Topic: close stupid calls?

[dave500]

further to kopptls thread on your helmets,,what close calls come to mind??like a rabbit ran between your front and rear wheels whilst leaned right over,,two come to my mind,one was a sheet of particle board the size of an old english billiard table that flew off a tray truck going in the opposite direction on the highway,it landed flat and i rode straight over it at 110 klms under brakes,,the other was two cars towing with a rope coming out of a side street,,the tower decided to go ,and the towee thought better and held fast as i rode between the snapped rope with the rear wheel locked up,,both of these in townsville/ queensland australia and on my old vf750.,timing is everything,as well as reflexes and luck.,observation and anticipation,and more luck.

[Sporkfly]

There's an intersection near the college campus, it's the only one like it in town, with a left lane, straight lane and right lane. Not sure why they did this to be honest, it's an oddball as far as our city streets go. Anyway, I was going left and was behind a city bus (an appreciable distance as well, I'd say around 2-3 car lengths) and there was a 3/4 ton pickup in the straight lane. The bus went left and I started into the turn. The truck decided it no longer wanted to go straight and took the left turn. I had two options that I liked and one that I didn't even want to think about and had to think quick. Either I had to straighten the bike up, thus heading straight at the truck, and emergency brake or crack the throttle open and press HARD. I opted to crack the throttle open. I stayed along the center of the truck through the turn and shot past them when exiting, but at the apex of the turn my tires were without a doubt UNDER the truck. They didn't know I was there (even with loud pipes that are supposed to save my life) until I was in front of them flipping them the bird.

[Yoshi823]

Close calls...over my 34 years...i've had a few.
I was coming home from the south coast and looking forward to the MotoGP on the box. i was leading 2 other riders when I was approaching an entrance to a dog kennel business. The roads wern't very crowded as it was a Sunday,& being just after lunch the sun was quite high in the sky. Despite this, we had our headlights on. A woman driver (sound familiar?) was approaching us from the opposite direction, when she suddenly turned to pass in front of me. Although we nearly touched, I managed to swerve out of her way...but I don't know how. But my friend who was riding as my #2 wasn't so lucky...he & his ladyfriend passenger hit the front of the car & cartwheeled over the top. When I had managed to avoid the situation, I had carried on at a much reduced pace, & looked in my mirror. What I did see, which is etched in my memory from all those years ago, was a flailing body in mid-air. I immediately pulled over & ran back, thankful that my friend who had been riding #3, hadn't got tangled up in the mess. Luckily nobody was killed or very seriously wounded.

There were several other situations, but this one was the most recent.

[clarkjh]

Side stand down, and left turn, 90km/h.  Nuff said.

James

PS, no the stand did not flip up on contact with the road.

[Retro Rocket]

Too many to write up but one thing to remember is to NEVER PANIC.....

Mick

[clarkjh]

Too many to write up but one thing to remember is to NEVER PANIC.....

Mick

Wait till your stopped and off the bike before you let panic set in, a lot less painful.

James

[micol]

Hit a buzzard going down the interstate one time.  Those things are big.

[my78k]

Cruising along the 401 at around 140kms or so and having the van in front of my detach from it's trailer....spilled all it's contents in front of me as I hit the brakes and slalomed thru it all. Luckily I was in the process of slowing down at the time.

[vanillagorilla]

Working through traffic in Phx on my R6, had to tilt my head up to allow the flatbed of a truck go by.... Another one, I was doing 130+ , coming up on a little toyota when my visor came up. So I tried to shut it like a welders mask(you know, by knodding my head) and my helmet shifted just enough to cover my eyes. By the time I got it lifted, I had just a second to spare. Good times...

[bradweingartner]

There's an intersection near the college campus, it's the only one like it in town, with a left lane, straight lane and right lane. Not sure why they did this to be honest, it's an oddball as far as our city streets go. Anyway, I was going left and was behind a city bus (an appreciable distance as well, I'd say around 2-3 car lengths) and there was a 3/4 ton pickup in the straight lane. The bus went left and I started into the turn. The truck decided it no longer wanted to go straight and took the left turn. I had two options that I liked and one that I didn't even want to think about and had to think quick. Either I had to straighten the bike up, thus heading straight at the truck, and emergency brake or crack the throttle open and press HARD. I opted to crack the throttle open. I stayed along the center of the truck through the turn and shot past them when exiting, but at the apex of the turn my tires were without a doubt UNDER the truck. They didn't know I was there (even with loud pipes that are supposed to save my life) until I was in front of them flipping them the bird.

What intersection is that?

[andy750]

A couple spring to mind...both happened in Scotland in my younger riding days...

I was 22 and riding a CB350SG (Honda 1989 model) on a  narrow 2-lane road with a hot girl on the back. We were overtaking around 8 cars but as we were getting close to the front a large construction truck was hammering down on us from the other side. I had to decide whether to go for it and overtake all the cars and risk getting smashed to pieces by the truck or to cut in on the line of cars. I went for it and the moment we slipped back into the lane, I could feel the wind of the trucks front bumper as it grazed past us. Split second longer and Id have been toast  

Second one....I had been studying hard on a nice sunny day when a friend called and asked if I wanted to go climbing at the local quarry. I said sure why not and jumped on my bike to ride over. Same CB350 bike as above. A 1/4 mile from my house there is a steep hill and when we got to the top I was behind a car so I quickly overtook it at the top and then cracked the throttle open and raced down the hill. I didnt quite understand why cars on the opposite side were flashing their lights at me until I reached the bottom of the hill. There were 2 traffic cops and one was standing in the middle of the road with his hand out in a "stop" motion (this was the custom back then). I was going to fast to stop in front of him  . I made a quick stupid decision and made a run for it  . I had to overtake a few more cars to put as much distance between me and the cops. Talk about heart beating fast!! I stopped some way up the road and saw that no one had followed me...phew...by the this time I was too mentally exhausted so went back home via a different route....turned the corner to my house and there were the 2 traffic cops waiting for me (they had got my plate of course). As I puled up they said "you are in deep sh%t sonny, you are going to jail for this one"...then they looked at the bike and wondered how it had pulled 0 -70 mph so fast I got banned for driving for 6 months for that one....

cheers
Andy

[dave500]

its sounds so much better in a scottish accent though,its not down a hill!!its dooon a hull! ill bet the scott cops take no crap!.laddy!

[andy750]

its sounds so much better in a scottish accent though,its not down a hill!!its dooon a hull! ill bet the scott cops take no crap!.laddy!

I had to change the wording to make it understandable . Yeah the Scottish cops take no crap....they told me they wanted to chase me but I was going to fast and they couldnt get on their Beemers fast enough ...after getting banned in the UK I sold the mighty 350 to a Greek student who then rode it down to Athens while I flew to America for the summer and bought my first CB750 and rode across the States and back