Neighbor hit buzzard.....on motorcycle

[Old Guy in Tenn]

Had my close encounter with a SAAB almost 2 years ago. He was stopped at the side of the road and whipped out for a fast U-turn just as I went by. I was watching him, so was able to swerve hard and side-swipe instead of t-bone. My helmet made it an inconvenience instead of a disaster. Spent one night in the hospital, and my roomie had a similar accident 4 months earlier, but with no helmet. He had facial reconstruction surgery and 3 brain surgeries to stop bleeding, but still missed his coffee cup when reaching for it.

My wife thought I should top riding so that our grandkids would have more time with me. I replied I would rather give them a few years of happy grandpa vs. a lot of years of grumpy grandpa, and am still riding...with a helmet. The ride defensively skills have also made me a better driver when in my truck.

 

[PJSprog]

Sorry about your neighbor, RSKY. Hope he pulls through.

My parents hated motorcycles. When I was growing up, we had several neighbors who had dirt and street bikes, so I kind of grew up riding theirs. Didn't get my own until after I was married and in my early 20s. I admit that I would sometimes ride without a helmet back then, if just puttering around town. On the highway, though, I've always worn one. It's optional in Illinois, but these days I always choose that option. As plenty of others here have already noted, the attention level of other drivers just isn't what it used to be.

I've been fortunate enough to have never hit an animal. Had some close encounters, but never a collision. (The two accidents I have had were both riding error / slick pavement combinations, back when I was younger and riskier.) However, seeing a deer on the side of the road lift its head and perk its ears will always be a pucker factor of 11.

I stopped riding to work a couple of years ago, too. Just too dangerous in commuter traffic on interstate highways. I'm solely a weekend rider now.

 

[dmccarty]

People TEXTING is what I think will eventually get me off 2 wheels and put me back into an open air Jeep.
It should be treated exactly the same as DWI.

I was talking to a guy this past Sunday about the odd dents, dings and scratches he had in his car...

He was on a two lane road and he could see that the car heading in the opposite direction was being driven by a man who had his cell phone above the steering wheel and was texting. The car drifted out of the lane and the guy I was talking too had a choice of driving off the road or having a head on collision. He went off roading in a Honda. :shocked: His car hit a road sign which put a deep, long trench like dent on the room that ran from from to back and a deep dent above the door handle on the rear passenger door.

But he walked away from the accident and the car is still drivable. Not sure the same could be said if he was on a motorcycle.

I have seen people eating bowls of cereal with milk, putting on make up, swatting the kids, fighting with passengers, and reading books/magazines but texting has made driving more dangerous. One of the last book readers I saw was in a Mercedes. I think the car could sense if it was getting to close to another car and it would beep or brake as well as beep if it started to move out of the lane. At least that was my best guess because he was staying the lane of travel pretty well and not getting too close to cars while driving just a bit under the speed of other cars. All while reading a book leaning on the steering wheel.

I don't feel save in a 7,000+ pound full size truck given what I see almost every day.

Later,
Dan

 

[Teachu2]

I rode as a kid, sold mine right before my marriage (and instant family w/three boys). Picked up a Virago dirt cheap and rode it until I needed the money for something else, sold it for twice what I had in it. Fast forward a dozen years, and the kids were all out on their own. SWMBO said "We ought to get a couple Harleys!", so we did. Every other summer we'd take a 4-5k mile trip in about three weeks, all over the western US, once to Alaska and back. Kept trading up until I am on a Road Glide Ultra and she's on a Street Glide. I went down on a Wide Glide in 2005, and a dog took her down in 2015. Both accidents were near home, which has mandatory helmet laws. She totaled her 2010 Street Glide, but barely scratched her helmet - and bought a new Street Glide an hour after she was released from the ER. My Wide Glide took some repairs, but I somersaulted down the highway and hit my helmet on the pavement at least five times.

We both still ride whenever we can find time. Pretty rare since we moved out of the city, but maybe we'll get a nice long ride in this July. We're getting old enough to trailer the bikes out of the 110 degree desert around us to Oregon or Idaho, then store the truck and trailer while we enjoy cooler climates and reverse it on the return leg.

When God's ready for us, it won't matter if we're on Harleys, in a fallout shelter, or safely in bed. Until then, we'll take the risk.

