Crash Chronicles (Crashes and Near Misses)

[The_Veg]

I guess many of us can remember how sex drove us nuts.

Nice subtle reinforcement of the stereotype of BMW riders being old farts.

[henzilla]

I went back and duplicated the route from last weeks near-miss today. Minus the encounter of course!

I was wondering why I did not see the incoming ground level missile sooner that day. I pass the peripheal vision test yearly with a high "score" and can see the wording on far away signs way before most of my buddies...been fun for years. Drives Helen nuts "freakish" being the description she uses.

Anyways...that particular area has a huge sloping drop off along the left side of road and you cannot see what's below road grade at all to the treeline 100' away. That buck was running full stride up the embankment and I had no chance until he was incoming at that crazy angle.The width of the left lane was all I got.

BTW, I was on extra-mega high alert spider tingly senses mode as I approached the ZONE today...and thankful again it went like it did last week!

[darrylri]

I went back and duplicated the route from last weeks near-miss today. Minus the encounter of course!

I was wondering why I did not see the incoming ground level missile sooner that day. I pass the peripheal vision test yearly with a high "score" and can see the wording on far away signs way before most of my buddies...been fun for years. Drives Helen nuts "freakish" being the description she uses.

Anyways...that particular area has a huge sloping drop off along the left side of road and you cannot see what's below road grade at all to the treeline 100' away. That buck was running full stride up the embankment and I had no chance until he was incoming at that crazy angle.The width of the left lane was all I got.

BTW, I was on extra-mega high alert spider tingly senses mode as I approached the ZONE today...and thankful again it went like it did last week!

That's exactly what it was like when I hit two deer from a pack that suddenly surrounded me on Sonora Pass in the Sierra Nevada. One minute I was doing 50 and enjoying the scenery, the next minute there was a brown blur surounding me. They came from an area below grade on the left side of the road, where they were completely hidden.

[Artiee]

Had one of those moments today...a deer encounter.
It ended way better than the one a few years back that put me in a ditch.

12:30 PM on a two lane state road with paved shoulders leaving a small town near Canyon Lake,TX...traveling at posted 65MPH. Weather was low clouds and rain in area ( I had just gone thru a shower a few minutes before, but roads were dry at this spot)
Anyways, I was scanning as usual and as I move to my 11 o'clock I see something coming quickly at an angle right at me. I rolled off the throttle,squeezed the front lever and had just enough time to veer to the left as we intersected...It was one of the largest Hill country white tail bucks I have seen lately. I put him near 170 lbs...sorry, didn't count the points! He couldn't have gotten any closer to my windscreen...pretty surreal to say the least!


I clipped his right rear hoove with the front wheel...felt the bump! I was maybe at 40MPH as this happened.
I maintained lane position and rolled back on the throttle...looked in mirror to see him still running in stride and off the road towards the tree line.To say the least, my heart rate was jacked up!
Of course he had two does trailing him that went right behind me and almost got tagged by the truck behind me.
Had several folks come by me later when road widened to 4 lanes and gave me a big thumbs up and a head shake. I continued with the ride...my senses definitely on a high level buzz.

It's that time of year...be careful out there!

I wonder if the deer had a similar discussion afterwards?

I'll bet you won't see him come hunting season.... which reminds me.

I read somewhere if you truly wish to avoid a deer strike, dress in camo and carry a rifle and the deer won't come anywhere near where you are.

[aapasquale]

Hi All-
Been riding now for about a year and a half--have a great 1994 R1100RS and have put about 12,000 miles on it in the last year--very careful always and no accidents other than me stopping next to what I thought was a pile of leaves, putting my right foot down as I came to a halt, only to get my foot caught on a branch and ending up laying the bike down on the pile of leaves--embarrassing but no damage except to my pride--UNTIL....

My bike is put into a shed each evening which is on legs which keep it about a foot above ground level--The entrance to the shed entails driving up a four feet wide ramp about 10 feet long--at the end of the ramp is a slight incline to my driveway about 4 feet away--needless to say, I'm very careful backing the bike out of the shed and down the ramp--when I get the bike to the end of the ramp, I have to push the bike over the edge of the ramp about 4 inches to get it onto the ground and aimed in the right direction at which point I fire it up and away I go--WELL...

