[Kimon]

I ride an 08 GSXR 750 and bought it brand new. A few months after I got it I was out on a late night island ride with a pretty big group of riders, about 30 or so and all on sportbikes. We had a general set of rules for these rides such as no stunting in formation and whatnot, but it being a casual Friday night group, there were always newcomers, which meant we didnt know anything about them. Well i was riding in the second row and we were all two wide on this road that weant along a cliff with ocean on the bottom. Its an awesome ride,...usually, but not this night. I saw in my mirrors the guy's https://shwbox.bio/ https://ttuapp.uno/ https://vidmte.cool/ lights behind me goin up and down, he was riding wheelies. I looked back at the road in front of me and then noticed headlights on the hills to my left! I looked back in my mirrors just in time to see sparks and a beautiful yellow GSXR sliding up behind me,...FAST! I braced for impact and soon was riding an indo right towards the cliff! The back had slammed into my rear tire and flipped me up! I was able to wrestle my bike back down just in time before i was fish food and to see the guy go sliding down the road passing me! I came to a quick stop, removed my pearls from up where they dont belong, and made a B-line to the fallen rider and his bike. I had every intention of hurting this guy but the road had done enough to him, and his bike so i let it be. We collected ourselves up and continued the ride and left that dumb guy to his bike and the tow truck.
Any body else have a similar story? Love to hear it.

 

[Trials]

My closest call was when I was 16 years old and 4 drunk bikers in a gold cadillac tried to use their front fender to intentionally run me into the front end of an oncoming Broadview Avenue Streetcar.

 

[Annihilator]

Too many to list. But usually its people changing lanes into me on the highway, often forcing me up against an 18 wheeler. Im getting better at this forced lane split maneuver. I've also noticed all the close calls, like the aforementioned, happen when I'm NOT riding aggressively. Its a totally different world when youre overtaking everyone.

The other day I was on a 4 lane local road and a guy in a lifted Jeep with like 44" tires was in the left lane. He got stuck behind a left hand turner and was stopped. Right as I got to him he cranked the wheel over and gunned it into my lane. I avoided it since I'm always ready and my speed was like 20mph, but it was so close I really felt like I was right in front of his 44" rear tire about to be roadkill in that moment.

 

[SteveCB500F]

Mine was when I was a brand new rider back in the 1980's. I had only been riding for a year so I was still pretty green. It was night time and I was sitting at a yield sign waiting to merge into a four lane road (two lanes in each direction). Traffic was pretty heavy so I had to wait awhile. While I was waiting I left my bike in neutral and my right hand off the front brake and right foot off the rear brake. So there I am...at night...stopped in neutral...and my brake light wasn't activated. And I was the only person sitting at the yield sign.

Sooooo....all of a sudden I hear tires screeching for about 4-5 seconds and then they stopped. I look behind me and a car is stopped about 18" off my rear wheel. Someone had come right up on me and slammed on their brakes at the last minute. I was very lucky that night. Didn't get hit and didn't even have to change my boxer shorts either. Lesson learned, however. Now whenever I stop I position myself at an angle so I always have an out if someone approaching from behind doesn't stop in time. I also always stay in first gear when stopped and I always flash my brake light several times when traffic is coming up on me to increase the chances of them seeing me.

 

[Steve Neul]

Mine I was out one afternoon and a thunderstorm suddenly hit with one of those 3" per hour rains and I could barely see to drive. Kept watching the rear view mirror expecting someone to run over me since I was going slow but the drivers swerved at the last minute. Then I see a cop behind me and think thank God he will follow me though this until I can find a place to get off the road but he passed me and went on. The next time I look in the rear view mirror lightning hit an electric transformer on a pole I just passed. Took me a couple weeks to get back on the bike again.

 

[Maxpressure520]

Too many to list.

 

[El Sluggo the II]

Well, when i first began riding, when COVID started was my first accidant. I was going down the road, and a lady was at a stop signe with a dude in a white suv behind her. She was on her phone, and dude was getting annoyed. I noted this and figured i should hurry up and get by. as soon as i did, dude got sick of waiting and **** out around the car and hit me right on my left tail light and started dragfin me along. At some poing the bike broke loose dragfing dudes front clip, i lost control of the bike and went down on the lawn of a plastic surgery place. We all made it out ok! after that close calls seem pretty normal. I guess my most common close call is when folks in cars change lanes, or when they are coming into traffic from the right or left.

 

[WC]

Too many to list however always know your escape route, make sure bike is in working order( check lights every week), and be prepared for any vehicle, intersection, road or obstruction. Always bring cell.

 

[EngineCollector]

My old bike club about 10 years ago held a local fundraiser rallye for us to raise money for a local charity, the total achieved was $10k from a firday to sunday night. This gent named Gerry, was a stock broker in Ny, and was in town to visit his brother and they both attended the fund raiser, Gerry had dropped 4k, and offered to take the entire club members on a paid in full "ride of our life".. so we all accepted his offer. the next month we all met up with Gerry at a local trucking company parking lot. This gent had rented an 18 wheeler truck and trailer to haul all our bikes, as well as 3, 8 passenger vans to take us all to Tennesee to ride the famous "Dragon Ride".there was 18 of us all on various bikes from HD to sport, to antique etc... This was an awesome trip, for friday and sat...

