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Almost a face plant...

Beemerphile

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I went up to T.W.O. in Suches, GA this morning to meet up with some NC'ers who double as Scooteristas. Namely LM15, Fuzzy, and Midnight Rider. After breakfast I rode with them until about 11AM when I broke off to go visit a friend who lives nearby in Chatsworth. On the way home from there (between Jasper and Gainesville on Hwy 53) I almost met with my undoing. It was another case (I've had several over the years) where after the event was over, I have no idea how I kept the motorcycle on two wheels and out of contact with anybody. I can only surmise that my guardian angel is a hell of a motorcycle rider.

I was running "pack" in position three with five cars on some nice rural backroad. Without warning, the lead driver decides that the car behind him is following to closely, so apparently to teach the driver a lesson he full-on slams his brakes. This was not a "brake check" to get the person off his six, he full-on locked his brakes unexpectedly and stopped in the road. There were five surprised drivers behind him trying to get their vehicles stopped. I thought I had lost the bike. I had reached the conclusion that I was probably either going down, hitting the car in front of me, getting slammed by the car behind me, or all three. But I decided I might as well continue to drive until the crash was over. Somehow I was able to get it stopped (though greatly out-of-shape and in the vacant oncoming lane) and nobody hit anybody.

Then our brain surgeon who was about a 6'-2" 250 lb redneck gets out of his car and walks up to the driver's window of the car behind him and gives the lady driver some of his best gutter talk and drives off oozing with righteous indignation.

Just wow. My fault for not leaving enough room, but I wasn't expecting anyone to just lock down unannounced. The recognition lag of what was happening was a little longer because it was so incredibly unexpected. I guess that is what they mean by "expect the unexpected".

Lesson: Leave some more room for crazy people to do crazy things.
 
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Good riding....

I think that is one of the tougher situations. As each driver is surprised, that amount of time for the lagging vehicle is reduced. I rear ended a guy one time in that exact situation. At least I was in the car.
 
Glad to hear you stayed with it and didn't give up on it. As many times as we hear it (and say it), you'd think we could not possibly be surprised any more and that we'd leave enough space for anything. But (idiots and) incidents like this invariably catch most of us off-guard anyway.

As my best friend reminds me often.... "You can't fix Stupid".
>T
 
There was a guy on another motorcycle forum who slammed on his brakes to TRY to get rear-ended and he posted about the incident. He felt that the woman behind him was following too closely and since she was in a nice car he figured he could control the crash enough to not get hurt but get a new bike out of it and maybe more. Problem was, she managed to stop but the truck behind her didn't and SHE got rear-ended. The biker simply rode away saying "oops". I was incredulous and took him to task for causing an unnecessary accident but he self-righteously replied that the truck driver "got what he deserved" because he was following too closely. I guess by some twisted logic the woman got what she deserved as well. I had a rough time with that rationale and I couldn't believe that anyone would be foolhardy enough to try to get hit on purpose, especially on a motorcycle! There are some people out there who are so self-centered and self-righteous about teaching others a lesson that they will go to incredible extremes to accomplish their goal. When you add vehicles to that mix it becomes truly frightening.
 
And had you gotten hurt the answer for too many of your friends and acquaintances would have been "He was on a motorcycle," not "Some moron caused this with his reckless and irresponsible actions." Really happy to hear you came out okay. Don't know about you, but "better lucky than good" has bailed me out more often than I want to think about.
 
Glad you are ok, and thanks for the warning. I had forgotten (almost) that there were people out there who are not quite human.
 
"Road rage" is everywhere. Stay away from it by any and all means. What has always puzzled me is how many good folks suffer from "Road Rage" when driving.
 
I probably would not have been hurt in a car (who really knows?) but I would definitely have been hit. My "car" now that I have sold my Silverado, is a tin can of a Toyota Tacoma. As I said, I ended up in the oncoming lane when I was finally stopped. When I looked over at my place in line, there was not room for my motorcycle. When I had locked my front wheel and was starting to lose the front (it takes almost exactly one second), I got off the brakes momentarily and sensing that I wasn't going to be able to stop before hitting the car in front of me, I juked to the left and reapplied the brakes locking them again and getting out of shape with the rear coming around. But I did (unexpectedly) stop before getting even with the car in front. Making it even crazier (or thanking my guardian angel) if I had known I would have been able to stop short of the car in front of me, I would not have juked left, it which case the car behind me would have hit me. I did not juke left to get out of the way of the car behind me, but to avoid the car in front.

It sounds like a good argument for ABS also, except that I would again have been hit in the rear if I was able to stop straight in time. Cue the Twilight Zone music.
 
I think you made your own luck, or certainly stacked the deck in your favour with a cool under fire reaction, most comendable! Sure glad you're still here to give an account of the happening, instead of a news story :eek:
 
Glad you are Ok and managed your way through that situation.

I had a very similar accident back in the 80's when I lived in Washington State. It was my first wreck on a motorcycle. The circumstances were similar but different in that I was the vehicle directly behind the person who for no reason locked up their brakes (I was not tailgating but I was accelerating hard). I was on a freeway overpass so my options were limited. Needless to say, I got a new bike after that wreck. We live and learn.

Very glad you walked away without injury or damages to the bike.
 
Sorry about the incident but glad you are ok! Cool to hear about other NC'ers near me. I am at TWOS at least once or twice a month but have not seen any other NC's there yet. Maybe one day I can run into you guys just to meet and greet. I enjoy riding the roads up there but now a days I am more interested in riding the dirt up there on my NC700XD I lovingly call Natasha. Here is a pic...hope to see you guys there sometime soon.

IMG_0003.jpg
 
Sounds like a good way for the guy in front to have gotten shot. I know lots of ladies in this part of the state who stay strapped because of people like that. A 6'2" meth head can do a lot of damage if you give him a chance to get his hands on you. I'm glad you're alright
 
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