Freaky Motorcycle Moments

[cabinetman]

Riding a motorcycle can be a lot of fun, and then there are those unexpected moments that just happen. Some are memorable but not really funny at the time. Here are a few of mine.

Incident #1: Every Saturday night there is a "Saturday night ride", which turns out in a bonzai run. Some where between 50 -100 bikers meet in a large parking lot around 7:30 PM. When it gets close to 9:00 PM and everybody had a chance to yak a while, we all roll out and head for the boonies. We use public roads, and the trips have varied routes. This particular night we headed south on RT 27, which is pretty desolate, and the leap frogging starts. That's when the faster bikes overtake the slower ones until the the bravest guy with the most horsepower is up front.

We get strung out, and we do follow fairly close even though speeds can get 150 MPH +. There I was all tucked in to the tank, and a flock of birds decide to cross the highway. I saw them hit the guy in front of me, and I was next. Not much time to prepare. Guy in front gets all over his lane, and I'm getting hit in the helmet and hands, and thought I would get knocked off the bike. Fortunately nobody went down, but it made for some conversation later when we stopped for coffee.

Incident #2: It's a nice Sunday morning and three of us decide to go for a little ride of about 50 miles to a great breakfast place that has excellent eggs benedict. Drop our helmets on a mirror, and go in to eat. We come out, and head down the road. At about 60 MPH I feel something in my helmet, and it's moving around. I tried smacking the helmet, but with the padding inside, did nothing to stop the irritation. At that speed, it takes a few moments to slow down, pull over, put the kickstand down, get off, remove helmet. When I did, a very large bee made his escape.

Incident #3: I took a bike trip for a vacation which was a planned circle from Florida, to the north and then to the midwest, and then back to Florida. I made my stops along the way to visit old school and Army buddies. My last stop before returning to Florida was New Orleans. I left there very early in the morning, and decided to drive straight through..about 850 miles.

I jumped on the Florida Turnpike, and rode into the night. After a while I was getting mesmerized by "white line fever". Having the cruise control locked in at about 60MPH or so, I feel myself jerk and realize I just woke up. I was still on the road. I had no idea how long I was asleep, or how many miles I drove with my eyes closed. It was likely just a few moments, but I'll never know.

.

[gsmittle]

#3 is pretty creepy. I bet you stayed wide awake for a while after that!

My own weirdest incident happened on a bicycle: In my more foolish youth, I decided I'd ride a country road where I'd had some trouble a few weeks earlier with yahoos throwing stuff at me from passing cars, swerving into my lane, etc. I was booking down a steep hill, probably doing around 40 mph, when I felt a very painful thump on my left chest. I nearly rode off into the ditch, then got the bike back under control and managed to slow down enough to take a quick look. No blood, but it still hurt, so I got off at the next wide place and pulled up my shirt. There was a huge bruise already, and I noticed some bug parts on my shirt in that general area. Evidently I'd had a head-on collision with a June bug.

I can only imagine what would have happened if the bug had hit me in the face. I was wearing a hard-shell helmet and impact-resistant sunglasses, but still I would more than likely gotten the worst case of road rash ever.

g.

[jackellis]

50 miles for eggs benedict??

Pilots are notorious for flying somewhere to get a greasy burger (aka, hundred dollar hamburger) just so they can poke holes in the sky. It's nice to know we're not alone.

[cabinetman]

50 miles for eggs benedict??

Pilots are notorious for flying somewhere to get a greasy burger (aka, hundred dollar hamburger) just so they can poke holes in the sky. It's nice to know we're not alone.

As you know...it's not always the destination, it's the journey.

.

[BobSch]

I had a #3 experience, but in my car, not my bike. I was driving to Chicago late one night when somebody tapped on my window. I looked up and found I was in a gas station. No idea how I got there. The attendant (This was back in the days of attendant-pumped gas) said I followed another car into the station. He had to draw me a map to get back to I94! I decided to stick around for a while and polished off several cups of coffee before I hit the road again.

[ironhat]

Riding a motorcycle can be a lot of fun, and then there are those unexpected moments that just happen. Some are memorable but not really funny at the time. Here are a few of mine.

Incident #1: <snip>
Fortunately nobody went down, but it made for some conversation later when we stopped for coffee and a change of underwear.

Incident #2: <snip>
When I did, a very large bee made his escape and I changed my underwear.

Incident #3: <snip>
I had no idea how long I was asleep, or how many miles I drove with my eyes closed. It was likely just a few moments, but I'll never know. But, I changed my underwear just the same.

Funny how that phrase just goes with some experiences.

[Pappy]

Way back, in my younger days, a few of us were partying along the irrgation ditch outside of Yuma. After too much booze and some GOOD 'roll your own' I got on my bike and headed back to the base. Got the feeling I was floating above the bike and watching down my arms from about 30' up. I parked and kicked back for a couple of hours before climbing back in the saddle. Never rode in that condition again.

[atgcpaul]

I didn't realize bikes had cruise control until now. Scary

A coworker had a #2 like you but it haopened on I5 in San Diego at rush hour. He wears one of those cap helmets (no face shield) when some bug flew in and got lodged in his ear. He had to go to the ER to get it out.