Sunday early in the morning we were going to ride the final leg and then load up and get some food. For those of you that may not know there is over 300 curves on the different sections of the ride. Theres the head, the tail, the claw, and the back.

4 of us were starting to pull some distance on the sport bikes(me and 4 others) we wanted to get some higher speeds and some knee dragging in before the rest caught up. we must have mad about 20 turns in and out then, I was 2nd in this line of 4.. and when I came around this turn, I brought the bike back up from a left leaning turn prepping for a possible sharp right, and looked to my right and all I seen was clouds.. there was a 200ft mountain drop off. I slowed way down out of the turn, so the buddy behind me would see my warning, and hopefully he would do the same to the last sport rider.

We get to the end where we all are suposed to meet and wait for the other slower cruisers and older slower bikes, and My buddy Mike (the leader) is already off his bike on the phone throwing his helmet and dropping to his knees... An erie cold chill had ran across my arms and back as I witnessed this.. I hurry and stop and get off my bike, all to find out that my warning was recieved by my buddy behind me and his attempt to warn the last guy coming out of the turn had failed.. he hit some sand at the edge of the white line and just flew off the side of this mountain at about 60mph... He fel outwards and then down and hit a tree head first and died instantly (broke his neck and shattered his skull).. bike had continued to tumble down in a ball of flames...

The two of us rode back to the curve and there was the rest of the club members looking over this cliff, ambulance sirens in the distance, and people crying.. was one of the worst days of my life, and made me realize that my two daughters at home are more important to me than knee dragging some twisties... So I have since then rode very little and made sure I spent most of my time with them.. watching them learn to ride and smile...I still ride here and there, its just no longer at the top of my daily list.. Mostly I collect engines and do mechanic work on the side, helping fellow bikers out with quality work for cheap... FYI: any Veterans near me only pay for thier parts, i never charge them any labor...


Now I did not witness this, this is what my buddy behind me seen, start to finish.. he no longer rides...at all!

Great post title man!!! Chris B, may you R.I.P brother...

The Dragon Motorcycle Ride - World Famous Motorcycle Road (AKA Deals Gap Motorcycle Ride) | Motorcycle Roads

The Dragon – Legendary Motorcycle Ride The Tail of the Dragon, also known as simply “The Dragon” (or by a name that seems to be fading away over the years – Deal’s Gap (see the other names the road goes by)) is the most famous motorcycle road in the world. Having typed that, there isn’t a fool...

www.motorcycleroads.com

 

[F8S]

This morning I rode out to my favorite local twisty road. I made a few passes just checking out the conditions and traffic. I hadn't slept good last night and could feel it. I told myself to not push the limits. And none of my buddies were there so it was all kind of just out of the zone riding. On the last return pass I got to a crest that at speed will lighten the front and then immediately turn right. I hit the crest at 75 and there was an oncoming truck in my lane. I counter steered into the shoulder and the truck moved right. Three of the reasons the truck crossed the double yellow were 2 bikes and a nissan tailgating at high speed. Nothing happened but if I had hit that crest faster or had been mixing it up with another rider, it would have been a tragedy.

 

[-Nate]

Whew ! some @$$ puckering stories there .

In 2007 I was on my way to work at 04:00 on my 2000 Kawasaki W650, a lovely little bike that does what a 1967 Triumph Bonneville was supposed to do but with out any of the down sides .

I stopped for a red light and woke up in a meat wagon, I looked up and saw the Styrofoam ceiling and truck reverse light doing interior light duty and knew I was in a bad way so I didn't move my head / arms, I did carefully make sure all ten fingers followed by ten toes worked O.K., I now have a metal plate and eight screws in my neck and a shattered L1 vertebrae, the gypsy cab that hit me going 50 + MPH was an ex cop car (Full size Ford Panther) so the horizontal part of the push bar shattered that one vertebrae but some how didn't even bruise the discs above nor below it so I'm still walking albeit with a cane and I now sleep in a recliner .

It tool about a year to convalesce, mostly in a wheel chair, I was very glad I'm not a fool who takes off every bit of sick time the instant it's earned as I went through 23 years worth of it and was on reduced pay by the time I was able to work again .

During my wheel chair time I was looking at the then new Ural Solo sT and my Sweet asked was I going to buy a new Motocycle when I couldn't yet walk, thought about that for three days and ordered it, took me another whole year before I could go pick it up .

I'm still riding and like most older riders have other crash stories and way too many learly got hit stories .

Don't quit, keep riding ! .

 

[EngineCollector]

The only down fall to riding with multiple people is, none of you actually ride in the same track, and the safest one is usually the first one. if there is any danger, the ridden track (tire patch touching the road) gets progressivly worse and more off as each rider passes the potential danger...

I choose 9 out of 10 times to ride alone...

