Thursday, September 16, 2010

Here's an example

of why I sold my motorcycles... in this video, the motorcyclist was riding responsibly, was on his own side of the road close to the side of the road, and did everything right. Then an idiot trucker came around the curve too fast and fell over on him.

Ugh. I had a couple of close calls like that where people pulled out of side streets in front of me and things like that, but there was always some place for me to go. But in this case, there wasn't even half a second to react. It was literally the truck comes around the corner too fast, and falls over on him, just in the blink of an eye.

-- Badtux the Former Motorcyclist Penguin

4 comments:

  1. Damn!
    That would be one dead biker.
    The guy in front of him got lucky and barely missed getting creamed.
    Yeah, I had a lot of close calls, had more than my share of wrecks too. I was a crazy bastard. I finally had some dick wad who worked for the State of California make a left turn right in front of me from the far right lane and all I could do was slam on the brakes and I slid sideways into him and wound up bouncing off his trunk and landed in the middle of the intersection.
    It took a while but I finally had my lower back fused when I was 25.
    I have a serious problem with anything that has a motor, there are only two throttle positions. Off and all the way on.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nope, the biker lived. Crushed his lower legs, but no other injuries. But they're fuggin' *crazy* out there, yo.

    - Badtux the Former Biker Penguin

    ReplyDelete
  3. When I was in India, I rode a Royal Enfield 350 mono. Top speed, maybe 40MPH if you got a stiff tailwind. I remember dodging cows, and motor-rickshaws, until one turned right from the left lane directly in front of me, and I creamed him. Dragged the driver from the wreckage, put the rickshaw back up on its wheels and drove off. Didn't even take the tire out of round.

    That's one tough bike: the Schwinn of cycles. Stupid as I was, I rode with no protection, often in sandals, shorts and a tee.

    But riding in India can cause death from heart attacks faster than accidents. Til you've seen 3 trucks passing each other on a one-lane road, you haven't seen crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We're friends with a gay couple in S.F. who goes on holidays in India and they always hire a driver to transport them around the country. They say it's too insane on the roads there for anyone who's accustomed to driving where laws and rules apply.

    Motorcycles will be a great form of transportation when the financial and/or peak oil crisis takes more cars off the road. Maybe it'll be safer then. Except we'll still need trucks on the road -- scary!

    ReplyDelete

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