"Driving with wheels off the roadway"

[LD1]

Yep, Here it is simply failure to maintain control.

BUT....excuses dont work. Swerve for a deer and go off road.....if there is no deer hide, blood, or a dead deer....then to the officer its just a made-up excuse and you get charged.

Same for any/all other excuses. Got ran off the road or someone coming at you head on.....better trade paint with them or have another vehicle to witness, or a camera. Or it is just an excuse.

 

[k0ua]

A long time friend of mine who has been riding for many years has had his second motorcycle accident in about two years. The first was a groundhog that ran in front of him while negotiating a curve. He put the bike in the ditch. All would have been well except for the large rock in the ditch caught the crash bar and overturned the bike. Some broken ribs etc. But he healed up fine. Now this last one with a 2 and 1/2 ton truck turned in front of him, is not so good. Some broken ribs, and a busted femur. The bone turned 90 degrees. They put a 14 inch rod up the bone. He is about 7 weeks in now to therapy, and still cannot walk without a walker. The Harley is totally trashed, and he says he is done riding. He is 64. Seeing the crash photo where the dual wheels of the truck were within inches of crushing his chest, I think it is time to put up the leathers and call it a day.

Motorcycles are inherently dangerous, so are guns. But unlike guns all of the disaster factors are not under your control. I had sense enough to quit riding them after several close calls all caused by "the other guy" doing something stupid. And as having been pointed out, you don't have the reflexes like you did when you are young. Time to admit you are getting old fat and slow. If I could convince anyone of "age" after seeing what this wreck has done to my friend, I would suggest you just sell the **** thing.

Quit while you are ahead, you are old now and have had a lot of great rides. Quit while you are ahead. I know the majority won't do it, but I think you should.

 

[Jstpssng]

A long time friend of mine who has been riding for many years has had his second motorcycle accident in about two years. The first was a groundhog that ran in front of him while negotiating a curve. He put the bike in the ditch. All would have been well except for the large rock in the ditch caught the crash bar and overturned the bike. Some broken ribs etc. But he healed up fine. Now this last one with a 2 and 1/2 ton truck turned in front of him, is not so good. Some broken ribs, and a busted femur. The bone turned 90 degrees. They put a 14 inch rod up the bone. He is about 7 weeks in now to therapy, and still cannot walk without a walker. The Harley is totally trashed, and he says he is done riding. He is 64. Seeing the crash photo where the dual wheels of the truck were within inches of crushing his chest, I think it is time to put up the leathers and call it a day.

Motorcycles are inherently dangerous, so are guns. But unlike guns all of the disaster factors are not under your control. I had sense enough to quit riding them after several close calls all caused by "the other guy" doing something stupid. And as having been pointed out, you don't have the reflexes like you did when you are young. Time to admit you are getting old fat and slow. If I could convince anyone of "age" after seeing what this wreck has done to my friend, I would suggest you just sell the **** thing.

Quit while you are ahead, you are old now and have had a lot of great rides. Quit while you are ahead. I know the majority won't do it, but I think you should.

I have a relative who works on LifeFlight, our helicopter ambulance service. He says that bikers are his biggest customers and calls them "donorcycles." The second most common are Jeep Wrangler occupants.

 

[MossRoad]

I knew a guy about 30 years ago that hit a groundhog and crashed his bike. Broke a leg and got otherwise banged up pretty good. About a year went by before he felt like he could ride again.... The very first day he got back on his bike after the recovery, another groundhog ran out in front of him.... he took it as a sign and sold the bike shortly and was quite comfortable with the decision.

I stopped riding my hopped up '77 Yamaha RD400 shortly after we had our first child. Figured I'd kill myself or someone else would kill me sooner than later. Now that the kids are adults and can fend for themselves, I'm contemplating tempting fate again. :laughing:

The thing that stops me is that there are almost, exactly, 100% more cars on the road today than there were when I was born. The population has almost doubled as well. Too many people in the same city space.