[billwmeyer]

I had a few bad experiences too.

I had a quail fly up from the side and flew into my windbreaker that was partially open. I reached down to stop it's flapping around and somehow broke it's neck.

I was going about 90 and entered one of the ancient arched concrete bridges of the day. There was a smaller bridge just after it. A huge deer stepped out in front of me and just stood there. I froze, and didn't move a muscle. Luckily the deer walked off just before I would have hit it.

I felt a swipe on the side of my face consistant with a bug hit. I was also going somewhere in the 80 to 90 range. About a mile later the bug, which unknown to me flew into my helmet started stinging me. The wasp stung me 7 or 8 times just above my ear before I could stop and rip the helmet off. It was everything I could do to wait until I was stopped.

It's been awhile back, I sold my bike in 1971 when I got married.

Bill

[tommyt654]

I hit a wasp that had apparently been stingin away at me until I stopped at a traffic light a mile or so down thw road when he flew up inside my visor. I immediately flipped it open and away he went. I then started drivin away and realized I was having a hard time breathing and swallowing as my throat had swollen up closing my windpipe. I stopped at a a local hospital where they gave me a shot of Benadryl I think and was back on my way in an hour. Funny as I had been stung many times in the past and never had that reaction, maybe it was the length of the sting as opposed to a simple smack like I usually get.After that tho I always zipped my jacket all the way up and rode with my head angled down more often than not.

[sscherin]

Worst thing I've had happen (so far) on my bike was having the rear tire go flat @ 60 mph..
It's wasn't slow either.. the bike just dropped and started to wobble.. I eased off the throttle and got over to the side of the highway.. Cell phone was dead.. SIGH..This section of highway is a long land bridge so I ended up pushing the bike 2 miles down the road to a grocery store parking lot.. Called my wife from a pay phone.. Went home.. Hit craigs list.. found a 4x8 trailer. Went and bought it.. Rolled to Harbor freight and got a wheel chock. mounted it in the grocery store parking lot, loaded the bike and got home in time to meet the cable guy.

[SteveO]

I've had a few scary moments myself.

1: I too had a bee experience. I drove through a small cloud of bugs that turned out to be bees. One bounced off my jacket up into my helmet and stung me in the eyebrow before I could open the shield. Another one went down in my jacket and stung me in my left nipple! My eye was swollen shut for hours.

2: During a windstorm I had a ten foot long 3" branch drop right on my head. Good thing I had my helmet on. Had it dropped a split second earlier, it would have taken me off the bike.

3: One morning when I lived in Wyoming, I got up at sunrise so I could do some canyon carving on a pretty much empty road. Just before I got into the twisty part, I saw a one of the biggest herds of Pronghorn I had ever seen. As I was coming into the first curve going quite fast, I discovered the road was completely littered with mounds of Pronghorn poop! I barely kept the bike in control and when I did manage to stop the bike, I had to get off since I was shaking so hard.

4: I stopped my bike by a lake to take a photo of the sun setting over the water. As I walked toward it, a badger popped up out of a hole maybe 50 yards away and bolted straight for me at a stunning speed and wailing a blood-curdling scream. I ran back to the bike, but I couldn't believe how fast it was gaining on me and it got to within a few feet before I was able to get out of there. I thought the size of a man and bike would intimidate it, but apparently they have NO fear. I had never launched that bike so fast!

5: This did not happen to me, but it is the funniest thing I've seen when it comes to bikes. A friend was showing off for the girls, doing wheelies out in a dirt lot on his dirt bike. As he pulled another one, his front wheel came off and just kept rolling. He managed to stay in that wheelie for a considerable time, but he kept going faster and faster until he finally went over backward. He was fine, but I wish I had a video camera for that one!

[Bruce Cohen]

How's this

I did NY to Mexico to San Fran to NYC on a 1947 Indian, tank shift, foot in-out clutch, hardtail.

$20.00 to the one who guesses how long I was peeing blood.

Bruce

Now that's fun!!!

[ironhat]

I did NY to Mexico to San Fran to NYC on a 1947 Indian, tank shift, foot in-out clutch, hardtail.

$20.00 to the one who guesses how long I was peeing blood.
Bruce
Now that's fun!!!

OK, me first - 6 days? Now for me. The only bike I ever owned was a 1978, Yamaha SR 500 (it was their TT-500, single cylinder but in street trim, including mags). It had so much torque that you had to think about making it stall. Anyway, it was raining lightly and I was being too casual. The car in front of me stopped and I locked the wheels up while skidding closer and closer, sidewise and the front wheel steering in the correct direction. When I let off the brakes the bike straightened out and and I was beside the driver of the car. We both just raised our eyebrows. Pretty tame by the standards laid down here. BTW, I sold that bike to the neighbor's kid to use while in college with the proviso that I had right of first refusal. He still has it - 18 years later - and won't sell!!

[SteveO]

I'll bet you are at least a half inch shorter now Bruce.