Dwight2
Adjunct
Reged: 05/27/10
Posts: 609
Loc: Prescott, AZ
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Quote:
Man, that's a grizzly story. Do you know what ultimately happened to the guy?
Well Joe, word is the guy still rides, but is strictly a Harley rider now.
Uh huh...his peg leg goes very nicely with that whole pirate look that he's into nowdays!!!
(sorry...but you should know by now that I can never resist insertin' a little gallows humor in these sorts o' things)
Okay, now that THAT was said...Yep, that WAS a very well written and grizzly story, alright! However, I think the guy was actually kind'a lucky that he landed into that grassy knoll.
(okay...NOW I can't resist THIS one...)
Yep, if it wasn't for those "grassy knolls" out there, then maybe LBJ wouldn't have ever been President either!
(...Ummmm...yep, sorry again)
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Yep! Just like a good Single Malt Scotch, you might call me "an acquired taste" TOO.(among the many OTHER things you may care to call me, of course)
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DanCorrigan
Adjunct
Reged: 07/25/08
Posts: 208
Loc: Las Vegas, NV USA
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In December of '08 I was riding along and entering a curve to the right...I was at about 35 mph when I noticed a white Dodge Neon full of kids exiting the drive of an In and Out Burger joint to my left. They we going to make a left turn onto the roadway into my path. They crossed two lanes of Southbound traffic and then into the Northbound lanes and would have hit me on the left side if I had not applied the brakes heavily. So heavily that the bike went down on the right side really smoothly. By the time it went down I was at 20 MPH or less and I avoided the collision. I ended up against the curb on the right side of the roadway at night with traffic coming up behind me in two lanes. Luckily a lady with a big GMC Suburban stopped behind me and shielded me from the on coming traffic. The bike was still running. I reached up and killed the engine but the bike was resting on my right leg. I could not get up. She and her son and a pair of passing by teens pulled the bike up and got me out from under. We got the bike to the edge of the road and up on the kickstand. I was in some severe pain in my right ankle, left wrist, and had some bruising on on right leg in a few places and my riding jacket was torn on the right elbow and shoulder. Those armor pieces did their job. The double fabric pants also were torn and a layer of fabric was gone buy my skin was whole although bruised badly. My left wrist was sprained. Generally I was shaken up pretty badly but able to move albiet kinda slow.
Damage to the bike was to the end ball of the right brake, right highway peg was scraped down some, top edge of right saddlebag was abraded pretty good and I had a new scrape on the right side of my helmet. Other than that I was good to go. I rode the bike home 4 miles. The next day I could hardly walk on the right leg. I ended up going to the hospital and then I learned that the right fibula was broken and I ended up in a cast for 12 weeks. It never healed right and in August of '09 they installed a titanium rod into my right leg with 7 screws. Another 12 weeks in a cast and I still am having issues with swelling and tenderness and pain at times in the right ankle.
The alternative was to allow the neon to smack me on the left side and I am sure that the injuries would have been more serious than I suffered. Oh, by the way, the Neon stopped 1/4 mile away a kid got out to see what had happend to me and then they sped away.
I needed to have straightened up the bike by steering left and then applied the brakes but I would have hit the Neon anyway so I really have not any solution to this situation. Sometimes ya gotta just take your lumps.
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07 Speedmstr, Long Tors, bags, sissy bar and rack, windshield, engine bars, 2 ww lights, 2 fast eddy stickers and a .45 ACP.
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foglefar
Learned Hand
Reged: 03/09/05
Posts: 1976
Loc: Brisbane, Australia
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Laying it down was your only option because you were cornering you couldn't brake. Totally different story if you were travelling straight.
It pisses me off that those kids did a runner.
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Cheers, Richard
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09 America, Staintune Pipes, K&N, Breathe, Hagon Nitros, AI & O2 removed, tune 20184 (modified), MTX-L a/f gauge
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ladisney
Loquacious
Reged: 01/12/05
Posts: 3166
Loc: Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Quote:
I just hope my instincts would kick in well enough ahead to make the right decision. Tough call, that one can be... and not a lot of time to think about it.
In military aviation they train you to think through emergencies and make up your mind what you're going to do before the situation actually happens. Then, when the situation happens, you already have a plan. All you need to do is execute the plan.
