Author Topic: First ride, almost died! (Read 8324 times)

Vagrant · « **on:** January 09, 2016, 04:19:45 PM »

so here I am in far from sunny AZ for the last 10 days. it's been raining and cold and the poor EV with a brand new battery and oil change has been sitting, waiting for exercise. it hit 52 and the sun was shinning today so I fired her up and headed out for a short ride (first of the year) down the frontage road. 3 miles latter an IDIOT in a jacked up 4x4 truck decided to pull out in front of me. too close but normal for the land of the "grey hairs".
I didn't make it 2 more miles when at 50MPH. a big buck all rutted up flew by my windshield and I swear his hooves touched it. I never saw him coming and it's wide open there. he hit the ground and with one more leap he cleared the barbed wire fence and ran across the interstate. I went about 4 more miles turned around and went straight home. 4 fingers of single malt were being poured as the aero stitch was coming off.
I still haven't figured out if I am the luckiest or unluckiest bastard there is but mother goose and I are still in one piece. lucky it is!
I sure hope that's the end of the drama for this year.

Scud · « **Reply #1 on:** January 09, 2016, 04:29:26 PM »

Hey Cat - you've still got seven lives left. Go back out.

Seriously - that's a good reminder that you can't settle in after one incident on a ride and think "well, at least my close call is out of the way for today."

4 fingers of single malt... maybe you should stay in...

rboe · « **Reply #2 on:** January 09, 2016, 05:11:55 PM »

Rut happens in the fall so it was probably just on a dare.......

Sasquatch Jim · « **Reply #3 on:** January 09, 2016, 05:41:07 PM »

The deer was just giving you notice as to who really owns the road.
The truck was just being a typical red neck P/U driver.

oldbike54 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 09, 2016, 05:43:23 PM »

WHEW !

Dusty

Gliderjohn · « **Reply #5 on:** January 09, 2016, 06:33:58 PM »

Four fingers of single malt sure should help bring the rush back down if not totally forget it unless you nurse over a number of hours. Hey, you survived to live and ride another day.

GliderJohn

guzzisteve · « **Reply #6 on:** January 09, 2016, 07:14:36 PM »

Glad you're ok Steve, some days it ain't safe out there. Hell, could be worse, could be ATL traffic.

Arizona Wayne · « **Reply #7 on:** January 09, 2016, 09:25:06 PM »

Almost died.....hell, you didn't even make contact. This incident doesn't even count.

I've survived repeated lightning strikes within 20' of me on both sides of the road riding 65 mph trying to get away from the storm in Nevada for 45 minutes! I don't call that "I almost got killed".

Maybe you should stick to a 4 wheel vehicle. I've also hit 2 deer w/o stopping. Are you a man or a mouse?

nobleswood · « **Reply #8 on:** January 09, 2016, 09:56:59 PM »

Tough crowd !

sidecarnutz · « **Reply #9 on:** January 10, 2016, 08:49:13 AM »

I believe you're lucky.

I had a similar thing happen a few years back. 5 different cartoon character drivers tried to kill us on my Cali III in just a half mile stretch of road. I dodged them all, but it was close! Only two of the a-holes had the decency to be sorry for it. The angry cracker ones were all "What are you doing in my way?" My wife was amazed I got us through it all and she never rode a two wheeler with me again after that. Now she'll only ride in sidecars with me.

I took the MSF course 5 times over the years. I think that helped!

stevet · « **Reply #10 on:** January 10, 2016, 10:00:33 AM »

A well trained, skilled, defensive rider expects these natural and "man made" behaviors to be present without prior warning. Respect this notion and ride with the proper level of confidence that you can handle the situation before it turns ugly. Fear these behaviors and you may as well consider whether to continue as a motorcyclist.

Motorcycling involves accepting a high level of risk. Be prepared for that risk and you will increase your likelyhood of survival. Never, NEVER assume the moving hazards around you are considering your personal safety. Thay are not, ever. Know this, live this, or leave the bike at home.

How far before that "idiot" pulled out in front of you did you see him? And in the same breath you state this is normal behavior in that area. So, that being the case, why did you put responsibility on that driver to ensure your safety when in your previous experience you knew that he likely would not?

To an intersecting vehicle, from a distance a motorcycle is very small and two dimensional item, it could very well be that the pickup driver was distracted and did not see you (like you did not see the deer), or did not for whatever reason recognize you as a threat to his safe entry onto the road, or saw you and decided not to care about you. Either way, it was your responsibility to not be struck by him. Don't hang your hat on the idea of you having the right-of-way, making that argument from a hospital bed is best avoided.

