When the ride hits home

[Gone in 60]

I'm sure I'm like a lot of people who ride regularly and with many years and miles under the belt, while always taking safety precautions, stop giving a lot of front-of-mind thought to the dangers of riding until something jars me back to the reality of it.

Had that happen on Saturday night, and have been mulling it over in my mind. Spent the evening with friends after work, so I came off of my freeway off-ramp late in the evening and faced a sea of flashing red as I came onto the boulevard that leads to my neighborhood. Riding past, the unfortunate site on the other side of the road was a bike on its side with a crowd of emergency workers tending to someone strapped to a board on the street. A row of sport bikes was parked along the curb with a crowd of leather-clad riders standing nearby. The context was clearly a group of riders, probably coming out of the nearby canyon, headed toward the freeway when one of them collided with... something.

In the dark with the glare of the red lights, and my desire to keep my eyes on the road on my last mile home, I didn't get a long enough look to see if another car was involved, I just gave the rider a mental "Good luck, man" as I turned onto my street.

Accidents happen all the time, but when it happens on the street you ride and walk every day, it makes you think more, doesn't it? Next morning on Sunday, I took my usual neighborhood walk to get the blood moving and hit the new coffee shop. As I approached the scene from the night before, my insurance investigator mind clicked in to see if there were easy clues to figure out what had happened. One thing that was probably lucky was that it happened right outside a hospital, so response was likely immediate. If there was a collision with a car, that car would be coming out of the hospital parking lot. No skidmarks, no fluid in the roadway. Some broken plastic bits in a small pile near the curb. A black mark on the roadway that might have been from a sliding foot peg.

A brake fluid reservoir on the sidewalk about thirty feet down seems to indicate some speed was involved. Mrs. was out of town on a girl trip so might have been a good thing I was alone, she might have said "why is a broken motorcycle part on the sidewalk?"

This morning, riding past the same spot as I do every day, there was a car waiting to turn left out of the hospital. Tough, unprotected (and I think illegal) left turn. A driver might get impatient sitting there waiting, and if it's illegal, likely that the driver would want to make that left as quickly as possible. Was that the case Saturday night? No way to know, but something I'll think about from now on.

[the Ferret]

yep, dangerous out there. Hope the rider wasn't hurt too badly.

Had a stupid truck pull out in front of me from the left just as I was entering a small village on today's ride. I had the right of way and he had a stop sign. Was able to get around his fender. It was close, real close. A lot of words I'd have to moderate here getting yelled inside my helmet!

[Cormanus]

I hope the guy’s ok. Got was good you dodged that truck, too, Ferret. Thanks for sharing that story, Gone. Good to have a little jolt to remind one of familiar hazards.

[peterbaron]

We all must be very careful when riding!!!
Take care of yourself guys!!!!

[GoldOxide_imp]

yep, dangerous out there. Hope the rider wasn't hurt too badly.

Had a stupid truck pull out in front of me from the left just as I was entering a small village on today's ride. I had the right of way and he had a stop sign. Was able to get around his fender. It was close, real close. A lot of words I'd have to moderate here getting yelled inside my helmet!

Locally here, I see many unmanaged left turns with signs that indicate "No Left Turn - Mon to Fri - 7 am to 6 pm". There are reasons for these warnings.

Yesterday I almost T-boned (hadn't I applied some brake) a cager turning left who did not stop at the stop sign.

In my younger years I would decorate the inside of my helmet visor with spit as I had many words to shout out. It is easy to envision Ferret's plight.

[Gone in 60]

Just ahead of that view in my post is the 55 Freeway. The off-ramp from North 55 to that boulevard stops at a signal to turn right, with limited visibility to the left, as there's a bridge over a river. At the light, there are no less than FIVE "No Right Turn on Red" signs, positioned everywhere around the intersection. Still, every day, I am vigilant to dodge a red light right turner entering the intersection with limited visibility to any oncoming traffic.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Just ahead of that view in my post is the 55 Freeway. The off-ramp from North 55 to that boulevard stops at a signal to turn right, with limited visibility to the left, as there's a bridge over a river. At the light, there are no less than FIVE "No Right Turn on Red" signs, positioned everywhere around the intersection. Still, every day, I am vigilant to dodge a red light right turner entering the intersection with limited visibility to any oncoming traffic.

We have some intersections at bridge crossings too. The crossing traffic is given a green arrow for permitted left and right turns, otherwise, no turns any other time due to lack of visibility of oncoming traffic from the bridge. Yet, cagers turn right on the red even though it is clearly indicated not to.

People seem to be more distracted and careless than I have ever recalled.

[Obleo]

I can’t even count the number of cagers that will turn out in front of me when out for a putt in the country roads . After every ride my wife will ask how was your ride ? The answer is 2 or 3 near misses . I have Denali D2 yellow lights and always ride with high beams on. I don’t ride at all in the city. People are so distracted or just ignore the rules of the road . I am a hairs breath from giving up riding because of this trend.

[peterbaron]

Unfortunately, too many idiots posses drivers license

[Tev62]

As a contrast to Gone in 60's story of a third party inflicted accident I witnessed the opposite, a self induced accident of a fellow rider. I was out this weekend at a motorcycle Rally, about a 100 people, invite only, mostly my age (60 plus) this weekend gone by. Very civilized, lot of premium bikes, hotel, good food and drink. I clocked up 1100km that weekend and had a ball getting there and back. I cooked lunch with my stove and took in small villages all the way down and back. Rally day was a pseudo rally route which you had to figure out a little, 250km of small back roads and passes in Cork and Kerry. The scenery was stunning and I joined the main group who was led by a testosterone fueled rider followed by equally pumped testosterone filled lemmings. The push on rate was manic, easily doable on my GS but I wasn't enjoying it. I spent 9/10's of my concentration on riding and virtually nothing on enjoying the scenery. It was mentally draining. It took me 30 minutes to realize what I was at and dropped off the pack, dropped my speed dramatically and went my own pace. I was willing the guy on his lovely clean restored Fazer 1000 in front of me to do the same, I could sense his discomfort. As I glide round the next bend the Fazer low sides, albeit at a low speed, off the side of the road and does a nice bit of damage to his bike. The guy was unhurt but you could sense his palpable shock. I had to calm him down, he was so on edge trying to keep up with the others and was frantically trying to pull his bike up whilst full of adrenaline. I felt a little preachy but reminded him he had to ride his own ride, don't get sucked in and admitted I was doing the same for half an hour. The male brain is such a strange thing sometimes, what it can lead you to do. It was a carbed bike and the float bowls were probably semi drained in the spill and it wouldn't start. I said right we will bump start it as the battery had had a hammering by then. A decent chance of starting a carbed bike on a push start. Imagine my surprise when I had to explain to the rider what we were doing, what he needed to do, clutch in, 2nd gear, let me build some speed pushing and dump the clutch with the ignition on. He was clueless. If there was ever a candidate for a mature motorcycle skills course this guy was it. We can be our own worst enemy's too sometimes.