Topic: for the the street bike guys/gals

[red]

whats the scariest moment you've ever had riding your motorcycle?

one of the closest calls i've had was on the 06 honda shadow i used to ride. was doing a left turn under the loop overpass at around 30mph on a freshly paved road in midland (they throw tar down, then cover it in gravel) and my front tire caught a piece of tar and made me do a 180 (still amazed i didnt fall off). truck behind me was going straight at about 50mph and came within just a few inches of taking me out head on.

[abnormaltoy]

No particular incident...just riding my old Kawasaki 750 triple. Anything that wasn't dead straight was like that head-spinning-prepuke feeling. Back then...they really didn't have a handle on frame geometry and material. That bike handled like crap, but I love the smell of a 2 stroke.

[Hammerhead]

Baahahaha....I remember those pigs vividly.  They rank right up there with the Suzuki water buffaloes in my book.  Go pretty good in a staight line but if you had stop or turn in a hurry you had a problem...  Those were the days , ehh?

Most of my big scares were on the racetrack but there was this one time I was flyin' low runnin' late for work doin' at least 30 faster than the cars were.  Took the inside line in a blind turn thinkin' I knew the road well enough to get away with it when low and behold a big fat cow is standing on the double yellow lines I'm using for a lane.  I still don't know how I missed that blasted bovine but I found some of his hair in the back of the left handed mirror when I got to work.  Needless to say I eased up considerably after that.

That was about 20 years ago and I can look back now and laugh but upon serious reflection I'm really lucky to be alive with all the stupidity I displayed in my younger days...

[Yota Up]

Just about a week ago - I got caught in the worst storm I've ever even seen.

In a matter of seconds, it turned dark.  Lightning everywhere.  Wind, lots of thick rain.  I was soaked within seconds.  And then the hail starts - pounding my body like a million rocks.  I took a beating alright.  Had to stick with it.

I finally pulled over when the wind was blowing so hard, it put me into a drift I did not agree to.
There was over an inch of water on top the street, cars were leaving wakes.  I slowed down and even then - almost went into oncoming traffic several times.  Finally stopped and waited a minute for the wind to stop, and took off again.

No doubt about it - nothing beats that - not even me hitting big bird:
http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=36842.0

[kneedownnate]

No particular incident...just riding my old Kawasaki 750 triple. Anything that wasn't dead straight was like that head-spinning-prepuke feeling. Back then...they really didn't have a handle on frame geometry and material. That bike handled like crap, but I love the smell of a 2 stroke.

Never had the pleasure, or should I say displeasure, but they're neat bikes for sure. 

Scariest?  That's a tough one.  I was just discussing with my boss how it's a really good thing I have either a delayed or non-existent *oh * response.  It either never hits me or lags behind.  Makes it nice when something happens that makes other's butts pucker and I can keep going like normal.  Lotsa fun on the track

Anyway, the one that shoulda scared me the worst was my crash.  Never wrecked before then and I relished killing 2 front tires to 1 rear when most guys killed 2 rears to 1 front.  I rode too fast on the street, period, and I paid big.  Went for a solo ride, lowsided in a left hander, slid across the road until my head kissed a metal reflector post and it was lights out for nate!  I criss-crossed with the bike, went through a fence and trees, ending up in a field.  Bike flipped end over end for about 40 yards.  First recollection of the day was mid-late afternoon, telling my friend something and he said "yea I know, you've already told me that 10 times!".  Spooky.  I should have died probably but got out with a spiral fracture to my leg and broke my thumb right at the joint-broke the joint.

One night my friend and I were riding over to his place one evening to change our face shields.  Stopped at a light, he went first when it turned, I went them BAM!  Front end slid way out, caught, then the back end bounced over to the side and the whole bike just skipped back and forth till it straightened out.  By the time all this went down my friend was a ways ahead.  Pulled up next to him at the stop sign, he pops his shield and says "what the hell was that?", I said "I don't know, the front end just slid out all of a sudden and all hell broke loose".  We went back through the same innersection on the way back and saw what I'd hit - a flattened aluminium can

Leaving the college on a cold, windy night.  I almost always took the left turn lane, cocked the bike and did a power-slide through the corner.  It's my sickness.  If you have a bike you have one.  Anyway, there was a car in the left lane so I took the right-left turn lane, cocked the bike, started sliding and thought "why the hell am I looking at the car next to me?", then realized I'd slide out sideways.  Tires hooked back up, pitched the bike straight and me up over the bars.  Came back down on the bike, rolled it into the right hander for the on ramp, cocked it and slid the back end through the corner

Going to work yesterday morning I rolled into the left hander for the on ramp going to work just a little faster than usual.  No biggie, all felt good, then halfway through the corner I started rolling on the gas as usual and noticed something..... the bike was sliding.  Not just the rear though, it was a super smooth 2 wheeled slide and my first thought was "neat, a 2 wheeled slide!".  There was no second thought

I love riding pretty much every day, even with all my shitty shifting!

