Topic: brushes with death?

[gregwaits]

Has anyone in here had any close calls on their bikes. I mean the kind that afterwards you sit there wondering how in the world did you walk away from it?

I have had a couple, although the first one was on a Schwinn!

I was in the 6th grade and was riding home from school. Near my house there was a sweeping right turn in the street (neighborhood street). Drivers coming from the other direction commonly rounded off the corner, and this evening was no different.

Someone in what I think was a 50s model car (the last thing I remember seeing was big fins on the back) rounded off the turn just was I was coming the other way. The car and my bike hit head on, and I flew over the length of the car. I landed on my ass on the little grassy section between the sidewalk and the street (somehow). My bike was demolished.  The driver didn't even slow down to see if I was dead.

That was the first time I remember cussing!

The other time I was on my SL100 on the way to high school (15 yrs old). I signalled with my arm to turn left. A driver going the same direction as I was decided to pass me at that time (yes, on the left). I turned into the door of the lady's VW bug, leaving a huge dent. I fell onto the pavement with the bike on top of me. I wasn't even scratched.

Go figure.

[bill440cars]

          I never really thought of dying, at the time but here's what happened to me.

          I had gotten out of Tech High School one afternoon and (like most of the time) was headed over to Little Rock Central High, to see my girlfriend. All I remember is: "I was headed down 12th St., (I was told that the guy was in the turn lane and turned right in front of me and I didn't see him until he was right in front of me) I basically hit him head-on but he was moving and I ended up going over the hood and right front fender of his 1953 Buick (this was in 1964) and landing on the street after putting my foot into the massive grille (if you've ever seen a 53' Buick, you know what I mean) My 58' Jawa 125 (the one I built from parts) was totaled and , fortunately, I had 2 scraped elbows, a badly sprained ankle (from the grille) and a cut on my right thigh, from the throttle adjustment screw. We took my poor old Jawa back to my Grandfather's shop and, as luck would have it, my Grandfather had picked up on a 59' Jawa 125 and so I stripped mine down and used my motor, along with a few other parts, to get the 59' on the road. It ended up being a 57', 58', & 59' automobile, er ah I mean motorcycle.

                              Later on, Bill      

[nickjtc]

Feb 1973. England. Helmets not compulsory at that time, but I wore one because a) I hated getting wet hair when it rained and b) wanted to arrive at work with non-mussed hair, those being the days of longer hair than now (+ being an impressionable youth, wanting to impress the ladies, etc, etc, etc).

Filtering down the offside of a line of cars waiting to go around a roundabout (traffic circle to us in North America), I t-boned a car pulling through said line up of cars from a parking lot off to the side. 20mph to 0mph in 0 feet. I went over the bars and head butted the pillar at the edge of the windscreen with enough force to break the windscreen.

Apart from a sore knee where I clonked the bars as I went over, and many tears over my desecrated brand new bike ('72 Honda CB175 with the forks now bent backwards), I am here to tell you about it.

If I had not been wearing a helmet I would now be pushing up the daisies.

[DarkRider]

the only real close call i had was in 02...was out on a friends Yamaha R6 trying to sort out why he had a flat spot at certian RPMs while the R1 i had at the time didnt have this...we had figured that since they were simular bikes we might have been able to figure this out if i rode the R6 the same way i rode my R1. It was just after a light rain storm and i came into a corner kinda hot..went to accelerate midway through the turn and happened to find that flat spot at the wrong time...tail skidded out from under me putting me and the bike in the ditch at 65 Km/h. dont remember what happened during the slide since i blacked out duirng that time...but i do remember somehow picking myself and the bike up about 20 min later and riding it back into the ER...How that part was possable i will never know given the injuries sustained...Dislocated right knee,  broken jaw, sprained right wrist, 3 cracked ribs, 2 bruised ribs, concussion. Only reason i didnt have road rash on top of it was because i was wearing a heavy leather riding suit at the time..

[nickjtc]

Dislocated right knee,  broken jaw, sprained right wrist, 3 cracked ribs, 2 bruised ribs, concussion.

