In Memory Of...?
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Road Master
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,097
Likes: 11
From: Huntley, IL
In Memory Of...?
In Memory Of...
I’m going to Post this to my Blog but before I do I wanted to Post here first.
This is not a rewrite or copy of some ones Post. This is my story and I want to share it.
This year it has been one of the worst riding seasons in a while. Some say we had no summer this year in the Midwest. So with the lack of time to ride my scoot I could only ride Saturdays or Sundays.
To clarify my riding style. I don’t ride if there is a slight chance of rain any time during the day, I plan on riding. Reason you ask? The cagers. They have no clue that a motorcycle can’t travel at the same speed that a four wheeler can on rain soaked roads.
They tend to tail gate with the sense that buy riding your *** it will make you speed up.
And don’t forget the pissed off cager that decides that he had enough and passes you about an inch or two between him and you and splashes water all over you.
Saturday’s weather wise was not so good for riding. Sundays were a little better but I like to set aside Sundays as family day so I rarely ride Sundays.
I figured out how many week ends there are in a normal riding season and I came up with 32 week ends. I used April as a start and if no salt is dropped on the roads I could ride through November.
So with all the bad weather taken into account. I road so far, 21 Saturdays and I road yesterday, (11.08.09) my first Sunday this year.
Every time I ride, and this is no exaggeration, I have at least one close encounter of the cage kind. They either cut across my bow and slow down to a craw in front of me or come in and try to share the same lane space. It happens so much I don’t even get upset any more. It just becomes a part of that days riding experience.
When I ride I try to keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front of me. The cagers always try to come in and take up that space. I always stay out of their blind spot. I move up whether I’m on the left or right and ride right next to their window so the driver can see me if I can’t pass them because there are cars in front of me.
Two or three weeks ago I was riding in the left lane of a four lane divided highway going about 50 mph. I came up on this car on my right and thought I better get up so he can see me. There were cars in front of me so I wasn’t actually going to pass him. I was about half way along side of him when he, out of the blue came right into me and ran me off the lane almost onto the gravel shoulder. I was riding the white line at the edge of the pavement. He got so close my foot peg was going into his rear wheel well. All this time I’m trying to slow down I’m looking at that peg and trying to stop it from getting hooked up and knocking me off balance. By the grace of GOD, I was able to slow down and save my day.
To say the least, the horn and the so called loud pipes did not have any effect. The driver did not see or hear me.
While this was playing itself out the driver finely saw me in his side view mirror. But it was too late for me, for him to make any adjustments. At the next stop light the driver got out of his car, looking like a ghost. I mean his face was pure white and he apologized. He said he did not see me. I already knew that. I acknowledged his apology by waving my hand, what else could I do.
Like I said earlier this kind of thing happens all the time and I shrug it off knowing that it’s the nature of the beast. But this time it was very frighting to say the least.
Just to keep the time line in tact. This last weekend, 11.08.09, was one of the best weekends this riding season. I rode Saturday and I did not want to stop it was so nice. When I got home I told my wife, this had to be the best ride I had all year. I did not have one close call or near miss with anybody. So I told her if the weather is the same tomorrow I’m going for a short ride to my friendly Harley dealer in Woodstock IL. I haven’t been there in about four weeks because Rt. 47 was being repaved along the route to Woodstock. Roads in IL suck and it is a pleasure when you can ride on some new asphalt once in a while.
Sunday was a carbon copy of Saturday so I got the scoot out and took that ride to the Harley dealer. On the way there a couple of kids made a left turn right in front of me. Had to apply the brakes pretty hard to slow down. A couple seconds either way who knows.
I got to the dealer and did what all of us bikers do when we visit the Harley dealer. So I won’t bore you.
I was there about an hour and decided to get back on the hog, too nice a day to waste.
I left heading back home. There is a builder in the area that went bankrupt and I was passing there model homes. So I thought I would stop by and see what they were going to sell the models for.
I was soon, coming up to the side road that takes you to the model homes. I looked in my mirrors and saw a car about ten cars behind me. I turned my right signal on and started braking. When I got close to the intersection I saw on the pavement that there was gravel and asphalt like marbles from the new paving job. The road crew did not sweep the intersection clean. I could not lean in the turn. I would have slid and dropped my scoot. I slowed down more so to keep the bike upright in the turn.