I used to be able to drive on our Riverside Dr. a couple miles on really, really nice blacktop and not see another car. Today, the road surface is crumbled, like marbles, with multiple 1" high ridges on cracks that have been tar patched dozens of times and it's an almost endless stream of traffic. Rarely a 1/4 mile gap. On a road that I used to take a large curve at 90+mph, my car's rear end bounces over a couple inches at 25mph on those multiple cracks. The state of our local roads is just awful. I suppose it's for the best, though. It's like nature's speed bumps to slow traffic.

 

[k0ua]

I knew a guy about 30 years ago that hit a groundhog and crashed his bike. Broke a leg and got otherwise banged up pretty good. About a year went by before he felt like he could ride again.... The very first day he got back on his bike after the recovery, another groundhog ran out in front of him.... he took it as a sign and sold the bike shortly and was quite comfortable with the decision.

I stopped riding my hopped up '77 Yamaha RD400 shortly after we had our first child. Figured I'd kill myself or someone else would kill me sooner than later. Now that the kids are adults and can fend for themselves, I'm contemplating tempting fate again. :laughing:

The thing that stops me is that there are almost, exactly, 100% more cars on the road today than there were when I was born. The population has almost doubled as well. Too many people in the same city space.

I used to be able to drive on our Riverside Dr. a couple miles on really, really nice blacktop and not see another car. Today, the road surface is crumbled, like marbles, with multiple 1" high ridges on cracks that have been tar patched dozens of times and it's an almost endless stream of traffic. Rarely a 1/4 mile gap. On a road that I used to take a large curve at 90+mph, my car's rear end bounces over a couple inches at 25mph on those multiple cracks. The state of our local roads is just awful. I suppose it's for the best, though. It's like nature's speed bumps to slow traffic.

Don't get another "murdercycle" Moss. Just say no. After seeing what this accident has done to my friend, I would advise against it. He has aged 10 years. in a few weeks.

 

[LouNY]

Dam* what a bunch,
at 67 I'm still riding, just the other day went for a ride with a couple of others so that one could pick up his new to him 2016 HD ultra,
we were out almost 9 hours and actively rideing for over 6 hours did a bit over 300 miles.
My 2014 Ultra Limited has 20,000 miles on her and last year only got 2500 miles because I had a couple of heart procedures and couldn't maintain my balance.

 

[3930dave]

I stopped riding my hopped up '77 Yamaha RD400 shortly after we had our first child. Figured I'd kill myself or someone else would kill me sooner than later. Now that the kids are adults and can fend for themselves, I'm contemplating tempting fate again. :laughing:

If you do decide to Get Crazy, Again.... here's my 2 cents.....

1) Stay with a manageable weight. I came up on similar sized Japanese bikes to your RD, so I'm probably preaching to the choir

2) As much as the bikes have changed (faster, lighter, better brakes, ABS......), the gear has changed at least as much. I'm an ATGATT guy - pants with armour, jacket with armour, full face lid, and a separate full-length back protector.

Challenging to do outside of certain riding meccas, but take the time to see as much of the modern riding gear as you can, before choosing. Struggling to find a back protector I liked, I ended up dropping into a BMW dealer - I expected the opposite, but I can't say enough good things about the BMW bike guys I dealt with - they lent me a one-sized too big back protector still plastic wrapped so I could make a final decision on the MC jacket I was buying somewhere else ! I did buy the one sized down Motorrad back protector from them shortly thereafter.

A lot of riders (all styles) buy their riding gear at BMW dealers. They have a soft gel armour (can't remember the tradename) in some of their products that is like slipping on a already broken-in pair of expensive leather shoes.

There is lots of really good gear to choose from now, compared to the jeans and jean jacket I rode with in younger daze.

3) Outside of single bike accidents, visibility is often a key factor in accidents. Moving or parked, some people have trouble seeing bikes on the road.

