Close Call Thread

jafolcke

New member
I've seen death on a bike. Knew some guys who would do 110 mph wheelies and other foolish stunts. We were in front at a red light, and bikes obviously accelerate faster than cars. A car down the road saw the red light an maybe not even that bikes were there and decided he would pull into the road without double looking. Light turns green, one guy in the left lane didn't even hammer the throttle, but just got up to speed as fast as possible (45mph). The car doesn't double check to his left and turns right into the left lane running right over this guy right in front of the others and myself. He died instantly. Not even doing a dangerous stunt like usual but driving straight down the road. Maybe he could have been more cautious, but at the same time cars are supposed to turn right into the right lane and left into the left lane. My advice- don't only be cautious when messing around, be cautious all the time!!!
 

Tiffy

New member
Like to highlight my own stupidity this morning.....on the way to work at 0630, speeding with dawn coming up, family of kangaroos (4) right across the road in front of me. My emergency breaking was not as good as would like to admit and I did the rear wheel shuffle as I locked the back up. Luckily for me and thanks (I think to an advance riding course I did sometime back in the UK) I managed to keep it up right and only just missed the last roo.
Shook me up quite a bit and I sat by the road for a good few minutes - what did I learn (apart from the fact that I hate kangaroos) that I am not as good a rider as I thought I was yesterday. Probably a timely reminder for me!!
 

ssky0078

New member
Last night I was on my way home. It was a little after midnight. I was going my usual route through old town Scottsdale via south bound on Scottsdale Road. Well this Town Car/Cab driver gets in front of me in the left lane and I'm gong easy. It's 40 through there and the cops are crawling at that time of night because of the people that are out. Well this bastard is timing the lights to block me off so I can't get to through before it is red. About 100 yards from the light he starts brake checking me and swerving in his lane a little bit. As soon as the opening for the left turn lane opens up I pop over and stay back off him a bit as he speeds up to get through the left turn light (in Scottsdale they are backwards, left turns happen after straight greens). There are two lanes that go left, I am on the outside lane and he is on the far inside. I figure whatever I'm making it through the dam light, there is next to nobody on the road and I don't want to run the risk of sitting there and my bike not having enough magnetic pull to trigger the left turn signal next go around. We are mid way through the left turn in the middle of the intersection where this MF'er decides to cut across my path of travel over into my lane. So, I have to brake a little bit, finish the corner and then as soon as I'm through the intersection, I watch him for a second drop down in to second and jump on it as I overtake him on the inside. I get up in front of him about 20 ft and I am livid as I turn around on the bike to look back it this MF'er. I look into this guys car and he has a cell phone in one hand, the wheel in the other, and he looks at me and gives me the what's up nod like what are you going to do about it. I sanely decided to ride away but by god I have been saving up for a small concealed carry 45 and I would fantasize about going Sons of Anarchy on that POS MF'er. I almost wanted to ride slow and wait to get caught at a redlight up ahead, but I've seen too many youtubes where the biker gets Effed up because people just ram them with their cars. I would understand if I was riding like a dick, but I was following this guy at a safe distance after he already got into my lane of travel in the first place.
 

alexk

Weekend Rider
This a great time to point out - anger while driving/riding does you zero favors.

You get pissed off, you get more aggressive. Your reactions get rougher. You get a sort of tunnel vision. You make an ass of yourself, and you're a LOT more likely to make (and defend) stupid mistakes.

I learned to drive on the psychotic freeways of Los Angeles. First rule of survival there is even more important on a bike:

If you start to get angry on the road, back off and relax. No matter who did what, it's time to take a break.
 

e11charlie

New member
This a great time to point out - anger while driving/riding does you zero favors.

You get pissed off, you get more aggressive. Your reactions get rougher. You get a sort of tunnel vision. You make an ass of yourself, and you're a LOT more likely to make (and defend) stupid mistakes.

I learned to drive on the psychotic freeways of Los Angeles. First rule of survival there is even more important on a bike:

If you start to get angry on the road, back off and relax. No matter who did what, it's time to take a break.

Apparently somebody never watched mad max. Geez. Kidding very good point there.
 

ssky0078

New member
Apparently somebody never watched mad max. Geez. Kidding very good point there.

I forgot about the motorcycle sequences in Mad Max, those were pretty good.

I was not really that angry. I just have a creative imagination and it likes to make loose associations with the stuff I've watched. The thing I imagined the other night was the cover of the Sons of Anarchy DVD box. One hand on the throttle, One unloading a clip. The other thing that was even more ridiculous was imagining being Ghost Rider and using his Chain to chop the car in half. For me imagining stuff let's off steam and I can refocus.
 

krillz

New member
A friend and I where riding down a 2 lane road when the car coming at me made a quick left, a truck from the 70's pulling a trailer with a huge water tank on it behind the quick turning car couldn't slow down and jack knifed the trailer. The trailer flipped over and slammed left then right(my lane) and thankfully and finally back left again tossing water and parts everywhere. I left a 50ft skid on the road and a 9incher in my pants. I stopped and helped the 80 year old driver of the truck flip the trailer and remove it from the road.
 

cambo

Avid Rider
The weekend morning commute back home is usually uneventful. It's 0530am with roughly 8 other cars on the highway the entire 40 miles back home...which is good because I'm not the most awake after being awake the past 16 or so hours. This morning was the exception. Thank goodness I slammed that 5 hour energy for shits and grins before I left because I sure used the extra alertness.

