Back when I first started riding, stationed in Hawaii, I got the Bee sting square in the chest at 60mph.

But the incident that upset me the most was leaving a dead stop in traffic when the left turn arrow turned green and the cage in front of me slammed on his brakes after we started moving. I went down when I hit him and I thought he was going to get out of his car, I could see him craining to see me in the rearview mirror as I stood up. When he saw me he peeled out! I have to assume it was because I'm 6'2", had all my leathers on, mirrored shades, and a doo rag instead of a helmet, cuz he never came back.

It was my Evo when it was new, less than 200 miles on it and I couldn't move it out of the left turn lane cuz the front fender & bumper was pushed into the tire. NOBODY stopped to help.Finally somebody from work came by and helped me pry the fender up and get me out of traffic. What a bad day.

The dealer certified the forks were okay and the insurance replaced the fender and front bumper but even so, going through it was he11!

 

As far as being too closeit would not have a made a difference,the rock was tossed into the air,and I had no where to go.It certainly left a mark 10" dia.Black,blue,yellow,you name it.The wife was in apanic.It took a very long time to go away.

 

Sounds like you have some dangerous friends there. Did you ever pay them back for it?

 

I had to ride a Honda once.

 

I was riding with a friend one day in 1984, along a stretch of road that had lakes on both sides of the street with guard rails. We were doing approx. 65 MPH when a bird came up from the side of the road and flew betweenmy arm and the tank. It hit meon the right side of my neck and I thought it ripped my head off!
I somehow managed to slow down and pull off of the road, got the kickstand down and fell off of the bike into theroad and passed out. When I started to come to there were hoards of people standing around yelling "call an ambulance" yadda yadda yadda. One ladywas holding my neck with a towel or shirt to stop the bleeding.My buddy was saying that maybe I got shot or something. I kept saying that it was a bird that hit me.

Well anyway when I got to the hospital and they took off my half helmet the birds beak was still in the foam just behind my ear. Got 16 stitches and and a neck brace out of that one. Later on when the cops showed up they asked the doctor if it was a gun shot. Luckily he still had the beak to prove it was a bird.
Still don't know how I got the bike stopped and the stand down.

 

My worst/blessed day riding was in Apr. 05. Long story short I high sided broke my leg and had to have surgery to put my leg back together. I don't look at it as a bad day riding because it could have been worse. I couldhavewent down in 1 of a million different place that day and been killed for sure but I got got thrown out into a big grassy field no trees , guardrails or other traffic. Except for a broke leg I did not get a scratch on me.

 

I was riding into an industrial park to an inspection station to get my bike inspected and luckily only going about 25-30mph and there was an 18 wheeler with a flatbed trailer full of rolls of the 6 inch corrigated drainage pipes like they use for land scaping.

The rolls were about 4 feet tall and 6 ft in diameter and as I was coming up on the trailer, I thought to myself, it sure looks like that stack of 3 of the rollsis leaning and no sooner did I think that than here it comes falling off the trailer right at me. I swerved to my left, but there were vehicles parked along the curb so it was a tight squeeze.

One of the rolls hit the side of my front tire and then my highway peg, I'm not sure how I kept from going down, but I did and after getting stopped, and cussing out the truck driver for not having his load secure we looked over my bike and all I had was a scuff on my tire, no other damage at all. I couldn't believe it!!!!!!!!!!!

 

May of 03--tight curve--looked over my shoulder to see what i heard-- my bro in law on his hi revving BMW was right on my left rear not unsafe but close and loud--i looked back and it was to late--i was driving off the shoulder--blacktop with a lip--couldnt get back on the road before the corner or the guardrail or the ditch--laid it down--slid into the guardrail that sloped to the ground and launched me and the scoot like a ramp flipping both of us end over end twice into the ditch------I was a little banged up but OK--actually had my helmet on--kept my melon from splitting open --thank god for leathers!!!! $9k worth of damagethat was a BAD DAY OF RIDING!!!!

Silver lining???? oh yea----ended up fixing it-- building the motor-- custom flames--the whole 9 yards--then the bitch took it in the Divorce--

Why is a Divorce so expensive? ITS WORTH IT!!!!

later

Smurf

 

Sometime in 1975 I was hauling *** on my new Norton thru a small village in south Wales near St. Davids and passed a large truck that was "parked" in the middle of the small two laned road. Guess I missed that he had his turn blinker on because he commenced to turn just as myhandlebars got even with his front bumper.I must have just clipped him no more than maybe 1/4 of an inch because my bars started severe wobbling and there I am up on the sidewalk at 50 mph or so. How I did that without crashing (or hitting something on the sidewalk) is a miracle. Well somehow by the grace of god I recover and get back down on the road and continue on. Over 30 years ago and Ill never forget it. Always be careful passing slow moving vehicles!

 

Taterdog: Cheers mate, I was a lucky SOB that day indeed. Also lucky was the fact that It killed the roo instantly cos they're pretty mean with their back legs when they're thrashing around (cut you open real easy like).

I've been hit by cicada's, wasps, swarm of bees (scary), big moths (yellow custard guts... yeeeechhh) and all sorts of insects over the years too but my other worst riding experience didn't involve anything else other than the cold.. evil, bitter life threatening cold.

I was alot younger and fitter back then and perhaps thats the only thing that saved me. I was between bikes (back in the days when I couldn't afford to buy my next bike without selling the old one first). I'd been looking high and low for a really wild looking sportsbike I'd seen but in the 1100cc variety they were really thin on the ground plenty of 750's around but I was hooked on power (see one here: http://canyonchasers.net/blog/upload...Katana_520.jpg)

I'd scored a lead one one that was 4 hrs inland (I live on the coast) and after telling a mate he offered to double me there for a look (awesome). Small problem, it was the dead of winter and the ambient temps were 0 - 2 degrees celcius.

"Meh, no problems" think I in my bulletproof early 20's mentality and proceed to throw on every piece of bike gear I owned: helmet, jacket, riding boots, gauntlets, etc .... although the only riding pants I had was jeans.

So off we went on a bitter, blustery, bastard of a day.

After 1 hour I was in pain and shivering like crazy on the open road. The wind chill at speed had brought our surface temps well down below zero.

After 2 hours I was shaking uncontrollably and had a terrible, terrible ache in my hands, feet and legs. All my body heat was being sucked away through the jeans and despite all the leather I was wearing my body temp was dropping like a stone.

After 3 hrs I'd stopped shaking and was scaring myself as I kept falling asleep even though I didn't feel tired. I'd wake up as I'd fall forwards and my helmet would bump into my friends with enough force to wake me up again (onset of hypothermia).

After 4 hrs I could harldy move. It took me ages to even get off the bike when we arrived and after I did it was a full 35 minutes inside a heated shop and several hot drinks before I stopped shaking like a jackhammer.

If that wasn't enough to drive me nuts, the bike turned out to be a heap of sh*t not worth p*ssing on and I'd made the trip for nothing. Damn!


I did end up buying an 1100 Kat later on though and hot rodding it for speed. Have a read about my own personal land speed record on it here: http://www.dudeworld.com.au/STORYSPEED.HTML


Cheers,
Richo.[8D]