The feeling

[hank]

From Sport Touring
----------------------------------------------------------
So I'm gearing up for a ride to work the other day. I'm doing everything I do every morning. The sun is shining, the bike is running, warming up. The helmet goes on last, I'm just about to strap on and take off when suddenly...

I get the strangest feeling that for no good reason, I should not ride the bike that morning. No warning, it's just there. So I fight with myself for five minutes, I've done this hundreds of times, it's great riding weather, there's no reason not to ride today.

It doesn't go away. I take off the leathers, shut the bike off and go be a cager for the day.

WTF? What, am I crazy?

On the way to work, there was a wicked accident that just happened. If I had ridden, I would have been just about "there" when it happened.

Do you ever have this happen to you? Do you listen to that voice or ride through?

 

[Narcissus]

Yeah, but it happens every time I approach and intersection and someone is running a red light/stop sign or pulling out in front of me, or someone is about to rear-end me on the highway.

It's kind of a sixth sense when I just know that I'll be taking evasive maneuvers a second later... either that or I am always being extremely alert and cautious of my surroundings.

 

[MET]

had a real good friend that rode for 15 years. He had a bad dream , the same dream, for about a week and just stopped riding.

 

[hank]

About 20 years ago after almost living on a CB750 Honda for a few years, I went for I ride one weekend, got the feeling and turned around for home. Sold the bike the following week and didn't ride a motorcycle for over 20 years?

 

[jwcfbd]

I was getting ready for work one morning when at the last minute I set down the helmet and grabbed the truck keys instead. Just as I hit the highway the guy in front of me hit a large sheet of plastic ( I think it was a plastic tarp off of a truck.) It went right up over my truck. If I had been on the bike that day I don't even want to think of what may have happened. All I know is that it wouldn't have been pretty.

 

[jmasin]

Yeah.

We have about a 14 mile stretch of nice twisties here that we'll typically make a few runs back and forth in an evening if we have time (we meaning my wife and I).

The feeling typically kicks in when we stop and the end, trying to decide wether to run it again or not. Sometimes you know its right, sometimes it just doesn't feel right, so you pack it in.

Same thing with some high speed jaunts. Sometimes it just doesn't feel right, and you skip it.

 

[STUNNAH]

EARLIER THIS YEAR HAD A FRIEND GO DONE ON AN R1. REALLY BAD ACCIDENT T-BONED A CAR THAT PULLED OUT IN FRONT OF HIM. I WAS THE FIRST PERSON THAT WAS NEAR HIM TO ARRIVE AT THE ACCIDENT. I HAD KNOW IDEA WHO HIS WAS UNTIL HE RAISED HIS HEAD UP. HE WAS BROKEN UP BAD BUT STILL TALKING. HE SURVIDED THE ACCIDENT BUT IS STILL IN RECOVERY.

HIS ACCIDENT WAS A LESSON FOR MORE AWARENESS. IT HAPPENED AT ONE OF MY FAVORITE WHEELIE SPOTS JUST DOWN FROM MY HOUSE.

ONE OF MY RIDING FRIENDS SOLD HIS BIKE THE NEXT WEEK STATING WITH THE ACCIDENT AND THE WAY HE HAD BEEN FEELING LATELY IT WAS TIME FOR HIM TO LET IT GO.

I, ON THE OTHER HAND ENDED UP TRADING FOR A NEW BUSA.

THE WAY I SEE IT, IS THAT WHEN YOUR NUMBER IS CALLED THERE IS NOTHING ANYONE WILL BE ABLE TO DO FOR YOU. I'M NOT SAYING THAT I TAKE UNNECCESSARY CHANCES, BUT BEING REALISTIC YOU COULD BREAK YOUR NECK AND DIE LEAVING YOUR HOME AND SLIPPING ON A STEP AT ONE OF YOUR DOORS.

 

[Narcissus]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td> (jmasin @ July 22 2002, 09:22)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">We have about a 14 mile stretch of nice twisties here....[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Where?

 

[jmasin]

They aren't real tight, but there is a road (Country club road) from where I live up to Mckinney, and then a short jaunt on 380 and more through Mckinney and a small spec-on-the-map called New hope.

Country Club's road surface rocks, and there are some corners there posted 35 that I come out doing 80. Have to be careful, because there is some traffic.

The road north of Mckinney is a little choppier, but if you get to know where the bad parts are, it can be fun, but you can't get going too fast through there.

 

[Kento-Moto]

What we have chosen to do is very dangerous but we love it and we need our regular fix. I have learned to never ride when I dont feel up to it. I learned this one day when the wife was out of town and I planned to ride & film a great ride to the national park. I didnt sleep well the night before and had some conjac which I never had before, anyway things just wernt right for a ride the next morn... but off I go, dumb! Totally missed 2 turns, 1 blind right hander, allmost went off the other side of the road. Fortunately no traffic coming the other way. 5 mins later I did it again very close call off a small cliff! My eye's started picking where to land. I got it all on tape too. I crept all the way home and the rain starts coming down heavy. Point is pay attention to bad vibes and leave the Busa at home sometimes.