[BikerTrash]

My nearest miss was leaving work back when i was at autozone. i had just started raing and the roads where slick as hell, 4 lane road and was being passed by an 18 wheenler when the... I think it was a for countour... I was folowing slammed the brakes on for no aparent reason.  Couldnt go left around the bat because of the truck, and there was no shoulder, tried slowing down but with as slick as the road was the back tire jsut wanted to lock up and slide (was on of the early 80's Goldwings where you only got one front disk with the hand break, and the second front disk with the rear brake, along with the rear disk).

Decided rather than hitting her I would just leave the road, swerved off the road into the lawn of the Post Office, I had just thoguth the pavement was slick, Rear end almost came around on me liek three or four times whiel i was trying to stop, went abotu 50 feet throu grass slipping and sliding everywhere, Across a 25 foot wide driveway I was able to get straightedend out on, then across about 75 or 80 more feet of grass slowing down untill I got to then next driveway and was able to stop.

Then the woman in the car stop and looks at me (she was still in her lane on the highway by the way people where having to swerve around her) she was like "oh my god? what happened are you ok? I was looking in my purse then I looked up and saw you in the grass. Did you hit some water and loose control?"


Looking back I guess it want that bad really.

[kneedownnate]

Leaving the road is never that fun, you're lucky you didn't go down! 

I went off into the grass at the track once.  I passed a slower guy just before a corner, knew if I continued the pass and pulled into my line he'd probably tuck and go down so I went off into the infield around 70mph, got back on and passed him 2 corners later with a little more room. 

Pretty much everybody crashes at some point, no matter how good they are, some just set the curve.  I've watched a very good instructor go down at the track.  Ever seen the corkscrew at laguna seca?  Same style corner, different track.  If you've never heard the sound of plastic/glass fairings sliding across pavement, consider yourself lucky   You'll never forget it. 

Consider yourselves lucky if you've never helped somebody who's covered in blood from head to toe up the bank - and if you show up to a ride in shorts and a t-shirt, heed your friends warnings so you're not bloody head to toe over the side of a bank!  Considered yourselves lucky if you haven't sat crouched under your very heavy friend on a loose hillside for 30+ minutes holding him up so his shattered hip doesn't hurt so much.  That was the least I've ever cared about getting all cramped up though, but thank heaven for the big guy who took my place!

[BikerTrash]

Trust me, it was more luck than skill. Had only been riding about 3 years at that point. And I am lucky I only know two people personaly who have gotten hurt bad on bikes. My dad who didnt survive his accident about 2 years ago, and his best friend who I think is in a walking cast now from an accident back in april.

[Stocker]

I only have a couple close calls, pretty tame stuff compared to most of the stories... 

In the early Seventies I was airing out my '68 Bonneville on a two-lane road in Missouri.  Suddenly got a severe front end wobble at about 85 with oncoming traffic -- closed the throttle and held on tight, thought I would go down (and maybe get run over) before it finally stopped shaking around 40 mph.  Later found a slightly loose fork bearing...   

Another scare was with a half-grown te51levin on the back of my Magna. We were heading directly into a blinding setting sun and I first saw the doe at the same instant I heard her hooves on the pavement -- which was just as we flew past her at 60 mph, barely missing her. Scariest thing was the thought of crashing with my son aboard...   


Oh yeah, I also got to deal with Nate's Mom after his crash.......     

[kneedownnate]

Oh yeah, I also got to deal with Nate's Mom after his crash.......     

[red [OP]]

another scary experiance i had was when this idiot was tailgating me when i was riding the honda shadow. those that ride bikes know that if somebody is tailgating you (lifted ford superduty with a ranch hand front bumper to give you an idea) you try to get out of their way. well every time i changed lanes or sped up, he did the same thing. alot of the time he was close enough for me to reach back and touch his truck .

[Hammerhead]

Nate - If you really like slidin' that much you need to do what I did.  I went dirttrackin' and had the time of my life.  Happiness is a two wheel drift!!!  If you like hangin' it out then you need a flattrack bike.

Stocker - A '68 Bonnie with 70s era tires is what night mares are made of.    Been there...

[kneedownnate]

Nate - If you really like slidin' that much you need to do what I did.  I went dirttrackin' and had the time of my life.  Happiness is a two wheel drift!!!  If you like hangin' it out then you need a flattrack bike.

Don't ask me why, but for some reason I can't slide for on the dirt, but put me on a streetbike and it's happy happy, joy joy!