road hazards - war stories

[fjrrider RI]

ok I know you guys have plenty of stories. Whats the worst road hazard you have encountered?

When I was a squid I was riding my 1970 triumph bonniville down a long curving hill a bit to fast in the rain! Looking at the curve rapidly commin up it was clear I would not make it. Had to thread the needle between a phone pole and the guy wire at 60 mph and do a 50' belly slide on the lawn between two houses. Amazingly I put myself and the bike down on grass and got up and rode home battered. I have developed CRS (can't remember shit) Wait just remembered that is not the best one!

[schleppy]

My only really sketchy encounter was with a nice big line of oil in the middle of a turn. I had only been riding for a year or so and was taking a right onto an onramp. I glance down and notice a black line that went most of the way down the ramp. As soon as I saw it I felt the bike start to slide out a bit. I gently backed off the throttle and the bike stood back up. Big time pucker.

[NobodySpecific]

Hit a tar snake with both tires in the middle of a long corner. Bike kicked out right (with both tires), lean angle increased dramatically, foot got pulled off of the peg when it hit the road, leg hit the road (was in full gear, so it didn't do anything), then the bike regained traction and off I went. I've been terrified of tar snakes ever since.

[Paul_E_D]

My worst road hazard was a CAR right where my front tire wanted to be...

Second place goes to 3 turkeys that flew straight at my head in procession.

[Stoneman]

I've had a Blue Jay fly smack into my head while riding. Luckily, I was wearing a helmet. Also had a wasp walking up my faceshield, on the inside, on the interstate. That was fun...

[fjrrider RI]

Remembered the worst one was on a 250 dirt bike I was test riding on a trail behind Razees. Decided to take a jump without any knowledge of the junk cars all lined up with rust and all in my landing area. Hit a junk car turned the front fender got the bike all messed up dirty and a bloody head with a concussion. Managed to turn the fender back and clean the bike off so it was not noticable and cleaned my bloody head and returned the bike and went to the hospital! Bad day to say the least and did not buy the bike Not a model customer.

[Jaynnus]

Hmmm......

A tree that had fallen across the road, mid corner (in VT)

A guy who lost his trailer tailgate and it was flipping flipping flipping in air and I was trying to dodge exactly where it would land...yup, right in front of me! (somewhere in NY)

A truck in front of me on an on ramp who dumped about 10 Home Depot buckets onto the roadway...those things roll and bounce in all different directions and then change direction! (in New Bedford)

Lastly, a deer standing dead center of the on ramp! (Thank you guy driving the S10 that went around me and chased the deer away! (Dartmouth)

[Variablevalve]

Two from my first season riding.

1. I had a few thousand miles of experience but was still fairly inexperienced, taking turns slow and easy, etc. I was riding some roads I had ridden with a friend, but by myself this time. Made a turn into a road thinking it was a one-way (this was based upon no real facts, just that the road looked narrow enough to be a one-way). As I turned in (fully expecting to use the entire width of the road) I saw headlights coming at me.

All I could remember was what my friend had said, "your bike can lean a lot more than you think." I changed my lean fairly drastically, really puckered up, and was completely amazed that I didn't lowside. Looking back, I don't think I even leaned much past 45 degrees but in my mind, when I told the story later that night, I had basically dragged knee...HAHA

2. Riding with the same friend mentioned above. We were coming down a fairly steep hill with a stop sign at the bottom. I wasn't scanning up ahead so by the time I saw the stop sign I was already up right next to my friend who was originally riding well ahead of me. I stomped on the brakes, but there was also some sand on the road. Locked up the rear and felt my tire start sliding. Out of pure fear (no recall of what I had learned in MSF) i managed to stay on it and came out okay. That was a real pucker.

[Mike Qube]

About a year ago I was riding down Cambridge St, there was a bus smoking on the side of the road, because I was paying attention to the bus, I didn't notice the oil slick that was about the width of the lane until I was on top of it, I manged to keep the bike upright, Almost shit myself though.

[Rada]

Talk about flipping. I had a pick up truck bed liner do that in front of me on the highway.

[Fitz]

Second or third week on a brand new 07 zx6r. Riding home from work on route 3 north after a stupidly long day and saw a piece of chopped and split firewood in the middle of my lane on the highway. Easy enough to hug the left hand side of the lane and miss it but when the pickup truck in front jacked on it's brakes and started swerving was when the pucker effect began. A full size dump truck had somehow dumped it's load of cordwood while going down the highway at speed. Rather than simply pull over when he did it he merged from the left all way over to the right leaving a stream of triangular wood in his wake. Cars were jumping all over the place trying to avoid the bouncing wood. I somehow managed to keep the front tire on the pavement all while not getting broad sided by the cagers but it was pretty tense for a few moments.

Back River Rd in Merrimack heading north. A nice large section of fresh tar snakes mid corner with zero warning. She slid out but caught the pavement before I went off the road.

Been lucky that those are the only two real instances.

Fitz

[schleppy]

Oh man, I forgot my best one!

I don't remember which bike I was on, but I was riding around Manchester by the Sea on my usual route. As I was coming down a straight I noticed a rustle in the bushes to my right, I was about 10 feet from the bush when a bird flew out of it REALLY fast. At that point everything slowed down and I saw the bird fly directly in front of me. All I thought was "I'm definitely hitting this bird". BAM, the bird hit me square in the chest. It actually didn't hurt as bad as I thought I would, and I started (nervously) hysterically laughing in my helmet. So bizarre.

[Slyder]

In the dirt....went up over the bank to jump a dirt driveway on my old RM125, something I had done many times, but this time the bike went one way and I went the opposite... we parted company in flight and both landed in the driveway. I picked the bike up, barely, leaned against each other awhile, then I was happy it was a hill, I couldn't kick the thing over with my right leg screaming at me. Clutched it and rode home, I was done for that day.

On the street my favorite mishap was pulling into a store parking lot, never saw the sand and I was on the front brake. I let the brake go without thinking about it and rode it out, stopped and hopped off like nothing happened and the woman out front had the million mile stare going and asked "are you alright?" I skeered the piss out of her, guess she thought I was headed to the ground. Knowing how to ride dirt saved my butt a few times.

I've definitely got stories of idiots pulling out in front of me and making illegal turns after signaling to do the opposite, but after 15 years on the street I have no crash stories.

[fjrrider RI]

I've had a Blue Jay fly smack into my head while riding. Luckily, I was wearing a helmet. Also had a wasp walking up my faceshield, on the inside, on the interstate. That was fun...

I had one hit the windshield at 90mph on 295 it shook me up. Flew out from the median bushes. A deer hit by a car going the other way flew up an missed the windshield by a few inches - my luck was holding that day

[Sheppo]

Got hit in the chest by a bird, stung in the armpit (he flew up my sleeve), Deer jumped out, Oil on the highway, back tire slid.. and the best Bird Shit on the visor and instinct was to wipe it off, causing total white out.

[fjrrider RI]

fat girl

right - fat girl dropped my bike for me one day gotta watch for them heavys! Need to post weight limits on the pillion seat under 90lbs!

[Trouble]

An oncoming truck pulling a boat on a two lane road had a tube fly out of the back of it. The tube was still attached to the boat and it flipped back and forth across the road before I got to it. I damn near shit myself when the tube came back toward me as I was passing the truck. I ducked and held on and I'm pretty sure the rope and tube went over my head but it happened too fast to be sure of anything.

[fjrrider RI]

Got hit in the chest by a bird, stung in the armpit (he flew up my sleeve), Deer jumped out, Oil on the highway, back tire slid.. and the best Bird Shit on the visor and instinct was to wipe it off, causing total white out.

you forgot the bug u ate!

[SRTie4k]

I think the moment that scared me the most was coming around a corner with a huge barn right next to the apex and a line of trees on the other side. The corner was completely blind thanks to that barn right in the middle, so I only noticed the stop sign on the other side as I blew right through it on to a main road.

Luckily, nobody was coming in either direction.

[sveesix]

I don't really feel like typing this out, so here is an excerpt from a memoir assignment I had to do for a class in college:

I ended up asking Emily out on May 6, 2009 and the summer following our freshman year was when the relationship truly solidified. I spent most of the summer in Hampton Beach as it proved to be convenient – I was interning at the Portsmouth Police Department. Over the summer Emily invited me to go camping with her sister Katie and one of her friends. We ended up camping at Covered Bridge Campground right off of the Kancamangus Highway. I followed them to the campground on my motorcycle as I had never rode up Rt. 16 before and heard it was beautiful. Once we arrived at the campground we thought there were no spots left to set-up camp but we lucked out. As we were setting up we realized that we needed batteries for the machine that blew up our air mattresses. Katie insisted that I take Emily to the local Walmart on the motorcycle. We both knew that her parents would kill us if they found out but we took the motorcycle anyways. I always said that I could not stand to live the rest of my life knowing that I had lost the life of a passenger so I gave Emily my helmet and I rode without one.

It was pitch-black out yet the ride was exquisite as we could hear the river flowing as we rode parallel it. Some minutes into the ride something hit me in the forehead with enough force to thrust my head backwards. I shook it off and kept riding. I said to Emily that I must have been hit in the head by a frog. Emily replied, “Frogs don’t jump that high. It was a bat.” By the time we reached Walmart my face was a bit chilled. Once we dismounted the motorcycle Emily proceeded to chuckle as not only had I been hit in the forehead by a bat but I also managed to capture every flying insect in my hair. We purchased the batteries and a bandana for my face. We headed back to the campground.

[keeena]

One time (I repeat ONE TIME) I took a cMan God girl for a ride and later that day I noticed a crack in my tail fairing that was not there before. Talk about sketchy!

cMan God girl

C.h.u.b.b.y. girl

Why does c.h.u.b.b.y. girl without the .'s turn into cMan God girl??????

fat girl

[CTRT]

Place: Orlando, FL
Time: 11:00 pm
Weather: January cool 30ish
The Story: Just left school at the exact intersection picture. Pulling out and heading North on OBT. Teachers warned everyone of a frost warning before we left. Pull up to the stop sign and wait for traffic to die down a little so I can dart across the 6 lane road. Creep foward so I'm in between the cross the cross walk and stop line. There is a couple big rigs heading North and a bunch of cars at the main intersection heading toward me in the Southbound lane. I get on the gas and go to pull out then all of a sudden Vin Deisel comes out of no where and comes flying on the inside land past the two big rigs. OS raction kicks in i get on the throttle quick and hard just in time to brake the rear loose on the two 3' reflective tape pieces on for the cross walk. I slid almost to the middle of the intersection and the bike spun in circles on it side just past the middle turn lane. Thank god one of my buddies was about 3 spots behind me at the stop sign he took his big ass Tundra over the curb and blocked the Southbound lane so I could get up and get the bike into the Wendy's parking lot.

[rbrais]

One time we left the Complex and there was this cMan God girl.....oh hell, she was pushing 300 easy. Any way, she asked for a ride. I was like "WTF?" Bikes do have a weight limit!

We were polite and told her sorry, we had to go. She went and climbed on THE ROOF of her friend's S-10 with her legs hanging over the windshield. How that glass didn't shatter, I will never know.

[Paul_E_D]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.4; en-us; Nexus S 4G Build/GRJ22) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

How did you do that? CMan God

[Paul_E_D]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.4; en-us; Nexus S 4G Build/GRJ22) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Wtf? My phone shows the forbidden word!