IIRC, you can't ride on many/most US military bases w/o a high-viz vest on - IMO, really important to use on the street too. Per item 2 above, there are great jackets available already done in HiViz material, negating the need for a separate vest. My next jacket will be one of those types; presently I ride with a HiViz vest.

I've posted this elsewhere, and it caused a lot of debate (even among former riders) - I run my Hi-Beam most of the time during the daytime. A leading cause of MC injuries/deaths is Oncoming Driver makes Left Turn in Front of MC, as detailed within these pages.

When I was 17, I had that exact type of accident. Car driver admitted to the cop "I just didn't see him", and admitted total fault. That experience is part of why I run daytime HiBeams on my MC.

Risk. Very little in life has zero risk.

My accident at 17? I was riding a bicycle.

If somebody knew nothing about Ag tractors, and only read the Safety section on TBN, they would never buy a tractor.

Rgds, D.

 

[k0ua]

Oncoming Driver makes Left Turn in Front of MC,

Yep, that is how my buddy got it.

If somebody knew nothing about Ag tractors, and only read the Safety section on TBN, they would never buy a tractor.

Probably true, BUT if you do something stupid on a tractor, killing or injuring yourself, you don't have much to blame except your self.

You can be totally guiltless on a donorcycle and still buy the farm because someone killed you. The visibility vest/jacket sounds like a good idea. My buddy might not be hobbling around with a walker now looking 10 years older if he had been wearing one. . The guy didn't see him. Headlight and all.

 

[Jstpssng]

I still don't understand the charge from the OP's accident. Compare to this one, which happened in ME this weekend; another case of a motorist pulling in front of a motorcyclist-

...The pick-up was turning at the peak of a knoll and couldn't see the motorcycle coming northbound.
The two vehicles collided head-on.
Authorities say the motorcycle driver was life-flighted to Bangor and the passenger was transported to a nearby hospital.
The extent of their injuries is unknown.
Police say no one was at fault and that no charges are pending


Two are sent to the hospital after an accident in Lubec

 

[KYErik]

My dad sold his motorcycle about 20 years ago after a group of deer ran across a rural road directly in front of him and he layed it down. No major injuries.

Nine years ago, I had a little 305cc twin cylinder Kawasaki and was doing the 35 mph speed limit on a highway on the edge of town and a car pulled out from a side street on my right to make a left turn across my lane. He obviously didn't see me and turned into my path just as I was approaching. I braked and swerved hard to my left as he pulled out but it wasn't good enough. My right lower leg was crushed between the car bumper and the motorcycle's engine block and my right knee was pretty mangled as well. Laying there, I guessed that it was broken but one of the witnesses that saw it happen and ran up to me told me not to look at my leg so I didn't. They loaded me on the medivac helicopter and I ended up at Vanderbilt hospital in Nashville. As soon as I arrived, I was surprised when someone told me that they might have to amputate. I ended up as a right side above the knee amputee. I still ride a dirt bike every now and then but won't ever ride on the highway again. I don't understand it when I see a motorcyclist not wearing a helmet. I was wearing one and if not for my helmet, I'd probably be dead or drooling my life away in a nursing home right now. I am very grateful that I wasn't more seriously injured and I am thankful that I lost a leg and not an arm. Still having a right leg, I can work the clutch on our older ag tractors. I just had to add a hand lever to the brake pedal.

I will say that modern prosthetics are advancing by leaps and bounds. There have been lots of advances in the last 9 years since my first one. Last October, my wife and I vacationed to the Grand Canyon and we day hiked down the Bright Angel trail to Indian Gardens and back up again- about a 9 mile hike with about 3000 feet change in elevation. It took us about 7 hours.

 

[k0ua]

Eric, while I am sorry to hear about your accident, I am glad to see you are dealing with it in the best way. But we can talk to old guys about riding on the street until we turn blue in the face, it won't do much good. Most will ignore what we say, and what we have seen, and in your case what you experienced first hand. Most old guys don't want to believe they are getting "too old" they don't want to believe their reaction time isn't what it was. They don't want to believe it takes so much longer to heal up after the injury. They don't want to believe it will ever happen to them. It may or may not happen. Luck of the draw/fate. But it can happen. It can happen to you when you have done nothing wrong. It can happen because you aren't as fast as you once were. Hard to take in, but it is a fact. You aren't as good as you once were, and you are not even as good once as you ever were.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Yesterday i put my 2 right tires off the road, when i met a combine coming the other direction taking half my lane.

