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What items have you dodged or hit on your commute?

Actually, not as far off as today's experts would have you believe, particularly with the cars back then and typical speeds about 60 mph. At 60 mph or 88 feet per second, two seconds is 176 feet. That divided by 6 (for 60 mph) would be 29 feet. So six car lengths wasn't even enough at 60. For today's sized cars you need more like 8 or 9 car lengths at 60 mph to have 2 second following distance.

Yee gads! They taught me to tailgate in driver's ed in 1959. :)

BTW, who among us are able to gauge the distance to the vehicle we are following in "car lengths?" A dumb impracticable idea which was widely taught - to absolutely no benefit. Not sure if driver education now uses the "seconds" rule. I only learned it after I started riding a motorcycle, but it is very useable: "one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three," and I use it often with both bike and car. I agree that two seconds is the minimum and three seconds better.

I'm pretty sure this novel idea has not entered the craniums of most motorists. Recall a trip in very light traffic on the Coquihalla, where the posted speed is 110 kph and most people on this summer day are doing around 125. I'm in the right lane doing about 120 when I see a train of 7-8 cars slowly passing me, the separation between cars only about a car length. TROUBLE! I slow down to let them pass me, and then presumably pass the driver that is holding the even faster drivers up. Doesn't happen. That train just continues down the fast lane, with huge gaps both ahead of and behind them. Couldn't help thinking "what if a deer jumps out in front of the first car." You could have a seven-car collision with multiple fatalities. It didn't happen that day. But what a stupid gamble for no reason.

Sorry if I have sidetracked this thread. Never commuted to work on the bike and in my travels on the bike never had encounters/near misses with anything on the road - except another rider who totaled my bike. That is a story already told in "crash chronicles."
 
Just today I missed a saw horse that was on the dotted line between lanes. Must have fallen off of a workers truck. I was watching the traffic ahead of me and they all seemed to produce an egg shape up stream so I moved to the outside of my lane and avoided it. Mind you that is on a multi lane heading in one direction hence the egg shape.

Hey Doug, as far as travel distance to the vehicle in front, the method being taught here is the two second rule. If you see the vehicle in front of you pass an object (for example the rear bumper and a sign post along the road) and count 123223 and then your vehicle is even with that post - you're good. The two second rule works at any speed.
 
a mystery to me

Rode home last night in a pouring rain. Hard to see anything and ponding water to boot. Did not notice any issues. This morning I found a big piece of fur hanging off my center stand. No idea how, when or where it came from. :dunno
Jeff
 
Near misses and one fatality

When I was in college dodging flying objects seemed like a daily occurrence. I had a hood fly off the car in front of me on the interstate. That thing must have gone twenty feet in the air. Another time, again on the interstate at roughly the same area the left front wheel of a car traveling in the other direction came off, rolled through the median and came right at me. The scariest one was when I was on my way to a morning class, and while traveling down a two lane highway an unsecured engine block rolled off a flat bed truck going the other way and was coming right down the middle of my lane. Had to take the ditch to avoid that one.
Two weeks ago I became a killer. I was having a nice ride on my new GS and lo and behold in the middle of this quiet country lane is Mr. Squirrel. Since I was probably the only motorized vehicle within two miles I beeped the horn and slowed. He looks up and starts giving me the old this way, that way, this way, that way. I get slowed to a walking pace and he finally makes it to the left side of the road. I am just about even with him so I start to accelerate quickly to get by this furry maniac. He does an immediate one eighty and runs right under me. Got him with both wheels. Why do they do that?
It really bummed me out because I am a big softy where animals are concerned. I am a firm believer there is no situation that does not become more "interesting" with the addition of a squirrel.
I once saw a squirrel almost take out a Humvee with four soldiers in it but that is a story for another time.
 
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.

That is why I don't fully buy the idea of the majestic Forrest Monarch with the the finely tuned senses that is the American whitetail. I had one slam into the side of my car when I was at a complete stop with the lights on and motor running. Their African cousins aren't much better. Have you seen the video of the mountain biker in Africa? This poor guy is riding on pool table flat terrain as far as the eye can see and this running antelope just drills him in the side. It really wiped him out. He's lucky he wasn't killed.
 
Just yesterday, a pickup with an entire pallet of individual bags of mulch (you've all seen those bags at Home Depot, right?). The pallet was stacked two or three feet higher than the cab of the pickup and was leaning significantly to the rear, likely being pushed backward by the force of the wind as the truck motored down the road. There was only one tie-down and that was from side-to-side in the bed of the truck, nothing to hold the load front-to-rear. The load swayed back and forth precariously with every small bump the truck hit. As quickly as I could, I got around the idiot and pulled away from the wreck-waiting-to-happen. About an hour later, I went back to the same stretch of road and, sure enough, there was mulch scattered all over the road and piled along the shoulder. No sign of the truck so maybe the load dumped "safely" with no vehicles involved.
 
Back when I was young and foolish and on my first Triumph I was riding with an open face helmet and had a wasp hit me just right. It was buzzing in my ear and I was slapping the helmet trying to kill it. Duh. Almost wrecked trying to get stopped and off the road without getting stung. I am sure it gave many drivers quite the laugh. Never rode open face again.
 
