Those funny premonitions

[Shorty]

Today I was riding the Honda Helix scooter to work. I was mentally doing the math on what all the bike would require to be roadworthy again next year: All new fuel and vacuum lines, rear brakes, new centrifugal clutch rollers, belts, and housing. New tires, new battery and a hell of a good cleaning. The front end is clunking under braking. I need to easy-out one of the broken exhaust studs, fix it and replace the exhaust gasket.  That's a lot of work and expense for a bike with only 15k miles on her. So I was wondering if it was worth it. I was thinking,  "Probably not. This thing could crap out anytime." On the way  home from work, I stopped to get gas, and the bike just died flat out. No dash lights, no  cranking. Had to call Ava to come get me. (At midnight,  ) Gave it a jump, and it went one block before it died again. So, add charging system to its woes. So it lies without dignity in the back of the PU. 

So I sometimes wonder if our brain runs under the radar to warn us of impending trouble. Having to haul a scooter home in a thunderstorm ain't the end of the world, but it could have been prevented if I listened to what my gut was saying. You guys have this happen?

[chuck peterson]

A friend said he stopped for no apparent reason 50 feet from a stop sign...

Truck trailer turns the corner and dumps a load of iron where he would have been.

[charlie b]

Yes.  ALWAYS listen to your inner voice.  And, pay attention to what your dog is trying to tell you,  other than the 'I want another treat' look :)

[Chuck in Indiana]

Many times your subconscious knows something and you don't let it surface until you're asleep. I've always said I do my best work in bed.   
But yes. Pay attention to that little nagging feeling. 

[Two Checks]

Ibdivorced that nagging feeling...

[Lannis]

Back in 1986, with one son a toddler and the other an infant, I was riding my new-ish 1984 Electra-Glide home from work.   Thinking about my responsibility upcoming in raising my sons.

It was the only time in my life I've had that kind of premonition.   Riding down US 460, I starting seeing deer leaping onto me from the bank, patches of spilling diesel in a curve, following a truck and seeing an 8' 4x4 post appear diagonally on the road out from under it ...

and I pulled the bike over and just sat for 15 or 20 minutes.   The driveway I had pulled into was a body shop, and in front of it, for sale, was a 1978 full size GMC Jimmy.    I rolled down the hill into the shop and swapped the Harley then and there for the Jimmy, and went home in it to get the bike title for the guy .....

Didn't ride again until the premonition faded and didn't come back.    Never saw the iron fall out of the truck, but didn't need to .... !

Lannis

[Shorty]

Back in 1986, with one son a toddler and the other an infant, I was riding my new-ish 1984 Electra-Glide home from work.   Thinking about my responsibility upcoming in raising my sons.

It was the only time in my life I've had that kind of premonition.   Riding down US 460, I starting seeing deer leaping onto me from the bank, patches of spilling diesel in a curve, following a truck and seeing an 8' 4x4 post appear diagonally on the road out from under it ...

and I pulled the bike over and just sat for 15 or 20 minutes.   The driveway I had pulled into was a body shop, and in front of it, for sale, was a 1978 full size GMC Jimmy.    I rolled down the hill into the shop and swapped the Harley then and there for the Jimmy, and went home in it to get the bike title for the guy .....

Didn't ride again until the premonition faded and didn't come back.    Never saw the iron fall out of the truck, but didn't need to .... !

Lannis

Wow!       I had a similiar experience, but I cannot claim the nobility of family responsibility as a motive. The local Yamaha dealer had a bunch of leftover new 650XS. $1300 bucks out of the crate with full warranty. I went there, told the dealer to prep one for me, and I'd return next day. Went to work, got the money from the credit union, and went home. I was super excited about what would have been my first new bike. When I finally got to sleep, I dreamed I got run over on that Yamaha by a 69 Chevelle. Crushed skull. I had the same dream 3 times, waking up in a sweat. Next day I called Yamaha , cancelled the order. Used the money to buy a Plymouth Fury III. To this day I will not ride a Yammie XS.....

[ohiorider]

One time comes to mind ...... lovely Sunday, I'm on my R1100RS.  On Rt94, riding toward Marshallville, Ohio, when an old Pontiac station wagon in front of me puts on his directional signal for a left turn.  The intersection happened to be in a 'valley' of the road. Before I stopped behind him, I noticed a car coming the other way, disappearing once or twice from sight as it crested small rises and went behind the next.  Quick thought ..... if the Pontiac turns, the oncoming driver won't see it, so I pulled as far to the left as I could, and stopped.

Well, the Pontiac DID turn, and the oncoming car jerked over into my lane, hit the station wagon, missing me by a foot or two, having knocked the rear bumper off the Pontiac, which also went flying past me.

I put the side stand down, and approached the driver who had hit the station wagon.  I complimented her for avoiding me as she went past.  Her response was .....'where were you, didn't see you.' 

[Chuck in Indiana]

One time comes to mind ...... lovely Sunday, I'm on my R1100RS.  On Rt94, riding toward Marshallville, Ohio, when an old Pontiac station wagon in front of me puts on his directional signal for a left turn.  The intersection happened to be in a 'valley' of the road. Before I stopped behind him, I noticed a car coming the other way, disappearing once or twice from sight as it crested small rises and went behind the next.  Quick thought ..... if the Pontiac turns, the oncoming driver won't see it, so I pulled as far to the left as I could, and stopped.

