Down she goes

[Magnum]

WOW! Thank God you did not get hit.

I had a close call once in my car on a highway entrace ramp, this was over a decade ago. I had a 305 engine and a pretty quick car. I made a habbit of taking ramps as quick as I could, taking the outside to inside curve and accelerating until I could hear the back tires start to lose traction, which can also be felt with the resistance the accelerator gives. Normally, by the time I get to the end of the ramp I am going 30 over traffic. I know, it was dumb, but I was 18. There was something about rockin and rolling past the old farts that was fun.

I swore the ramp had a twice as much distance to merge onto the highway. But it did not, the merge lane ended, and I tried to outgun a huge long truck that was speeding down the highway. I realized I could not make it, I hit the brakes, and came within one foot of skidding into him. It is the closest I have come to death, my car sliding out of control on a highway at 85mph. And nowhere to stear. To the right, a wall that is moving in closer, to the left a huge truck.

I drove 45 mph the rest of the way home in the right lane, with every hair on the back of my neck and forearm sticking out. The next day, I got new tires, and went to a mechanic to find out why my car did not accelerate like I thought it should. He did not find anything, and I guess I am lucky. A little more quickness and I would not have missed the truck. Alot more quickness and I think I could have blown by him.

LOL, so bring on the motorcycle. I have a death wish. I believe there is a breed of people that nothing can kill, and we are them. We can fly into pavement at 50 mph and get light scratches, other drop their mcdonalds coffee in their laps and get third degree burns.

[kyle]

I sincerely hope you're joking...

My wreck was Thursday a week ago. Earlier this week there was a kid north of here who had a very high power sportbike, and a long stretch of straight, flat highway.

He was known to pop wheelies whenever and wherever he could, and had been reported doing them that night (early morning). By the time the cops showed up, he'd gone down and he and the bike had slid over 1000 feet. Yes, that's one thousand, there are no extra zeros. At the end of the slide, his head hit one of those cement pipes that run under driveways and through ditches and the like, took a big chunk out of the pipe, split the helmet basically in half, deposited the bike in the front yard of a business where a friend of mine's wife works, and deposited the kid's body some 100 feet away, across the 5 lane road. He had to have been doing better than 130mph when he probably popped the front wheel and when it came back down, lost control.

Invincible? Obviously not. Stupid? Yep.

His riding "style" (if you wish to call it such) exceeded his skill level. Your riding style exceeded your vehicle's capabilities. Exceed either your own skill or your vehicle's capabilities, and you're either toast, or very lucky.

Best I can figure in my own case, though, is that I need to pay closer attention to the condition of the road in my path of travel, which was kind of tough to do while paying attention to traffic at the same time. That said, I think I shouldn't have been on a busy interstate exiting onto a busy highway having only been riding for a few months. I exceeded my skill, and got lucky.

[Randy]

man that stinks. I hate those pot holes that the semi trucks dig into the pavement. I have gotten funneled into them, but have not yet dumped it in em. I am sure it is only a matter of time.

[Telesque]

People doing wheelies on public roads makes me angry.

There's a damn good reason why 600cc Unicycles aren't in high demand.

[madmax]

Thank goodness you weren't hurt any worse. Any bike wreck you can walk away from is a good one. Good luck with your new ride when you get it!

[Keyoke]

Glad to hear you made it out OK, really sucks to wreck a bike.

However - there is a kind of bright side, now you get to gte another bike! wha tyou thinking of getting?

[kyle]

I'll be getting a '05 Kawasaki Z750-S if everything pans out. Outside of that, a friend of a coworker has a '99 Honda CBR 600 he's looking to sell.