How did you get a broken jaw?

[tsp37]

My first and only wreck was on a city street.  If I had not had a helmet on, I would (as someone once said) be getting coloring books for Christmas.

My joy is winding two lane twisties crowded with woods.  In the Chattanooga area these are plentiful, particularly on the mountain sides.  However, I was too dense to get to know a road before blasting through scraping my foot pegs on asphalt.  Far too many times I ended up in the wrong lane on a blind curve.  Had an oncoming car been in the wrong place at the right time, I would have become a bloody hood ornament.

[BobbyR]

I was riding a little KZ440 not far from home following a car down a twisty road not going fast at all, The car disappeared around the turn and when I made the turn the car was stopped in traffic. I saw his bumper a couple of feet in front of my wheel. For some reason I jammed the back brake on she went sideways, I got off the brake and the bike was high siding which shot me across the road, somehow i wound up stopped next to the drivers window of the car I almost hit, and I was sitting on the tank. I was shaken and my nuts were killing me. I parked on the side of the road, had a smoke and wondered if I could get back on the bike. I faced that decision many years before in the Nam and I knew what I had to do. I got back on and the first 10 miles was shaky, but it got easier. 

[DarkRider]

Dislocated right knee,  broken jaw, sprained right wrist, 3 cracked ribs, 2 bruised ribs, concussion.

How did you get a broken jaw?

same way i got the dislocated knee...the two met when my right foot dug in to the pavement and sent my knee straight up into my jaw. I was in the middle of a right hand turn at the time leaned into the inside of the turn.

[Pinhead]

Wow, that's pretty rough.

My close call was driving my CB360 through town at about 40mph in the middle of December, probably 15 degrees out. Cold tires and cold asphalt don't grab each other well, and when the lady pulled out in front of me the front tire went into a skid and I laid it down. Basically sliding with my front left leg stretched out in front of me (not underneath the bike) and my right foot still on the right foot peg, the front tire hits the rear-left of the car, which spins the bike around, slamming the sissy bars into my back and sending me sliding on my butt out into the street. As soon as I came to a stop I stood up, went back to pick up my bike, and looked at the driver like "WTF were you thinking?" just to get a deer-in-the-headlights expression in return.

Luckily though, I was wearing my boots, jeans, coveralls, hooded sweatshirt (with the coveralls over the top), my HEAVY Carhartt jacket, and a good pear of hunting gloves. Oh yeah, and of course my helmet. The palms of the gloves were absolutely gone, but my hands went unscathed. The heel of my boot was ground down to my heel.

The funny thing (or at least I thought) was even though I didn't get "hurt" my ENTIRE body hurt for about a week afterwards. It's like every single muscle in my body had been worked out and strained.

[Glenn Stauffer]

I was riding down to the Honda Hoot for an SOHC/4 gathering in 1998 and Bruce Giller and I are riding down highway 26 on our way into Ashville after spending the night in Blackbsburg.  The highway was getting a little busy and Bruce had just passed a line of cars including a dump truck pulling a trailer with a front-end loader when I started by on my CB750.  

As I am just about past the front of the trailer, the truck starts coming over into my lane.  I hit the horn, but he just kept coming slowly squeezing me out of the lane and onto the 4 foot wide inner shoulder at a speed of about 65-70mph.   He kept right on going as if nothing happened as I let off the thottle and slowed till the trailer was in front of me, then caught up to Bruce who never saw any of this, got off at the next exit and caught my breath.  I can still picture the whole scene like it was yesterday.

[BobbyR]

After reading all of these I just may sell my bike.

[nickjtc]

After reading all of these I just may sell my bike.

Don't do that Bobby! Just ride defensively and wear the right gear and helmet.

[Bob Wessner]

After reading all of these I just may sell my bike.

Don't do that Bobby! Just ride defensively and wear the right gear and helmet.

Just don't let your wife or SO read it or it may not matter what you wear.

