Topic: Highway Obstacle Stories. Share in the horror...

[phrige]

Hey,
 I was wondering if any of you guys ever had to deal with trash in the road while riding.. Yesterday, 'in the cage' i came up on 2 separate occasions of  major junk in the road. first time it was day time and some tire fragment in the middle of an onramp to the highway. Not so bad highly visible and easy to avoid.
Second time was a recipe for disaster. It was dark, like 830ish. Im on the highway (i287) coming home,  the highway does a hard turn for about a ¼ mile. So its fairly long, not much lighting on that bend. Im in the far right lane since my exit is pretty much right after and as im coming around my headlights illuminate a Huge 18wheeler Tire, just rubber, coiled like a snake in the middle of my lane, no time or place to do anything so all i could do is drive over it, and here it thunk and bruise my cars undercarriage.. NOT a pretty sound.
The cars fine but the thing that struck me the most about it all, If i was on a bike and 1.) had so little time to react, 2.) the thing took up most of the lane and 3.) there was decent amount of traffic around me.. Realistically speaking id be FkED in the worst way.

So I was wondering if any one else ever came upon a similar situation on their bike.  18 wheeler droppings in the middle of the road.....

Pete. 

[Bob Wessner]

Never encountered them on the bike, but I have a problem with tire carcasses from big rigs. The roads here in Mich are littered with the remains of retreads. I think their use should be prohibited. I know they save trucking companies $$, but what about us?

[The_Crippler]

Not me, but a a former teacher of mine gave me the "always where a helmet" speach in the guise of a story about him hitting a haybale around a blind turn.

[tortelvis]

How about a ladder across the road? Luckily managed to dodge it but, dayum! Of course we all know NOT to look directly at an obstacle don't we? Coz then yer gonna hit it for sure! Look where you want to go is the name of the game. By the way; why in Hell are truckers allowed to litter the hiways with their lethal strips of rubber? Ought not to be allowed IMHO. Had one of those chunks fly up after the car in front ran over it, just missed my head. Not funny at all.

[HondaMan]

The #1 item in traffic: alertness. Experience teaches that watching the patterns ahead of you will tell you what is going on in the street: that helps with debris. Always ride in the cars' tracks, so they sweep the road for you.

The #1 item when on lonelier roads: we used to teach it as "Reserve Reaction Time", RRT. Always ride at a speed that will let you react to stuff like this. 

[Don R]

  13 motorcycles, In indianapolis traffic going to Louisville to the flat track races and couch cushions fall in front of us. most went around them some went over them everybody made it. a large group can be unwieldy.
  Once in my 40 chevy going to St Paul to the street rod nats, a crew dropped a piece of concrete off a bridge project. I saw them all run to the side and look over just before it fell, it was about the size of a basketball. I changed lanes and made it around it but always wondered what if I had been 100 feet farther ahead?
  A metal pipe fell from a scrap truck, bounced and as it passed me I could hear the wind whistle in the end of it.
 I got construction stories too.

[fishhead]

Not really my story..

 Years ago, when I was still in the body shop bussiness, we had a Datsun Z car pull up and the lady who was driving it climbed out the window. She had just gotten back from vacation (down south somewhere) and her doors wouldn't open. Come to find out, she had ran over a a large alligator (or croc) and when we put it on the rack, it had bent the front of the car about 2 inches up. After she ran over "what was in the road" she looked back and saw the alligator crawling off the road.

 The car was totaled.

[bryanj]

I drive the big trucks in UK 96,800lb gross and would be 20 wheelers if we didnt use what are know as "super singles" instead of twin wheels on the trailers.

In theory--good those aint they---its the tyre firm that comes out to replace the casing that is supposed to pick up the bits but that rarely happens and as to retreads I have had a 2 week old Bridgstone on the steer axle destroy itself leaving a large rubber ring of tread on the road and me driving on rubber shards and steel rim at 56 MPH!!! Believe me adrenalin is Runny, Brown and drips down inside your trousers

[andy750]

A couple of examples for me (there are plenty!)

Riding 2-up down through West Virginia behind a huge truck when one of its tires blows out and I have to avoid the huge strips of rubber coming my way. I do so and myself and the trucker pull over to check for damage  - none but he was visibly shaken ;-)

Riding in the backroads of Mexico there was always something to avoid on blind corners...donkeys sitting in the middle of the road or dogs leaping out of nowhere...riding into Aculpulco through the trees a goat jumps out from the side and the minivan taxi in front of me hits it dead and keeps on driving...there was another goat immediately behind it and it looked at me...I looked at it....it stayed where it was....reminds me now of the new Clooney movie "The Men who stare at goats" 

cheers
Andy

[phrige]

hahaha BrianNJ just double check, you sure that adrenaline?

wow some really wild stories.  Observing how traffic moves in front of you is definitely vital. I dont know if any of you guys are into Tom Brown JR tracker stuff, but I relate it to what he refers to 'concentric rings' the various reactions in the environment because of a stimulus. this case a tire tread. sending out signals like ripples in a pond.
over analyzing a little. 

Retreads should definitely be taken out of use. At the very least  you know at each blow out there is a trucker and stranded truck. And that truck doesn’t just go away instantly. That guy is sitting there for a while working out new tire or transferring trailer to a new truck or whatever the case maybe. They have plenty of time to clean up the road, they should be required to call up the state police to help them steer away traffic, temporally close a lane or two to clean up the trash.. seems like common sense, since more likely then not the cops get a call about it later anyway.
I had a boss I worked with, driving box trucks around tri state area. Whenever he saw a tread in the road he would religiously call state police/ highway patrol to clean it up. He was concerned about the elderly and even imagined his wife coming across something like that, he said shed be toast, she wouldn’t know how to react to something like that and may do something frantic..
 