Back when I was young and foolish and on my first Triumph I was riding with an open face helmet and had a wasp hit me just right. It was buzzing in my ear and I was slapping the helmet trying to kill it. Duh. Almost wrecked trying to get stopped and off the road without getting stung. I am sure it gave many drivers quite the laugh. Never rode open face again.

I was stung by a bee on the back of my neck going down the front straight at VIR a few years ago....not fun when prepping to lean into turn one...
 
Hit a Canadian goose on the way out of work. Saw it start to take off, and I started yelling in my helmet: "no, No, NO!! you stupid son of a ..."

Boooooonk! Sounded and felt like hitting a heavy beach ball. It bounced off me and don't know what happened to it. Feathers, a little bit of poop and a loose mirror was about it. The mirror was still spinning around when I pulled to a stop to check everything out. Man, I was angry, LOL!
 
Coming back from California last year when a bird flew across my path. Saw him coming from the left side, but didn't see him fly by. I thought, "he's dead" but five seconds later, he flew out the opening between the fork leg and the glove box.
 
Years ago I was traveling hwy 32 in N. CA, from Chico to Chester, when I was "clotheslined", by a great horned owl at dusk. Ended up in the hospital in Chester with a concussion. Only cosmetic damage to my old '77 R100S, including valve cover, fairing and saddle bag. On a trip back from a 49'er Rally, traveling from Burns, OR, to Juntura, back in the 90's, I had a seagull ("K Mart eagle"), fly into my path hit the fairing on my K75 like a cannon ball. Thank goodness for guy I was referred to in Missoula, MT, who could "weld plastic", and did a perfect paint match. In '02 I was taken out by a mule deer while riding through Riggins, ID, early one morning. Traveling through town in the dark at 25mph, a doe hit me from the side taking me off of the bike. Again just cosmetic damage to my old ST, but caused a torn rotator, torn tendons and ligaments around my shoulder and a fractured shoulder blade. A couple of hundred thousand more miles since then with no more issues. Ride easy,
gp
 
Jersey Barrier

I83 North near Harrisburg PA...large pieces of jersey barrier knocked into my lane by southbound jack-knifing tractor trailer.

Lesson: even jersey barriers are no guarantee of protection from what happens on the other side of the highway.
 
Opposite Post

This happened years ago when I was working a high school summer job for a moving company. We did State Department moves only in the DC area so the wood containers going overseas were lined with thick plastic, stapled on, I guess to provide some moister protection of some sort; as opposed to the crates going into long-term storage in the warehouse. Anyway, we had about eight of these crates with the doors off loaded onto a flatbed tractor trailer headed to a job when the wind started to tear the plastic out of the rear most crate. Being on a two-lane road there were few options to pull over immediately, and before we could, the whole sheet ripped out, flew back and wrapped around a guy on a motorcycle following the truck. He was able to stop immediately in the lane as did we and the cop behind the motorcycle. Our driver got a ticket for failure to secure the load.
 
Hit while sitting still

Heading south 240 miles to the Black Hills to enjoy 3 days of riding enjoyment, I had a front of the line stop in road construction, which was great since the flag girl was both attractive and very chatty. While sitting there talking to her with my modular helmet flipped open, one of those tractor trailers comes cruising towards us (at what I thought was a pretty good clip) and as he passed a small rock comes sailing unseen by me right into my left lens of my eyeglasses, leaving a small chip right in my line of sight.

That one torqued my off. I rode for three days looking through that chip. And the glasses were just old enough that I had to replace them for $700.

But in the end, I am just thankful I was wearing glasses. I may have lost an eye otherwise.
 
A Twist to this Thread

This is a different perspective on the thread about what has been dodged.

It's what I put out to be dodged...hopefully the statute of limitations is long done.

In the early '70's I rode my '72 R75/5 with full Avon fairing from Duluth to Florida and then out to McClelland AFB (Sacramento, CA). It was September/October of the year, and I took a month's leave (in the AF) to make the ~ 5,000 mile jaunt prior to a temporary duty assignment to Thailand.

It was January when I returned to the realization that I had to get the bike back to Duluth - duh!! Seems there was a distinct lack-of-planning on my part as to the winter return...

Luckily, a buddy from the same Duluth duty station was in the area, getting ready to drive back to Duluth in his big Ford station wagon. We salvaged the rear of a Toyota pickup (bed with axle / wheels), fab'd a trailer hitch, and built a plywood / 2x4 enclosure.

Took us 24 hours to drive from Sacramento to Duluth - gas stops and rotate drivers every 4 hours. The drill at each gas stop was to open up the rear door of the trailer bed to ensure that the motorcycle was still in place.

We stopped for gas in the Minneapolis area before heading north to Duluth, and the gas stop check showed all was well.

When we arrived in Duluth, opened up the rear door to check on the bike prior to unloading, and saw blue sky where the 4x8 plywood roof panel had been.

Somewhere between Minneapolis and Duluth we had frisbee'd the plywood sheet (which has only been toe-nailed in to the framework).

The trailer was parked in a locked garage for well over three months afterwards, while we checked on the news to see if anyone had been decapitated on I-35N.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
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