Well, the Pontiac DID turn, and the oncoming car jerked over into my lane, hit the station wagon, missing me by a foot or two, having knocked the rear bumper off the Pontiac, which also went flying past me.

I put the side stand down, and approached the driver who had hit the station wagon.  I complimented her for avoiding me as she went past.  Her response was .....'where were you, didn't see you.'

That wasn't a premonition, that was just being aware. Well done. 

[OlDogface]

I was in Germany. We were in a military convoy moving to a new area of operations in a light snow. There was about six inches of snow already on the ground and we were in a rural area of large farms. I watched my Platoon Leader's HMMWV turn right to cross a smooth, snow covered field towards a woodline 300 meters or so away. Our GPS unit showed a trail/road where he turned but the snow covered everything so a visual of the road wasn't possible. There were no pre-existing tracks thought the snow.

My driver started to follow the PL's turn with our MLRS. I told him to stop. Something, although I couldn't say what, didn't look right to me. We sat on the road for about two minutes or so watching the PL's truck pull away. My driver kept asking what was wrong. Eventually my Platoon Sergeant, at the tail end of our convoy, radioed to me asking what was wrong. I didn't answer either of them since I wasn't exactly sure myself. My driver started to move ahead once again and I told him once again to stop. He did.

Just then the PL's truck broke through the ice. He was blindly following his GPS and had turned out onto a frozen farm pond. His truck sank completely in almost the exact middle of the pond. We were able to haul him and his driver out of the water using antenna poles duck taped together. They were very cold and wet but otherwise fine. I can only imagine what would have happened had we ventured out onto that ice in a 30 ton tracked vehicle.

That was the only time in my military career that I was awarded a medal for NOT doing something!   

Since then I've always just chalked those feelings up to be under-caffeinated and stop at the next convenient place for a cup of coffee...or two.

[wirespokes]

Yep - pay attention to those inner voices! I've found that any kind of drugs will turn off those perceptions for a period of time - days or weeks. I'm too into riding to lose my edge, and I rely on those perceptions to help keep me safe. It is a sixth sense and can be blunted, so don't! I've also found that validating these perceptions (treating them as real when you have no idea if they really are) helps strengthen the sixth sense, and they'll be more 'true' as time goes on.

[jumpmaster]

Twice in the military are memorable because they avoided certain loss of life; probably more in civilian life that I don't remember offhand.  First one was in Bosnia when we were heading out of town in a hurry - just had a feeling as we were speeding thru a crowded area & I covered the brake pedal while trying to keep up with the vehicle in front of me.  An old man stepped off the curb right in front of me & I would have nailed him if I hadn't covered the brake pedal.  Second one was in Iraq when I was lead vehicle in a small convoy & for no reason that I can explain I got out of my Hummer at the last second before departure & told everybody I was changing the planned route.  Down the road, the 2nd vehicle got hit by an IED right at a place we sometimes turned, killing our interpreter but not hurting anyone else, miraculously.  If we had turned there, both my and the following vehicle would have been right next to the IED and we would likely have lost at least 4 people, including me.  I can't say whether it was a premonition or just dumb luck, but I try to be sensitive to those "feelings" and get more alert when they come to me.

[azguzzirep]

This is probably just S.I.P.T.E (scan, identify, plan,.??, execute) but i was riding my 72 Eldo on 89A from Prescott to Jerome one day. I was behind an old plug of a station wagon and wanted to pass but there wasn't ever a clear possibility so i just hung out behind him for a ways.

My opportunity to pass came when he indicated a turn into a small country store and gas station. However there was a car waiting to turn left onto 89A from the driveway. I thought the guy wanting to turn left would pull out onto the road just as the  sw was turning into the drive. Sure enough this is what happened. Had I chose that moment to pass the sw I would have plowed head on into the car turning left onto the road. He never would have seen me behind that sw.

I just rode slow the rest of the way 😊

[Wayne Orwig]

Today I was riding the Honda
....
 a bike with only 15k miles on her
....
Gave it a jump, and it went one block before it died again. So, add charging system to its woes

But...but...but...H ondas never break. So other Honda owners keep telling me.
 

[Shorty]

But...but...but...Hondas never break. So other Honda owners keep telling me.

That POS has had more maintenance/hour than a friggin helicopter  It is going to the first CraigsLister  with 500 bucks. 

[normzone]

You know how sometimes you get that funny feeling that maybe somebody is watching you? That hairs on the back of your neck thing?

I read some theorizing once that that is what's left of an early survival mechanism for us - kind of a mental telepathy thing, where if somebody IS staring at you too hard your system can pick up on it.

I wouldn't bet money on it, but when I get that feeling that maybe somebody is watching me, usually only out in the wilderness, I assume that somebody or some critter is being observant. Being wrong causes me no problems, and being advised is not a bad thing.

[Chuck in Indiana]

That POS has had more maintenance/hour than a friggin helicopter It is going to the first CraigsLister  with 500 bucks. 

Oh, I doubt that.. 

[Penderic]

 

[LowRyter]

The wife was on the back of my Seca 550.  I got a green light to cross Bandera Road in Leon Valley TX.  I normally would gun and outrun everything on the road.  But I waited about 3 seconds and all of a sudden a sedan comes barreling in from the left at about 60 mph. 

I still don't know why I hesitated.