Something sure needs to be done about it. Im glad to here that all of you have been alright, flying couch cushions and all.

Pete

[gerhed]

Many years ago--riding my CB160 at speed
through the "Duke Forest" wearing sandals.
Ran over a whiskey bottle.
Picked a lot of glass out of my feet---I was lucky.

[754]

FFFeeeeeccckkkk, i hate them "Rubber Gators"   

 & the thought of one of them wrapped around your body (like a well worn tire), after you parted company from your bike after hitting the first few chunks..

 I was between SanDiego and Mexico border on the freeway one time and saw 2 large dog carcasses on the road.. like 100 lb dogs that had not long ago got hit.. that was sorta gross..

[TomL]

In reply to the trucker who had a retread on the steering axle... Isn't that a huge no-no.  I though retreads were only supposed to be used on non-steering axles.

[mrbreeze]

 A few years ago,a biker here in Modesto (California) was killed when he hit pieces of scrap 2x4 that had spilled out on the freeway. It was dark out and witnesses said he had hit a few pieces and then some more which put him out of control and he went down. I can well imagine he was doing at least 75 mph and probably never saw anything till it was too late.

[flybox1]

Fargin' Aminals!   
In the last year i've been riding my 350F, i've managed to miss wild pigs, dogs, cats, deer, opossum, and peacocks.  I hate peacocks.     they're fast.  unpredictable.

[The_Crippler]

Oh...if we're going to address obstacles over the road, then I have one story:

Riding on the highway of my first bike in my teens, out of the corner of my eye I saw a sparrow arching across the road and pass in front of me.  I had just enough time to notice that it didn't come out the other side before I was enveloped in a cloud of feathers.

When I sold the bike several years later, I was still finding bits of bird in places.

[mrblasty]

A few years back As I was approaching a junk truck from behind I noticed a mattress floating up from the bed.  I jammed on the throttle and got ahead of the truck.  Not sure if it ever made it out of the truck but didn't feel the need to stay back and find out

[Steve F]

Not me, but a a former teacher of mine gave me the "always where a helmet" speach in the guise of a story about him hitting a haybale around a blind turn.

So, did the guy have to Bail? 

[bender01]

In a minivan around 10 years ago on i-95 north going to Darlington. It was late like 1 am All of a sudden the van was leaned over almost dragging doors on each side as we navigated dozens of cinderblocks at 80 mph! The semi was pulled over about a mile up the road. We had to be the first few through. I still cant believe we missed em all.
   edited correctly now @ 09:59:25 pm

[The_Crippler]

So, did the guy have to Bail?  

A-hurk, a-hurk!  

But don't worry...he went home, found a comfy bed and hit the hay.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

On my way to Sturgis this past August I had a close call. I was a couple hundred yards behind Seaweb. As a vehicle pulling a double axle enclosed trailer passed Derek from the opposite direction his rear axle tire on our side let go. I look up and see the entire tread being thrown diagonally across our lane and onto the shoulder. Good #1. Just missed Derek. He never saw a thing. Then a puff of smoke as the tire started to disintegrate. Tire schrapnel flying everywhere. My immediate concern was the trailer. I was watching it hoping it didn't start fish tailing as it headed my way. Good #2. It remained straight. As I'm running out of time (maybe 3 seconds total elapsed time) I'm headed into the flying schrapnel field. Only thing I can do is head straight on and hope for the best. I tucked down as low as possible on the tank behind the windshield and held on. As I'm peeking forward I see my headlight explode and see the larger pieces of the broken glass exit on both sides of me. Good #3. No cut juglar vein or no crash. Neither guy in front of me had a clue about what had just happened.  

[Quorthon]

In a minivan @10 years ago on i-95 north going to Darlington. It was late like 1 am All of a sudden the van was leaned over @dragging doors on each side as we navigated dozens of ciderblocks at 80 mph! The semi was pulled over about a mile up the road. We had to be the first few through. I still cant believe we missed em all.

I don't think you know what "@" means....

[MJL]

How about a ladder across the road? Luckily managed to dodge it but, dayum! Of course we all know NOT to look directly at an obstacle don't we? Coz then yer gonna hit it for sure! Look where you want to go is the name of the game. By the way; why in Hell are truckers allowed to litter the hiways with their lethal strips of rubber? Ought not to be allowed IMHO. Had one of those chunks fly up after the car in front ran over it, just missed my head. Not funny at all.

Those usually come from trailer tires, and a blowout 60 feet behind the driver is not easily heard.

[von_Wanderlust]

all i could do is drive over it, and here it thunk and bruise my cars undercarriage..

I've come close to hitting a few things in my car, but luckily have always been able to avoid them. If it's a real safety hazard and it's safe to stop, I always go back (or send my passenger ) to clear the road for the next person.

[Kevin D]

 In the car, at night, I came over the railroad tracks and there was a trailer jack sitting in the middle of the road. It tore a hole in the oil pan. I mighta cleared it if I had been goin a lot faster, but thats not my luck.

Driving in traffic on the highway, the last 100 miles of our cross country trip, my buddy hit a can of pork and beans on his CB350 and bent the front rim.

Not too horrible.........