It was pretty cold last week, so instead of firing it up when I'm on solid ground, I started it in the shed. No problem..had the choke set so engine was revving about 2,000 rpm--all dressed up and ready to go-- took it down the ramp and put it in gear while I took it off the edge of the ramp--when I pushed it over the edge of the ramp the clutch slipped out of my fingers and the next thing I knew I was heading for the edge of the shed and ended up on the ground with the bike--I was unhurt, but the fairing was demolished--rest of bike unhurt--it happened literally in a split second--lesson learned...pride slightly lessened

Tony

[bikerfish1100]

hopefully, one of the "lesson(s) learned" was that there's no benefit whatsoever to warm the bike up before riding it. Pretty much start it and ride away. If real cold (20s or lower), then maybe start bike, put gloves on, then go.

[aapasquale]

Hi Bikerfish
You are right--never warmed it up before (!) or since

Tony

[BCKRider]

Hi All-
Been riding now for about a year and a half--have a great 1994 R1100RS and have put about 12,000 miles on it in the last year--very careful always and no accidents other than me stopping next to what I thought was a pile of leaves, putting my right foot down as I came to a halt, only to get my foot caught on a branch and ending up laying the bike down on the pile of leaves--embarrassing but no damage except to my pride--UNTIL....

My bike is put into a shed each evening which is on legs which keep it about a foot above ground level--The entrance to the shed entails driving up a four feet wide ramp about 10 feet long--at the end of the ramp is a slight incline to my driveway about 4 feet away--needless to say, I'm very careful backing the bike out of the shed and down the ramp--when I get the bike to the end of the ramp, I have to push the bike over the edge of the ramp about 4 inches to get it onto the ground and aimed in the right direction at which point I fire it up and away I go--WELL...

It was pretty cold last week, so instead of firing it up when I'm on solid ground, I started it in the shed. No problem..had the choke set so engine was revving about 2,000 rpm--all dressed up and ready to go-- took it down the ramp and put it in gear while I took it off the edge of the ramp--when I pushed it over the edge of the ramp the clutch slipped out of my fingers and the next thing I knew I was heading for the edge of the shed and ended up on the ground with the bike--I was unhurt, but the fairing was demolished--rest of bike unhurt--it happened literally in a split second--lesson learned...pride slightly lessened

Tony

My, yet another way to screw up with a ramp - and I thought I had all of them perfected! (See fairly recent "Don't Drop the Bike" thread for an article I wrote for the ON.)

Sounds like you back the bike down the ramp with your rump in the saddle, feet paddling along. right hand on the front brake. Do you feel comfortable doing this if your ramp is wet? Is there a problem getting that last four inch push from the saddle? Don't mean to be critical - maybe your method works great in all weather conditions if the engine is off or the bike is in neutral until the front tire has cleared that edge. Just asking. We all need an all-weather game plan at home.

And check out that "Don't Drop the Bike" thread and the subsequent comments. It may well save you, as a relatively new rider, from several other low speed drops that have nothing to do with ramps.

[aapasquale]

My, yet another way to screw up with a ramp - and I thought I had all of them perfected! (See fairly recent "Don't Drop the Bike" thread for an article I wrote for the ON.)

Sounds like you back the bike down the ramp with your rump in the saddle, feet paddling along. right hand on the front brake. Do you feel comfortable doing this if your ramp is wet? Is there a problem getting that last four inch push from the saddle? Don't mean to be critical - maybe your method works great in all weather conditions if the engine is off or the bike is in neutral until the front tire has cleared that edge. Just asking. We all need an all-weather game plan at home.

And check out that "Don't Drop the Bike" thread and the subsequent comments. It may well save you, as a relatively new rider, from several other low speed drops that have nothing to do with ramps.

You do have to be cautious coming down the ramp backwards if it's wet--generally no problem pushing off the edge, but I won't be doing it again with the engine running--I'm currently building a 12x12' deck at the level of the shed and this will give me room to turn around after exiting shed and drive straight and level onto driveway--problem solved

[miairhead]

Yep mistakes happen, maybe when you get the deck: back it in.

[AKsuited]

Bike season has just started here in upstate NY. I have noticed a problem with my riding: I sometimes fail to cancel my turn signal. I've got to focus more attention on avoiding that error, since it could get me in big trouble in traffic... My old K75 had self-canceling turn signals, while my '03 will keep blinking away for hours if I let it.

Harry

[MarkM]

Bike season has just started here in upstate NY. I have noticed a problem with my riding: I sometimes fail to cancel my turn signal. I've got to focus more attention on avoiding that error, since it could get me in big trouble in traffic... My old K75 had self-canceling turn signals, while my '03 will keep blinking away for hours if I let it.

