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What items have you dodged or hit on your commute?

Hit a bird. Guts on the inside of the windscreen.

I was leaving on a dirt road from Devil's Kitchen last week at night and a black bear and I almost made an acquaintance.
 
I’ve been commuting from SE Houston to West Houston for 14 years, 40 miles each way, every day, so I’ve seen some shtuff; on the interstate...beds, extension ladders, paint, Sheetrock mud, blown tires, dogs, cats, gravel, had a rear bumper fall off of a Camry right in front of me, a naked woman standing on the cab of an 18 wheeler with a news helicopter hovering overhead...
 
3/4 ton or so of one of these,

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I came around a corner in Wyoming and he was standing in the middle of the road. Looked like he was tired and just resting there. I started to hit the brakes then realized I would be stopping right next to him so I downshifted and hit the gas, missed his nose buy a foot. I don't think he even cared that I rolled by.
 
A lit cigarette down the jacket doing 50mph on an interstate bridge. NOT HAPPY. I never smoke! I did stay up right putting it out.
 
I dodged a refrigerator spinning across the right two lanes of the tollway today😯. What the hell is wrong with you people!!!!?
 
I dodged a refrigerator spinning across the right two lanes of the tollway today��. What the hell is wrong with you people!!!!?

You can take some comfort that the dude's wife is going to be really angry about what happened to her refrigerator. That is the same sentiment I have every time I see a lone sofa cushion beside the road. "Somebody's wife is going to be really pissed about her new couch." :)
 
I have been dodging the same dead bird in right side of the #1 lane of the freeway on my ride home for over a week. Its amazing its still there but it is. Gets flatter every day though.
 
I dodged a refrigerator spinning across the right two lanes of the tollway today😯. What the hell is wrong with you people!!!!?
Having recently taken two of Houston tollways in the last few days, there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room anyways. "It'll Ride" will be mentioned by someone:laugh

You can take some comfort that the dude's wife is going to be really angry about what happened to her refrigerator. That is the same sentiment I have every time I see a lone sofa cushion beside the road. "Somebody's wife is going to be really pissed about her new couch." :)

I think the same thing seeing that lone cushion or table leaf that has been splintered to bits.Glad it's not me!

I have been dodging the same dead bird in right side of the #1 lane of the freeway on my ride home for over a week. Its amazing its still there but it is. Gets flatter every day though.

We have passed a turkey vulture on a local backroad for over a month...even the heavy rain did not budge flattie bird
 
One of the pleasures of a daily commute with a two lane country road section is the smell of a sizeable rotting mammal at side of the road off camera. Cant dodge and an odor!
 
One of the pleasures of a daily commute with a two lane country road section is the smell of a sizeable rotting mammal at side of the road off camera. Cant dodge and an odor!
Round here we have that as well as the smells of the various confined animal feeding operations, turkey, chicken, hogs. Oh my. Interesting useless fact. They bury the dead birds in the manure pile. After 2 days they are gone. No feathers, no bones, gone. You should see and feel the heat off of one of those piles when fresh. You do not pile it too high and turn them every few days when hot and fresh. Does make a garden grow though.

Then there is a leaky liquid manure spreader, slick as ice with an aroma. you do not always see it if it is thin. Till you stop, then you know. It gets thicker when the tank has to stop, oh thank you for ABS!!!!! Then there is the smell from the big under engine catalytic converter and muffler.

Ohhhhh.
Y
Rod
 
After the joplin tornado there was constant debris in the roads, you really needed to be careful. I never got a flat, I do not know how. I had a nail hit the edge of the tire and angle to the outside, never even hit the cords. Shingles with nails still in them were very common.

one evening, I was riding home in the dark, and round a curve there was a full sheet of drywall. Basically I slid to the outside. Front tire starting to tuck and me fighting it as much as possible considering the narrow bars on the RS. Off the sheet, one wiggle, tighten line a bit and all was fine. I was sure I was going down. But never quit flying the airplane as they say. I parked, went back and pulled the drywall off the road. Then I went for a walk until I quit shaking. I have always been astonished how much time can slow in these circumstances.

Rod
 
The flat bird carcass is still there. I finally accidentally rode over it last Friday on the way home.

I think I will take the car the day of the first rain if it happens midweek :)
 
My incident happened one week after getting my brand new 2018 R1200RT. While commuting to work on North on I-95 with the cruise control set on 70 mph, a 8 foot long 2x4 came out from under the vehicle in front of me. The 2x4 was spinning and bouncing from side to side with the ends splintering and the splinters being highlighted in the headlights of my bike as I approached. I instinctively reached for my front break but stopped, thought about counter steering then the thought of what I had learned in a riding class back in 1992. I had never had to use this technique since I learned it, but the info was in my brain. The instructions, maintain your spreed, look way a head and get heavy in the pegs, went through my head. I repeated to my self "Trust your training, trust your training" and then I felt the bumps of riding over it. With my heart in my throat, I immediately toggled through the bike's settings and stopped on the tire pressure setting and watched to see if my tire pressure dropped. it did not and I continued on my way into DC feeling very lucky.

Jay
 
Didn't have to dodge it but did have to watch out for a donkey trotting down a 2 lane 55 mph road the other morning.
With presumably his owner running behind him.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Years ago, 10+ I was living east of Memphis and a friend and I were riding west on I40 to the good roads in NW AR. We were crossing the Mississippi in early morning via the I40 bridge, it was full daylight, but still early so traffic was light. The bridge is large, 3 or 4 lanes each way. We came upon a bass boat and attached engine, no trailer, in the road. This was not a John boat this was one of those $50K+ sparkly speedy fish killers. A mile later on the AR side of the river we came upon a couple good ol' boys with a pickup and an empty boat trailer, they looked bewildered and were probably realizing it would be a couple miles for an opportunity to do a u turn and then a couple more to back track. That was a strange sight.
 
Laying in wheel track of two lane state highway in a sweeper Wednesday...
Twenty pound hazard but luckily yellow!

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