Most butt puckering moment on a bike

[Last1Out]

This was from an incident in 2008, I was on a Suzuki 1200/S Bandit ...


"Riding to the store on a 6 lane divided highway this morning, I'm in the left lane doing 50, light traffic, and preparing for a left turn about 1/2 a mile up. A cager enters the road from my right crossing all lanes of traffic and headed straight towards where I'm going to be in 3 seconds or less.

The human brain is unsurpassed at calculating life and death situations, light years faster than any computer. I was presented immediately with 3 resolutions to the situation. 1) There isn't enough room to manouver, we're going to hit. 2) Jump on the brakes, I'll slow a little bit, but we're still going to hit. 3) I'm on a very powerful bike and from his angle of approach into the lane, if I can increase speed and tightrope the space between him and the wall, there might be enough room to squeak through. All of this information comes in a millisecond rush. I hit the gas and aim for an inch from the wall. I clear the car by about 3 inches. I thank my guardian angel and my own good judgment in choosing a 1200cc super standard as my ride of the day. I'm hoping the clown in the car has to change his pants after that one, but I'm sure he thinks I'm one of those lunatic biker types and he will never realize or admit that he was the cause of that one.

My conclusion to this episode is that man's brain is probably much better engineered than we give it credit, and that all cagers are asshats."

[Windblown]

I don't get ass pucker moments, I have nerves of steel.  

[wibornz]

I don't get ass pucker moments, I have nerves of steel.  

aka I ride fast bikes slow and slow bikes even slower.

[Windblown]

aka I ride fast bikes slow and slow bikes even slower.

   That's true, even though the ass pucker moments thing wasn't.

[JNUNZMAN]

My buddy and I were heading south on Rt. 100, just north of Rutland Vt, on a nice curvy section. We come around the corner and I run up behind a pickup truck with the ladder racks on it. I distinctly remember looking up at the ladders and thinking to my self "wouldn't that be a bitch if that ladder fell off?".......and just as I finished my thought I heard SSSSHHHHHHHKKKKKKKK.......AND THE LADDER SLID RIGHT OFF THE RACK AND HIT THE ROAD RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! It slid basically straight with sparks flying up all over the place. I grabbed a whole lot of brake and went into the oncoming lane to avoid it and my buddy broke right and missed it too. Lots of fun!! Always anticipating the worst worked again.

[misanthropist]

My buddy and I were heading south on Rt. 100, just north of Rutland Vt, on a nice curvy section. We come around the corner and I run up behind a pickup truck with the ladder racks on it. I distinctly remember looking up at the ladders and thinking to my self "wouldn't that be a bitch if that ladder fell off?".......and just as I finished my thought I heard SSSSHHHHHHHKKKKKKKK.......AND THE LADDER SLID RIGHT OFF THE RACK AND HIT THE ROAD RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! It slid basically straight with sparks flying up all over the place. I grabbed a whole lot of brake and went into the oncoming lane to avoid it and my buddy broke right and missed it too. Lots of fun!! Always anticipating the worst worked again.

Every time something like this has happened to me - i.e. thinking "what if..." and then it happens - I always kick myself for not having thought, "what if I won the lottery RIGHT NOW?"

I mean if you're going to have a daydream come true, why can't it be a good one?



Anyway...for me the two moments that spring to mind were both on new-to-me bikes, which probably indicates I was the cause.

1) realizing the off-ramp I had chosen to be a hero on featured a decreasing-radius turn while on a GSXR I had just bought, and going in way, way too hot.  It was my first serious sportbike and I was convinced I was going to die.  I leaned hard hard hard in to the corner and to my immense shock, the bike had not even the slightest trouble carving the corner, and I realized at that moment that a modern sportbike is capable of outperforming me by a pretty enormous margin.

2) on the Guzzi, third time out, squeezed out of my lane and on to the paved shoulder by a merging car.  Rolled the throttle on to get in to a hole and off the shoulder and realized the shoulder texture was about to change...from paved and level with the road to ground down about six inches low.  The bike was fine but riding off a six inch curb unprepared was pretty startling.

[livetoride]

Entered a familiar blind left hander at a good clip, got through the first half and as I rounded the bend came face to face with a pick-up in my lane.. healed it over a bit further and entered the opposing lane and missed the a$$hat.. But is was a pucker moment for sure. Now if I can't see a corners exit I clench and start to slow down.. Sucks..