Just this morning a motorcycle was coming the other direction towards me, when a groundhog ran across his lane. I thought, that would be bad to hit..

 

[MossRoad]

If I ever do get another bike, it will be a road bike for weekend cruises, and not a sport bike, which, for me, is just to tempting to do stupid stuff on like the old RD.

If I ever put the RD back together again (it's in pieces, like Christine!), it'll only be for the dragstrip.

 

[k0ua]

If I ever put the RD back together again (it's in pieces, like Christine!), it'll only be for the dragstrip.

You know what happened to Arnie when he put Christine back together. Just don't go there man...

 

[MossRoad]

You know what happened to Arnie when he put Christine back together. Just don't go there man...

Yeah, that machine is my Christine, for sure. It's just soooo light, nimble and stupid fast. I put some expansion chambers on it, which moved the exhaust from the sides to under it for better cornering, and some really sticky Dunlops. I had to be careful not to drag my kneecaps when cornering.

I got some wheelie bars for it for the strip. I could pretty consistently run sub-12 second quarters. And that's a 25 cubic inch motor, 400CC. I've seen them run sub-10's, but I didn't have that much money to throw at it, and I like weighing 200#, not 135.

 

[Rock Crawler]

I started riding in 1976 on a Kawasaki KD90 dirt bike. I started racing MX in 1983 on a YZ and raced into the VET class (AMA District 5, western PA) until 1994 where I stopped racing while I was running a 1991 KX500. What a beast! I stopped riding completely for a number of years, but I missed it. Life and family were why I stopped, we had 3 children and money needed to go to them. So in 2009 I decided to get into the dual sport bikes, I went and bought a 2009 KLX250 and a 2009 KLR650, in 2010 I picked up a very nice used Suzuki DL1000 V-Strom. I was putting 20,000 miles a year on the combined bikes and loving it. I had a couple close calls with vehicles but I was always able to use my above average skill on a bike to pull off amazing feats of survival.... until 2013. Summer of 2013 a truck came out of a side street on my right. I was lucky, I was not seriously injured and I was an all the gear, all the time (ATGATT) kind of guy. It happened in slow motion, my brain saw what was happening and I reacted fast, but nothing could save me completely. So I am coming down a hill, a nice down slope with a lazy left curve, just into that left curve is this side street with hedges. I can see the truck and see the edges of the brightly lit brake lights. It is almost dusk, we are in a valley, lighting is low. I am on the V-Strom with HID headlights installed, I'm admittedly coming in a bit hot for this left sweeping turn, my guess is I am doing 50 in a 35 MPH area. As I get to close to the truck, the tail/brake lights go off... I was able to see this through the shrubs. This is when the slow motion kicked in. My brain knew, this is about to get bad and went in to that magical mode where time slows and you start to over sense every detail. I see the front coming out on my right, I already know that I can't go into the oncoming lane with the potential of a head on and I don't think I can force the bike that far left as he is coming into my path in the short distance I have. I realize that I am going to hit him, so my thought was to latch on to the binders and scrub away all energy I could prior to eating his bed side with my face. I latch down and the dual disk front caliper grabs harder than I expected, the rear is already in a skid and coming a bit sideways, but that's no big deal yet.... until the front brake hits sand or something and INSTANTLY locks that tire and the bike rotates onto its left side with my still on it. My ankle gets crushed between the engine and ground, and I slip behind the bike as I watch it go faster than me. I am sliding on my First Gear Kilimanjaro jacket and First Gear Adventure pants, I am on my back, left forearm down and propping my shoulder and head up, I am looking down the road past my boots at the bike as it slides under the rear of the truck. The front tire just misses the rear tires of the truck, I watched my aluminum Jesse Bags get torn off and then the bike went on past the truck and hit the guard rail. I braced for the impact and I came feet first at the bike and stopped myself with my boots against the bike.

