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Crash Chronicles (Crashes and Near Misses)

Summer of 1977 and I am 15.5 years old and legally allowed to ride my fathers commute bike. He commuted 8 miles in each direction to IBM in south san jose ca on a 1973 honda sl175 which was half a 350 4 and reved to 10,500 rpm. Dual carbs. It was the beginning of the gas crunch and it gave my dad an excuse to have a bike again. He had ridden an NSU across country from nyc to san diego as a 16 year old in 1951 living on saltines and peanut butter. Anyway he would ride to work in his coat and tie. No gloves, just a helmet. So he let me ride his bike to pick up some parts for our vw bus which he was outfitting with an elaborate folding out bed and tent contraption so we four kids would be in a tent and he and my mother would have this private bus mahal thing. We were going to take a two month tour around the country for the summer which we did. This was us literally in a vw bus with a big lounging bed in the center with a massive sunroof playing hearts and russian bank going 65 down the road day after day but I digress.

My first destination after legally and with parental permission setting out on this bike was to ride it to the local drive in theater which had just been expanded and had pristine asphalt in the new parts. my buddies and I had been skateboarding for weeks on it and you could ride right in which I did at 30 mph or so. As you know the bumps at the back or the theater are mild and increase in severity as you near the screen and this quickly caught me out as I very shortly was holding on for dear life and had no skills to attenuate my speed. Bad got to worse and by the time I got to the last row I was a mini evil kenievel and launched into the air 6 feet over the now flat ground between the last row and the screen headed directly for a 12 inch vertical I beam mounted in a 24 inch in diameter concrete footing 24 inches proud of the ground. I landed 10 feet from this obstacle and in that ten feet managed to get my body to the right of it by the time the front wheel hit it. I woke up 15 feet past the beam with the bike next to me with the front end bent up and still putt putting in gear. luckily I wss wearing a helmet which was scarred up but my izod polo shirt safety jacket totally failed and I had a laceration in the crock of my right elbow to the tendons from the throttle cable elbow.

After screaming for two minutes cursing an immense ignorance and stupidity I had to admit was a shock to my hitherto previous cavalier worldview based on mastery of skateboards, tennis rackets, snow skis and bicylcles, I proceeded to pound my head in frustrstion against the nearby chain link fence for 30 seconds or so. Then in total shame of the fact I had completely messed up what was a real dad out on a limb trust deal, I came up with a plan to soften the blow which ws sure to come. I picked up this bike and totally adrenalized I dragged it in gear for an 8th of a mile halfway out of this drive in before thinking to put it in neutral. It would turn left in its own length but could not turn right and every so often I would have to pick up the front and point it off to the right and it would slowly go left etc.

I finally got out to the industrial business road the theater entrance was on and dumped the bike in the road., I walked into the nearest business bleeding from numerous places and advised I had just been in a hit and run accident out front and can I use their phone to call my mother to take me to hospital. This was met with quite a bit of bafflement by the two machine shop owners but they let me use the phone while commenting that they had not heard anything like an accident out front. So my distraught mother picks me up completely confused by how I could look like I had been in a motorcycle accident yet calmly describe this hit and run accident like I had broken a racket string. She told me she knew it was stupid to let me ride the bike. She took me to the emergency room and called my dad at work.

The emergency room was a dude using a toothbrush to scub all the lacerations and abrasions. Super painful. I practiced my hit and run story but it was all for naught. My father came in after a while with a big smile and said, "what have you been up to then?" There was no way I could lie to this man I respected so much and had trusted in me and loved me. It all came pouring out. He had gone to secure the bike when he had confirmation of my condition and the machine shop guys had shown him where they found the rear wheel drag mark and followed it to the accident site. I think he knew how much I had already beat myself up.

