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I had a pretty good near crash myself the other day. Picture going down a five lane freeway at rush hour. The two slower lanes are moving at about 45 pretty much bumper to bumper, the next two moving at about 55 with some space and the fast lane pretty clear. I am cruising down the fast lane at about 60. No one in front, no one behind for a good ways. A car in the next lane over about 10 feet ahead of me. All good right? Well, this idiot comes off an on ramp doing at least 100 and flys across all lanes of traffic to almost rear end the car to my front/right. The offending rear end in a top hat locks up the brakes, goes sideways a bit and ends up with the front half of his car in my lane with smoke coming off the tires and him getting into a pretty good fishtail (this is about 3 feet from the front of my bike). Somehow I managed to use the 2 feet of shoulder next to the concrete barrier to swerve around the mess while he straightened out and kept going. If he had gone sideways and into the barrier I would have had zero ways to get out of that besides clamping down the brakes and hoping for the best. Definitely got the adrenal glands dusted off. No doubt. I'm really not sure what I could have done to prevent this almost wreck from happening. The time from when I noticed dude on his kamikaze swerve off the ramp to when he was mostly in front of me was no more than a second or two. Probably could have slowed down a bit more but I really wasn't expecting such crazy behavior.
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Oct 25, 2009 23:34
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 11:40 |
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God that sounds like it sucked. You definitely deserve credit for not running headfirst into a bridge abutment to make the pain stop.
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Jun 22, 2010 01:32
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I have always used the rear brake a bunch due to me usually riding around on something at least 30 years old. When I got my F4i I pretty much went to front brake only since it stopped so well unless I was going down my mile long dirt driveway or riding in the snow. Now with the GS I'm back to both since it's a long and heavy beast. It wouldn't stoppie if you shoved a stick into the front wheel at speed. Which brakes you use depend on what bike and what situation you're in.
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Apr 1, 2011 05:44
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This wasn't me almost crashing, but someone almost crashing into me. I was stopped waiting to turn into my dealership access road while on a test drive. Left blinker on, pulled close to the double yellow just waiting for a few cars to pass. The road I'm on is only 35mph with a ton of parking lots that are a total pain in the rear end to pull out of. Everyone hangs half their car out into the road because you just can't see past all of the parked cars meaning you are an idiot if you ever go faster than 35. I usually go about 30 covering the brake the entire time. Anyway, I'm sitting there minding my own business when I hear the thunder of freedom coming up from behind. I look in the rear view and see some dickhead on an ape hangered HD come flying around the slight bend at least 50. I guess he didn't notice me sitting there in a silver MDX because I hear the throttle chop, he starts wiggling from too much rear brake but finally decides not to lay 'er down instead choosing to squeeze between me and the box truck going the other direction. Lucky sumbitch that guy.
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Apr 24, 2011 19:57
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That happened to me in a car once. I was test driving a customers car on the freeway when I take my usual exit. As I go around the bend there's a loving Prius coming right at me. I did a nice 65mph right then left flick/four wheel slide around the car (Acura TL Type S so I had super JDM Vtecs on my side). While I was stopped at the light I realized how lovely that could have been. I also called CHP. You are supposed to look out for everything all of time but people going to wrong way aren't usually in mix which makes for a hell of a surprise.
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Sep 15, 2011 07:11
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It wasn't really an almost crash but today something stupid happened while at a stop sign. I was stopped at a sign with a car facing the opposite direction. We both arrive at the same time and we both started going at the same time as we were both going straight. We get about halfway through the intersection and he decides "I HAVE TO GO LEFT NOW!" and jerks the wheel hard, almost hitting me broadside. He noticed at the last second and didn't hit me but it was pretty close. Dumbass.
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Aug 31, 2013 22:47
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I live by the rule that if I come up too hot on a turn off of the road I'm on I'll just blow it and turn around rather than evasive braking or swerving. I do this in the car or on the bike. You could end up like you almost did or have someone run up your rear end because they were tailgating and not expecting you to threshold brake before a max G turn.