The truck kept going.

The car following me stopped and offered aid, helped me get standing, helped me get the bike up, helped me get on the bike and get it going. I rode home about 5 miles without stopping because I knew I could not stand or hold the bike up. I pulled into the driveway and stopped and dropped the bike and fell onto my blacktop. I pulled my phone out and called the wife to come down dressed and take me to the ER.

I did soft tissue damage only, no bones. But I still have constant pain. I never really rode again, I sold off the 3 dual sports 1 at a time. Every once in a while I get that twitch where I want to get another bike... maybe a big Gold Wing or some comfort cruiser class land barge.... but you know what? I'm a really good rider, but I can not outride everything that other people do around me. I would rather be in my Jeep with a roll bar and wrapped in 3/16" steel plate on all sides.

I quite. No more. The injuries take months to heal, and the pain never fully goes away. At this point I am pushing 50 yrs old and I have more pains than I want. I really do not need to take that risk any longer. I had my fun, it is over.

 

[Wagtail]

If I ever do get another bike, it will be a road bike for weekend cruises, and not a sport bike, which, for me, is just to tempting to do stupid stuff on like the old RD.

If I ever put the RD back together again (it's in pieces, like Christine!), it'll only be for the dragstrip.

If you're thinking of a weekend cruiser... may I suggest a Maxi-scooter. I had a 400cc Suzuki Burgman and it was a lounge-chair on wheels! Great on the highway. CVT meant simply 'twist'n'go'.

If it wasn't for the Tassie gov charging the same rego for a bike as a car or ute, I wouldn't have sold mine.

 

[Deere Dude]

I've posted this elsewhere, and it caused a lot of debate (even among former riders) - I run my Hi-Beam most of the time during the daytime. A leading cause of MC injuries/deaths is Oncoming Driver makes Left Turn in Front of MC, as detailed within these pages.

When I was 17, I had that exact type of accident. Car driver admitted to the cop "I just didn't see him", and admitted total fault. That experience is part of why I run daytime HiBeams on my MC.
Rgds, D.

One thing that grinds me is motorcycles driving with brights on during the daytime. They don't seem to realize those (some) bike lights are very bright and distracting to oncoming drivers, me.

 

[cqaigy2]

I knew a guy about 30 years ago that hit a groundhog and crashed his bike. Broke a leg and got otherwise banged up pretty good. About a year went by before he felt like he could ride again.... The very first day he got back on his bike after the recovery, another groundhog ran out in front of him.... he took it as a sign and sold the bike shortly and was quite comfortable with the decision.

I stopped riding my hopped up '77 Yamaha RD400 shortly after we had our first child. Figured I'd kill myself or someone else would kill me sooner than later. Now that the kids are adults and can fend for themselves, I'm contemplating tempting fate again. :laughing:

The thing that stops me is that there are almost, exactly, 100% more cars on the road today than there were when I was born. The population has almost doubled as well. Too many people in the same city space.

I used to be able to drive on our Riverside Dr. a couple miles on really, really nice blacktop and not see another car. Today, the road surface is crumbled, like marbles, with multiple 1" high ridges on cracks that have been tar patched dozens of times and it's an almost endless stream of traffic. Rarely a 1/4 mile gap. On a road that I used to take a large curve at 90+mph, my car's rear end bounces over a couple inches at 25mph on those multiple cracks. The state of our local roads is just awful. I suppose it's for the best, though. It's like nature's speed bumps to slow traffic.

Don't get another "murdercycle" Moss. Just say no. After seeing what this accident has done to my friend, I would advise against it. He has aged 10 years. in a few weeks.

Take up sky diving instead. :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Take up sky diving instead. :laughing:

NO! :laughing: