Another shot of the windscreen and broken wind deflector. Hand guard mount shattered and handlebar bent on the left side (sits about 1cm lower than the right but full movement still possible without interference apart from activating the horn at full lock. Both mirrors were spinning freely but retightened with the onboard toolkit.
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| Closeup of the destroyed pannier—I sealed off the gap with packaging tape which was kindly donated by the police. |
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| Zev’s jacket where his arm dragged on the ground. |
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| Zev’s bottom where he slid to a stop on the tarmac. Although these look like jeans, they are kevlar reinforced denim and the fabric withstood the abrasion from 70kph without fraying. |
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| Outside of my left leg where the fabric wore through to the inner guards. |
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| My left sleeve. |
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| My jacket—the area where the fabric wore through was where my wallet caused the pocket to bulge. |
A testament to why the right gear is important—we both walked away from a crash at almost highway speed without so much as a bruise. A few sore muscles—that’s it. Wearing a t-shirt and shorts, for example, would have resulted in skin and possibly bone grafts, plus time in hospital and countless hours of rehabilitation. Thankfully, neither of us hit our heads on the ground, so the helmets remained undamaged.
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Advgrrl Motorcycle Adventures & More 
Excellent post George! First let me say I’m so pleased to know neither one of you got hurt. Thank God! Such an important point you’re making regarding wearing gear. All gear every time you ride is the only way to go – if it’s too hot to wear gear then don’t ride – and this post explains why. When the unexpected thing happens you don’t end up in a hospital with severe road rash, etc…. I hope the rest of the trip was safe and wonderful.
Thanks Maria, my first instinct was to abandon the trip (my insurance includes repatriation) but I’m glad we decided to press on after this incident. It’s now nearly a week later and we just returned to London last evening without further incident – 3 days early as we skipped the Alps and stayed an extra day in the Alsace for some much needed recuperation.
While I sometimes ride in town with jeans/regular trousers with strap-on knee pads (bearing in mind the average speed in London is 7mph), I *always* wear a proper jacket—if I go anywhere with speed limits higher than 30mph I use full gear all the time. It’s interesting that this seems to be the norm here—you rarely see people out on the open roads without full gear, and in the cities people normally have a proper jacket and helmet only.
So many on my trip were almost naked riders. Just don’t get that.
Good to hear that you and the bike were relatively unscathed. I dropped my bike on black ice within sight of the house and the head protectors on my R1100RT were a waste of space. Walking pace and the rocker cover wore straight through rendering the bike immobile.
I think they have strengthened the covers on the current generation, but I still feel the crash bars are a must-have. Interestingly, BMW’s training centres in Germany and Wales don’t use the crash bars on the bikes they use for off road training, and I imagine these see a lot of sleeping time…
If I had the new adventure version, the damage would have been limited to the crash bars – the upper bars on this model are slightly wider than the handlebars which means they don’t hit the ground during a slide…