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What items have you dodged or hit on your commute?

Wasn't commuting - it was riding up to my friendly local BMW dealer.. Rt 440/I-287 just west of Perth Amboy. I entered the road on the on ramp from the Garden State Parkway to see a camper body sitting in the middle lane, with the pickup truck it used to be attached to backing up to it. Apparently the driver found a NJ pothole, and it bounced the camper right off the pick-me-up truck. Given the traffic in the area it must have just happened (no one had hit it yet and there wasn't a huge traffic jam..) If I'd had been one minute earlier..

Oh - others
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Cabot Trail - Bear - check. This summer.
Cabot Trail - Coywolf - check. This summer.
NJ - anywhere - deer - all the time. Including my own driveway.
 
Riding on the Southbound 405 Freeway, Los Angeles and had to dodge a 6' ladder spinning across the car pool lane.
 
I was heading eastbound on I-40 just east of Asheville. I saw what looked like a piece of clear plastic that one would use to cover a porch fly out of an open trailer. The fist of God must have been about 20 feet in front of me as the thing literally split in two and went on either side of me. Somehow I didn't lose continence!
 
Coke bottle (thrown over concrete center divider by oncoming traffic, face shield), couch, uhaul trailer (yesterday, evidently came uncoupled), boxes, tire tread, 2x4. Two bees at one time, both lodged by my ears. Not good. Didn't get stung. I believe they were stunned by the impact. Almost didn't find the second one.
I thought this might be a common occurence for those that commute on their bikes. I say, "dodged or hit", because sometimes it's better to do either. Other times, disaster will strike if not choosing the right approach. Typically, I'll be in a fast-moving pack of cages, with no recourse but to run over whatever comes out from underneath the back wheels of the car (or jeep) in front of me. My biggest bounce was hitting a loading pallet. R60/6 flew up in the air and landed solid with my headlight shell flying off and shattering against the bolts on the front fender. Pulled over for that one. On my CLC, the biggest object I hit was a garage door (metal) lying in my path. CLC (big ol' girl) flew up in the air, but landed nicely. I put a dent in the CAT with that one. Angle iron tipped by by jeep in front of me and flip flopping down the road. That was deflected by my crash bars on the CLC, but did bounce off my shin. Didn't bleed, but left a scar - go figure. For sure, I would have went down had I tried to dodge the loading pallet. In Detroit, once, a snowmobile fell off the truck in front of me, but I had room to dodge that one. I certainly wouldn't want to hit a snowmobile head on...
 
I missed this little 1 meter cubed pebble that was on the exit to one of the numerous hairpins on Corsica.

Good thing I keep a tight line. ;)

CIMG0187-XL.jpg
 
YIKES! That chunk looks almost impossible NOT to hit on that hairpin curve. Good thing it was a hairpin and therefore= slow speed.
 
Bird Strike

While riding on a Bay Area freeway, I was hit in the face by a bird, while riding at 60! He/she looked at me, and I swear the bird had the same "Oh S***" look on its face as I did! :eek
Cracked my helmet, and although it didn't knock me off, I had a very sore neck for a couple of weeks. No idea what the bird was; it seemed huge at the time, although I suspect it was a Starling/Towhee sized bird with hindsight. The car driver that was overtaking me at the time was cool though; as he slowed to check that I was ok... :clap
 
Bambi

Last year, Bambi jumped a fence by the side of the road and hit me as I was sitting at a stop sign. Sprained my ankle, Bambi seemed fine. Furry bastard just kept on going, didn't even offer to help me up! The guy in the pickup behind me helped me up and checked on me, nice guy. Had his little daughter in the truck, she was about four, she said "Wow, my little brother is never gonna believe it.":)
 
Truck tailgate

I was overtaken by a pickup truck full of "dentally-challenged" yokels and when they hit a bump in the road the contents of the truck bed (beer cans/paintcans/general trash) was all ejected like shrapnel. The tailgate of the truck was unattached and had been laying in the truck bed- it came skidding sideways at me across the tarmac but I was able to avoid it. Sadly the guy running right up my @$$ in a big SUV ran right over it....
Be careful out there.
Ian.
 
Don't kick the barrel!

On I-75 under construction near Flint, I was looking for my exit sign when I suddenly saw one of the orange lane-marker barrels reclining ahead in my one and only lane. I swerved around it -good - but reflexively stuck out my left foot - bad! If I hadn't been wearing shin-high riding boots, I'd have lost that foot. In great pain, I hopped into my motel, soaked my foot in ice water, and took a anvils. I limped for six weeks.
 
Cages

I dodge cars every day. They pull in front of me, and pull into my lane. I even had one driver literally pull up along side of me in my travel lane. I was on the left side of the lane and he pulled up on my right he was close enough I knocked on his window.

One Jeep Cherokee I couldn't dodge since he ran into me. He was in a left hand turn only lane and decided he wanted to go straight. He did, straight into me and caught me broadside. Two days in intensive care. That one totaled my R1100RT now I'm riding an 2013 R1200RT.

Non car dodges this time of year tend to be mostly pot holes.

Stokes
Keep the rubber side down
 
Missed by that much....

