I should be dead
Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2016 8:02 pm
I should be dead.
I've been riding for 28 years now and I've had a few incidents ... totaled one bike on a curvy road that landed me in the hospital (I was just a kid), drivers have pulled out in front of me, I've been pushed out of my lane on the freeway by a big-rig, I’ve had a blow-out (rear wheel – not so bad), I had to dodge a coyote once in Arizona, and encountered a bull elk in the middle of the road... pretty standard fare for a motorcycle rider. But this week was almost my last ride.
I was entering a two lane highway in Michigan – two lanes going west, two lanes going east separated by a grassy median. Speed limit 70mph. I entered the freeway in moderate traffic and took the left lane; the speed of traffic around me quickly moved up to 70+mph. The freeway has a slight curve to the right and a decline. I have to admit – I was only about two or three car lengths behind the SUV in front of me (mistake). The SUV obscured my vision of traffic ahead and what I couldn’t see was that traffic was at a dead stop.
Everything was moving along nicely and I looked down at my gauges to check my speed, then looked up to see the SUV in front of me in an emergency break – you know the kind where the rear-end of the vehicle is way up in the air. The SUV bailed out into the grass on the left. The two cars in front of the SUV used the left emergency lane and there I was doing 70 headed straight for a stopped car. I touched the front break and realized there was no way possible I could shut it down in time, I took my chances and went to the right and split the lanes between traffic in the right lane and the dead-stop vehicles on the left. Well, I slipped through a crack and live to tell the story. I estimate my speed around 60 when passing the stopped cars on my left. I’m pretty sure rear-ending a stopped car at 60mph is a trip straight to heaven.
It all happened so fast... It’s amazing how that surge of adrenaline slows time. I’m pretty sure a less experienced rider would not have escaped the situation because either you panic or puzzle through it in an instant.
Lessons re-learned… This stretch of freeway is now on my “dangerous” list… Never EVER check my gauges in a curve or if I’m in tight moderate-to-heavy traffic (just keep my head up), and most importantly if I cannot see traffic ahead of the vehicle in front of me I need to stay way-way back.
Keep the shiny side up.
I've been riding for 28 years now and I've had a few incidents ... totaled one bike on a curvy road that landed me in the hospital (I was just a kid), drivers have pulled out in front of me, I've been pushed out of my lane on the freeway by a big-rig, I’ve had a blow-out (rear wheel – not so bad), I had to dodge a coyote once in Arizona, and encountered a bull elk in the middle of the road... pretty standard fare for a motorcycle rider. But this week was almost my last ride.
I was entering a two lane highway in Michigan – two lanes going west, two lanes going east separated by a grassy median. Speed limit 70mph. I entered the freeway in moderate traffic and took the left lane; the speed of traffic around me quickly moved up to 70+mph. The freeway has a slight curve to the right and a decline. I have to admit – I was only about two or three car lengths behind the SUV in front of me (mistake). The SUV obscured my vision of traffic ahead and what I couldn’t see was that traffic was at a dead stop.
Everything was moving along nicely and I looked down at my gauges to check my speed, then looked up to see the SUV in front of me in an emergency break – you know the kind where the rear-end of the vehicle is way up in the air. The SUV bailed out into the grass on the left. The two cars in front of the SUV used the left emergency lane and there I was doing 70 headed straight for a stopped car. I touched the front break and realized there was no way possible I could shut it down in time, I took my chances and went to the right and split the lanes between traffic in the right lane and the dead-stop vehicles on the left. Well, I slipped through a crack and live to tell the story. I estimate my speed around 60 when passing the stopped cars on my left. I’m pretty sure rear-ending a stopped car at 60mph is a trip straight to heaven.
It all happened so fast... It’s amazing how that surge of adrenaline slows time. I’m pretty sure a less experienced rider would not have escaped the situation because either you panic or puzzle through it in an instant.
Lessons re-learned… This stretch of freeway is now on my “dangerous” list… Never EVER check my gauges in a curve or if I’m in tight moderate-to-heavy traffic (just keep my head up), and most importantly if I cannot see traffic ahead of the vehicle in front of me I need to stay way-way back.
Keep the shiny side up.
. I hit the binders, not with a death grip because I knew there was 
been close to that situation before. but never THAT close.