While I’m doing this I hear this car blowing its horn, I thought to myself, another cager being all pissed off because he had to slow down for me. I’m in my turn when to my right, this car is on the shoulder passing me into the same side road I’m turning into. I could not turn anymore because the side of the car was two inches from me. I could not stop hard because of the gravel, tar marbles crap on the pavement. The car proceeded with me along side of it then turned a little right and drove a few feet up the road and stopped. I was then able to get the off the crap and get along side of the car. I looked into the car and motioned the driver to drop the window. I could see it was a woman and could see she was putting a cell phone down.
There was no guess work here. She was talking on that phone and did not compute, me slowing down in front of her. I said to her, “What the hell lady, what were you doing?” “You could have killed me”. She said, “I did not have my signal on”. The damn thing was still blinking. I could not lean enough for the signal to cancel itself out.
I told her I had my turn signal on and she said that she was sorry. What can we say or do with these people? I didn’t say any more and just took off and went over to the model homes parking lot. On the way there I looked in my mirrors and saw she backed up and went back out to route 47. I don't even think she was going to turn right. I think she was going to hit me from behind and used the shoulder as an escape route. In the parking lot, I got off and checked my signals and brake light. They were all working. I even have the LED stop light because it’s brighter then the stock one.
So why did I name this Thread, “In Memory Of”...? How many more times do I have left before my name will be in the “In Memory Of “section of the many Harley Forums I frequent?
Of all the riders that died in bike versus auto accidents. How many near misses did they have before their names showed up the “In Memory Of “section? We will never know because it happens so many times, we just shrug it off and never tell anyone.
States need to have more space in the rules of the road booklets they hand out to educate cagers on how to coexist with motorcycles on the road. They also need a separate test on this subject for new and older drivers. And not just a couple of questions. Drivers Education classes should have at least one day set aside for this.
And last of all, they need to out law cell phone use and texting while driving.
How many near misses have you had? Don’t keep it to yourself. Tell someone, anyone. God forbid something happens we need our family and friends to tell our stories, that this wasn’t a one time encounter. We can no longer take this lame excuse, “I didn’t see you/him/her there”. We need safer roads out there for us bikers.
I’m going to Post this to my Blog but before I do I wanted to Post here first.
This is not a rewrite or copy of some ones Post. This is my story and I want to share it.
This year it has been one of the worst riding seasons in a while. Some say we had no summer this year in the Midwest. So with the lack of time to ride my scoot I could only ride Saturdays or Sundays.
To clarify my riding style. I don’t ride if there is a slight chance of rain any time during the day, I plan on riding. Reason you ask? The cagers. They have no clue that a motorcycle can’t travel at the same speed that a four wheeler can on rain soaked roads.
They tend to tail gate with the sense that buy riding your *** it will make you speed up.
And don’t forget the pissed off cager that decides that he had enough and passes you about an inch or two between him and you and splashes water all over you.
Saturday’s weather wise was not so good for riding. Sundays were a little better but I like to set aside Sundays as family day so I rarely ride Sundays.
I figured out how many week ends there are in a normal riding season and I came up with 32 week ends. I used April as a start and if no salt is dropped on the roads I could ride through November.
So with all the bad weather taken into account. I road so far, 21 Saturdays and I road yesterday, (11.08.09) my first Sunday this year.
Every time I ride, and this is no exaggeration, I have at least one close encounter of the cage kind. They either cut across my bow and slow down to a craw in front of me or come in and try to share the same lane space. It happens so much I don’t even get upset any more. It just becomes a part of that days riding experience.
When I ride I try to keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front of me. The cagers always try to come in and take up that space. I always stay out of their blind spot. I move up whether I’m on the left or right and ride right next to their window so the driver can see me if I can’t pass them because there are cars in front of me.
Two or three weeks ago I was riding in the left lane of a four lane divided highway going about 50 mph. I came up on this car on my right and thought I better get up so he can see me. There were cars in front of me so I wasn’t actually going to pass him. I was about half way along side of him when he, out of the blue came right into me and ran me off the lane almost onto the gravel shoulder. I was riding the white line at the edge of the pavement. He got so close my foot peg was going into his rear wheel well. All this time I’m trying to slow down I’m looking at that peg and trying to stop it from getting hooked up and knocking me off balance. By the grace of GOD, I was able to slow down and save my day.
To say the least, the horn and the so called loud pipes did not have any effect. The driver did not see or hear me.
While this was playing itself out the driver finely saw me in his side view mirror. But it was too late for me, for him to make any adjustments. At the next stop light the driver got out of his car, looking like a ghost. I mean his face was pure white and he apologized. He said he did not see me. I already knew that. I acknowledged his apology by waving my hand, what else could I do.
Like I said earlier this kind of thing happens all the time and I shrug it off knowing that it’s the nature of the beast. But this time it was very frighting to say the least.