A wide open area and you never saw the deer coming? Rather than constantly scanning the world around you for the known hazards of large wildlife, what was your eye locked on? Large animals in "wide open" fields are far from invisible.

I'm sorry to suggest this, brother, but I feel its time for some retraining for your inattentive riding. Given what you wrote, I lay the accountability for both of these preventable occurances on you. You should have seen both of these coming, neither snuck up upon you. And if this was your first ride in awhile you should have been extra vigilent for all hazards. Rather than drowning your fright is whisky maybe take time to reconstruct what happened in your mind and ask yourself how you could avoid these events in the future. Please take this to heart and stay alive, don't let the other guy/critter take you out. Dead is dead.

Steve.

56Pan · « **Reply #11 on:** January 10, 2016, 11:11:06 AM »

Quote from: stevet on January 10, 2016, 10:00:33 AM

A well trained, skilled, defensive rider expects these natural and "man made" behaviors to be present without prior warning. Respect this notion and ride with the proper level of confidence that you can handle the situation before it turns ugly. Fear these behaviors and you may as well consider whether to continue as a motorcyclist.

Motorcycling involves accepting a high level of risk. Be prepared for that risk and you will increase your likelyhood of survival. Never, NEVER assume the moving hazards around you are considering your personal safety. Thay are not, ever. Know this, live this, or leave the bike at home.

How far before that "idiot" pulled out in front of you did you see him? And in the same breath you state this is normal behavior in that area. So, that being the case, why did you put responsibility on that driver to ensure your safety when in your previous experience you knew that he likely would not?

To an intersecting vehicle, from a distance a motorcycle is very small and two dimensional item, it could very well be that the pickup driver was distracted and did not see you (like you did not see the deer), or did not for whatever reason recognize you as a threat to his safe entry onto the road, or saw you and decided not to care about you. Either way, it was your responsibility to not be struck by him. Don't hang your hat on the idea of you having the right-of-way, making that argument from a hospital bed is best avoided.

A wide open area and you never saw the deer coming? Rather than constantly scanning the world around you for the known hazards of large wildlife, what was your eye locked on? Large animals in "wide open" fields are far from invisible.

I'm sorry to suggest this, brother, but I feel its time for some retraining for your inattentive riding. Given what you wrote, I lay the accountability for both of these preventable occurances on you. You should have seen both of these coming, neither snuck up upon you. And if this was your first ride in awhile you should have been extra vigilent for all hazards. Rather than drowning your fright is whisky maybe take time to reconstruct what happened in your mind and ask yourself how you could avoid these events in the future. Please take this to heart and stay alive, don't let the other guy/critter take you out. Dead is dead.

Steve.

This is good. They really are all out to kill us. Seems to me it's become worse, but maybe I've become more inattentive at my age. Good advice here in my opinion.

Arizona Wayne · « **Reply #12 on:** January 10, 2016, 11:14:50 AM »

Quote from: stevet on January 10, 2016, 10:00:33 AM

A well trained, skilled, defensive rider expects these natural and "man made" behaviors to be present without prior warning. Respect this notion and ride with the proper level of confidence that you can handle the situation before it turns ugly. Fear these behaviors and you may as well consider whether to continue as a motorcyclist.

Motorcycling involves accepting a high level of risk. Be prepared for that risk and you will increase your likelyhood of survival. Never, NEVER assume the moving hazards around you are considering your personal safety. Thay are not, ever. Know this, live this, or leave the bike at home.

How far before that "idiot" pulled out in front of you did you see him? And in the same breath you state this is normal behavior in that area. So, that being the case, why did you put responsibility on that driver to ensure your safety when in your previous experience you knew that he likely would not?

To an intersecting vehicle, from a distance a motorcycle is very small and two dimensional item, it could very well be that the pickup driver was distracted and did not see you (like you did not see the deer), or did not for whatever reason recognize you as a threat to his safe entry onto the road, or saw you and decided not to care about you. Either way, it was your responsibility to not be struck by him. Don't hang your hat on the idea of you having the right-of-way, making that argument from a hospital bed is best avoided.

A wide open area and you never saw the deer coming? Rather than constantly scanning the world around you for the known hazards of large wildlife, what was your eye locked on? Large animals in "wide open" fields are far from invisible.

