Your Close Call..............

about two weeks ago i was behind a suburban on the highway when i saw something fall out from underneath the truck. it bounced off the ground i jumped into the next lane as it passed me at about chest height.

then a few days ago and lady in her 60's in a chrysler 300 pulled out in front of me, i was running along at about 40mph and locked the rear sliding the bike on full lock sideways coming to a stop in front of her car. i wanted to tap dance on her hood after that.

Oh, I get what you meant by avoiding murder charges... I must be a bit slow this morning.

I get pissed when people try to kill me... Nothing that internet dialogue is going to change. I don't do anything more than steam in my helmet, honk, and/or give them the finger... I then quickly forget about it once I'm passed the vehicle(s) in question.

Probably the closest in recent years, without actually wrecking, was the classic person on the right side of the road decides to do a u-turn in front of you without warning. I'm usually pretty good at looking for people in cars parked on the side of the road. With this one, I saw no indication of what was going to happen. Wheels weren't cocked, didn't see the reverse lights as they put it in drive, no exhaust coming out, just nothing. They darted out and whipped it across four lanes in an instant, and ABS was engaged as I came within a few feet of the side of the suv-hybrid thing. I still don't think they ever knew I was there even while driving around me. Or cared.

When the car turned in front of me from the side street, after 'clearing' him, i stopped on the side of the road and thought of going after him, and give the driver piece of my mind, but after thinking it over, i decided it wouldnt make much difference, so i just kept riding. Maybe he'll have a better look next time.

My closest call was actually three in one incident back in the early 80's. I was riding at maybe 55mph on an urban four lane when a semi truck came hauling ass out of a parking lot right in front of me and slammed on the brakes. He blocked both of my lanes, the middle lane and any bail out into the lot.

I had a moment to do some hard braking but there was no way I was going to slow down enough to not get hurt on knobbies. Without thinking I just pitched it into a turn toward the curb. There was no thought involved. My old XT cleared the curb without drama but that left me looking at the front of a store.

I probably wasn't going but maybe 35 or so at that point. But it was a narrow bit of asphalt and loose rock. I braked as hard as I could and just touched the glass front doors with a little bump. After all that, what really freaked me out was looking back at my tracks. I had gone between a power pole and guy wire. :huh

Sometimes it truly is better to be lucky than good.

One of my more memorable ones occurred on my bicycle. I was on the through road coming up to a T intersection. A VW golf comes cruising up the the T road on my right, glances over at me and figures he has time to blow through the stop sign to make a left in front of me.
But he doesn't notice the fully loaded dump truck approaching from the other direction. I'm expecting to see him become a hood ornament, but he spots the truck about halfway through the right lane and stops in front of me.
He throws it in reverse and backs up to where he should have been all along.
With some trepidation, I continue past him, happy that I wasn't coming along 10 seconds sooner, or going a few mph faster.

At least when you're on a moto, cars take you slightly more seriously than they do bicycles. On the push-bike close calls are just part of the ride, just about every time you ride.

I can tell you that most people driving are complete idiots. These people can't even see a semi truck let alone a motorcycle. I was rolling down highway 30 in Indiana on my way home. It was dark out. There was a car in front of me as I made my right turn. The road is about 4 lanes wide, but hasn't been painted in awhile so the white lines are pretty much gone. The car in front of me took the right lane, I took the left. Suddenly she hooks a hard left right in front of me. I stood on the brakes and saw her face lit by my headlights. Somehow I stopped and she squeaked by with a few feet to spare.
It would have sucked to tbone some dumbass 200 yards from home.

Daylight on a 4 lane main street. I was turning left into a side street. Saw the car waiting to turn left across my path, on to the street i was on. Figured they saw me, but planned on them not. (since traffic was a little busy and it was hard to get out of that street). Sure enough, I am half way thru my turn and catch them accelerating out onto the main street, aimed for my rear tire! :eek1

Thank god for young reactions (hers not mine). I saw the look on her face and figured i couldnt add anything to the lesson, so i just kept on going.


I did check my pants tho, after i got out of sight

My closest wreck without wrecking happened a couple of Saturday's ago on my way home from Reno on Hwy395. A low flying Phesant decided to cross right in my path, as i was doing 70MPH, all I had time to say was oh S--- and the Phesant took of my Windshield off. I backed off the throttle and pulled to the side odf the road and started taking inventory as I was sure I was dead. But ot my supprise all the damage was to the front of my Tiger 800XC (about $1100.00 worth) but I was unscathed. For Some strange reason i wasn't even shaking. There was a car right behind me, but they didn't even slow down, I sure would have liked to find out what they saw.

35 years and I got nothing on the street.
Lots of close calls in the dirt, like coming around a sandy turn at 60 mph and finding a jeep coming the other way.
Locked up the back and slid past between the truck and the trees, with about an inch to spare.
I got real mellow in blind turns after that, at least for a while.

My great fear is hitting another biker, I do not want to think about handlebars through the chest and so on...

Several years back I was on my way home from a night shift. Being early on a weekend morning (Saturday or Sunday... don't recall which) traffic on the Interstate was very light. I was approaching my exit which would put me on the road to my neighborhood, so I'm in the right most lane. All I need to do is pass under the bridge and take the exit which will loop around and allow me to head east.

