Close calls - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

**Uncle Bob** · 07-08-2005, 08:55 PM

Just got back from a ride, as I'm nearing home riding on a relatively boring stretch of straight road, just minding my own business, nobody near me when all of a sudden I'm startled by some american bike rider who I would imagine had some sort of muffler problem because his bike was making quite a racket !!!!!!!!! Would not have been so bad had he not been passing me on the right in my own ( right ) lane when there wasn't anybody in the left lane.

So I can attest to the fact that loud pipes do not save lives since they cannot be heard from the front, they can startle other road users and probably hinder the riders ability to hear what's going on around him.

By now it's dusk and a light drizzle has started.

Now I turn onto a mainstreet continuing my ride home, as I pass a grocery store, some pimplefaced kid in a modded Honda exiting the parking lot figures his super stereo can propulse his skinny *** out of the way before I even get there. That was his first mistake, his second was managing to stall right in front of me, luckily I was only going about 35mph and his stalling allowed me to swerve around and in front of him.

So I'm just returning to my right lane after the zitface incident but would you believe I now face the infamous, left turn into motorcyclists path as another driver tries to turn left into the same grocery stores other entrance ! My best option seems to be to make my own sharp left turn and slow rapidly because turning left will aim me for a cement wall.

So brake/turn/brake/turn/brake/swear/swear, although I did lock up the rear a bit which made the rear slide out then bite which then set me up for a minor highside, by this time the bike is pretty much stopped but my momemtum is throwing me over the right side of the bike which by now is alongside the car maybe an inch from my handlebars. I managed to stay upright by digging my elbow into the left turners trunk lid ( knew armour would come in handy, that dent in her trunk was pretty nasty LOL ).

So the lady says to me, "what's your problem ? are you drunk ? I just wanted to get out of your way before you ran into me ! I saw you weaving all over the road !"

Hey lady I was just trying to avoid getting killed by another car !