Near Misses

[az3200]

I live in Orlando where it's full of tourists, nobody knows how to drive, and nobody knows where they are going. I could go on and on about close calls.

I'm a new rider (5months 6.5k miles) but the one that stands out in my mind is a little difficult to explain with no pictures. basically I came flying around this turn, and a split second before it was too late, I saw a van stopped in front of me. I nearly ran right into the back of him... within about a foot. There was no where for me to swerve, there was traffic to my left going 55mph. I could have swerved to the right of the van but i was already turning right and when i applied the brakes it made the bike stand up. This was one of the times where you see everything in slow motion and just know something is going to be bad...but everything was ok.

I learned that the street isn't a race track, you never know what's around a corner so watch the speed, and always look through the turn.

[Whiskey]

Originally Posted by az3200

I live in Orlando where it's full of tourists, nobody knows how to drive, and nobody knows where they are going. I could go on and on about close calls.

I'm a new rider (5months 6.5k miles) but the one that stands out in my mind is a little difficult to explain with no pictures. basically I came flying around this turn, and a split second before it was too late, I saw a van stopped in front of me. I nearly ran right into the back of him... within about a foot. There was no where for me to swerve, there was traffic to my left going 55mph. I could have swerved to the right of the van but i was already turning right and when i applied the brakes it made the bike stand up. This was one of the times where you see everything in slow motion and just know something is going to be bad...but everything was ok.

I learned that the street isn't a race track, you never know what's around a corner so watch the speed, and always look through the turn.

Always be able to stop on the distance you can see to be clear.
If you have an experienced rider in front you can wind it on a bit more (once you're able to read their riding)

[fr1dayn1ght]

Almost went down during a right turn, I didn't realized the sand was all over the road and my back tire slipped to the outside of the turn. I just slam my right leg down in panic and somehow i stopped the slide (Thanks to the non slip motorcycle boots? I guess...) I was so low that my hand could prolly touch the ground...bike didn't drop, no damage

[az3200]

Oh I just remembered another one where I actually did almost lose control. I should have posted this one first.


Early morning before the sun comes up, first one in line at a intersection ready to make a left hand turn. light turns green and I begin to make my turn. In the middle of the intersection all of a sudden the front of the bike starts to drop and the rear fishtails around. I put my foot down and somehow managed to save it. I have no idea how i didn't drop the bike. I was going about 10mph.

My lesson there was that some of the roads around here have a HUGE ton of gravel and other crap built up in the intersections right outside of the turn lanes.

[Unleashed]

Figure this is a good spot to start this one as I haven't seen it around yet.
Close calls ( Most recent, Memorable, Scariest )


I live in Mass and people around here just cannot drive, So I have tons of close calls, it's common here for every motorcycle rider.

At any rate, I was out being (Stupid) on my new bike with a buddy, Had just got the valves lashed and the carbs synced on my recent pickup/rebuild.

Him in his car, me on my bike right behind him. We were just ripping and racing to his house to do some drinking. ( Drinking & Driving on bike not recommended, not because of you, because of other people and delayed response to the unexpected ) I was literally 4 feet give or take a few inches both racing up a road at about 80 all of a sudden he locks his brakes down for a split second and cuts hard left, I'm thinking WTH! You clearly see im inches from you and you lock down, then all of a sudden as he comes out to the left I notice a car half in the road from a side lane that had almost cut him off but stopped, I had a few tenths of a second to respond due to how close I was to my buddy to begin with before I pull a superman over the hood of this car and my bike uses their fender as a bike rack. At any rate somehow I responded in the best way I think I could have naturally and the bike worked with me beautiful on the idea. I'm surprised a reacted so well naturally, but I locked the rear tire down, kicked left, laid her sideways using inertia and tire drag to keep me upright and my rear tire grazed along right under the edge of their bumper and never touched, Once clear of them I downshifted, kicked the wheel right and goosed her and she popped right back full upright and straight in the lane. My buddy talks about it every night.