[eldar]

I seem to be noticing a trend here. So far it seems that almost all these accidents had some dope in a car at fault.  Reinforced my idea of making ALL drivers ride a motorcycle for at least 1 summer BEFORE they get their license. Might actually make them aware of riders around them. Cant hurt.

[DammitDan]

I seem to be noticing a trend here. So far it seems that almost all these accidents had some dope in a car at fault.  Reinforced my idea of making ALL drivers ride a motorcycle for at least 1 summer BEFORE they get their license. Might actually make them aware of riders around them. Cant hurt.

Then you'll have kids trying to text and ride at the same time...  God I can't even imagine the teenager carnage.

My experience was almost 4 years ago, just bought the CB650 (my first bike), went out for my second ride with no experience at all.  My brother in law was on his BMW R75/5 and riding like a normal rider at normal speeds.  I unfortunately wasn't ready for "normal" highway speeds, especially on a 2 lane twisty, but I tried to keep up anyway.  Now, keep in mind that I was supposed to take my riders course in FOUR DAYS.  I absolutely didn't know how to negotiate turns correctly.  I go into a slow sweeping left curve too hot for my skill level, and slowly start drifting towards the outside.  I panic, put the brakes on (which I didn't know I shouldn't do) the bike stands upright and I go off into the ditch.

I can still remember thinking, "Oh #$%*, this is gonna hurt," going real limp and just letting go of the handlebars right before the pummeling and rolling and BAM! BAM! BAM! of my body hitting the ditch at 45mph.  Then I black out.

I wake up and there's a blue and green towel shoved under my face, which is soaked in blood.  I'm lying face down in the ditch and I can't move too well.  There's a lady's voice saying, "Lay still, just lay still."  I'm completely out of my wits, but I still have the wherewithal to try to wiggle my fingers and toes.  They still work.  I let everyone know this over and over again.

The EMT shows up and I'm put on a spineboard with a neck brace.  They're looking for the helmet...  My brother in law is swearing that I was wearing one.  The lady's voice says something about she saw it fly off my head before I hit the ground and it's off in the bushes over there.  Apparently she was washing some dishes in the kitchen sink and just happens to look up when she sees me and my bike go flying into the ditch.

I have a happy ride in the ambulance, the guy there asks me what day it is and for the life of me I can't remember.  I know my name, my address, who the president is, what my phone number is, but I don't know what friggin day of the week it is.

The trooper showed up in the ER while I was still out of my wits and wanted me to sign something about a ticket.  I sign it to show I understand what he was talking about (what the hell was he talking about?  Something about no insurance or license) and ask him if I can get that stuff fixed without going to court.  The trooper says yeah he thinks so.  I offer my hand in thanks to the trooper and he waves a little bit but won't touch me.  I guess it's because I'm covered in blood, but I don't know any better.  I don't even know what day it is!

I laid on that spineboard for 5 hours while they ran every test imaginable.  Trust me, you don't EVER want to spend that much time on a spineboard with a neck brace on.  My parents and sisters and their husbands show up in the ER and they look like they've been through hell.  They're crying but they happy that I have no broken bones, only a class 1 AC separation on my right shoulder, road rash all up my right side, a bad gash in my left foot and a broken nose.  The week after that was hell, scrubbing that road rash in my parents' tub and trying to get in and out of bed...  Ugh.

I got out extremely lucky.  It amazes me that people go out and buy motorcycles without ever having taken a riders' course, and even SCOFF at the idea of taking a riders course.  Motorcycles ain't like bicycles kids.  I took my riders course 3 months later after I had healed most of the way, and I'm amazed at all the information I learned that I shouldn't have done.  But hell, I didn't know any better.

I'm a strong advocate of riders training, regardless of price, time, or prior experience.  You will always learn something new no matter how long you've been riding.

[nickjtc]

I seem to be noticing a trend here. So far it seems that almost all these accidents had some dope in a car at fault.  Reinforced my idea of making ALL drivers ride a motorcycle for at least 1 summer BEFORE they get their license. Might actually make them aware of riders around them. Cant hurt.