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Sep 10, 2013 02:36
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Safety Dance posted:My first helmet didn't snap at the end. I was on my first long ride, thinking, "What the hell keeps stinging me in the neck?" Every time I wear a hoodie under my jacket I get continuously stung on the neck by the pull strings for the hood. I remind myself (for the 548th time) to tuck them in when I stop. I promptly forget about 2 seconds after and have the same problem the next ride. ADD x1000 is my life.
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Sep 23, 2013 20:30
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You have to remember that in all of the US (aside from California) everyone on bikes has to sit in traffic and get rained on. The Can Am may be more boring but is just as impractical a commuter as any other bike. Unless you're smashing it into a tiny parking space at home or at work. A proper motorcycle will win then.
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Oct 25, 2013 19:06
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Driving an extremely slow car has me in the habit of getting in the lane I'll need to be in far sooner than I need to on the bike. This is ok though. I go from 80+ in lane 4 to 65 or so in the slow lane for the last two miles of my commute as a nice cool down before exiting. It's all very nice. My latest dumb moment came last night. I was hungry for some lovely pizza so tossed my helmet and gloves on and headed to Little Ceasars. It's about 8 blocks away all through somewhat lit surface streets. Definitely walk able but I was being lazy. As I'm riding along I'm thinking "it's really dark tonight". I pass a few people and cars but man they are difficult to see. I get onto the main road right in front of the pizza joint and notice that my headlight isn't reflecting off the back of his truck. Low beam is burned out 
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Nov 3, 2013 16:37
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It was windy as hell here on the ride home last night but it was awesome riding down the freeway watching lightning flashing and poo poo blowing around. Problems arose while I was about to make the last turn before my house when a huge gently caress off gust of wind tried to make me ride into the curb. I've never had wind do anything to me under 45mph but last night it pushed me over about 3 feet while I was traveling 15mph tops. Luckily I had a good 6 inches before the curb started so I did manage to get home. I think I scared the people standing at the bus stop though. They almost had to share the little shelter thing with me and my bike.
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Nov 23, 2013 18:24
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A new tire and a bit of paper did me in today. I was standing/sitting on the GS pushing it off the center stand (after having installed a new rear tire) when my foot slipped on that goddamn paper causing me to go balls first into the tank. The bike didn't fall over or even wiggle or anything, I just ran into the tank like a boss. My last two bike related injuries have happened when it wasn't running. I believe I am lucky or a klutz.
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Jan 20, 2014 04:16
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That kind of thing seems to happen a lot in interchanges so I usually try to keep to a lane. I usually go into super caution mode when I see people wheels turned like that and think I would have stopped rather than try to skin by but either way, you didn't get bumped or take a mirror off so it's all good. I also get super wary when I see one or two people changing lanes up ahead. They seem to give people ideas and you'll have a few more that follow pretty close after. My motorcycle related almost dying incident today was due to my work being surrounded by wildfires (Carlsbad, CA). Riding to work saved me having to sit in traffic and breath smoke for however long it would have taken to get out of that poo poo. My bike is totally covered in ashes and my helmet smells like smoke which kind of sucks.
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May 15, 2014 04:42
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Yesterday, on the way to a friends house for movie night, I'm pretty sure I almost died. I was at a stop light next to the same car for four lights and we were kind of playing lazy drag up to about the speed limit. At the last light he pulled ahead and indicated he wanted to go in my lane so I slowed and let him over. He kept his indicator on to turn right and slowed so naturally I did too. When we got to the next intersection (where in front guy is now turning right) despite us having a solid green someone in a Nissan Altima flew through it going at least 60 without even touching the brakes. If I had hooned it up a little more or sped up to let him over rather than slowing I would have gone right into that car or would have gotten t boned. It was one of those moments where you realize things almost went way sideways and didn't for whatever reason.
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May 17, 2014 20:26
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 11:40 |
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I try to skip as many unprotected lefts as possible with both the bike and car. There's too many dumb things that can go wrong that wouldn't be an issue if you were at a light with an arrow plus they tend to take forever when traffic is busy. I tend to do the same with intersections that I need to go left. I'd rather go a block out of my way or to get a light or go right then do a safe U turn than try to squirt across three or four lanes of traffic to get where I need to be.
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Jul 25, 2014 04:55
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