Once merging onto I-5 off of US 101 and going around a corner, I had the wheel and axel of the trailer in front of me pop off the trailer and luckily went sailing over my head missing me by inches. The car behind me was not so lucky as after a bounce the axel and wheel landed in his windshield. That avoided the next thing was the skidding trailer and vehicle in front of me. We were all doing 50+ mph. I was able to miss him too by inches as I quickly and deftly maneuvered to his left. I'd like to claim skill, but I think the hand of God covered me during the whole thing. Uff da! Still gives me shivers thinking about it.
 
While riding on a Bay Area freeway, I was hit in the face by a bird, while riding at 60! He/she looked at me, and I swear the bird had the same "Oh S***" look on its face as I did! :eek
Cracked my helmet, and although it didn't knock me off, I had a very sore neck for a couple of weeks. No idea what the bird was; it seemed huge at the time, although I suspect it was a Starling/Towhee sized bird with hindsight. The car driver that was overtaking me at the time was cool though; as he slowed to check that I was ok... :clap

Last year, Bambi jumped a fence by the side of the road and hit me as I was sitting at a stop sign. Sprained my ankle, Bambi seemed fine. Furry bastard just kept on going, didn't even offer to help me up! The guy in the pickup behind me helped me up and checked on me, nice guy. Had his little daughter in the truck, she was about four, she said "Wow, my little brother is never gonna believe it.":)
Welcome to the forum guys!
Gary
 
As opposed to a post turtle- The hockey puck turtle!

Two summers ago while riding the Ozark twisties on a beautiful morning, I breezed into a beautiful right hand turn almost at the limit. So close to the limit that once I spotted (lets name him Homer) in the middle of my lane trying to get home for dinner that evening, I wasn't able to change my line through the corner much due to speed... but just enough that I almost missed Homer. But not quite. I ran right over the edge of his shell which ejected Homer just like a hockey puck! I was amazed at how well Homer flew off to the left just like a well thrown touch down pass! (you know the kind) Perfectly flat, spinning through the air, Homer flew across the road, and down the hollow where in the clearing sat a small computer repair shop with plate glass windows. Yep you guessed it. I've always hoped Homer lived and was there to great the owners when they came to work.

Ken
 
Mexican speed bumps, they are in places one would never imagine. alot of em are made from diff materials and almost look disguised, certianly no night time driving. allmost as bad as michigan pot holes,,,,
 
I dodged/passed 2 motorcyclists on GA 180 (Wolf Pen Gap Road), they were doing 15-20 mph on the curves and speeding on straights so the 1st chance I passed them both on my Jeep Wrangler. Does this count? If I would have been on my GS I would have passed sooner.
 
Tarantulas

Well this was less (actually more) of a normal commute but it was a ride for work, from NM to the Panhandle of TX and man oh man did I see and dodge more tarantulas cross the road that I could count!

BH
 
deer hit

I was coming back from breakfast in the Wisconsin dells while at the great lakes rally before it was the dells rally. I was in line with about 9 other beemers when across the field came 6 deer running full bore at us. we slowed to 45 mph and most ran between us except a smaller one that came right at me.I did a motocross move standing up on the foot pegs and kicked the deer at the moment of impact causing the deer to bellyflop as it hit me between the front and rear tires, The rear went 3 or 4 feet in the air like doing a one wheel stopie.I was covered with deer blood on my left side and successfully came to a stop on the side of the road leading to stand rock camo grounds.The gal behind me on a gs had it worse when she hit the speed bump dead deer carcass.when all stoped to make sure I was ok the gall pulled out latex gloves and cut out the back strap steaks and put then in a Walmart bag.Later in the day we all had some great,fresh venison steaks and I was the deer slayer the rest of the rally.I was on my 1971 Honda 360 that year .All it did was bend my shift lever up on a 45 degree angle.
 
alchol abuse!

Ok Ok then another time on the way to the top o rockies rally we made a side trip to glasier park.While following a old pick-up pulling a 65 mustang on a traiter that was swaying allover the road when a cooler full of beer flew out of the back of the truck.The beer cans were exploding as they hit the road spraying us with beer all over the hot exaust pipes. We passed when traffic cleared.Later in st mary we stoped at subway for lunch and the guy was a loaded indian as he pulled in to mack and dons across the street.He was walking pretty wobbley.
 
Le's see if I can remember

I commuted mostly in the '70 and '80's on bmw's and on a 850 Guzzi. I would usually leave before daylight and there were a few bottoms I had to go through on the way. In those bottoms there were always animals that I tried to look out for. But, in those years I ran over two skunks, one possum and a few dead rabbits. I guess I was going fast enough that the skunks didn't seem to cause a odor problem until on the way home when I passed my morning hit and run. I ran over a car tire (no wheel inside) on the Guzzi, surprisingly I didn't go down or slow down; I do remember going airborne for a moment. I hit a car muffler while riding the r90s one sunny day. It was in traffic and showed up unexpectedly. It was laying lengthwise; I saw it in enough time to alter my course some but hit the side and it shot across the lanes bouncing off car tires. (I only heard that part)

The worse thing that I ever hit was much smaller, little round pea gravel on a road in Yellowstone on the 100rs. Workers had been working on a bridge and left these little pea size rocks all over the road. I still don't know what really happened but I somehow flipped the bike forward tearing off the windscreen and and busting up the back of my cowling on the seat. Bruised my self up some but the bike was not badly damaged. I tied the windscreen on the rear like a spoiler and rode the rest of the way to Missoula Mt. and the ralley; I think that was in '97 or '98. In retrospect I must have locked up my front brake.:scratch

DW
 
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