WHAT WAS YOUR CLOSEST CALL?

[OB_Dirty Pete]

Fess up. We've all been fools on bikes. Or had a Close Encounter of the Fool Kind.

I'm not talking about traffic crashes, but about NEAR catastrophies; the sort of incident that lets you look Death in the eye and walk away shivering but OK.

How did you handle it? How could you have handled it better? How has it affected your riding style since?

If you've learned from your mistake, let us in on your learning so we can be better prepared when it happens to us, or avoid getting into such a situation altogether.

MY FOOL STORY: As an idiot youth of 19, I tried to take a Bultaco "scrambler" up a 100 ft. near-vertical cliff here in Toronto called the Scarborough Bluffs...on a money bet. I didn't even consider the possibility of falling before I got to the top. Guys had done it before, or so I had heard.

I fell half way up. The bike was virtually destroyed from the tumbling fall into Lake Ontario below.

I starting sliding down on the dirt and just managed to grab a root. Guys from the hotel at the top of the cliff had to drop me a rope.

From this stupidity, I learned never to take a bike into a situation where you have NO OPTIONS but to make it through. I don't ride on railroad trestles, between high-speed transport trucks, through herds of steers on farms, on roads narrower than the length of my bike, etc.

Did you ever have a "there but for the grace of God" experience?

 

[OB_speed]

YEP.. Everyday I wake up I am amazed that I am still alive !!!!

"Live today like today is your last and
tomorrow will always be a great day" - speed

 

[techwood]

I was riding down I-75 near Macon, GA on my way to Bike Week 95 in a light rain. My luggage had become loose and was shifting around. I decided to get off on the next exit. Saw a sign for an exit, but could not see it around an 18-wheeler in front of me. I decided to blast around him and get off. Surprise! It was an immediate decreasing radius turn. I managed to stay off the brakes, and nursed it for about 30 yards about 6 inches from the guard rail. I unpacked a clean pair of shorts at the bottom of the exit.

 

[OB_Buffalo]

Yes, about six years ago me and some friends were hanging out in the evening at the local cruise spot. We decided to go for some food so we all took off two at a time. My buddy Gerald and I reached a stoplight and stopped. We were on a four lane street.While waiting for the light to change I heard the sound of screeching tires. I lookedin my rearview to see a set of four headlights coming at me obviously crossed up in a panic slide. I let out the clutch and ran the light barely missing getting hit by a car crossing the intersection. Gerald and Nina his wife did not and were hit from behind by the car and knocked some 180 feet by the impact. Nina was killed instantly and Gerald was severely injured. He died some sixteen days later. The man that hit them was in his mid fifties and driving an older model Oldsmobile. He was obviously drunk as he was hanging onto the door of his car to steady himself while being questioned by police. he was given a ticket(we thought) and then allowed to drive away! Some of us followed him to another bar and kept him from entering it. Some of the guys wanted to kill him but were kept back by the others and we called his wife. Minutes later we were surrounded by police and arrested en m***e. We were charged with unlawful arrest(citizens arrest) and taken to court. we were convicted by a local judge and had to pay a huge fine. It was written up in the papers as a bike club terrorizing a citizen. No mention of the accident was published. Our attorney told us the guy was a retired police officer and a member of the local reserves. He was never issued a citation and as a result the lawsuit brought on behalf of the Grunden's children was lost and no money was recovered to compensate them for the loss of their parents. I think about this occurance often especially since reading posts from a supposed cop on this site who told us all how he loves to ruin the lives of anyone he catches driving drunk. He also said if it is an officer he would let his "friend" go. "just one of the perks of the job. heheh" I would love to spend and hour in a cell with this bastion of sociaty and self proclaimed specail military unit tough guy. I guarantee you he would no longer be able to enjoy "how good it is to be king".

 

[OB_Buffalo]

Gee thanks for editing that horrible word en m.a.s.s.e. and saving our sensitive eyes from reading such a profane thing. I'll expect to be properly chastized ( ejected from the site?) by the speech police. Also I'm sure the post will be edited by said hall monitor since it contains less than favorable treatment of one of the friends of the local(site)law. Unbelieveable.

