Finally happened

[dazco]

I have always wondered how it would feel to be up in the twisties and see a car coming at me in the oncoming lane while passing someone. This weekend i was tooling along (hey, i've never use the word tooling b4 ) at maybe 50 at most up in the local twisties when some numbskull decided to pass a couple bicycles at about 75 MPH on a short straight with a curve around which i had just appeared. It wasn't real close, but close enough to make my freakin' eyeballs pop out of my head. Another second or 2 and i would have either died from a head-on or a heart attack, one of the other. Well, actually probably a heart attack because what i realized is that on a bike, a lot of times you will be able to squeeze by on the edge of the road giving the jackass enough room to get by. I did just that only to realize a split second later he had enough time to get back in his lane. But if he hadn't i think my being on the edge of the road would have saved me.

In all my years this has never happened. That gives me hope that it never will again ! I can't imagine what it would be like to hit a car head-on at a combined speed of about 125 MPH.

 

[Dilligaf]

Glad you escaped unscathed.

 

[keystiger]

Congrats on escaping unscathed.
Had the same thing happen to me a number of times when I lived in the keys. 2 lane road, tourists in a hurry to get to Key West and "party" = lots of illegal and dangerous passing. Nothing like hugging the shoulder at 55 as two cars go by you in the road at 55 or more.........twice I actually had the presence of mind to give the driver the single finger salute as he passed another time Shannon did it for me...great gal that one.

 

[The Seeker]

Yeah, been there and done that before. A good reason to always have a change of undies with you at all times...LOL!

A week or so ago I was going through some twisties and right at the beginning of a curve I had a sneezing attack...like 4 sneezes in rapid succession. There was little I could do and when I focused again, I was on the wrong side of the road. Luckily there was no one coming the other way at the time,

 

[DaveM]

Oh boy when I saw the title of the thread I was dreading opening it just to read that you had gone down. Glad that you did not and yes it is something that I have also been through a few times and know just how you feel.

 

[dazco]

Yeah, i suppose that title wasn't well thought out. But i chose it because it is one of those things i thought should have happened many times after all these years up there and i've often felt like i've been way lucky. So "finally happened" seemed like a good title.

when I focused again, I was on the wrong side of the road

Whoa ! Thats scary. I remember when i had my speedmaster going around a tight curve and doing the one thing I myself always lecture to others about....never ever take your eyes off the road when in a turn, especially a tight one. Broke my own rule and drifted over the line a bit and quickly got back on track. But for a split second there my heart nearly jumped out of my chest and all i could think of was whet if a car had been there. That was a lesson i knew at the time but this burned it into my head and I think about it every single tun i make today. It became part of my conciousness full time. Kinda glad it happened because of that.

 

[DaveM]

It is actually very scary when you think about it that just one laps in concentration can mean the end for you when riding a bike

 

[CarlS]

Dale and AJ, I am so glad neither of you had an accident in those two situations.

I had a similar encounter two years ago in North Carolina. Mae Lyne was riding pillion and Trey was riding his new Speed Triple following us. A fuel oil (kerosene/paraffin) truck decided to pass a slow poking tourist on a curve. We came around the curver facing a truck that looked the size of the Pentagon coming right at us. Trey braked giving me room. I headed to the very edge of the road. There was no shoulder, just a rock cliff. By the grace of God, we squeezed by. The truck was just able to start returning to his lane. We missed by about two feet. I could easily have touched the truck. I had to pull off to recompose - and get clean undies out of the saddle bag!

We continued our ride and had a great day including some great twisties on roads with very little traffic.

 

[dazco]

Gives me the willies just picturing that. We live in a world where the majority of the population seem to have just enough brains to breathe and drive, the latter making them very dangerous. If they handed out driver licenses based on intelligence there would be no more traffic jams.

 

[CarlS]

They need to issue drivers licenses to the same standards in the US as they do in Europe. 75% of the drivers would be off of the roads. About half of those would eventually return. Oh and make driving without a license and automatic 30 day jail sentence for the first offense and six months for the second.

 

[dazco]

And cell/texting fines should go up to insane amounts. At least $1000 mandatory for the first offense. When asked why they don't do that i once heard an official say "because people wouldn't stand for that" ! What!!! What sort of drunken logic is that?! I saw a guy on the freeway a couple weeks ago slowly drift from one lane to the next. when i say slowly i mean over the course of a 1/4 mile or maybe even 1/2. i thought what the hell is this guy doing, and he was drifting INTO other cars in that lane. When i caught up i saw he was texting and looking down at the device not even lifting his head once in the 15 seconds or so i saw him text, not including the time i watched him drifting before i caught up and saw why. And yes, I did look ahead myself at intervals so i didn't do the same while looking at him. but i swear he must have been looking down at that thing for a good 1/2 mile while drifting into other cars. I have seen lots of people on cells and texting, but this was scary. What amazes me is a person can get arrested and pay $10k in fines and lose thier license for drinking about 2 beers, yet this they treat like a minor traffic fine. This is probably just as dangerous as those who drink a 6 pack or more and drive if not moreso. They just raised it to something like a 100 bucks or some such thing, and i am not kidding or exaggerating when i say i swear to god i have seen more of this lately than in the past, a LOT more. And each time i get so mad i think before long i'm going to lose it one of these days and start confronting these jerks in a very angry manner.

 

[avion]

It's a sad state of affairs what with the level of drivers on the road nowadays.

I'm just glad you guys are still here to tell us about it.

 

[CarlS]

Me, too, G.

Dale I agree with you 100% about cell phones and texting.

 

[DaveM]

Man I just don't know how people are able to think they can text and drive at the same time.

 

[Gromit]

Man I just don't know how people are able to think they can text and drive at the same time.

There's 2 things about your question:

1 - "Man" - you know you can't multitask
2 - "Think" - they don't think!

 

[DaveM]

 

[keystiger]

Can you guys keep it down a sec...... I am trying to respond via text to this thread while driving, drinking coffee, smoking and changing the radio station........I can't read your messages AND do all that !!!!!!!!
:y24:

 

[CarlS]

There's 2 things about your question:

1 - "Man" - you know you can't multitask
2 - "Think" - they don't think!

Apparently neither can women, I have had three very close calls caused by women on cell phones texting.

 

[Rocky]

Don't get me started on this cell phone/texting thing! It's completely out of control!
It's hard to believe the human race can be so stupid........then again.....maybe not. We're surrounded by stupidity.

dazco, I've had similar experiences on curved roads, but none that were life threatening......well.......sort of......could have been.
Here, we have many curvy backroads and you can't always see around the curves. Many of these roads are scenic and the drivers are gawking instead of watching the road. It's especially bad during the tourist season.
But of course we have our own home-grown nitwits who pull stupid stunts like you described.

 

[Gromit]

I've got one of those 'holographic' keyboards for my BB - I project the keyboard onto a flat board attached to the centre of my steering wheel so I CAN text and drive. It's a 'qwerty' keyboard so if you know your way around, you can type with both thumbs and you don't take your eyes off the road or off the steering wheel