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!"
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!"