 

[OB_Bert Branson]

That's a tough story, Buffalo. Kind of puts life in perspective...
Here's my story: Riding (a bit too fast) near Helen, Georgia on an old GS700E, I hit a small patch of sand/gravel on a tight left turn, went over into oncoming traffic, and avoided a small truck by going between him and the guard-rail. Pit-stop to change undies...

Bert Branson
The L.A. Hayabusas

 

[OB_badbus]

A friend and I were riding home one evening from a local pub. He was riding his Harley drag bike, the loudest bike on the planet at the time. I was riding my KZ650 that was also set up for drag racing, wheelie bars spark nicely in the hard corners. Anyway, I had been following him for several miles and since the oil from his bike was making it almost impossible to see through my oiled up face shield, I decided to p*** him just before a real nice 35mph curve. Needless to say, I was doing well over 70mph when I went into the curve. Wouldn't you know it, the oil had also coated up the front tire. I keep it up but went off the road into an apple orchard.. I did the fastest autocross run on a motorcycle in history. I think the wheelie bars helped slow me down by wrapping around a tree, it was still there a month later when I went back to see how I managed to live through that one. After dodging all the trees and getting back to the side of the road, I put the sidestand down, left the bike there and walked about 2 miles home. I didn't ride again for a least 2 months. Thank god for quick reflexes and pure dumb luck!

[This message has been edited by badbus (edited 08 October 1999).]

 

[OB_emattson]

On my ZX6... Coming into a wide 90 degree left hander, going about 60 mph. I swing out to the right to "round out the corner", dive in hard, and get a nice 8-10 foot long front wheel tuck. I was not in control at all! The bike drifted towards the the edge of the pavement, off into the grass, and by the powers of all that is holy, I missed a 3 foot deep by 2 feet wide ditch by inches and the bike uprighted itself and I did not wreck. I was extremely shaken. I rode home at a snails pace, parked the bike, and did not ride for over a month. There was a nice black slide mark on the pavement. If I had hit the ditch, I would have been in serious trouble. I had hit this turn 100 times before without a hitch. Found out about morning dew on painted lines... very slippery and not visible to the eye.
Later,
Slow Poke

 

[OB_JohnnyB]

A top speed run on a FZR1000.
I rode 55mph down a long stretch of road around 3:00 am (I couldnt sleep that night)
making sure the coast was clear. Turned around and wound it up to 170. I got airborne
over a section of the road that was an overpass for another road underneath. I didn't even notice it my way down at 55 mph. It worked out fine but made me realize little things can be BIG things at speed.

 

[Guest]

Buffalo,
That Burns me big time, I hate to hear crap like that. I would rank that cop and his friends up there with child molestors!! Not worthy to eat Maggot crap!!


My closest call to talking to God is when had my bike scrape along a guardrail doing over 150. Parked my bike and worked on getting my heart out of my throat. I guess i did end up talking to God. A lot of Thank you Jesus's.

 

[OB_Hapo]

too many...

 

[OB_Kirk]

I hope that you guys are referring to Falconminimumwagesecurityguard/policegroupie.

 

[OB_Quincy]

The closest I came was in the North York area in Toronto, Canada. I was riding and had a couple of friends followiing me. The light changed to amber and although I could have made it, I decided to wait for the guys in the car so I stopped really hard. Next thing there is a Ford Explorer with tires screeching behind me so I let go of the clutch and jump half way into the intersection where I had to stop hard again becasue of the trafic that had started flowing. The most annoying thing is that people crossing started looking at me like I was in the wrong beacause I was somewhat in the pedestrian crossing.


I tell this story all the time to a freind of mine who just learned how to do a stoppie. LOOK WAY BACK BEFORE YOU DO A STOPPIE! Cars can't stop half as efficiently as a bike can. Hope he listens.

 

[Guest]

Scariest ride????

I was in the far left lane.... When A harley passed me at about 70 miles an hour on my left, in my lane. He made sure he was as load as possible. Scared the **** out of me. I expected this from a car not a bike.

To think that only seconds before I was weaving back and forth occupying my lane. And I was considering doing it again just before he passed. Would have been an amazing accident. I do not know what it feels like to be hit from behind and I could not imagaine it.