Unknowns When Riding Known Roads

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Traveling Stroyteller
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Alibi up front: I do realize I am preaching to the choir on this article, just relaying a thought...

I ride the same 17 miles to and from work primarily on the Express Lanes of a super slab, I-95. I chew gum when I ride and when wearing an open face helmet, I know what part of the road to shut my mouth when there is a car in front of me. The left shoulder goes away and more road debris is present; mainly sand. And well, I don't like mixing sand with my gum.

I know what part of each lane to be in when crossing a bridge. Each crossing has smoother areas and I cross at those. Some of the transitions are quite painful if you hit them wrong.

I know where the rough areas and potholes are and set up to avoid those along the way.

I can predict the areas most likely for lane incursions due to the curve ahead or some other engineering flaw. I am expect the other guy to violate and am ready to enact some maneuver to avoid the collision.

I suspect that you do the same on your normal rides. Many of these ideas or actions are automatic to us who ride often. It is the unexpected things that I want to remind us about.
Bird strike.jpg
Like the photo above; several years ago, a Texas Meadow Lark impacted the light shown and more or less exploded. The burst of feathers came inside of the windscreen and out. I was wearing a full face helmet which collected some bird blood and guts on the visor. More goo was left on my vest. While the incident was startling, I was not hurt nor was the bike. I did need to realign the light on the next stop; but that was it. I have read stories though that something like this has caused an rider to go down because of their actions that disrupt the bike's safe operation. My general thought when confronting an animal is to blow through. Sudden plane changes at high speeds do not usually bode well.

This morning, after 40+ years of riding, something new happen to me. The sun had not yet revealed itself thus it was somewhat dark outside. I had the bike pointed eastward into the dawn sky and was admiring the beauty I beheld. My speed was 85mph indicated and the temperature felt perfect. I was in the Express lane with moderate traffic for the northern Virginia area. With my gaze slightly skyward when my lower vision caught an object moving towards me. My first thought was it must be a bird. I was wearing a half helmet and expected to catch the object in the face. In that split second before impact, I was able to zero in on the object and saw that it was a tennis ball. The ball came right over my windscreen as I slightly nodded my head down. The ball ricocheted off the top of my helmet with hardly a notice.

I suspect that a vehicle going the opposite way tossed the ball out of their window. The ball bounced a single time as far as I know as it was coming up from the road. It had been thrown perfectly to impact me. I am amazed at the luck/skill of the tosser in doing that actually. Had the ball impacted my face though, I believe it could have caused enough damage/pain that I may not have been able to continue or worse, go down. Obviously, had I been wearing the full face helmet, an impact squarely in the face would be mitigated by the face shield. A ball could have cracked it I suppose but I doubt the tennis ball would have penetrated it.

The point of this is simply to remind us to be ready to act/react to unknown things along our routes each ride. What is your take?
 
4sher motorcycling is a fine balance 'tween paying attention to all the things that might get us, and relaxing, looking 'round a bit, enjoying the ride. Since I don't have much "have to get there" left in me, I like my town roads. They have their own set of out to get you's from turkeys to leaking manure wagons, but you have a lot more time to react and avoid at 30-50 than you do at 75MPH
Still, plenty of hazards; a week ago on a tiny township road approaching a blind corner, truck pulling a skid steer on a trailer came at me going too fast and using all the road! If I had been a car I think ditch would have been the only option. I had about 5 feet of pavement to get around him in his rush. Only had that cuz he saw me, cut throttle and tightened his turn a bit.
The temptation was there, If I had been bombing that corner myself and was a 100 yards closer a head-on would've ended it.
 
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Not close to an accident but still something I remember... was in the late 70 ies
On a 250 cc two stroke Suzuki on the paved road. Normal speed 80 Km / h ish .
No helmet in those days.
At the height of my Stomach came a swallow ( bird ) in from the right..
And it saw the collision could happen so it turned in the same direction as I was riding
A feet or two in front of me so I could look down on it for a moment When it flapped its wings
Going in the same speed as the bike.
And then after a while broke off to the left .Not hitting me..
 
They say these county roads are wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other coming from opposite directions, and it's true if you suck in and make yourself thinner as you pass......

There's a left bend I like to take after dropping into third and then throttling through, trees hide anything to the left as I enter. Being on the bike is much thinner than being in a cage so I worry little about oncoming traffic though I do keep far right just in case.
Cranking and leaning about half way through I saw immediately ahead that some yahoo had sprayed the entire road for the next hundred yards with grass clippings - and there he was, turning around on his Cub Cadet at the cornfield that defined the far end of his property. I did have enough time to throttle down and then idle through it all. My chastisement was simply a wave of my left arm low, palm up, sweeping for and aft with an audible "What the fuck?" as I rode on by.
 
I got hit in the throat by a sparrow a few weeks ago at city speeds and it hurt pretty bad, I had to go back and put the little fella on a concret ledge behind a pole covered in ivy since he was stunned but not dead, and I couldn't leave him to get run over or eaten by a cat. I went back a few days later and he was gone, hopefully a happy ending.

"Tosser" is a good description for someone throwing objects from a vehicle.
 
