What almost got you this week?

Wow Joe! Talk about two totally clueless people. I'd suspect that niether one of them are long to be residents of Earth.

[cactusjack]

This really wasn't too close of a call for me, but it did make me pucker some. Monday night I was going to ride down to Coolidge, about 25 miles from my house to meet an acquaintance down here on vacation and have a drink with him. I was waiting to turn onto AZ87 and head across the reservation. I noticed a silver PT Cruiser behind me. I made my left turn and PT Cruiser guy followed me.

I wasted no time getting up to 65 MPH, but apparently I wasn't quick enough for PTCG. First chance he got, he passed me. I observed that traffic was quite heavy in both directions on this highway, which was odd to me, because I usually only ride it on weekends, not during weekday rush hour. Anyway, we came up on a line of maybe a dozen vehicles ahead of us, moving about 60-65 MPH. PTCG pulls out and passes the car in front of him. Then he pulls out again and tried to pass 2 or 3 more cars. Well, PTCG must not have been paying attention, because there was oncoming traffic. I said "Oh, sh*t!" and immediately started backing off so as not to get hit with shrapnel when PTCG meets Chevy Suburban head on.

The oncoming traffic had to move to their shoulder or there would have been a big mess. I haven't seen that maneuver in a few years. I was hoping there was a tribal cop somewhere to nail this guy, but didn't see any LEOs anywhere.

[joesnomad]

I was reading a thread on here last night about traffic volume being lower do to fuel prices. I agree there does seem to be a little less however it seems like the morons are still out there in full force.

[tkd]

Had 3, none really close, but close enough.

1. A lady is in my subdivision approching a t-intersection where she has to stop. I am making a left and will be crossing in front of her. She looked straight at me and just barely made the stop sign. She had to be doing at least 50 in a 30mph neighborhood. Oh yeah, she was taking her half out of the middle in a Tahoe. I just shook my head and went on. Not that it matters, but I would guess that she was not from this country.

2. A full size Chevy Van with about 20ft enclosed car hauler. Same area. You could tell had planned to "roll" the stop sign with that load. Never even looked, just followed his buddy in the car ahead. Again, not close, but when he saw me, you could see the fear.

3. Had a kid on FOOT try to play chicken with me in the road to show off for his freinds. (12-14 years old). I was only going about 15mph but I turned around, stopped, and totally dressed him down about how stupid he was trying to look cool for his freinds by doing what he did. Told him I wanted to speak to his parents, but he refused to go home. Bottom line is he was trying to show off for the girls and they all ended up laughing at him. Totally pissed me off. Kids today are getting out of hand. Had a little kid do the same thing on a big wheel about a month ago when I was in my Expedition.

*sigh*. Rant is over

One of the smith system rules for saffe driving is "aim high in steering" which means look as far down the road as you can. Comming home from our 550 trip on saturday I was on HWY 6 in Utah (2 lane HWY) and far on the horizon I could see headlights approaching in my lane. I started flashing my brights on and off to make myself more visible. The car kept comming at me as he was attempting to pass a semi. When I could see that the car was not going to make it I got over toward the shoulder and the car ended up forcing the semi onto the other shoulder. Could have been alot worse. If you can detect a hazard early on, I think it helps you to stay calm and not panic.

[jester]

2 good ones come to mind...one about 2 weeks ago, one last fall.

Couple weeks ago I was heading into town on a county road, approaching a single set of RR tracks. One of our local junk dealers was coming at me and got to the tracks first. He was towing a trailer loaded with crap, none of which was secured. The trailer hit the tracks and a tire/wheel came off the trailer and missed me by about 5 feet. I pulled over, cleaned out whatever had lodged in the upper leg of my jeans and called one of the deputies. He went out to the scrap yard and it turned out that the tire/wheel had actually came off the axle. Needless to say, I've been watching for him since.

The other was last fall. I was taking a leasurly drive on the wife's V-Star to make sure I put everything back right after changing the oil. Saw something out of the corner of my eye and BANG, it hit the wind shield. I stopped, cleaned out whatever had lodged in the upper leg of my jeans and turned around. Grouse. Not too dinged up either, tasted just fine...