Just to keep the time line in tact. This last weekend, 11.08.09, was one of the best weekends this riding season. I rode Saturday and I did not want to stop it was so nice. When I got home I told my wife, this had to be the best ride I had all year. I did not have one close call or near miss with anybody. So I told her if the weather is the same tomorrow I’m going for a short ride to my friendly Harley dealer in Woodstock IL. I haven’t been there in about four weeks because Rt. 47 was being repaved along the route to Woodstock. Roads in IL suck and it is a pleasure when you can ride on some new asphalt once in a while.
Sunday was a carbon copy of Saturday so I got the scoot out and took that ride to the Harley dealer. On the way there a couple of kids made a left turn right in front of me. Had to apply the brakes pretty hard to slow down. A couple seconds either way who knows.
I got to the dealer and did what all of us bikers do when we visit the Harley dealer. So I won’t bore you.
I was there about an hour and decided to get back on the hog, too nice a day to waste.
I left heading back home. There is a builder in the area that went bankrupt and I was passing there model homes. So I thought I would stop by and see what they were going to sell the models for.
I was soon, coming up to the side road that takes you to the model homes. I looked in my mirrors and saw a car about ten cars behind me. I turned my right signal on and started braking. When I got close to the intersection I saw on the pavement that there was gravel and asphalt like marbles from the new paving job. The road crew did not sweep the intersection clean. I could not lean in the turn. I would have slid and dropped my scoot. I slowed down more so to keep the bike upright in the turn.
While I’m doing this I hear this car blowing its horn, I thought to myself, another cager being all pissed off because he had to slow down for me. I’m in my turn when to my right, this car is on the shoulder passing me into the same side road I’m turning into. I could not turn anymore because the side of the car was two inches from me. I could not stop hard because of the gravel, tar marbles crap on the pavement. The car proceeded with me along side of it then turned a little right and drove a few feet up the road and stopped. I was then able to get the off the crap and get along side of the car. I looked into the car and motioned the driver to drop the window. I could see it was a woman and could see she was putting a cell phone down.
There was no guess work here. She was talking on that phone and did not compute, me slowing down in front of her. I said to her, “What the hell lady, what were you doing?” “You could have killed me”. She said, “I did not have my signal on”. The damn thing was still blinking. I could not lean enough for the signal to cancel itself out.
I told her I had my turn signal on and she said that she was sorry. What can we say or do with these people? I didn’t say any more and just took off and went over to the model homes parking lot. On the way there I looked in my mirrors and saw she backed up and went back out to route 47. I don't even think she was going to turn right. I think she was going to hit me from behind and used the shoulder as an escape route. In the parking lot, I got off and checked my signals and brake light. They were all working. I even have the LED stop light because it’s brighter then the stock one.
So why did I name this Thread, “In Memory Of”...? How many more times do I have left before my name will be in the “In Memory Of “section of the many Harley Forums I frequent?
Of all the riders that died in bike versus auto accidents. How many near misses did they have before their names showed up the “In Memory Of “section? We will never know because it happens so many times, we just shrug it off and never tell anyone.
States need to have more space in the rules of the road booklets they hand out to educate cagers on how to coexist with motorcycles on the road. They also need a separate test on this subject for new and older drivers. And not just a couple of questions. Drivers Education classes should have at least one day set aside for this.
And last of all, they need to out law cell phone use and texting while driving.
How many near misses have you had? Don’t keep it to yourself. Tell someone, anyone. God forbid something happens we need our family and friends to tell our stories, that this wasn’t a one time encounter. We can no longer take this lame excuse, “I didn’t see you/him/her there”. We need safer roads out there for us bikers.
Road Captain
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 505
Likes: 1
From: Pennsylvania
Wow! Well said TomT,
Do you mind if I share your writing with my local ABATE?
We are the Highlanders of PA. "Alliance for Bikers aimed toward Education".
You have put into words what many of us cannot or do not.
Thank you
-Mark-
Do you mind if I share your writing with my local ABATE?
We are the Highlanders of PA. "Alliance for Bikers aimed toward Education".
You have put into words what many of us cannot or do not.
Thank you
-Mark-
Road Warrior
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,896
Likes: 2
From: North Lima, Ohio
A-Men brother. Been there too. Many many times. But this is what we do. Only fate knows when its your turn. Just dont give up something you love doing because of it. I have alot of people (non riders) telling me it's too scarry to ride. I look at it this way, If I have to be scared to do something, Why do it? There are 2 places I dont like to ride. In the city or on the interstate, but will because sometimes ya gotta go where ya gotta go. I'll keep it short but this subject could go on and on. I think most riders are with ya on this one.