When I was 20 years old I was riding late at night on my XS750 along the edge of farm fields, being young and dumb and invincible I had left my helmet at home and was enjoying the cool evening breeze. Seeing a long straight open road in front of me I gave it some gas and had it up around 70 mph , when something unseen hit my face. It felt like I was slapped hard by some invisible hand. I managed to keep my composure and pulled into a gas station down the road where I could survey the damage under the lights. I had an angry red welt under one eye and across my cheek. I never did figure out what hit me, some sort of night flying bird or a bat. But I always felt like that could’ve ended much worse. I quit my helmet less ways. :laugh2:
 
Today, I had two incidents riding on single-carriageway roads of meeting huge articulated lorries. Both on bends. I ride these roads a lot - you don't expect to meet such large vehicles. But you can't rule it out either.

Bob asked recently whether a rider is at risk on these narrow lanes? Well, I would have been if I had been going any much faster. On the first occasion, I had to pull over onto the side of the road and it was fortunate both that I was going uphill so took less distance to stop and that there was space for me to pull onto. The second time, if I had been going any faster would have been further into the bend so could have been awkward.
 
Bees!
E11154AA-EF62-44F7-B7BD-8F920BB11E1C.jpeg

I ran through a swarm that was on the move once, pelted me pretty good. Fortunately it was winter and I was thoroughly covered up. Made a mess of my bike.

I had one go into my open face helmet and get stuck close to my ear. I must’ve looked crazy trying to get over to the side of the road and get my helmet off! :laugh2:

I had one fly up the sleeve of my t shirt and didn’t realize it until I was standing in line at McDonalds and it decided to sting my back! :yikes:

But this one was the worst, a couple years ago I was on one of my destination rides and I was about 40 miles from home riding through the desert and I had one hit and sting my throat, right on my Adam’s apple. My throat started swelling immediately. I turned for home and by the time I got home I was having difficulty swallowing. I took some Benadryl and iced it and it went down but I was thankful I wasn’t further from home at the time.
 
Yes Sir have done that with Bees also
And also had hits of UFO s ..not knowing what it has been birds or insects smashing at the helmet or leather jacket
A good part of the riding season has pre Global Warming been in multiple layers of leather and clothing
Army leather boots , Bandana scarves and gloves
I believe you call it Bib & Braces in the US in leather and then a Goat skin jacket over that with padding.
A bumble bee you can recognize but some has been harder.

The bees ..I was riding out of a village accelerating saw something in the distance that I believed was exhaust fumes from a Diesel long haul truck ..Something black over the road Last moment i Realized not so got the helmet lid down.
I sounded like a hail storm on a tin roof .. But given the leather and closed helmet not a single sting.
Shorts -- open helmet -- and T shirt . Might have been off the road story.
 
Worst insect encounter I ever had on a bike was back in '67. I was jamming along at about 70 mph on a Hardly Ableson KH with my jacket open, and a hornet found the gap. It's only bees that can't sting more than once. The critter nailed me 4 or 5 times before I got it caught in a bunch of shirt in my right hand while I got the bike stopped.
 
The one that almost got me was 2mi. from my house. Windy two-lane with typical SW Pa. blind turns and I was going too fast, when the local horse guy's young son took up both lanes driving a pickup towing a horse trailer to turn into his driveway on my left. Surprise!! Luck was on my side that day as I had the ol' Super Glide sideways but was able to squeeze by on his right and go around and ended up on the left berm just missing that RAM on his grille. It seemed awful close. I was a shakin'. Still get the willies thinking about that one. Deer are plentiful around here too.
 
Not close to an accident but still something I remember... was in the late 70 ies
On a 250 cc two stroke Suzuki on the paved road. Normal speed 80 Km / h ish .
No helmet in those days.
At the height of my Stomach came a swallow ( bird ) in from the right..
And it saw the collision could happen so it turned in the same direction as I was riding
A feet or two in front of me so I could look down on it for a moment When it flapped its wings
Going in the same speed as the bike.
And then after a while broke off to the left .Not hitting me..
I just had to add this:

 
The slower you go the more time you have to react to things and the more likely you are to survive a get-off or an impact with something. I'm happiest in the 35-45 mph zone. I dress for the crash, not the ride, and always keep my face shield down unless I'm stopped at a light. I've had a lot of big bugs smash my face shield and had it not been down could've caused serious damage to my vision. Luckily, bugs are the only living things that have chosen me as their suicide vehicle so far (knocking on wood).
 
Yep, unknowns happen. I just came back from a spin around the area. Took a turn through a local riverfront park. a bit cool but I was rolling slow so it wasn't too chilly. I encountered a squirrel on my way out. He was on an intercept trajectory with me but when we met he didn't turn and run the other way , he jumped up instead, onto me and he was headed for the top just like he would in a tree. I shook it off when he got to my knee and he skidded a few inches and beat it back to the bushes. We both escaped unharmed and he has something to brag about to his rodent friends. He attacked a giant roaring beast and lived to to tell the tale. And so did I !
 
Yep, unknowns happen. I just came back from a spin around the area. Took a turn through a local riverfront park. a bit cool but I was rolling slow so it wasn't too chilly. I encountered a squirrel on my way out. He was on an intercept trajectory with me but when we met he didn't turn and run the other way , he jumped up instead, onto me and he was headed for the top just like he would in a tree. I shook it off when he got to my knee and he skidded a few inches and beat it back to the bushes. We both escaped unharmed and he has something to brag about to his rodent friends. He attacked a giant roaring beast and lived to to tell the tale. And so did I !
Squirrel's are cool. You got any Fox Squirrels over there? They live in old growth Southern Pines and are about the size of a housecat. We have 'em over here, but they are quite rare and a protected species, BTW.
 
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