Or, like in some countries, make it possible to start riding a restricted speed two wheeler at an early age. (With appropriate training, of course.) Lots of youngsters would be happy to ride if that was their first and earliest option to be able to be mobile. Then when they are old enough to start the 4 wheeled thing they have a real appreciation for the realities of other vehicles.

[DammitDan]

Oh, I forgot to mention...  I was wearing a cheap ass $80 Chinese "VCan" full face modular helmet at the time of the wreck.  Apparently the reason it flew off my head was because the locking mechanism that keeps the face down was made of plastic, and when I let go of the handlebars the wind got under the chin and flipped the face up, and the entire thing just slipped off, even with the D-ring tight around my neck.

We re-created the incident in my living room and sure enough with the face down and the strap tight, it would still slip off my head if any upward pressure was applied to the chin and the helmet was pulled forward off my head.  And no, the helmet wasn't too big.  It was just about perfectly sized (it was a snug fit), just VERY poor design.

I'm also an advocate of buying quality helmets.  After all, how much is your head really worth?  I ride with a Nolan N102 modular helmet now and will never even consider buying a cheap Ebay helmet again.

I contacted the helmet manufacturer, told them what happened, and they replaced the cheap modular helmet with their top-of-the-line full face non-modular free of charge.  They even took care of shipping the old helmet back to them for "tests".  Of course I know I could probably have sued or something (or maybe not, since they had no distribution points in the USA) but I had already gone through enough pain as it was.  Oh well.

[Bob Wessner]

I seem to be noticing a trend here. So far it seems that almost all these accidents had some dope in a car at fault.  Reinforced my idea of making ALL drivers ride a motorcycle for at least 1 summer BEFORE they get their license. Might actually make them aware of riders around them. Cant hurt.

To otherwise thwart the trend , no car in mine, just little old me. I was on my first bike a CB350 twin. Returning to Ann Arbor from Brighton around dusk. I was sure I would make it back before dark (I was wearing a tinted face shield ). Turned off on the exit ramp in Ann Arbor and it was getting a bit dim and I was going a bit too fast. Eased over onto the ramp shoulder doing 35-40 where there was sand and gravel. Still can't believe how little time it takes to hit the pavement. I slid right by one of those stanchions holding a reflector by a matter of inches. I might have functioned as a giant Ginsu Knife. So far, my only spill [knock on wood].

[gregimotis]

No car in mine, but stupid mistakes aplenty:

I and a friend were two-up on my Maxim and we decided it'd be a good idea to let him drive for a while up the mountain road.  He had little to no riding experience and I didn't have all that much either.
We came around a left turn, overshot into the oncoming lane, then into the gravel, then over the embankment.  Tumbled/fell/flew down the embankment and the only thing I remember distinctly in the fall was seeing that Yamaha coming straight down toward me.
We were both wearing helmets and unbelievably suffered nothing more than bruises and scrapes.

When we went back to the scene later, we saw that we had dropped about twenty feet down a forty-five degree slope into a creek bed.  Trees, boulders, assorted hard things which we miraculously didn't hit all about.

[eldar]

I guess I had a leg up when I got on my 750. It was my first street bike and before that I was riding a 100cc enduro but that had been years ago. I rode all over pastures so I became well acquainted with gravel and dirt and such. So when I got on my CB, I knew all about the front brake thing and what dirt can do.  I also learned that it is not the size of bike, it is the technique and experience that really matter.  The bike makes no difference. If you climb onto a rocket and biff it, then you were not experienced enough to know you should take it easy till you learn the bike.

Nick, maybe we should get laws changed. Maybe kids need to start with a small cycle(250) and then move up to what ever, car or bike. If they do not want to ride, then no license till 18 and they must go through extensive drivers ed.  There has to be a better way then what our countries have now.

[Pinhead]

I guess now that I think of it, I've had another one. Wasn't nearly as bad, but hurt a lot more.