I ended up using most of my own money to buy the two new fork tubes and other parts from the honda shop and rebuilt that bike. I was also allowed to ride it again as well as his honda 360t which I rode for two years to college and we rode two up to the tennis courts. It was california in the 70s and early 80s. The only time I rode a motorcycle in anything but a helmet and street clothes was winter when I wore gloves and a ski jacket. Never thought about it. I do now!
 
Near Miss... Conditions and lessons learned.

So this am in fact on my way to work I found myself in a near miss with a car where conditions were less than ideal.
The situation could have been worse, except a final decision on my part to do something I usually detest.

Condition:

I am in the center lane at a stoplight. to my right is an open lane that merges to the center lane in about 1500 feet down road.
To my left is a through lane where sitting at the same stoplight a young lady driving a dark grey Chevy car.

This little sweetheart has been riding my backside for nearly a mile and moved to the left lane I suppose to pass me.

Situation:

As the light turns green I start moving. Not out to speed, race or otherwise challenge anyone, I am simply commuting with no regard to any other aspect except to ride.

This lady decides that the fact that the motorcycle accelerates faster naturally because of thrust to weight ratio, etc, and because I simply do not want a vehicle next to me that has shown previous expressive behavior, I can only assume she saw my acceleration as either a challenge or an affront.

She begins to accelerate to match my speed, moves to the far right-hand lane THAT IS ABOUT TO MERGE OVER and decides to try and pass me.

As she does this, one vehicle on my left overtakes the clear zone for me to move, another vehicle is closing distance behind me so I cannot break, and her timing will lead to the two of us meeting by accident.

Additionally, where the lane merges is just prior to a stoplight that is turning yellow as I am coming up on it.

Final condition:

To avoid this "meeting by accident" I have to drop gears, and pull the throttle HARD, bringing me up to a VERY uncomfortable 85+ MPH through the stoplight and distancing myself by about 5 car lengths from her.

As I get into a safe zone, this little lady decides to speed up even more, matching my speed and proceeds to give me the "love finger".

Then speeds off as I lower my speed to the posted 45 MPH.

Lesson learned so far... DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE BEHAVIOR OF OTHER DRIVERS/RIDERS...

Unfortunately I live in a state where driving is not taken very seriously, and mottorcycles have a bullseye on them by other drivers.
 
I am glad you are OK.

Unfortunately, our street strategies would be deficient in today’s driving environment if we do not include contingencies that deal with aggressive, confused, and untrained drivers.
 
Glad you missed the crash part and thanks for sharing.

Yeah, don't miss the urban combat commute I did daily. It does give one real time experience with just about every possible scenario one can digest.
Every situation different on how to handle, so no comment on technique...have done 'em all it seems. The speed for survival and have to immediately slow again doesn't leave room for any other factor, as said, BTDT:wave

What fine ' burb did this occur in? Even though it happens everywhere.
 
So this am in fact on my way to work I found myself in a near miss with a car where conditions were less than ideal.
The situation could have been worse, except a final decision on my part to do something I usually detest.

Condition:

I am in the center lane at a stoplight. to my right is an open lane that merges to the center lane in about 1500 feet down road.
To my left is a through lane where sitting at the same stoplight a young lady driving a dark grey Chevy car.

This little sweetheart has been riding my backside for nearly a mile and moved to the left lane I suppose to pass me.

Situation:

As the light turns green I start moving. Not out to speed, race or otherwise challenge anyone, I am simply commuting with no regard to any other aspect except to ride.

This lady decides that the fact that the motorcycle accelerates faster naturally because of thrust to weight ratio, etc, and because I simply do not want a vehicle next to me that has shown previous expressive behavior, I can only assume she saw my acceleration as either a challenge or an affront.

She begins to accelerate to match my speed, moves to the far right-hand lane THAT IS ABOUT TO MERGE OVER and decides to try and pass me.

As she does this, one vehicle on my left overtakes the clear zone for me to move, another vehicle is closing distance behind me so I cannot break, and her timing will lead to the two of us meeting by accident.