Suddenly, the large, white SUV, which is several car lengths forward of me in the center lane (to my left) goes very, VERY hard on the brakes! The nose dives sharpely and the rear wheels darn near come up off the ground. I had just completed a scan of my mirrors so I knew there were no cars in close proximity behind me. While I can't see what it is that prompted the SUV to brake so hard, I go fairly hard on the brakes too! At that moment, a small compact car comes into view from in front of the SUV. The lady driving was talking on her cell phone and suddenly realized she was about to miss her exit. She sweeps from the left lane, across the center lane and into my lane.

As she entered my lane, she apparently decided she needed to come to a complete stop because the right most lane was occupied (by me) and she didn't want to have an accident. I only have one real option at this point. As I mentioned, I had just checked my mirror so in addition to there being no cars close behind me, I knew the exit lane on my right was clear as well. As I came off the brakes and began a hard rightward movement, I made a mental note of the fact this lady had already demonstrated poor awareness skills but may suddenly decided being stopped on a through lane of the Interstate is a bad idea and start moving again. As such as I moved to the right, I targeted the hard shoulder of the exit lane versus the lane itself.

That proved to be a good move because she did begin to move. We ended up side by side on the exit, she in the lane with me beside her on the shoulder. I slowed down and let her move forward of me. As I was now heading west instead of east, I needed to go to the next signal light and get turned around to head home. I moved over into the left lane where I could make a controlled left turn (green arrow).

The light was red as we approached. As I come to a stop, I look to my right. The lady is sitting there, still chatting on her cell phone, without a care in the world, oblivious to the fact she nearly killed me. Her window was down and she had her cell phone in the left hand, up to the left ear. She was easily within reach of my right hand. If the arrow had not turned green for me at just that moment, I'm pretty certain a cell phone would have been flying across the road towards the bushes.

All of my close calls involve coming into corners too hot. First time I'd only been riding for about 2 months and came into corner that I didn't realize tightened up mid way thru. I was leaned over hard and could feel the rear tire sliding out. I thought I was going to put it down but some how just managed to hold it and carry out the corner. Felt really lucky there.

Second time was on a series of curves that i run pretty regularly, well one day the county chip n sealed the road and left little bits of gravel everywhere. My I came into the first corner fast with my buddy right behind me. Just as I entered the corner I saw the gravel and paniced. I got on the brakes too hard, locked em up but managed to stay pointing straight. I over shot the corner and just barely got stopped right as the pavement ended. I was convinced my buddy was close enough behind me he was either going to lay it down or crash right into me. Its a weird feeling just waiting for that impact. Luckily he was further back and saw my screw up in time to slow down.

I find this thread very instructive, so here goes...

Happened 5 years ago. I am following my wife on a highway off ramp (we both ride ). We have to merge with on-coming trafic on the road to our left but, as we are sweeping down the off ramp, I see that there is only one car on that road and it will be behind us by the time we reach the end of the ramp.

So I keep switching between checking my wife's speed in front and looking over my left shoulder to see where the car is. I do this a few times. Then, as I look in front, I see to my horror that my wife has STOPPED to let the car go by. I swerve to the right and missed hitting her by inches. I nearly stopped riding then and there. My bad, really, you are responsible for the person in front of you.

Prof J

Wow, like the three last post I have to admit the closest calls I've had were at on/off ramp intersections.

...

I am going to have to be more careful I guess - the shitty thing is that those are the only places in south Florida with hard turns and curves, so they are the only places I got hot into when I know I've got the right of way (which doesn't mean much when a car wants to take it away from me).

Damned cages.

Northbound BRP, someplace south of Boone, KY. Nice day, wooded area, Curves. Hills on my left. Setting up for a left-hander when I come a little too close for comfort with the grill of an '80's vintage Chevy pickup mostly in my lane coming around a blind curve. No blood, no foul, I saw it in time to avoid.

a few years ago I was on a pretty narrow, nicely twisty road and had been following a rather large truck for a few minutes and was getting a bit antsy.

So I moved my bike to the centerline and looked past the truck. Nice, just two oncoming cars and then I can pass!

I wait for the cars to pass by the truck, gun the throttle and am just about to whip out and past the truck ... when I see the third car that I had overlooked.

If that car had just been twenty meters or so farther back I would have slammed into it head on without even the chance to brake.

:eek1Headed out about 7am hit the black top by the house, got to the first curve and noticed 3 turkeys on the left side of the road. As I started to lean into the curve I was half watching them run to make sure they didn't run back into my path. When out of the corner of my eye I see one flying right at me from the right!I ducked and the feet or feathers hit my Helmet! That woke me up!

I was doing about 40mph in the right lane, about to overtake a car in the left lane that was slowing down to make a left. When I was about even with his rear bumper, he decided he need to make a right instead. I went into a full supermoto looking slide, as he turned in front of me, just missing my front tire. He never even saw me.

Here's the fun part: In the oncoming turn lane, waiting to turn onto the street where the offending car just went, was a California Highway Patrol cruiser. After witnessing the entire episode, he flipped on his lights, and went after the guy. It was easy not to be mad after that...

Took the Shoulder to keep some tweaker looking twat in an old mazda from running me over as traffic slowed at 210 hwy & 435. She missed me by less than 6 inches. Maybe I won't ride to work tomorrow:eek1