I was goofing around on my SL175 in one of our pastures, trying in vain to get it to pop a wheeley in first gear. After being absolutely unsuccessful, I remembered how I used to do it on my bicycle before I had enough strength to pull 'er up... I put a rock in my path and pull up HARD while cramming on the throttle. It worked. Much better than I wanted it to . I slid off the back of the seat, still holding onto the handlebars. Little did I know it, but there was a car tire hiding in the weeds about ten feet away... While still in the wheeley, draped over the back of my seat, the back tire hit the car tire and slammed the seat into my chest. Obviously then I let go of the bars . It seemed like forever before I could catch my breath (almost blacked out). No bruises, no scrapes, got really lucky. But I thought I busted my spleen or something hahaha.

[nickjtc]

Nick, maybe we should get laws changed. Maybe kids need to start with a small cycle(250) and then move up to what ever, car or bike. If they do not want to ride, then no license till 18 and they must go through extensive drivers ed.  There has to be a better way then what our countries have now.

You're right. However it will take a great deal of political will to change the status quo and most politicians/bureaucrats have other things that they want to focus on.....things which won't impact whether they get re-elected. Cynical, aren't I?

[eldar]

Thats not cynical, thats accepting the truth. 
Maybe someday people with brains will get some control.

[techy5025]

Very interesting. As I revealed in another thread, I recently dropped the CBR due to over use of the front brake. The thing I find interesting and that people have revealed in their crash reports here is that I have no memory recall of the actual accident. I remember the car stopped in front of me and then nothing until I am standing up in the road. The only exception is that I remember the "bang" the bike made as it hit the road. 

You often read of accidents....plane crashes and such....where the parties can't recall any of the events leading up to the accident. I use to think that maybe their loss of memory was for legal reasons, but now I believe it is real. It would really be nice to recall...in detail...the specific actions I took that dumped my bike so they could hopefully be avoided in the future.

Maybe it's time for a helmet cam. 

Jim
 

[Bob Wessner]

I use to think that maybe their loss of memory was for legal reasons, but now I believe it is real.

I think in part at least, it's how fast it happens. I recall only no braking for an instant because I was on gravel/sand. The only other recollection was my head bouncing (thankfully my Bell sacraficed itself). The rest nothing, absolutely nothing.

[BobbyR]

Pilots can tell you what transpired prior to the actual event but when it happens quickly the details become skecthy. There is another similar thing reported by Police. At the range they feel and hear the Pistol go off very clearly. Many report that in a true stress filre situation with no ear protection they have this unreal sense the Pistol did not fire since they are not getting the feedback they are accustomed to. There is just so much info the brain can process. I went out of control driving a dump truck, I swear everything went black and white on me. It is very odd.

[tsp37]

I don't remember the impact of my wreck.  A van made a left hand turn in front of me, and I knew I was about to crash.  I wondered (very casually, given the circumstances) if it was better to lay the bike down or just hang on.  Suddenly I am on the pavement looking up at the brilliant October sky.  My very first thought was "I've wrecked by beautiful motorcycle . . ." 

[merc2dogs]

 I've always been the no-helmet type, always had one but prefer not wearing one.
 
  One day heading into SF after dropping my girlfriend off at home in salinas, She said I should wear the helmet, so to make her happy I put it on. Got almost into the city, and went to pass a semi, when I got closer to it and started changing lanes I noticed something white between the rear duels on the trailer, got perfectly in line and it cut loose, it was a chunk of concrete bigger than my fist. Hit my helmet right above the eye, snapped my head back with enough force to make me loose my grip on the bars. Only thing that kept me on the bike was the b-bar, I mean it laid me right down on the seat, I was eeing stars big time, managed to get back upright and grab the bars before I hit the shoulder, stopped the bike and shut it down. My ears were ringing, my vision was all crossed up, my neck was all locked up, from snapping back then hitting the b-bar, I ended up sitting there for over a half hour till my head cleared.

 Cruised over to SF general, and got checked out because my ears were still ringing and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes focused. no damage, but the helmet was toast, new at the time Bell fiberglass with a big gouge taken out of it, and cracked  down to the opening.
 
