BwanaDik
Well-known member
If you were not on the bike at the time?
No good deed goes unpunished. I was in the #1 lane going north on I-45 in The Woodlands when I saw everybody dancing and weaving in front of me. They were avoiding the giant tread strip lying in the middle of the lane. I narrowly avoided it. Thinking of our helmetless Harley brethren, I decided to stop and see if I could pull the strip out of the road. Big mistake. I pulled off about 100 yards down the road (10eaX30' Jersey barriers), parked right next to the barriers, and walked back to do the good deed. The width of the emergency lane is for future HOV lanes so it's pretty wide. About half way back I saw/heard Durango Man come skidding by me, heading towards my bike. Definitely a sinking feeling as he whizzed by. And then the crunch! I figured the damage was done so I continued on to get the strip, knowing we would soon have a chain of cars following us into the berm otherwise. And it was huge, must have weighed 50+ pounds. Anyway, Durango Man was all apologetic, insured, no problems getting the bike fixed. To the tune of $7000. Dan at Cycle Shack North in Conroe did a fine job of re-assembling it.
The LEO that showed up said the guy could have recovered if only he had released the brakes about halfway thru the skid. I suspect Durango Man was on his phone at the time and didn't know what was happening. (This shot was after we had picked the bike up and were waiting for a tow truck.) He must have hit the left rear of the bike to break the exhaust and then somehow the bike fell on it's right side. He couldn't have been going much more than 20 MPH at the time.
You can see where I pulled the tire strip over next to the Jersey barriers
You get the picture. I mentioned the event to my instructor from the Advanced MSF course and he indeed agreed that I had made a big mistake. He had done something similar and had been hit himself, standing on the side of the road, getting thrown 150'. He said to just pull off and call 911, let the LEO's handle the task. I got mixed reviews form my motorcycle buddies, some saying I made a mistake, some saying good kharma will come back to help me someday. I just know I'm not going to do anything like that ever again!
It was extremely un-nerving standing on the side of the road with traffic going by at 70-80 MPH, only a few feet away. I can't believe people stop to change tires there! Drive on the rims to a safe place if you have to but don't spend any time in the emergency lane.
No good deed goes unpunished. I was in the #1 lane going north on I-45 in The Woodlands when I saw everybody dancing and weaving in front of me. They were avoiding the giant tread strip lying in the middle of the lane. I narrowly avoided it. Thinking of our helmetless Harley brethren, I decided to stop and see if I could pull the strip out of the road. Big mistake. I pulled off about 100 yards down the road (10eaX30' Jersey barriers), parked right next to the barriers, and walked back to do the good deed. The width of the emergency lane is for future HOV lanes so it's pretty wide. About half way back I saw/heard Durango Man come skidding by me, heading towards my bike. Definitely a sinking feeling as he whizzed by. And then the crunch! I figured the damage was done so I continued on to get the strip, knowing we would soon have a chain of cars following us into the berm otherwise. And it was huge, must have weighed 50+ pounds. Anyway, Durango Man was all apologetic, insured, no problems getting the bike fixed. To the tune of $7000. Dan at Cycle Shack North in Conroe did a fine job of re-assembling it.
The LEO that showed up said the guy could have recovered if only he had released the brakes about halfway thru the skid. I suspect Durango Man was on his phone at the time and didn't know what was happening. (This shot was after we had picked the bike up and were waiting for a tow truck.) He must have hit the left rear of the bike to break the exhaust and then somehow the bike fell on it's right side. He couldn't have been going much more than 20 MPH at the time.
You can see where I pulled the tire strip over next to the Jersey barriers
You get the picture. I mentioned the event to my instructor from the Advanced MSF course and he indeed agreed that I had made a big mistake. He had done something similar and had been hit himself, standing on the side of the road, getting thrown 150'. He said to just pull off and call 911, let the LEO's handle the task. I got mixed reviews form my motorcycle buddies, some saying I made a mistake, some saying good kharma will come back to help me someday. I just know I'm not going to do anything like that ever again!
It was extremely un-nerving standing on the side of the road with traffic going by at 70-80 MPH, only a few feet away. I can't believe people stop to change tires there! Drive on the rims to a safe place if you have to but don't spend any time in the emergency lane.
some people