Good times*

[Motofool]

[Unleashed]

Originally Posted by Motofool

Lol, and no the wheel chair happened when I tried to kick start a 4 wheeler that the timing was off on and it fired backards and drove the kick starter back up basically, through my foot, shattered it. Fun times

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Unleashed

......Good times*

Originally Posted by Unleashed

.......Fun times

Sorry, I don't know enough English to properly comment.

Enjoy your good and fun times !!!

[rasta]

Originally Posted by Unleashed

( Drinking & Driving on bike not recommended, not because of you, because of other people and delayed response to the unexpected )

Naah I think drinking and riding is much more dangerous because of the rider. In a car, you can catch yourself ****ing up in the middle of a turn. But it's much much harder to do it successfully on a bike. Plus, the injury potential is much higher on a bike than in a car...(obviously lol)

[CC Cowboy]

I don't do close calls. Now house calls is a different story.

[subxero]

inb4movedNOTaCRASH

here is that thread that you have never seen before
http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showt...ght=close+call

[dfox]

[Alex]

/merged

[AlanDog]

1) I only had the pregen a few weeks. My first ride into the twisties, I was going super slow. On a straight 2 lane road going 50mph (signed 55 mph), a driver in a hurry zooms to the edge of her driveway does a quick look my direction (left) while rolling forward, looks right, and as she pulls out looking left again, sees me coming and slams on the brakes, stopping right in front of me.

I hit the brakes and in the last 30-40 feet I see I'm not going to stop in time. I release the brakes and swerve left into the opposite lane, stopping right in front of the car. I'm just staring at this woman who's got her mouth wide open. I'm sure she thought I was going 100mph because from her perspective, I came out of nowhere.

Well I was going slow enough such that even if I nailed the car, I don't think it would have killed me. But I think about that one because I was so inexperienced and yet (probably because of my experience riding bicycles) I ended up doing the right thing. At that point, I don't even think I had done the MSF course. I must have put my hand on the brake when I saw her pull up, but if I had been going 65, I definitely would have nailed her.

Close call 2: In downtown Chico, I patiently wait at an intersection while making a left turn. All the drivers turning right stop and look at me and wait, as if I'm a madman and I'm going to bolt in front of them. I'm kind of fuming at this, like 'what, because I'm on a motorcycle, I must be crazy and inconsiderate?' Well, finally I turn left behind all these cars and the intersection ahead it's green, but I know the lights will change so I gun it.

There are two lanes and a car stopped in the left lane and cars are backing up and as I approach in the right lane, I'm going maybe 35 mph but accelerating... then the last car approaching the backup swerves into my lane without looking. I immediately knew I had to brake as hard as possible to avoid rear-ending it.

At the time I couldn't really figure out what had happened because my bike ended up cocked sideways when I stopped--I had done a nose wheelie and my bike flipped to one side when it came down. I was about a foot from the rear of the car. The woman in the car had her hand over her mouth as she was looking at me in her rear view mirror, stopped in the road.

She must have looked in her mirror after she swerved and seen me doing a stoppie a foot from the back of her car! It's funny that her instinct was to slam on the brakes when I'm about to rear end her, but I guess that's the way it goes.

The thing that got me afterwards is the contradiction: one second, people are being extremely cautious, because they see this sport bike rider, he must be crazy... the next second, they've forgotten you exist and oops, sorry! Didn't see you!

I don't really believe in the 'loud pipes saves lives'--I find loud motorcycles super noisy and annoying, and they piss me off. I think they piss me off more now than when I was riding a motorcycle, because I think they give motorcyclists a bad name--they're inconsiderate. But the fact is, is that in both my close calls above, if I had a loud bike, I probably would have caught the attention of the drivers (if they didn't have their stereos turned up). In case #2 I had the throttle pinned and was maybe revving 11k, but yeah, the driver didn't even notice me coming.

But I still won't modify an exhaust. You may as well scream, "I'm a selfish a##, look at me!"

