This is why I don't like to ride along side TRUCKS!

[Cam3512]

Happened in NY recently.

https://youtu.be/4n9IUdPXOH8

[Rotten Ralph]

Not to mention when one of those recaps comes flying off!

[Stormtruck2]

I don't like riding along side any vehicle, not just trucks.  Room is life when you need it.

[Dilliw]

If something like that gets you well then it was just time.

I was once beside a truck when one of those big tires went "boom".  Scared the blank out of me...   I always worry about the car carriers too although I don't think they have problems with them (at least that you hear about).  Those last couple sitting on the back at some outrageous angle give me the willies. 

IMO all big trucks should be reduced to a reflection in the mirror pronto!

[Idontwantapickle]

I don't like riding along side any vehicle, not just trucks.  Room is life when you need it.

 :1: Hanging next to truck is like flying with no altitude. Bad idea.

[wymple]

A few days ago I was slowing for a stop for a light, and the pickup/trailer combo next to me squealed like mad. I thought his brakes must be horrible as I glanced over at him. He was diving to the shoulder with a wheel missing, the squeal was an axle dragging, and a quick glance at the rearview showed me a tire following me closely, and I have a stop light intersection! There was no cross traffic, so I ran the light to get away, and the tire veered off into the front of a car stopping from the other side of the intersection.

[normzone]

Woah, [wimple], you might have burned off one of your nine lives there....

[Rough Edge racing]

 Years ago on a 67 650 Triumph I was on a crowded highway ... The flatbed truck in front of me hits a bump and off fly's a length of 4x4 timber spinning along the road surface... I had no where wiggle room left or right so I braced for impact while braking and ran over the 4x4 at about 50 mph...It wasn't very dramatic....but did put a simile in the front wheel rim.. The bike wobbled on and made it home...

[LaMojo]

Recaps are banned for everything but large truck tires.  ??

[Demar]

I strive to not ride in any blind spots. When I pass a truck I wait until I have enough space to rapidly move past them.

[blackcat]

I have never liked riding across the Tappen Zee Bridge on the bike. This footage makes me even less interested in that route.

[Rough Edge racing]

Recaps are banned for everything but large truck tires.  ??

 Only banned from the front wheels....At least half  of the carcasses you see are not recaps but the thread blown off  virgin truck radial tires...Some of you here may have had thread separation on you car or light truck...Just more spectacular with a large tire...

[Arizona Wayne]

I used to commute on Marine drive next to the Columbia river on my 350 Yamaha every day to work.  1 morning I was behind a flatbed truck loaded with cut wood and those chain straps holding it on.  I was going to pass it but decided to wait.  All of a sudden 1 of the chain straps come apart and flies off on the left side right where I would have been!     The truck driver pulls over to reclaim his strap before someone else does.

There have been many times like that where someone(God?) has told me to slow down or(animal) and I have avoided an accident on my MCs.

Normally I'm not afraid to be along side a semi truck there are so many on the roads.   In fact some times they have saved my bacon.

[Gliderjohn]

Use to sell the crap out of recaps for cars and trucks in the early 80s. They were POS too. One guy even bought a set for his PU with a slide in camper for his trip from Kansas to Alaska. They will probably find him and his truck in a few thousand years during an archaeological dig or something.
GuzziJohn

[Chuck in Indiana]

I strive to not ride in any blind spots. When I pass a truck I wait until I have enough space to rapidly move past them.

this

[Cam3512]

Some years ago I was driving in middle lane on the main highway in my town. I noticed a large dump truck merging onto the road into the right lane.  The merge is a 180 degree curve and he was coming in too hot.  My spidey senses kicked in and I braked and slowed so I wouldn't be right next to him.  I'll be damn if the dump didn't go up onto its two left wheels then slam back down onto all four.   I saw it coming, could've been bad.

[Arizona Wayne]

Some years ago I was driving in middle lane on the main highway in my town. I noticed a large dump truck merging onto the road into the right lane.  The merge is a 180 degree curve and he was coming in too hot.  My spidey senses kicked in and I braked and slowed so I wouldn't be right next to him.  I'll be damn if the dump didn't go up onto its two left wheels then slam back down onto all four.   I saw it coming, could've been bad.

