All those of you who've dropped a giant bike ought to feel a little better from the fact that there are so many variables, and some of them you can't control:
You can learn to stay off the front, especially on uneven ground or sideways gradient, and anytime the bars are turned at low speed. You can learn to practice, practice, practice all the motojitsu stuff (and make no mistake, that guy is awesome at what he does, BUT...the parking lot he uses is flat, and the bike he brags about being ever so tall is a BMW GS, which carries that boxer weight lowlowlow, and is very easy to turn at low speeds in a parking lot). You can learn to think ahead, and pass up places to turnaround that would require skills you don't have yet with a bike this big, BUT you will never be able to practice for every eventuality. How about a Tiger 1200 with a tall seat, full tank, an undulating parking lot or driveway going up a steep hill, and areas of gravel? If you like riding the mountains in places like TN, NC, northwest SC and northeast GA, you run into stuff like that all...the...time.
To tell one on myself, my primary ride is a motorcycle with a higher seat than the Rocket (and an air seat pad, which adds an inch), and one with a much higher CG, especially with a full, 7-gallon tank of gas, but if you're used to cruisers, the new Rocket DOES sit up much higher than most, a good thing for cornering clearance and handling at high speeds, but not parking lots. And while I'm 52, ridden since a kid, and had never dropped a bike before buying the GT, either, I recently had my second drop (first one was learn-from-it stupidity) while executing a slow, turnaround, full-lock turn with only rear brake, BUT for some reason, my brain didn't record that the gravel on the shoulder of the narrow road we were riding on was on an upward slope, and I thought it was level with the road surface (and our brains would expect most gravel just off the road to be downward from the road, not up), so down I went. Feeling like a moron. With company. And on a trip where we were flying on the Dragon (full disclosure: a group of 5 Lexus LCs and one Nissan GT-R were faster, and we had to move over to let them pass), Moonshiner and Cherohala Skyway and I was the fastest rider (to the point I was hanging a fat cheek off the seat to keep from peg scraping), BUT after that, my company was making sure to give Mr. Dropsy a nice, big area to turn around or Y-turn. And can't blame them, as a drop like that messes with your mind and makes you a bit jittery for the next few low-speed turns.
There are some wonderful things about bigger bikes, contrary to so many "modern opinions". But low speed handling ain't one of them. No shame in a drop. Get drop bars and buy some nice emery paper and some satin-black paint for touchups.