There is never time to think it through, and indecision has probably killed as many people as anything. I have some general rules but I often update them in traffic. For instance, "Where am I going to go if that idiot turns left?" or "Is there room on the shoulder if that moron pulls out?"
Of course, nothing is fool proof since mother nature is always cranking out new and improved fools.
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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." -- H.L. Mencken
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Greybeard
Monkey Butt
Reged: 01/11/05
Posts: 7859
Loc: Charming Clovis NM
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I had to use a "controlled crash" once when some old lady in a Buick decided that she should wait until I was almost in the intersection before pulling out from a stopsign. That was on an old flathead HD that had really poor brakes. The America and Night Train are the only bikes I've owned that have decent stopping power, and I still ride with the philosophy that if you stay away from trouble, you are less likely to get into it.
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Pain is nature's way of saying, "We know where you live".
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TriumphLance
Adjunct
Reged: 08/08/09
Posts: 376
Loc: North Bend, Washington State
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Thanks for this Keith - good wisdow to draw from this on many levels!
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2009 Bonneville America Phantom Black, Long TOR's, Triumph Dresser Bars, Roadster Screen, Kuryakyn Silver Bullet Spotlights
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siguy73
Complete Newb
Reged: 05/15/11
Posts: 2
Loc: Allentown, PA
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I was faced with this emergency situation last week. Some stupid cager must have dropped their cell phone and slammed on their brakes at a green light. The road we were on was freshly paved and my brakes locked. I thought I should lay it down when I saw a way out. I let go of the brakes and swerved and avoided an accident. I read in "The Upper Half of a Motorcycle" that we should be in the habit of always scanning for a way out. We leave a smaller foot print giving us more options, the shoulder of the road, a turning only lane, in between 2 cars. I'm glad I didn't lay it down. I love my bike too much.
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Keith
Stickman Yogi
Reged: 03/21/09
Posts: 11613
Loc: BC, Canada
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I'm glad you found a way out, Silas! And btw, welcome!
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Live to love, love to live.
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locopony
Loquacious
Reged: 09/01/10
Posts: 4309
Loc: Texas, Houston
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The aticle you read is correct. Anytime you are in a traffic situation you want to be extra vigilant. Keeping track of the vehicles around you and as much of the road ahead as possible. I am glad you found and exit and came out unharmed. Becareful out there.
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Bopin in the bad shine, with a bota bag of fried wine.
http://locoponys.com/
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Bucky
Loquacious
Reged: 05/21/06
Posts: 3971
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Lay down on purpose? I don't know if that's within my reaction instincts. I hope not anyway.
I did a tank slap get off many years ago, but it seemed I had no choice. The arresting officer asked how fast I was going, for a "foot peg scraped the asphalt for 262 feet." I told him, "I dunno, 30?" Not bragging - just amazed at surviving it. I was fairly 20 something immortal back then. Not so much anymore.
While I have no experience or data to support this notion, I've imagined a scenario whereby I would leap up off my very sturdy midship pegs to try and and jump over a car suddenly in my path. It would seem necessary to have the balls of your feet on the peg to pull this off, if even feasible. I figure the car's windshield or side window may be a kinder gentler ride than the grill. Maybe that extra X inches of glass shatter deceleration would reduce a fatality to a 'mere' maim or dismember? Hope I never have to figure it out.
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Random safety thought that popped into my head -
secondary road - long line of vehicles coming at you - car #4 can't see ahead but makes a left anyway. It tends to make me ride to the right in that scenario and get some headlight out there, but that's probably not a surprise to y'all. This happened to my kids many moons ago. Both were OK as Granny had them in car seats. One was X shaped heavily bruised from the car seat straps, the other bit her lip at impact. Granny almost needed a tranq dart shot to calm her down. Both cars did what they were designed to do and crumpled down to offer some impact absorption. So as far as "we never used passenger restraints and rode around in cars with bridge girder frames and no harm became us" saying goes, all I can say is you were lucky. My ex & I received a phone call stating our daughters had been in a head on collision. No other info as to their post accident condition was available. We were a half hour away. A very long half hour ride indeed.
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