I'm sorry to suggest this, brother, but I feel its time for some retraining for your inattentive riding. Given what you wrote, I lay the accountability for both of these preventable occurances on you. You should have seen both of these coming, neither snuck up upon you. And if this was your first ride in awhile you should have been extra vigilent for all hazards. Rather than drowning your fright is whisky maybe take time to reconstruct what happened in your mind and ask yourself how you could avoid these events in the future. Please take this to heart and stay alive, don't let the other guy/critter take you out. Dead is dead.

Steve.

Very well said. 1 time in Idaho I saw a big deer running towards my road at full speed and knew if I didn't change my speed we would make full contact. I slowed down a little, the deer crossed the road in front of me and I progressed on.

Adk.IBO · « **Reply #13 on:** January 10, 2016, 11:25:03 AM »

1:

Quote from: stevet on January 10, 2016, 10:00:33 AM

A well trained, skilled, defensive rider expects these natural and "man made" behaviors to be present without prior warning. Respect this notion and ride with the proper level of confidence that you can handle the situation before it turns ugly. Fear these behaviors and you may as well consider whether to continue as a motorcyclist.

Motorcycling involves accepting a high level of risk. Be prepared for that risk and you will increase your likelyhood of survival. Never, NEVER assume the moving hazards around you are considering your personal safety. Thay are not, ever. Know this, live this, or leave the bike at home.

How far before that "idiot" pulled out in front of you did you see him? And in the same breath you state this is normal behavior in that area. So, that being the case, why did you put responsibility on that driver to ensure your safety when in your previous experience you knew that he likely would not?

To an intersecting vehicle, from a distance a motorcycle is very small and two dimensional item, it could very well be that the pickup driver was distracted and did not see you (like you did not see the deer), or did not for whatever reason recognize you as a threat to his safe entry onto the road, or saw you and decided not to care about you. Either way, it was your responsibility to not be struck by him. Don't hang your hat on the idea of you having the right-of-way, making that argument from a hospital bed is best avoided.

A wide open area and you never saw the deer coming? Rather than constantly scanning the world around you for the known hazards of large wildlife, what was your eye locked on? Large animals in "wide open" fields are far from invisible.

I'm sorry to suggest this, brother, but I feel its time for some retraining for your inattentive riding. Given what you wrote, I lay the accountability for both of these preventable occurances on you. You should have seen both of these coming, neither snuck up upon you. And if this was your first ride in awhile you should have been extra vigilent for all hazards. Rather than drowning your fright is whisky maybe take time to reconstruct what happened in your mind and ask yourself how you could avoid these events in the future. Please take this to heart and stay alive, don't let the other guy/critter take you out. Dead is dead.

Steve.

:1:

George_S · « **Reply #14 on:** January 10, 2016, 04:18:00 PM »

Quote from: Arizona Wayne on January 09, 2016, 09:25:06 PM

Almost died.....hell, you didn't even make contact. This incident doesn't even count.

I've survived repeated lightning strikes within 20' of me on both sides of the road riding 65 mph trying to get away from the storm in Nevada for 45 minutes! I don't call that "I almost got killed". Maybe you should stick to a 4 wheel vehicle. I've also hit 2 deer w/o stopping. Are you a man or a mouse?

Oh yeah, well I have hit 5 deer ON PURPOSE. Yes, that's right, I chased them down. And I whipped my helmet off prior to contact each time. Wuss!

guzzipete · « **Reply #15 on:** January 10, 2016, 04:22:51 PM »

This video was posted on my FB page yesterday. I have reposted and was amazed at the response I got from non riders. I think that they will be paying a little more attention now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b3T7u4ZJ1Y

Jim Rich · « **Reply #16 on:** January 10, 2016, 04:35:50 PM »

Glad you came out OK. Watch you axx out there. Maybe go buy some venison sausage at the meat market to get a little revenge.

Vagrant · « **Reply #17 on:** January 10, 2016, 04:58:52 PM »

Quote from: nobleswood on January 09, 2016, 09:56:59 PM

Tough crowd !

YES IT IS! An it's definitely winter.
first I have 5 MSF classes under my belt since 1986 and the stayinsafe course that I highly recommend too.
http://www.stayinsafe.com/
the truck just pissed me off I was as prepared as you can be and saw it coming way in advance.
the deer however not so much. never saw him until it could have been too late. the below is from the Az. DNR website. they do rut at least down here in January and I didn't know that either.
Breeding Period: January
Young Appear: August Average
Number of Young: 2
Distribution: 4K-10K ft in central and southeastern Arizona.
if one of these evil bastards killed the late great Larry Grodsky who was as far as I'm concerned the leading authority in the US on motorcycle safety and founder of the staying safe course they can get anybody and in many cases you never see them until the impact.
as for ridding in lightning, well that explains a lot.