[bljakkl]

2008 riding through Seattle going northbound.  I was recently divorced and thought I could solve my problems by moving far away from her.  Car had been stolen and I was feeling sorry for myself.  Going from the south end (Kent) to see my only family left out there, uncle aunt and last surviving grandparent.  It was pouring down rain and I was letting it feed my bad mood.  On a V-65 Sabre I totally ignored the bad expansion joint just north of the university district.  It was heaved up about 3-4 inches.  I was aware of it and usually avoided that lane or slowed down.  Hit it going 75 in pouring rain.  Bike caught air and I caught more air.  When I came down (bike had already landed) the bike fishtailed pretty bad.  I have no idea how the bike stayed upright.  With the traffic on I-5 that day I doubt the cagers could have avoided me if I had gone down.  I pulled over at the next exit and spent about 20 minutes trying to calm down.  Rode home later that night on the 99 all the way.  My reminder not to ride if my mind is somewhere else.

[Mr. Whippy]

I can't remember the road number (maybe 222?) in Pennsylvania, but it's at a point where interstate highway becomes 4 then 2 lane highway.  I was travelling north, going about 70mph when the semi truck in front of me and in the right lane must have realized he missed the exit he wanted and was headed onto 2 lane highway.  He whipped a U turn across all 4 lanes (and the small grassy median strip), except he was doing it at a crawl.

I was on my BMW R1100SA at the time and grabbed brakes for all it was worth.  It is the only time I ever had the ABS turn on.  I stopped short by about 20 feet (I guess, not really sure) of the middle of the trailer.


I guess  I could have laid 'er down and slid under it, but that didn't occur to me.  

[caasland]

Last summer on the final day of a two week trip. Just south of Klamath Falls, OR we (two up w/wife) are heading south on a two lane road, good visability and road is basically straight. A pick up coming toward us is signaling to turn left across our lane which is always a concern. I see him come to a stop then see another pickup behind him, probably fifty yards, who is going too fast to stop and doesn't seem be reacting. I pull as far to the right as possible and see his tires light up as he hits the brakes. I hit the gas to get by as quickly as possible and then remember my buddy and his wife are following. Luckily the guy lets off  the brakes and goes around the stopped pick up and there was enough room for our friends to get by. Happened so fast. I guess that's the way it always is.

Jeff

My mother was rear-ended about 20 years when she was stopped with her blinker on waiting to turn left. A pickup behind her slammed into the back of her Peugeot. She hadn't turned her wheels so she didn't hit opposing traffic, and the impact broke the seat she was sitting in.

Last week on the news there was an article that more people are slamming into the back of school buses stopped for railroad tracks. The prevalent theory is that the drivers are increasingly distracted by their phones, although not in all cases. I suspect this sort of thing will happen more often now ...

[sammyseaman]

I've had too many over the years on dirt bikes to come up with the MOST butt puckerer. But street? Probably when I went over a set of train tracks one handed, all casual cool like. I've had a couple tank slappers before and since but none this bad. I didn't think it would ever stop and thank the gods that there was no traffic coming the other way Luckily I was 18 and had the heart of an 18yr old. At 42 I don't think I'd live through one like that.

[Dan K]

I was a passenger on a 1990 CBR600 F1 and thought at over 65mph it would be a good idea to throw both hands to the wind and see how it felt.  As my ass began to slide off the back of the bike, I was somehow able to grab the leather strap that served as a hand rail...I was 17.  Will never forget that one.  

In December, on a rented Road King with my buddy riding pillion, I just got past St. Armond's circle in Sarasota, Florida - feat in itself (if you've been there, you know) and had just finally given the bike some throttle, and a lady in a black Jaguar thinks it's a good idea to turn left into traffic and stop while she figures out if it's the right way to go.  Can't go around her because the rear of the jag is also sticking into oncoming traffic.   I braked hard, ABS kicked in towards the end when I was about to hit her, and she finally pulled up a couple feet giving me room to do the countersteering swerve around her, with maybe 6" of clearance, and minimal grinding of the floor board.  Thought for sure I was losing the right side hard bag, but missed her by inches.  Couldn't say if the ABS was good enough to let me swerve - as soon as I saw the gap, I gave it a little throttle and leaned that big bike over.

I bought a high vis jacket when I got back to Chicago.

- Dan

[Burners]

I was a passenger on a 1990 CBR600 F1 and thought at over 65mph it would be a good idea to throw both hands to the wind and see how it felt.  As my ass began to slide off the back of the bike, I was somehow able to grab the leather strap that served as a hand rail...I was 17.  Will never forget that one.  

Those clearly self induced oh-shit moments do tend to stay with you , don't they?  

[Dan K]

Those clearly self induced oh-shit moments do tend to stay with you , don't they?  

Thought I was going to be a hood ornament on the car behind us.  

Yeah, won't forget that one.