Additionally, where the lane merges is just prior to a stoplight that is turning yellow as I am coming up on it.

Final condition:

To avoid this "meeting by accident" I have to drop gears, and pull the throttle HARD, bringing me up to a VERY uncomfortable 85+ MPH through the stoplight and distancing myself by about 5 car lengths from her.

As I get into a safe zone, this little lady decides to speed up even more, matching my speed and proceeds to give me the "love finger".

Then speeds off as I lower my speed to the posted 45 MPH.

Lesson learned so far... DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE BEHAVIOR OF OTHER DRIVERS/RIDERS...

Unfortunately I live in a state where driving is not taken very seriously, and mottorcycles have a bullseye on them by other drivers.

And you and your new friend may be commuting on the same roads at the same time for many days to come. Good luck!
 
Glad you missed the crash part and thanks for sharing.

Yeah, don't miss the urban combat commute I did daily. It does give one real time experience with just about every possible scenario one can digest.
Every situation different on how to handle, so no comment on technique...have done 'em all it seems. The speed for survival and have to immediately slow again doesn't leave room for any other factor, as said, BTDT:wave

What fine ' burb did this occur in? Even though it happens everywhere.

Just on the north end of Bernalillo NM on 528 in line with Wally World.
 
I-459 Near Miss

The setup-- School has just started, and traffic has picked up everywhere, and everyone is doing their best to show their stuff. There were 10-12 wrecks reported this a.m. as people were driving to work, trying to adapt to the new traffic patterns because of "mommy dear" taking their darlings to school.

On the way to my volunteer gig this a.m., I left the house an hour early to drive the 18 miles. As I looped up onto US280, then onto I-459, I'm thinking, "This is great! Where's all the traffic I'm expecting?" US280 was almost empty, I-459 was trafficky and light. I'm cruising on I-459 at a comfortable speed, matching trafficas flow. As I passed the first off-ramp, then the on-ramp, traffic was picking up a bit, and the lanes to my left were full. I was in the right-most lane. As I was passing the on-ramp, I saw a pickup truck coming down the on ramp, and his speed was such that we were going to meet right at the end of the on-ramp/merge lane, and I couldn't slow down without being rear ended, and I couldn't move to the left, as those lanes were full. I hit the throttle and made it past the pickup truck when I noticed the truck in front of me had come to a dead stop! ABS worked! And I stopped (and the pickup that was now behind me) also managed to stop w/o running into me. Now it's a 7-mile "walk the bike" until I can exit this parking lot and take an alternate route to my volunteer gig. It's always a good day when you roll into 'work" unscathed. (The cause -- one of those 12 wrecks was on I-459, near the intersection of I-459/I-20, some 10-12 miles ahead of where I hit my brakes! Traffic was backed up that far.)

Oh, I've got to replace that crappy "peep! peep!" of a horn. Where did BMW find that piece of junk? I'll need to look back through the threads to find the part no. of the BMW car horn that's a direct plug-compatible replacement.
 
The setup-- School has just started, and traffic has picked up everywhere, and everyone is doing their best to show their stuff. There were 10-12 wrecks reported this a.m. as people were driving to work, trying to adapt to the new traffic patterns because of "mommy dear" taking their darlings to school.

On the way to my volunteer gig this a.m., I left the house an hour early to drive the 18 miles. As I looped up onto US280, then onto I-459, I'm thinking, "This is great! Where's all the traffic I'm expecting?" US280 was almost empty, I-459 was trafficky and light. I'm cruising on I-459 at a comfortable speed, matching trafficas flow. As I passed the first off-ramp, then the on-ramp, traffic was picking up a bit, and the lanes to my left were full. I was in the right-most lane. As I was passing the on-ramp, I saw a pickup truck coming down the on ramp, and his speed was such that we were going to meet right at the end of the on-ramp/merge lane, and I couldn't slow down without being rear ended, and I couldn't move to the left, as those lanes were full. I hit the throttle and made it past the pickup truck when I noticed the truck in front of me had come to a dead stop! ABS worked! And I stopped (and the pickup that was now behind me) also managed to stop w/o running into me. Now it's a 7-mile "walk the bike" until I can exit this parking lot and take an alternate route to my volunteer gig. It's always a good day when you roll into 'work" unscathed. (The cause -- one of those 12 wrecks was on I-459, near the intersection of I-459/I-20, some 10-12 miles ahead of where I hit my brakes! Traffic was backed up that far.)

Oh, I've got to replace that crappy "peep! peep!" of a horn. Where did BMW find that piece of junk? I'll need to look back through the threads to find the part no. of the BMW car horn that's a direct plug-compatible replacement.

That was a seat puckerer (I think that's a word) for sure! :eek Glad you made it unscathed. When your aggravated, those little horns do seem to lack feeling. I can yell louder than that! :laugh
 
Nearly deerly

This all went down yesterday, as part of a 300 mile round-trip ride to lunch (and some leaf peeping along teh way).
Sue (riding a Spyder F3) and I had a fabulous morning ride over Trail Ridge in RMNP, as the heavy inflow of vehicles (15 mins to get into the park!) all seemed to disappear, and we were able to get down the west side with little backup from incompetent drivers (which really seem to be most American drivers). We then headed up to Steamboat, hoping to take Gore Pass over to Toponas, and then head north. Not to be, as the Silver Creek fire has 134 shut down.
Found our way into SS, and enjoyed a lovely lunch at Salt/Lime. (excellent soft tacos, btw), then headed back over Rabbit Ears. Color was good up high, not yet much down in the SS valley area. Once we got past the caravan of vehicles doing 15-20 under the limit (WTF is wrong with you people?!?!), we headed up US 34 from Granby to Grand Lake. More great color (well, great for CO, pretty wimpy for New England). Along the way, we ran into another rolling roadblock, running 15 under (seriously, if you don't know where you're going, pull the fuk over to check your directions, rather than screwing with the rest of us for 5 miles!). Here's where things got "interesting" (sometimes, I hate that word!)...

From the corner of my eye, i see a flash of brown to my right, as a LARGE female deer bolts onto the road, attempting to thread her way thru some "thick" traffic all around (maybe a dozen cars or so), directly in front of me! Jumping on the brakes of my GS, she launches herself past me... and right into the front end of a pickup/SUV in the other lane. Missed me completely! Sue, running behind me, said the forest rat just exploded into a million pieces as it took out the truck! I never saw any of that... and when the adrenaline finally dissipated, I realized how very close I had been to taking a direct hit. It would have been very nasty, what with all the cars waiting to run me over if I'd gone down!
Whew.
Training, situational awareness, a great bike, and continual practice of riding skills paid off once again.
Yesterday was not my day to die.
 
Glad that went better than it could have!

Still in the camp of a Near Hit instead of Near Miss in these cases as the former sounds closer to the reality.
Seconds and feet are close enough for me.


Side note of wondering how the fires have impacted favorite routes. We see no updates of any fires after the news cycle moves on. Used the Colorado Forest Service site or whatever it's called to try and figure out routes of a planned ride earlier this summer.

My Saturday as posted in Regionals...not on bike so didn't share here first

https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?93133-US-285-CarlsbadNM-to-PecosTX-hazard
 
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Here's a decent video on tips on riding in traffic. And the roads he is on are dangerous - multiple lanes, 55 mph speed, no access control at all. Serious wrecks are quite possible on roads like these. As a start, one must appreciate how dangerous these roads are.

<iframe width="946" height="532" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vkyqNN9SmlU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Harry
 
Are you really as good a driver as you think you are? Most people way overrate their driving safety abilities. This video includes some of those observations.

<iframe width="946" height="532" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y50i1bI2uN4" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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