[flightdoc]

Hey Jester,

I was hit in the face, at 70 mph, by a seagull many years ago. No idea how I didn't go down. It felt like someone hit me in the face with a bat. From that incident I learned never take ANY animals on the side of the road for granted.
The junk truck incident you mentioned reminds me of what our local highways have on them after a nice weekend....the tourist leave many things behind ie: cooler, lawn chairs, clothing etc...all from blowing out of the back of trucks. When following a vehicle with a bunch of stuff not so secured to it...back off or go around. Big rig tires could do damage too

vin

[rksaw]

Shoot! I had to get on the forum this morning, because on the way to church I was driving my wife's cage and had stopped at a red light. Kitty-corner from where I was at is a 7-11. When the light turned green a Suzuki Samuri in the right lane pulled into my lane in order to turn left into the convenience store parking lot. I'm glad that I didn't "gun it" as soon as the light turned green. If I hadn't been thinking about how dumb people could be, I would have gotten a little upset.
Rich

Ya just can't totally relax when riding. I wonder how many here remember how it was back before motorcycles became accepted. Prior to about 1970 we were just fair game to a lot of drivers.

[coacha]

My wife and I were coming back from making football film exchange yesterday and while we were coming through town, a van started to come into our lane. Now, we are in somewhat heavy traffic, both lanes have numerous cars in them and it was just past an intersection. He starts to float over, no turn signal or anything. I hit the gas and got as far ahead as I could...there was a car in front of me. He finally noticed me and backed off significantly, in fact, he dropped back about 15 car lengths after he finally saw me.

My wife hit me on the shoulder because she didn't think I saw him. I was too busy trying to figure out if I had the room to: a) get in the turn lane (car was in it heading my way), b) slow down to avoid possible contact (couldn't because car was trailing too close) or c) accelerate and get ahead (best choice).

It was kinda scary for a few seconds.

[cactusjack]

I decided to hitch the trailer up to the Nomad today and take it out for a highway test run. I rode down to Casa Grande AZ and on my way back home I didn't want to take I-10 (2 lanes and 80-85 mph), so I was going to take AZ387. 387 is the highway leading NE and you have to cross over I-10. I was on the overpass, which is narrow and just 1 lane each way and I see a semi heading toward me. All of a sudden he jerks the tractor trailer over into my lane, only a cuple of hundred feet ahead of me. I moved right as far as I could and started slowing down and the the driver jerked his rig back into his own lane. I could then see what he was doing - he was passing some guy on a bicycle and swung wide to give the cyclist room. In doing so, he put me in danger.

[rksaw]

Man, You just never know!!! Keep a sharp eye out. Stay alert, Stay alive.

[coacha]

Originally Posted by cactusjack

I decided to hitch the trailer up to the Nomad today and take it out for a highway test run. I rode down to Casa Grande AZ and on my way back home I didn't want to take I-10 (2 lanes and 80-85 mph), so I was going to take AZ387. 387 is the highway leading NE and you have to cross over I-10. I was on the overpass, which is narrow and just 1 lane each way and I see a semi heading toward me. All of a sudden he jerks the tractor trailer over into my lane, only a cuple of hundred feet ahead of me. I moved right as far as I could and started slowing down and the the driver jerked his rig back into his own lane. I could then see what he was doing - he was passing some guy on a bicycle and swung wide to give the cyclist room. In doing so, he put me in danger.

Did you have to clean yourself up after that? I know I would have.

[chainsaw]

Bicycles are another problem. Don't follow the rules of the rode and ride wherever they feel like it.

[cactusjack]

Originally Posted by "CHAINSAW"

Bicycles are another problem. Don't follow the rules of the rode and ride wherever they feel like it.

In this case, the cyclist was doing everything right. He was on the correct side of the road and was riding on the shoulder of the road, but like I said, the overpass is very narrow with barely enough width for 2 traffic lanes. We have a law in AZ that you have to stay at least 3' away from bicycles as you pass them. I don't think you could stay in your own lane and give a 3' safety zone for bikes on this overpass.