Yeah, you do have to question some other drivers abilities.  Especially now since we have Mexican truck drivers allowed to drive on our US roads.   Both their abilities and the condition of their vehicles.

[not-fishing]

Recycle Hauling Truck - meaning a piece of rolling junk waiting to fail.  Why am I not surprised?

[Nic in Western NYS]

I have never liked riding across the Tappen Zee Bridge on the bike. This footage makes me even less interested in that route.

Agreed on the TZB.  It has been cool seeing the new bridge being built alongside, with the craneboats.  My 5 year old still talks about it, not having seen it for over a year.  The Newburgh Beacon up river is a little less wild. 

Regarding truck misadventures, I remember riding down I190 in MA and seeing a fresh bale of hay on the side of the highway.  I remember thinking...hmm..for grass seeding?  Then, DOH, that just fell off a truck. Then over the crest I saw a hay truck stacked very high, going too fast.  Decided to pass the guy to get out of the way of the next projectile.  As I'm pulling up to pass, his topmost hay bale lets go.  That would have made for a bad ending if I had been merrily following that truck.

[jim_W]

  I have worked for a trucking company for many years. My warning to family and friends is this: 
 If you ride alongside trucks, you are asking to become one with the truck or the pavement or both. Stay away from them. Nothing to be gained drafting trucks or riding beside them except increased risk.
 I know the guys who bolt the wheels on!

 

[johnr]

  I have worked for a trucking company for many years. My warning to family and friends is this: 
 If you ride alongside trucks, you are asking to become one with the truck or the pavement or both. Stay away from them. Nothing to be gained drafting trucks or riding beside them except increased risk.
 I know the guys who bolt the wheels on!

 

I absolutely agree. Stay well clear of heavy vehicles! A disproportionate number of riders that I know have come to grief have done so as a result of an incident with a heavy vehicle.

I was headed up to Christchurch from Tekapo military camp once. Lots of military vehicles on the road as this was at the end of a major exercise. 

Came up behind a military truck and trailer on the long straight Canterbury road. There was oncoming traffic but I had plenty of room to spare.  Downed a cog on the Beeza set off past said truck and trailer. 
What I hadn't seen was the car and caravan the truck was tucked up behind. (with no room for me between)  I was committed and my 'room to spare' was gone!

WFO throttle and head down I went for the squeeze with all the acceleration I could muster and my heart in my throat.

If the oncoming car had taken no avoiding action I reckon I would have made it by about a foot.   As it was the oncoming car slammed on his brakes and pulled off toward the verge making room for me. (It was a two lane blacktop)  Oh, did I mention that the oncoming car was a cop?  He was after me like a shot!  It seems that he had helped hose off remains after a head on in the area about a week before. He was most displeased with me.

One of the few times a short army haircut actually helped.  I was able to calm him down and explain.  I got away without having the 'book' thrown at me.

[sib]

Yeah, you do have to question some other drivers abilities.  Especially now since we have Mexican truck drivers allowed to drive on our US roads.   Both their abilities and the condition of their vehicles.

That's probably what they think about US drivers and their equipment.  Classic racism.

[brider]

I read a year or so ago about a poor guy in San Pedro, CA (very industrialized area) who was riding his bicycle and a truck carrying a cargo container went past and lost the container and it landed right on the bike rider. Can't imagine going like that.

[JeffOlson]

Yeah, you do have to question some other drivers abilities.  Especially now since we have Mexican truck drivers allowed to drive on our US roads.   Both their abilities and the condition of their vehicles.

I don't see this as racism at all. I see this as a nationality/culture/immigrant issue, not a race issue.

Where I live, in farm country, Oregon, I am definitely in the minority in a number of ways, and not just because of the color of my skin. I have to be careful wherever I ride, but I am especially careful near our home because of the greater number of over-loaded work trucks and beat up vehicles with drivers who seem not to be paying careful attention...

By the way, my office is in Lake Oswego, a very upscale and affluent community. Only the commuting servants (of whom I am one!) seem to drive over-loaded work trucks and beat up vehicles...

[blackcat]

I generally keep away from anyone driving a late model Buick sedan, PT car and the GM version.