 

[dodge man]

I have a part time co-worker who is a retired state tropper. He once wrote a guy up for reading the newspaper while driving. Really? The news was that important.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I laid my bike down last fall, came up on a sharp turn, hit the brakes to slow down but the bike wouldn't, I had both front and rear tires sliding on gravel every time I hit the brakes hard, saw a guardrail coming up real quick and just laid the bike down and slid into the rail.

Rear of the bike is still tore up from hitting a rail post and I'm just now getting around to getting it fixed threw the insurance.

I love riding, it's a fantastic time but boy is it dangerous, I had loud pipes which did help but still got cut off in traffic, if I wasn't running within 3 ft of the car in front of me, someone would merge into me everytime. It got so bad that would happen 2-3 times just traveling into work (30 miles).

I'm gonna fix my bike and will most likely sell it, I will regret it but it's just not worth it to me to get hurt like some of these stories, I have rode for 6 years and have had countless close calls due to people pulling out in front of me, merging into my lane and animals.

My right arm contacted the rail and for the most part I slid under the rail with the bike, I chipped 3 teeth, had a crazy painful road rash on my lower left back and my right arm swelled up, 6 months later have a numb spot on my right arm lower forearm where it hit the rail. I always wear jeans, a carhartt coat and a full helmet.

My motto to everyone that would give me crap about riding with a coat and helmet when it was hot out was "when I'm sliding down the road I will sure be happy to have a coat and helmet on".

We have no helmet laws here in Ohio, seems only about 40% use a helmet that I see.

I don't see the traffic getting any better, this past year alone in a car, there's wrecks every day on 270, it seems traffic laws don't mean anything now, it's like pure chaos on 270. Just today a car merged into the lane a ambulance was in and I slowed down letting the ambulance over in front of me, how does someone not see a freaking ambulance?

It feels riding a bike now is a rigged game and the deck is stacked against you.

 

[PJSprog]

It feels riding a bike now is a rigged game and the deck is stacked against you.

It sure seems that way. I used to tell my Wife, "Someone tries to kill me every day." She hated hearing that, but it's really true. Whether or not they are actually trying is mostly irrelevant after it happens.

 

[k0ua]

Everyone that rides has had a NDE (Near Death Experience). I haven't rode in many years, and I have several I could tell. But pertinent to the thread title experience I will tell just this one. I was riding along in the dark on one early evening at about 70 MPH. I remember seeing in my peripheral vision thru my full face helmet seeing a bird crossing at right angles and I could identify it as what we called a "rain crow". I think they are actually called a brown thrush. A pretty fair sized night bird.

In any case, bird and I collided on the front of the full face shield at better than 60. The strike was so violent that I was thrown backward on the seat and I guess I was "knocked out" for a few seconds. I remember coming up off of my back on the seat an grabbing the handle bars as the bike was really slowing down, but still going down the middle of the road by itself. I rolled on some throttle and went home. Needless to say I am sure the helmet saved my bacon. I reckon the bird was probably not so lucky. Like I said, I have many others, but anyone that rides already knows how they go. After a few years after marriage, I sold the last one and haven't rode since.

 

[tractorshopper]

South Carolina has no helmet law after you're 21. There are many many people riding around here without them. I always wear one. I've had two minor wrecks over the years, both my fault. The worst was coming into a tightening curve way too fast on a mountain road I was not familiar with. I probably could have avoided it still, but panicked as I was pulling the brakes and instead of continuing to look through the curve, looked ahead to see where to dump the bike (and then that is exactly what happened). Luckily it was a spot with a decent shoulder and I knocked the wind out of myself, scraped up the bike a little, and had some fairly minor bruising. Those wrecks were both many years ago with the last being when I was still in my 20's.

That said, I experience a lot of pucker factor like you others do when other people aren't paying attention or looking for motorcycles. I'm very cautious about defensive driving these days. I don't get in too much of a hurry anywhere except in the twisties now. Even then, it's more throttling out of the curves than anything.

I'm always amazed at how many wrecks we have nearby in the mountains and news stories of people getting killed on motorcycles and almost always, they weren't wearing helmets. Statistics don't lie folks. Wear a full face helmet please.

 

[ning]

Statistics don't lie folks. Wear a full face helmet please.

I can't agree more.


Obviously this only shows the distribution of impacts around the head (not all crashes involve a hit to the head), but it does show that if you're going to hit your head, you need the chin bar of the full-face helmet -- a beanie helmet may satisfy the law, but it's not going to to jack in a crash.