[Unleashed]

Originally Posted by subxero

inb4movedNOTaCRASH

here is that thread that you have never seen before
http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showt...ght=close+call

Thanx

[aeroblade]

I had that happen to me once... but it was on a bicycle and it broke in two... :P

Well close calls, I'll just share what happened to me yesterday...

First I almost got into a head on collision with a cop car that was speeding through a blind curve into my lane. Instincts took over and saved my a$$. Then after about 500 meters an idiot in a suzuki wagon jumped out of a parking spot without any turn signals or whatever while on his frggin phone I slammed the brakes and swerved right missing his car like about a feet or two. And then a couple of kms later a bus ran into my lane as I was passing it on the speed lane. I slowed down and found that another idiot stopped his car in the middle of the road to ask for directions. At the very next intersection a three wheeled taxi took a U-turn cutting me off that too in front of the traffic station lol. And as I was on my way back, a girl just jumped out in the middle of the road without looking and she WAS ALSO on the bloody phone. I would have crashed into her cause there was no crossing there and she popped out from behind a bus.... I kept staring at her as she crossed the road. She just gave me a quick glance and jumped over the divider then laughed hysterically on the phone once she reached the footpath on the other side.

[rasta]

I've been fortunate thus far. Little over 1000 miles and no near misses (yet). Knocking on wood everyday!

[n4mwd]

FYI
Engine Mount Thread moved HERE.

[Whiskey]

See map here

Been a while since I posted in here, but had one this evening.

Out for a rip in the peaks about 6:45, low sun in my eyes & I'm coming up on a tight right in a 60 mph zone. Small side road joining in, Some asian arsehole in a BMW 3 series looks straight at me & I know he's going to pull out anyway.

Sure enough he goes to pull out right across me

I'm full on the brakes & horn, then follow him down into the town below then went into psychological warfare mode

Pulled up alongside the passenger side where his missus was & asked him why he pulled out after looking straight at me. Then I stuck the knife in by looking his missus in the eye & saying that if I was not 100% alert I'd have gone straight through her & killed her stone dead.

Going from the look on her face he's in deep **** for the foreseeable future

[n4mwd]

If you had hit her, you would be the one that would be splattered over the road - not her. Its best to leave the attitude at home even though they clearly deserved a good thrashing. They were wrong and you were right, but you are the one that goes to the hospital in a crash. In most cage vs motorcycle accidents, the car's occupants are not injured and the car is barely damaged, compared to the bike and rider who are in pieces on the road.

The bottom line is that cagers are almost always in the wrong, but they are bigger than you, so you'd better learn to respect them.

[Whiskey]

Originally Posted by n4mwd

If you had hit her, you would be the one that would be splattered over the road - not her. Its best to leave the attitude at home even though they clearly deserved a good thrashing. They were wrong and you were right, but you are the one that goes to the hospital in a crash. In most cage vs motorcycle accidents, the car's occupants are not injured and the car is barely damaged, compared to the bike and rider who are in pieces on the road.

The bottom line is that cagers are almost always in the wrong, but they are bigger than you, so you'd better learn to respect them.

I know that, she probably doesn't, the comment was to have her tear him a new arsehole thinking she was also going to get ****ed up. I gave him a bollocking, and her the ammunition for their next fight

Other option was to scrape the **** out of the paintwork with my knee & toe sliders as I filtered past & lose them in town traffic

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Whiskey

............looks straight at me & I know he's going to pull out anyway.

Sure enough he goes to pull out right across me

I'm full on the brakes & horn,..............

Good reaction !!!

It is hard to catch an alert and experienced rider.

[n4mwd]

Originally Posted by Whiskey

I know that, she probably doesn't, the comment was to have her tear him a new arsehole thinking she was also going to get ****ed up. I gave him a bollocking, and her the ammunition for their next fight

Other option was to scrape the **** out of the paintwork with my knee & toe sliders as I filtered past & lose them in town traffic

She was probably thinking you were crazy and about to rape her or something.