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 3,140
Likes: 17
From: Wisconsin
We hear ya! My wife, who rides with me very often, had a need to meet me after work, so she drove up in her truck. She followed me through town and when we got to our destination she was being all freaked out. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "Oh my God! What is going on today, it seems like everyone was out to get you!" I asked her what she meant and she told me, "It seemed like everyone was turning too close, pulling out in front of you, just seemed like a lot of people not paying attention." I really didn't think about it, it's just the everyday perils, but her following and seeing it from a different perspective really freaked her out. You're right, there is a lot of it going on, I think we just give up and accept it for what it is and compensate for it.
Thread Starter
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Road Master
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,097
Likes: 11
From: Huntley, IL
Thanks everyone.
Your welcome norgepa to use it. Yesterdays encounter was the straw that broke the camels back/almost my back. I just had to say something to get us bikers thinking.
Whether we ride alone or in a pack there are dangers that could be avoided if drivers of autos, had a few more hours of education on how motorcycles handle and use the highway.
Not any one thing is going to stop me from riding. I would have stopped back on July 4th, 1970 when my x wife and I were entering an intersection when a cage turned left, right in front of us. Had no time to stop. Wife, not a scratch. Me, ride to the hospital. Did x wife set this accident up. Still wondering.
I didn't want to make this a spiritual thing. I know when it's your time, it's your time. I'm just asking in a matter of fact way, how many close calls do we have in life. Just one less close call, would be fine in my book. And there would be less if cagers took more responsibility of their driving habits.
You know that cats have nine lives, myth. How many times can a cat be tossed of a roof? One, two, all nine before there is no more cat?
Ride like theres no tomorrow! I like the thought, there might be a tomorrow for everyone of us. I can go on and on.
The message I want to get out there, if any. Is ride safe and watch those cars.
Your welcome norgepa to use it. Yesterdays encounter was the straw that broke the camels back/almost my back. I just had to say something to get us bikers thinking.
Whether we ride alone or in a pack there are dangers that could be avoided if drivers of autos, had a few more hours of education on how motorcycles handle and use the highway.
Not any one thing is going to stop me from riding. I would have stopped back on July 4th, 1970 when my x wife and I were entering an intersection when a cage turned left, right in front of us. Had no time to stop. Wife, not a scratch. Me, ride to the hospital. Did x wife set this accident up. Still wondering.
I didn't want to make this a spiritual thing. I know when it's your time, it's your time. I'm just asking in a matter of fact way, how many close calls do we have in life. Just one less close call, would be fine in my book. And there would be less if cagers took more responsibility of their driving habits.
You know that cats have nine lives, myth. How many times can a cat be tossed of a roof? One, two, all nine before there is no more cat?
Ride like theres no tomorrow! I like the thought, there might be a tomorrow for everyone of us. I can go on and on.
The message I want to get out there, if any. Is ride safe and watch those cars.
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 2,639
Likes: 2
From: Scottsboro
Amen! nuff said!
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The solution...you need a BIGGER bike my man!!!!!
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Club Member
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 3,327
Likes: 1
From: South Jersey
I know I ride alot slower with more caution when on two wheels then I do on four. But I also try not to be too cautious as that can also lead to trouble and cause cagers to be more aggressive around you
Ultimate HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 6,235
Likes: 65
From: Joliet, Illinois
Damn Tom, you must have some *really* bad luck. I ride all over Northern IL - I even get up around Huntley, McHenry, Crystal lake, your neck of the woods. I've had ONE near miss this year, and maybe a couple of "almost near misses" (Where someone started to do something dumb, but figured it out before they did it).
When I find a disparity like that, I wonder how the experiences can be so different. I wonder if perhaps it is just my perception that is different (as in, maybe things happen to me but are just there and gone).
The other thing you said that makes me wonder... I think we have the same weather, pretty much, and, as I recall... it seems we had an *awesome* riding season this year - very little rain. What did I miss?
Anyway - It was a good writing. I like how you painted a picture then left it with pondering when you might become "In memory of..."
When I find a disparity like that, I wonder how the experiences can be so different. I wonder if perhaps it is just my perception that is different (as in, maybe things happen to me but are just there and gone).
The other thing you said that makes me wonder... I think we have the same weather, pretty much, and, as I recall... it seems we had an *awesome* riding season this year - very little rain. What did I miss?
Anyway - It was a good writing. I like how you painted a picture then left it with pondering when you might become "In memory of..."