 

[Annihilator]

Im amazed how little I am phased by close calls anymore. I rode down into Manhattan and through the Lincoln Tunnel to the 9/11 memorial last week, then up 9 West through NJ and NY to bear mountain. Then across the Hudson via the Tappanzee and back up I95 during rush hour. Fairfield County I95 really is the worst traffic in the world I think. Cross Bronx I95 is second. Im sure there must have been tons of close calls on that ride but I actually can't recall any.

I also can't figure out why the NJ waterfront is a ghost town. I mean, $20 to use the tunnel is one reason, but still. Its such a stark contrast when you get to the other side of the tunnel, it never ceases to surprise me. Its almost like a science fiction movie where all the people have disappeared.

 

[-Nate]

? Some one said sad face, I'm not sad, I love riding and have been doing so for over 50 years .

America and Guatemala when I lived there in the mid 1970's, I bought and rebuilt a 1937 Harley-Davidson EL (61" engine) Knucklehead and rode it to El Salvador and back .

Fun if exciting times .

I rode with the Victor McLaglen stunt & drill team for a few years before I stopped riding Harleys .

 

[hogcowboy]

I've posted one of mine before in a windy conditions thread but I'll never forget this one EVER. Here's a copy/paste of the main parts of a ride over Tioga Pass which is the eastern entrance to Yosemite going west...

We were on an 85 Electra Glide at around 3:00am and the winds were so bad that I was dodging huge boulders that were being blown onto the road. And when I say huge I mean VW bug size. The wind was gusting in every direction it seemed depending on the corner we were taking. That's a steep pass so I had to keep down shifting until I had no more to go down. I was in first gear and had the throttle pegged wide open doing about 35mph when all of a sudden we got stopped dead in our tracks. The bike and us were completely stopped for just a second as the poor engine chugged one stroke at a time to get us moving again.

By the way, you could still see the imprints of my hands on the grips of that bike when we traded it in 2 years later. I had a death grip on that thing. What kept us from getting blown off that mountain can only be by the grace of God. Even the guard at the gate to get into Yosemite had huge saucer eyes when he saw us and waved us on thru without paying to get in. We stopped for breakfast at the first place we came to out of the park and heard the pass had been closed due to winds and debris on the road. Debris was an understatement. I'm still amazed we made it. There is no side rails to keep you from going off that sucker. That was one crazy ride I'll never forget. Earned my "Rides In The Wind" merit badge that morning.

 

[HD Fan]

The stupidest is when a guy with ape hangers started to pull out in front of me because his arm was blocking his side view. I didn't bother me but him keeping his head down in shame as I rode by was kind of funny.

 

[mike721]

I think the scariest near miss didn't happen to me, it happened to my wife, I watched the whole thing and it was terrifying. She saved the day with riding skill, I wonder if I would have done as well as she did.
This is copied from part of an older post I made abut an IBA ride we did.

"As usual something always seems to happen early in the ride, this one was no exception, but it was a pretty serious event. What happened was that we were maybe 50 miles from home, rolling down the road in pre dawn darkness and we were discussing over the Sena sets that we smelled fuel..diesel to be exact. There were lots of trucks in the right lane, so that wasn't unexpected but it seemed excessive, like a truck with a poorly tuned engine. We passed a whole line of trucks, noticed the smell was stronger, then there was a LONG break in the right lane, with a single slow truck that had just moved into the left lane in front of us. Candy was in the front, she decided to take the right lane and punch up the speed to get in front of the lane hog, with about 1/2 mile to go till we would reach a truck in the right lane and have to move back. She rolled on the power, her 111 engine roared and as she crossed the center of the right lane her back tire broke traction, she got into a really nasty fishtail at 80 until she hit the far right of the lane and got it back under control !!!!
I was horrified watching this near disaster, I was in the left track and had no issues. As she caught her breath and tried get composed we both noticed helmets and windshield coated with fuel drops, and now we were coming up on that slow truck in the right lane! By now we had figured out what happened but had no real choice, she gingerly crossed the fuel soaked lane and we both made the left lane to pass the truck..as we passed it we realized he had a MAJOR fuel leak, it was pouring out and was coating the whole road with slippery fuel!!! Scary stuff!!! With this potential disaster behind us the rest of the ride should be easy!"

 

[Offcenter]

Wow! Diesel fuel is slippery stuff.
A few years back, some damned truck spilled fuel as it turned the corner right near me,
As I turned the same corner on my Honda 90, the front wheel went right out from under me.
Hit the ground like a ton of bricks. Luckily I going very slow. Broken mirror and some bruises.
Nothing else.

 

[mike721]

Wow! Diesel fuel is slippery stuff.
A few years back, some damned truck spilled fuel as it turned the corner right near me,
As I turned the same corner on my Honda 90, the front wheel went right out from under me.
Hit the ground like a ton of bricks. Luckily I going very slow. Broken mirror and some bruises.
Nothing else.

Yikes! That must have surprised you. I bet you were trying to figure out what happened…


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[Offcenter]

Yikes! That must have surprised you. I bet you were trying to figure out what happened…


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Exactly! I was on the ground so fast that I never knew what hit me.