I dodged, not 1, but 2 idiots that tried to cut me off. A quick few revs to get my obnoxious exhaust to sing promptly woke them up and got them back into their lane. I felt justified in gesturing, "why? what for?" to each and then giving a very punctuated and prolonged middle finger as I flew by. In hindsight, I feel infantile in that behavior...but I was grumpy, hungry...and was out of snickers bars.

Then...a couple more miles down the hwy...the g'damn deer. I didn't even see them at first. For whatever reason, I was fixated on the car a ways up in front of me (he was in a camry, and just moments earlier, he pulled up next to me for a couple hundred feet, then peeled off...and I'm like...what is this? is this how cars signal they want to race?) I brushed him off and just continued to cruise when I saw him randomly light up his brake lights and that's when I'm like, wtf? and started searching what was up ahead of HIM. I thought there was a state trooper at first, but that's when I noticed an entire facking family of deer crossing the hwy. SHITTTT....EVASIVE MANEUVERSSSS...DEPLOY CHAFFS...TUCK AND ROLLLLL...STOP DROP AND ROLL...jk, I wasn't that close...I had plenty of time to brake...POINT BEING is: had I decided to own this stupid camry like the idiot younger version of me would've...there would've been a different ending to this story. Instead of pulling off the hwy at my exit, making the usual stop at the dunkin donuts, and stuffing my face while I shook and cried in terror at what might've been....I could've very well been road kill.

Lesson Learned...for me at least:
1) Install a train horn on the bike

This is a long post but I'm currently defecating and have all the time in the world but I guess I'll end this hear because the legs have fallen asleep.
 
About 10 miles into my ride home from the dealership last week on I-94, going 70 between Minneapolis and St. Paul had a muffler in the middle of the road...I leave space between me and the vehicle in front as with 6-8 lane highways that are busy it can be pretty blind... and pointed it out for the Hardley rider behind me and my wife in the car...
 

Banky2112

Just plain crazy...
Man this is just crazy. All these stories make me want to not get on a bike.


Part of the life man, I ride because it makes me feel free. I don't worry about this stuff, every close call is a lesson you "didn't" learn the hard way.
 

DSmith

New member
2 close calls in 10 minutes

Coming back from about a 2 hour ride this morning. I take the highway back to my town. Going with the flow of traffic I signal and go into the far right lane because my exit is coming up. Some lady in the lane to the left decides she needs to get in my lane right away with no signal. Now, I always stay out of blind spots and try not to cruise next to other cars which saved me from an accident but still, it was too close for comfort. So i give her a "friendly" beep and took my exit.

Im about 1/4 mile from my house now. Im on a straight road with multiple side roads in a grid format. I was doing about 35-40mph which is normal for that road. A red toyota pickup is sitting about 200 yards on one of the side roads with his left turn signal on. He continues to sit there as I get closer so (heres my big mistake) I assume he sees me. Well im about 20ft to the street and he decides to pull out after making eye contact with me. I pretty much grazed his front bumper with my kneepad. And ended up in someones yard sliding on a pile of leaves. I kept the bike upright though, I dont know how.

After freaking the hell out for a minute I turn around and see him driving down the road. So I caught up to him on my bike and asked if he thought it was a good idea to stop after runnning someone off the road. He told me he had a lot of problems at home with his son and he wasnt paying attention. I said it'd probably be a good idea to not be driving if you can't pay attention. And he said Im sorry Im a biker too. I told him he should know better then. Then I took off.

So all those things everyone tells me about being invisible is very true. I almost learned the hard way. But it's a valuable lesson learned and it'll only make me a smarter rider.

Now, to find new underwear.
 

MotoZen

New member
Coming back from about a 2 hour ride this morning. I take the highway back to my town. Going with the flow of traffic I signal and go into the far right lane because my exit is coming up. Some lady in the lane to the left decides she needs to get in my lane right away with no signal. Now, I always stay out of blind spots and try not to cruise next to other cars which saved me from an accident but still, it was too close for comfort. So i give her a "friendly" beep and took my exit.

Im about 1/4 mile from my house now. Im on a straight road with multiple side roads in a grid format. I was doing about 35-40mph which is normal for that road. A red toyota pickup is sitting about 200 yards on one of the side roads with his left turn signal on. He continues to sit there as I get closer so (heres my big mistake) I assume he sees me. Well im about 20ft to the street and he decides to pull out after making eye contact with me. I pretty much grazed his front bumper with my kneepad. And ended up in someones yard sliding on a pile of leaves. I kept the bike upright though, I dont know how.

After freaking the hell out for a minute I turn around and see him driving down the road. So I caught up to him on my bike and asked if he thought it was a good idea to stop after runnning someone off the road. He told me he had a lot of problems at home with his son and he wasnt paying attention. I said it'd probably be a good idea to not be driving if you can't pay attention. And he said Im sorry Im a biker too. I told him he should know better then. Then I took off.

So all those things everyone tells me about being invisible is very true. I almost learned the hard way. But it's a valuable lesson learned and it'll only make me a smarter rider.

Now, to find new underwear.

Scary stuff! Glad your okay.
 

97audia4

Member
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmfQMUiCFvM&feature=share&list=UU57jOzukyIVjStm3UuV-XlA]Almost crashed - YouTube[/ame]
 
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