ohiofarmer 3,157 #1 Posted May 2, 2017 The other night i was bustin it for home to make it on time for a church meeting and I saw a flicker of movement and thought I hit a piece of trash. Looked in the mirror and saw what may have been a cat. I went back and Mr. groundhog was bleeding out his nose and DRT [dead, right there] I was very fortunate that he did not reach the front wheel, but hit his nose on the crash bar. Today I was in 40 MPH crosswinds and each time a house or tree was close to the road, it made the bike skate sideways. The technique to riding the wind is to stay very loose and just lean right or left to steer the bike.. Well, Mr car behind me decided that 50 miles an hour just sucked for him and tries to pass but with wind hitting him hard the SEMI coming toward us --and was filling up the view very quickly. The trucker risked his safety and was on the gravel berm and I gave up some of my space as well, because i knew the cage would run me off the road rather than decorate the front of the truck like a bug splat. This is not the first time for making three lanes out of two on that road which is a nice wide state highway. I took country roads the rest of the day. Rubber side down, fellas 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Digger 66 3,476 #2 Posted May 2, 2017 (edited) Exactly why I sold my slammed ironhead Sporty back in the early 90's People are doing everything on the road except driving ! Glad you're OK . Edited May 2, 2017 by Digger 66 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SylvanLakeWH 24,149 #3 Posted May 2, 2017 26 minutes ago, Digger 66 said: Exactly why I sold my slammed ironhead Sporty back in the early 90's People are doing everything on the road except driving ! Glad you're OK . Sold mine around the same time...same reason... 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tunahead72 2,341 #4 Posted May 4, 2017 On 5/2/2017 at 5:36 PM, ohiofarmer said: ... The trucker risked his safety and was on the gravel berm and I gave up some of my space as well ... Rubber side down, fellas Indeed. Often as riders we have to rely on the help of others, but also always create our own cushions around us. And sometimes we just get damn lucky. Mr. car is an idiot, and his ancestors have been around for a very long time, pulling the same s**t on roads everywhere for generations. One of my strongest memories from childhood came on a road trip with my family, on a two-lane road probably similar to the one you described in your story. I looked up ahead and saw a group of half a dozen or so motorcycles riding together. I was always fascinated by bikes, so I was watching them closely as they approached. As they came closer, Mr. car's idiot grandfather, who was behind us at the time, suddenly decided it was a good time to pass us. In doing so, he forced all of the bikes off the road onto the dirt shoulder, and they all went down on the ground. What happened next was really exciting for a 12-year-old kid to watch, but it could have ended up so much worse. The bikers immediately picked up their bikes, started them up, pulled a U-turn and proceeded to catch up to us, pass us and chase Mr. car's grandfather, and then surround him with their very loud bikes. Like I said, exciting, but also potentially very dangerous. I can only imagine what was going on inside the brains of the people inside that car while this was happening, being surrounded by a group of probably very angry bikers that you just ran off the road a few miles ago. After a couple minutes or so of this gentle intimidation, the bikers started peeling off one at a time and simply rode behind the guy for a while, and finally pulled off together into a large parking area. That was the end of it as far as I know. ohiofarmer, I'm glad you made it through these adventures safely, and I hope you enjoy many more miles of riding in the future! Oh yeah, it's too bad about the groundhog, but I hope your bike wasn't hurt. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
19richie66 16,942 #5 Posted May 4, 2017 semi's and motorcycles don't play well together..... I worked at a ford tractor dealer back when I got out of school. Our parts guy there was into motorcycles and had restored a beautiful Harley and also had a 6 cylinder Honda CBX. No one knew he was going through rough times with his wife and decided to give up on life one day. He was headed to the beach on the CBX and all of a sudden swerved in front of an 18 wheeler. Truck driver said he just turned into him. Sad day as he was a great guy. Did not end well. Be careful out there. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ohiofarmer 3,157 #6 Posted May 4, 2017 (edited) This incident was not all that dangerous [for me] as the car had passed and cleared me. It was all about him not knowing so because i immediately slowed down. My only concern was running over pieces of him should he splash into that truck. I doubt that he had time to look behind him with that truck grill getting bigger in a hurry. Because I was on a Honda, i could hear him get on the gas --hard. I gave the truck a thumbs up and he was shaking his head My closest call came last year on that same road. Beautiful day with no one in front of me for 2 miles and no one behind me for at least a mile. I had my side of the road to myself. As a line of cars approached me, one car from the middle of the pack darted out to pass, so he was caught between me and the pack with no way to correct. I did not dare even look at the car at all beyond that point, because to do so would cause target fixation and tend to put me into that car. I picked a line and did a high speed swerve to the right, praying that it would be far enough. There is only so much swerve you can take at speed I only had time to get out 1.5 words [both one syllable ] before I felt the wind from his car and saw the blur of his shape.I was glad that I had been practicing the swerve after reading that doing so could get you out of trouble. My normal course of action on that road is get behind a car and stay there no matter what speed the car drives. I call these cars my battering rams. They put some steel between me and the other cages [cars]. Lesson learned --so from now on, if i have to ride slower than traffic, it ain't gonna be on that road. Thanks for your concern And BTW, I-75 in Dayton OH had an incident a few days ago where a car went the wrong way on the interstate and splashed on a fuel truck. by some miracle, the fuel truck driver bailed out before his load of gasoline exploded into a mushroom cloud. Some witnesses say the car looked like he intended to hit the truck, but the investigation is not complete http://www.autoblog.com/2017/05/02/video-explosion-fireball-wrong-way-driver-tanker-truck-ohio/ Edited May 4, 2017 by ohiofarmer Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