  Closest to real injury I've ever been on a bike without once hitting the ground.

 
  Now if you want a laughable accident, (now, but at the time it was painfull) I was running my girlfriend home one night (after moving up to michigan) and since we were running late I took the most direct route which is a somewhat twisty and very isolated dirt road (that is dirt, not gravel, what they call seasonal roads up here, but honest states call them firetrails ) 
 Anyway, came up to a curve and saw a black 'lump' in the road,couldn't make out what it was so I angled off to miss it, got closer and saw it was a porcupine, only doing about 35, so I checked it out as I went by, when I looked ahead again, there were two more of the things in the road right in front of me, I hit the one with the front tire, which knocked me over far enough that I hit the other one with my leg and foot, got the bike straightened up and stopped so I could look at my leg which seriously paining me,  looked and I had about 40-50 quills in my leg and boot, tried to pull them out and figured I'd tough out and ride to her house where I could actualy see what I was doing, fired up the bike (only time I realy NEEDED electric start) and put it in gear only to find out I had a flat tire with quills stuck through the sidewall.
 
 I couldn't walk with all the quills in my boot so I started pulling quills out with pliers, and found out that I couldn't get all the quills out of my foot without pulling my boot off, and I couldn't pull the boot off without getting the quills out, so I ended up having to pull all the quills I could then cut the boot off and pull the ones that were buried. 4 miles to the pavement, and roughly a mile after that to the first house, and nobody was home so we had to go to the next one before we could get ahold of someone to come get my bike and get her home. ended up getting her home at around 6:30.

 Only time I'd ever seen a porcupine in the wild, and they screwed my whole day up.

Ken.

[Uncle Ernie]

Fun stuff here.  All mine are pretty boring, though.  Been carted off 3 times. The other times- it's nice there's so many good ol' boys with pick-ups around here.  (If only to pull a bike off ya)

[Slapguts]

Two of them in the first year of riding.

I was pulling away from a stop light that had just turned green on a 4 lane state highway. (US301 in Sarasota) Pulled the clutch, clicked up into second, and got rear ended. Clipped the back turn signal off the bike, hit the left side exhaust and blew the entire system off the front of the engine. Hit the center stand, bent it all to hell, and grazed my jeans just enough to leave black tire marks. Everyone I knew that rode always said the hit the gas in a situation like that, since it will keep the bike upright. It worked. I nailed the throttle, and the bike stayed up. The car that nailed me swerved into the grass median, back on to the road, and the brake lights never even came on. I tried to chase him down, but with no exhaust on the bike, it started fouling the plugs before I could catch up. The cops said that the first three numbers of his license plate and the make, model and color of the car (with fresh damage to the right front) wasn't enough info to find him, so the bastard got away with it. Haven't been able to take an eye off the rear view at a stop light since.

Second one was more recent. I was cruising along a nice straight country road, and had a truck pulling a trailer cut out in front of me from a side road. I had more than enough time to swerve around the side of him, but just as I got next to the trailer, he swung a U-turn. Right in front of me. I locked the brakes, and got the bike sideways just enough the hit it with my shoulder instead of head on. Slammed right into the drivers side door. I think. Next thing I remember is being loaded into the back of an ambulance on a board. Like DammitDan said, 5 hours is a long damn time to lay strapped to a piece of wood. Spent three months going to physical therapy to get my shoulder to work right again.

I've had 6 concussions, and the reason most folks don't have a memory of the accident is that your brain stores the current goings on in one part, and commits them to a separate part in your permanent memory a few minutes later. During the accident, your brain shuts that function down, so the actual event of the accident never makes it to permanent memory. That's one of the tell tale signs of a concussion, lack of memory of the actual event.

[eldar]

Gotta love lazy cops. You can bet that if it was tied to drugs or a homicide, the make and model and firts 3 letters would have been MORE than enough to find that car. Course I am sure the cops and their supporters would have said they were too busy to track the person down. I would have certainly contacted a lawyer and at least asked what some possible options were.  I love how pplice abuse their power when they feel like it.