 

[Big O]

Yes we've all had those days. I'm all dressed up in the leathers and waiting for the garage to close, thinking, this doesn't feel right. I'm too late to go change so I take it real easy, leave a lot more room than usual around me, and go slow(er).

As far as riding when I shouldn't maybe it's an addiction. I'm looking for that feeling you get when you and the machine are one, zipping through the canyons, you don't have to think about shifting, braking, accelerating, you just move down the road like a steadycam. Sometimes you can get it, other times you can't so you have to know when to call it a day.

I had a dream about my brother and I having a gunfight with the "bad guys" in a warehouse, living color, stereo sound, ears ringing from the shots, everything, and he gets shot. I called him the next day at Navy bootcamp, he was going to qualify with a .45 that day. Spooky, but it turned out ok.

 

[gsxrkungen]

yeeahh you skould trust your feeling on that kind of matter. happens to me to somtimmes but it commes another day to ride

 

[race24x]

I have had days when I did not feel comfortable on my bike some days I feel like theres nothing she cant do and others I feel like evry corner is to fast or slippery . I dont know how or why I just dont ride as hard more carefull etc. I had a kid I knew die a couple of days ago on a bike its to bad he was a good kid I was not there but apparently he went off the road going to fast and hit a tree . Lets all remember its for fun be carefull

 

[dezzy7]

I spent 11 yrs in the corps amd one thing i learned was to trust your gut instinct....its usually on target. Like some of you i've put on the gear, slipped on the gloves, threw on the helmet, and climbed onto the bike and all of a sudden got a bad feel... A feeling that i shouldn't ride today or that i wasn't at 100%... I can't say that i avoided any major accident because i listened to my gut feeling, but i can say i've never had that feeling, jumped off the bike, and was involved in a major accident.

For me the busa's got too much power to ride when you're not 100%, and if you're distracted by ill feelings you're not 100%.

keep it safe and in the middle of the road

 

[Bosch232]

Interesting thread.

I had only owned my Bus for 3 days, when I had taken it for a spin out to the lake. The backside of the dam has an S turn that takes you down the backside, but the bottom of the turn is blind. It's about a 40 mph turn.

I'm at the top, setting up to go down through the turns, and had this wierd thought come into my head... "What would I do if I came out of that turn at the bottom and there was a piece of lumber in the road?"

Now that's a wierd thing to have just pop into your head. But I went down the turns slow, and as I came around the bottom end of the turn, there they were: Two pieces of FIREWOOD laying in my line.

Instinct can be a very valuable thing.

 

[hank]

Today it happened. Went for a spin in the country this afternoon for about a 100 mile ride. I needed to do a (chill out) ride, just wasn't the day to hammer (I had the feeling). Out of the blue there's a county mounty following me - Where the hell did he come from - Boy am I glad I wasn't riding my normal speed (double the limit). I know he wanted to nail me! May the force be with you.

 

[Lo-Busa]

"To be foretold is to be forewarned!"

i think everyone has a little six sense, i know when i feel it i follow it. as silly as it seems or as bad as i want to ride, i can pass up one day....

ride safe all and go with what you feel...

 

[busahigg]

If you feel like you shouldn't ride for some reason; don't. I know plenty of people that "didn't feel like riding", some got away clean, others laid it down. Point is, trust yourself...if you know something, you just know it.

 

[jwcfbd]

Take this the way you will.  Last year when I wrecked it was like it was meant to be.  I wasn't even supposed to ride that day but both of the guys that I car pool with got the day off at the last minuet.  So I took the bike instead.  I started out slow, it was the first time that I didn't break 100 mph on the way to work.  That night I got out and figured that I would wait on some friends.  After about ten minuets I gave up and was about to leave, when a different friend came out.  We talked for a few and then I figured that the guys should be on their way out.  Again I waited and just as I was ready to leave someone else came out.  Finally about thirty minuets after I was originally going to leave they came out.  We raced to the light where they turn and I go straight.  We waved bye, they turned and that is where I screwed up.  I jumped two lanes and followed them.  I made the first two corners but missed the third one.  That is when I hit a tree and broke my leg in four places.  Does this fall into the category that if it is meant to be it will be?  I don't know but I do know this.  A lot of things changed to make it happen.  Stay safe and listen to yourself.

 

[sirUKbusa]

One morning I got up, got ready for work, got out of the house, realized it was a nice day so I walked to work (15 minutes or something like that.) Got back home after work just to tell the girlfriend something when she mentioned it before I did. She told me that she was having a dream after I'd gone to work, about a bike accident. She woke up to hear the sirens not too far away and thought it was me. She phoned my work but I wasn't there, why was that? This is the spooky bit...I was at the scene of the accident dealing with the crash. The rider had injured his back on the road I use to go to and from work. I told her, I was just about to tell her about that and the hairs shivered up my neck.