grebmrof · « **Reply #18 on:** January 11, 2016, 02:58:20 AM »

Quote from: Vagrant on January 10, 2016, 04:58:52 PM

YES IT IS! An it's definitely winter.
first I have 5 MSF classes under my belt since 1986 and the stayinsafe course that I highly recommend too.
http://www.stayinsafe.com/
the truck just pissed me off I was as prepared as you can be and saw it coming way in advance.
the deer however not so much. never saw him until it could have been too late. the below is from the Az. DNR website. they do rut at least down here in January and I didn't know that either.
Breeding Period: January
Young Appear: August Average
Number of Young: 2
Distribution: 4K-10K ft in central and southeastern Arizona.
if one of these evil bastards killed the late great Larry Grodsky who was as far as I'm concerned the leading authority in the US on motorcycle safety and founder of the staying safe course they can get anybody and in many cases you never see them until the impact.
as for ridding in lightning, well that explains a lot.

Thanks for posting, we can never be too careful out there. It seems just about every time I ride these last 10 years or so, there are inattentive or don't care drivers out there. Glad you made it through that and probably a good decision to park it for the day. Phew!

Nic in Western NYS · « **Reply #19 on:** January 11, 2016, 04:52:33 AM »

I've heard too many good riders get surprised by deer to think I'll do better. When I see one, I go on hyper deer alert, slow down, scan intensely and hope I'm attending to the rest of my riding duties properly. Of course the most dangerous time for deer is when I'm not on hyper deer alert. Being on regular paranoid rider mode might not be enough for these beasts that bound perpendicular to traffic out of the woods. Glad you made it through that gauntlet!

canuguzzi · « **Reply #20 on:** January 11, 2016, 10:38:06 AM »

I wouldn't want to say avoiding hitting deer is a skill or something you can avoid for the most part. You can't see everything and the ones you see aren't the ones you hit.

OP was lucky. Its the same as getting center punched in the middle of an intersection by someone who runs a red light. If you see it coming that's one thing but you can't see everything.

Arizona Wayne · « **Reply #21 on:** January 11, 2016, 11:23:00 AM »

Quote from: Vagrant on January 10, 2016, 04:58:52 PM

YES IT IS! An it's definitely winter.
first I have 5 MSF classes under my belt since 1986 and the stayinsafe course that I highly recommend too.
http://www.stayinsafe.com/
the truck just pissed me off I was as prepared as you can be and saw it coming way in advance.
the deer however not so much. never saw him until it could have been too late. the below is from the Az. DNR website. they do rut at least down here in January and I didn't know that either.
Breeding Period: January
Young Appear: August Average
Number of Young: 2
Distribution: 4K-10K ft in central and southeastern Arizona.
if one of these evil bastards killed the late great Larry Grodsky who was as far as I'm concerned the leading authority in the US on motorcycle safety and founder of the staying safe course they can get anybody and in many cases you never see them until the impact.
as for ridding in lightning, well that explains a lot.

I believe Grodsky got killed by hitting a deer in west Texas not far from Ft. Stockton at sunset. I'm smart enough to not ride @ night having hit deer in the daytime.

As far as riding in lightning, my attitude then was if I get hit, I'll probably not suffer long and my time was up. There was no where to hide from it. So should I be a sitting duck or be an elusive target? There were 2 of us and we both made it out alive. A few years later on Hwy. 50 my wife, riding on the back of our `80 Convert. heading east we got struck by lightning and lived to tell about it. I didn't know she got hit until we stopped for gas 140 miles later.

She was afraid if we stopped we might get hit again. She was in pain for weeks after that. We figure her full face helmet saved her from sure death. I could tell more about what transpired after her lightning hit but don't want to hog this forum. Maybe at a campfire some time...........she or I can tell her story.

If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

canuguzzi · « **Reply #22 on:** January 11, 2016, 11:32:08 AM »

Tell the story.

George_S · « **Reply #23 on:** January 11, 2016, 12:17:57 PM »

I bet she lights up a room when she walks in.

Arizona Wayne · « **Reply #24 on:** January 11, 2016, 12:38:57 PM »

Quote from: George_S on January 11, 2016, 12:17:57 PM

I bet she lights up a room when she walks in.

Everybody says she does..............b ut for a different reason.

LowRyter · « **Reply #25 on:** January 11, 2016, 12:43:53 PM »

News:

Author Topic: First ride, almost died! (Read 8324 times)

oldbike54

56Pan

George_S

guzzipete

canuguzzi

canuguzzi

George_S