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After seeing a few "almost crash" stories in the Crash Test thread, I thought maybe we should have a thread dedicated to the subject. I know I've learned a lot as a beginning rider from my near misses and this thread could be valuable for learning what not to do. I'll start with my near miss the other day: I was riding on a city street that has two lanes of traffic. I was in the outside lane. The two lanes of traffic were going to merge up ahead and there was a left hand turn lane up ahead where people turn to get onto the Interstate. The left lane was bumper to bumper with stopped traffic because the left hand turn lane was full and backed up out into the left lane of thru traffic. In my infinite wisdom, I thought it would be smart to speed up a little to pass all of the waiting cars in the left lane before the lanes merged into one. The problem was that there were a set of railroad tracks, a really really rough set of railroad tracks as it turned out. I gave it a little gas and was probably doing 5 over the speed limit when I hit the tracks. When I hit the tracks, my left hand slipped off the grip from the impact which caused the front wheel to turn to the right. The front wheel must have been off the ground at this point. Immediately, I thought I was hosed and let off the throttle. Just as I was grabbing the bar again, the back tire hit the tracks and catapulted me off the seat. I'm not really sure how I didn't wreck. When I came down on the other side of the tracks, my left hand was barely grabbing the bars and I was 3/4 of the way off the seat on the left side of the bike. So, what did I learn? 1. Don't be in a hurry. There was no reason to speed up and try to get around the line of cars. I was just joy riding, nowhere to be so what the hell? Stupid. 2. Railroad tracks are not to be hosed with. Always assume they are extremely rough and slow down! I saw the sign and disregarded it since all tracks I've ever been over were smooth. I was lucky. I should have wrecked and it would have been no one's fault but my own. So, what are your near miss stories and what could you have done to prevent the situation? Edit: If a mod could change the icon from poo poo post that would be cool. I post as well as I ride.
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Oct 25, 2009 22:13
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DiscoKid posted:Stopped reading here. Please explain yourself because I neither lied about anything or did anything that says I shouldn't be riding a motorcycle. I don't know where you stopped reading or what you're talking about. Edit: I see you stopped reading when I said I sped up to pass the cars in the left lane. Did you also read the part where I said they were stopped? I assume you think I'm lying about being 5 miles over the speed limit. You're wrong. Scrapez fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Oct 26, 2009 |
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Oct 26, 2009 00:49
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I think anytime you're passing cars when there's a double yellow, you're not doing it right. That's just asking for it.
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Oct 26, 2009 20:50
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Z3n posted:Meh, I disagree. Simply because they've repainted lines on assorted roads in my area, and it seems like any time they repaint lines, dotted lines go to solid. How about instead you let me make the determination about the conditions, the ability of my vehicle to pass, and let me figure out what is safe and what is not safe? I see part of your point here because on a straight road with minimal hills, a double yellow is usually uncalled for. However, going around a blind curve that's double yellowed and passing, as was done in the video, you just can't defend that. As to your point of DYs removing common sense, I'd say that's only partially true. by that logic, we should only have yield signs instead of stop signs and people should be able to make the determination of when to go and stop. I see both sides of the argument but really how long does it take to wait for a passing zone? Not long here in Iowa...maybe that's why I'm biased.
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Oct 26, 2009 22:40
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Those cloverleafs intersections are frickin deathtraps where you have a shared on/off ramp. We have several where I live. There have been so many fatalities at one of them that they are now redesigning it.
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Feb 24, 2010 18:49
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M4gic posted:This happened to me last week. Me and my friend "passenger" go out for a ride in the countryside. The road is semi-curvy and I'm going about 40-45 up around then down this long curve. At the bottom there's 15 Canadian geese just camping out taking up the entire road. I slam on my brakes sending the passenger hard into my back. And this little bastard goose I'm heading toward doesn't even move. I end up stopping inches from him and yell at all the geese to get out of the way. Was actually funny looking back on it because I'm sure the goose's face was exactly like this. Geese are assholes. There's a whole flock of them downtown here and they just wonder out in the middle of the street all the time. Cars honking at them and they just waddle across the street like they own the joint. I'm guessing it would be better to run over one than to be hit by one flying, though.
