weird shit you dodge

[freaking RT]

dodging things can be just as dangerous as hitting things.

the weirdest thing I have dodged is a cager front windshield.

It came flying off a truck bed into the slab. The cager in front of me ran over it and shot it into the right lane with pieces flying all over. I saw it and had started over to the other lane and was in a position to move back left and miss the damn thing by a few feet.

[zouch]

just in the last few moths:

- windshield (laying in the fast lane; just gassed it and went straight over it @ ~70MPH. i'm sure this isn't what Conti Knobs were designed for, but it worked!)
- ladders (yes, multiple; seems there's still many of these construction workers that can't tie these things down..?)
- flying plastic bags (i don't know why it seems like there's so many of these floating around on the highway; you're always trying to guess which way the air currents ahead of you are going to carry them and dodge them before you meet them. even so, i caught one on the right jug a couple of weeks ago. i pulled it off while still moving, but in the couple of seconds it was on there a small bit of it started to melt onto the exhaust flange. that cr*p is still burning off,... phew!)


kinda' helps reinforce that whole 'Safe Following Distance' thing, eh?


cheers!
e

[dizave]

Those damn tire tread things from trailer trucks... When you are lucky the car in front will shoot them up into the air at you.

Oh and an Elk.

[Chopperman]

Tons of retread skins.
A wheel. full car wheel and tire.
a couple weeks ago... 6 33gal. plastic trash cans.
several thousand smoke butts.

[GSPeP]

Monday afternoon, after the sunday storm with windspeeds up to 140 kph, I stopped work early to do some repairs myself. I finished early and since the weather was great (clear sky, no wind) I decided to go for a ride. On this ride of about 70 km I had to dodge the following:

- a lot of tree branches launched by cars in front of me.
- a lot of roof tile parts and bits launched by those same cars.
- 1 power line that decided to fall 24 hrs after the storm
- 3 feasants that were scared of me, but instead of flying away they flew directly towards me
- 1 fire engine that decided to turn in the middle of the street
- 1 (female) cyclist (just being stupid)
- 1 VW Golf (also being stupid)

On other days it are always doves and feasants. I don't know why, but these seem to be attracted by the GS.

Peter ('01 R1150GS)

[Hacksaw]

Bed mattress.

[fish]

Last year I dodged a refrigerator. At night.

It was in the center lane of 280, about 10pm, and I was headed home at a pretty good clip...very little traffic. I come around a big sweeper and see something in the road. Must just be tired. I hit the PIAAs just to make sure, and get blinded by the whiteness, zip, I swerve around it to the left and just about freak out as I run over the cord. Musta fallen off a truck and the guy figured it would be too damaged to go back and get it. Bastard.

Certainly the list of things I've dodged is much much longer than the list of things I've hit.

Lessee...what else. A while back I was just on a leisurely cruise down Old Alpine Rd (one of our local goat trails), come around a blind turn and there's a minivan in the middle of the road. Stopped. I reckon he figured he'd just stop in the middle of the road and take a photo. If I had been going much faster, I would have hit him.

[PhilSpace]

Bales of straw at midnight - pretty easy, but the spare tire that fell out of the rack on a semi at 1AM - pretty friggin interesting.

[wxwax]

Lots of cars and trucks. Fuckers are all over the place.

[Hacksaw]

A crate of bananas that bounced out of the back of a truck, then slid down the highway unopened.

[Marc]

A wobbly tire on a rim. It separated from a U-Haul trailer coming towards me at about 50 MPH in June last year when my bike was new. I was on Hwy 2 at the time going eastbound at about 60 MPH, so I figure my combined rate of closure was about 110 MPH. Missed me by about 10 yards, but it really got my adrenaline pumping. There would have been no way to miss it if it was headed right at me - it happened too fast. Needless to say, it bounced and wobbled out into the bushes to the right of me...right across my path. 2

M

[Chopperman]

volvo coming at me in my lane just as I exited a corner. Dodged her twice. highsided the bike. But I didnt hit her. I sure wanted to when she contested the measly "inattentive driving" ticket the got.

[dizave]

Do cars count? Then I should mention when I came around a hairpin in the Gila forest in the dark and almost got run over by a car, in my lane (the outside one!!) that apparently had just hit an animal or something, because it was making all sorts of weird noises and smelled of burning rubber, and was damaged around the driver side headlight, which was out.

I second WxWax. Damn cages.

[Chopperman]

How about a boat?

Me and my buddy were on our way to the 49er one year and as we entered aleft hander, a pickup came around the other way swinging a boat on a trailer. the sucker was sideways like a big flyswatter.

[serson brannen]

So ther we were ,north bound on I75 at night returning from daytona. Suddenly(ain't it always) a bass boat loomed out of the darkness, still spinning. I swerved hard left, my buddy hard right, to miss it on either side by inches. In my mirrors I could see car headlights going nuts as people tried to avoid the boat. About two miles up the road we passed a guy with an empty boat trailer and a stupid look on his face. I could not help but flip him off as I passed.