Harry

I was having the same problem and for my own safety decided to get a Kisan Signal Minder. Works great.

[dave39]

Here is an old close call I had nearly three years ago. Since then, I've become a much more conservative rider:

"As I sit here in the comfort and safety of my home, I'm mulling over the day's event, that nearly resulted in my demise. Some friends and I were on a a two-day overnighter up to Tahoe and back. There were five of us on assorted bikes, three Beemers, a Virago, and a Yamaha FJR 1300. We were returning to Sacramento down Hwy 88. We came up behind an RV, tooling a long about 50 mph. Two of our party managed to get around it on the curvey road. The rest of us were waiting for some passing lanes we knew were ahead. A long uphill passing lane finally came up. Gerry on his Virago, for some reason, was hesitant to go by and showed no intention of catching and passing the RV. Rick, behind me, finally zoomed by, with me wondering whether to stay with Gerry, or abandon him and go with Rick. Finally, I decided to follow Rick. I gunned my RT and started to catch up. As I approached the RV the dreaded "lane ends" sign appeared and the RV was starting to move left with me not quite up to it. I decided to go for it and accelerated up to over 70 mph with the space in my lane disappearing. I moved to the left and passed the RV on the center yellow double. I got by right at the summit doing about 75 mph and saw ahead to my horror a sharp right curve. I immeditely began to let off the throttle, and leaned hard trying work my way back into my lane, but found myself wandering into the opposing left lane. I refrained from hitting the brakes, not sure what would happen at those speeds in a curve. As I was leaning hard trying to slow and work right, a car suddenly approached from the opposite direction headed right for me. I honestly thought, "This is it. I'm going to die." I'm not sure at this point what I was doing, other than leaning hard tring to get back into my lane with fractions of a second to get out of the way. The driver of the car veered to his right towards the shoulder, and we met with about two feet to spare at a relative speed of about 100 mph. I continued to slow and finally found myself back in my lane and alive. If I learned anything from this experience it was 1) if you're going to pass do it when it's clear and get it over with. 2) if you see the passing lane ending and the slow pokes are moving over, back off. There'll be other opportunities. 3) I need to improve my skills in curves, never came close to dragging pegs. 4) don't pass vehicles down the center line when you can't see what's over the hill. 5) sometimes it is a good idea to follow speed limits. I have no illusions that any skills I might have saved me. If anyone did it was the cager who moved right and missed me, and I feel more than a little guilty that I might have taken him with me as my loaded 650 lbs of bike crashed through the driver's side windshield."

[Texpaul]

I immediately began to let off the throttle, and leaned hard trying work my way back into my lane, but found myself wandering into the opposing left lane.

Decelerating in a curve will force your bike to the outside of the curve (it's that physics thing again). It may seem counter intuitive but accelerating actually makes the bike lean in more (turn tighter). In other words you should have stayed on the gas or given it a little gas and it would have actually made getting back into your lane easier.
I used to have a sticker on my RT windshield that said "If in doubt, dont" just to remind myself that the moments hesitation (actually doubt) you sometimes get before doing something is your brains way of warning you that you are close to the edge of your skill or comfort zone.

[AKsuited]

I immeditely began to let off the throttle, and leaned hard trying work my way back into my lane, but found myself wandering into the opposing left lane. I refrained from hitting the brakes, not sure what would happen at those speeds in a curve. As I was leaning hard trying to slow and work right, a car suddenly approached from the opposite direction headed right for me. I honestly thought, "This is it. I'm going to die." I'm not sure at this point what I was doing, other than leaning hard tring to get back into my lane with fractions of a second to get out of the way. "

Not sure if this is semantics or not, but I never "lean hard." I "counter-steer hard" in order to "lean harder." I have noticed that a bike is harder to steer at higher speeds, and tends to resist being leaned over. In my normal riding, I never lean, I counter-steer, so when you don't mention counter-steering, I have to wonder about that.

I returned today from a road trip. As usual, my close calls happened on the very last leg of my journey, within an hour of home. A tractor-trailer driver chose to do a foolish pass on a two-lane road with me doing the speed limit. When a car popped over the hill on a head-on collision course with the tractor-trailer, I had to brake forcefully to give the trucker room to get back in the correct lane. He was coming back into the lane anyway, so I was glad I did brake and avoid a wreck.

Harry