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May 11, 2010 17:20
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Not sure how I'm not posting this from a hospital bed but I'm pretty happy about it. Riding on the inside lane of a 4 lane road with a minivan on my right. I'm far enough behind them that I'm not in their blind spot. Maybe 10 feet behind and we're both travelling about 40 MPH. Speed limit was 35. I should have known something was up because I saw the van hit their brakes momentarily like they were going to turn. I just assumed they were turning right. I don't know if the driver missed his initial turn or what but he hit the brakes and then hit the gas WOT for just a minute like he was pissed...then he slammed on his brakes and turned left right in front of me across my lane. I grab a handful of brake and smash down on the rear. Rear tire locks up and the rear starts to slide out to the right a bit. I had the presence of mind to realize I had locked it and think "I need to let off a bit to straighten it out." However, at that moment I look up to see that the van is no more than 2 or 3 feet in front of me and I'm going to hit it. I squeeze the front as hard as I can and smash the rear as hard as I can. Both wheels lock and I screech to a halt literally 2 inches from the side of the van. I didn't even have time to be scared. I was just instantly loving pissed. I hammer fist the side of the van and it takes off since the opposing lanes were now clear. Thought about chasing him down but stopped myself. I don't know how I didn't either low side it or smash into the van. Just dumb luck. I could have been paying better attention and I might have had a better reaction time.
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Sep 8, 2010 03:37
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Spiffness posted:It also sounds like you need to practice your emergency braking Possibly. I obviously got on the rear too much to start but didn't really have a choice after that. Probably should consider upgrading brakes to at least a dual disc up front as well since the stock brakes are poo poo.
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Sep 8, 2010 03:57
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Crossposted from the Pictures and Videos thread. Is this you?Gullous posted:Poor vstrom
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Oct 6, 2010 05:42
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Glad you weren't hurt from the flying debris. That's scary. That is one of my biggest concerns when I'm out on the interstate. One time I was in my truck driving behind a semi and a huge chunk of rock flew out, bounced off the ground and went through my radiator. If something like that happened on my bike, I'd be dead. Ever since then, I ALWAYS make sure to secure my loads properly when I'm hauling anything.
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Oct 12, 2010 17:37
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I didn't almost crash but I saw a guy almost crash today. I think it might be worse seeing someone else in a bad situation because you feel even more helpless than if it's you. He was coming the other direction on a 2 lane highway. A car had stopped in front of him to make a left hand turn. He clearly must not have been paying attention because I saw him see the car when he was probably 15 feet from it, lock up his rear and immediately go into a death wobble. He somehow was able to swerve to the right onto the gravel shoulder where I thought sure he was going down but he didn't. I pulled over and stopped and he was barely able to keep it on the road and recover. Got my heart going. I thought I was going to witness a death and it wasn't cool.
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Apr 4, 2011 01:57
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Weinertron posted:Also called a "two way frontage road." Instead of two one-way roads on opposite sides of the highway that move with the direction of traffic, you now need to cross a lane of oncoming traffic to get to the freeway onramp or to get off of the freeway. They are a terrible, terrible invention. That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. The worst death traps we have here are the on/off ramps that are combined so you have a huge cluster gently caress of people trying to speed up to 70 to get onto the interstate and a bunch slowing down from 70 to exit. I think they're called "clovers" The biggest problem is that it's not a long off ramp and there is an immediate 30 MPH curve so the people exiting are slowing down. You combine the two and it's just craziness. Here's a picture of the intersection. I-380 and I-80 are the two interstates. 
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Apr 18, 2011 22:00
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I prefer them with a semi merging in and a semi exiting and about 25 cars that think they can't wait for them to clear so they are zig zagging around all over the drat place cutting everyone off. Fun times those clover leafs.
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Apr 19, 2011 16:41
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Skreemer posted:So I don't think I'm a dummy for this one, I'll with hold my comments about the other guy. Well it would appear by the broken white lines that it is a one way street and Mr. boxy truck was heading the wrong direction. Yes? If so, that's a pretty lovely thing to come around that blind corner to. Lucky you didn't meet him right at the corner.
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Sep 15, 2011 03:57
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Safety Dance posted:Is it SOP to scan for debris in the road? Would the bike have recovered by itself without me stomping the ground? It is SOP for me. Most of the time I'm looking for sand around corners. Who knows if it would have recovered. Maybe, maybe not. Just depends on how much traction you lost and how much grip it re-established and how fast you were going. Could have lowsided or highsided depending on how it shook out but it sounds like you made it through ok.
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Feb 1, 2012 16:56
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fingerling posted:Well... hit two spoon drains at 60, saw them perhaps five metres before the intersection and only managed to brake slightly.. For us Americans, what is a spoon drain? Or maybe that is a universal term I'm not familiar with? Regardless, that sucks man. Glad you didn't crash, though.
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Feb 10, 2012 19:58
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I was rolling 70 down the interstate today and a hawk flew up from the median right in front of me. Ducked down behind the windshield and braced for impact but he JUST cleared the windshield. Smacked it with his wing as he went over. From 6 inches, it appeared to be the largest hawk on the face of the god drat earth. Car behind me gave me a "holy poo poo" look and a thumbs up when they went by as I slowed to regather myself. Wish I had video of it but drat glad I didn't smack him. Not sure I would have stayed upright.
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Apr 14, 2016 05:41
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