A reminder that may make a difference.........

[jesse]

I was on my way back into Atlanta from Alabama on I-20 last Thursday 12/27. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon and traffic was heavy. I was not on my bike. Suddenly there were pieces of tire everywhere. Traffic was too heavy to even think about avoiding hitting them. A little futher down the road and here is a girl pulled over and out of her car on the left side of the road. She is panicked and trying to get someone to pull over. I manage to get over and back up carefully to her. Her windshield is shattered but intact. A tire or huge piece of one has just landed on her windshield. A big piece was still on the back of her car.

She really just needed to get some assurance that she was OK and that it was safe to continue on with the windshield like it was. It was not too easy to see out, but she continued on. She was thankful that I stopped and off she went at a slow speed with her flashers on.

Of course the reason I share this with my fellow biker buddies is after I left I thought about, what if that was someone that was on a bike and that thing had hit them square in the chest or head? Now I know you can't avoid every dangerous situation everytime, but this is just a reminder to NOT ride your bike as if you were in a car. Leave plenty of space, whenever possible between you and any cages in front of you. This type of situation with a tire is not likely to happen anywhere other than the freeway, but you still need to leave space on any road for unforseen reasons that you might have to stop suddenly. Put the odds in your favor and not against you. Just a reminder........

 

[Flyguy]

Good thought.

I just finished a round trip from Daytona to Richmond and back and I was amazed at the number of destroyed truck tires along both sides of the roads. At one point I counted 16 in ONE mile!! Truckers are, unfortunately, not aware of the individual loads on all their tires. One tire, carrying a dissproportunate amount of the load due to a higher inflation or taller profile, can fail in remakably short time due to heat, even if it is essentially a sound tire. Failure rates go way up in the summer heat so think twice about following a old truck that looks like it could use some service.

 

[TheAxeman]

I had my first experience with a truck tire shredding when I was about 5 miles out of Lewisburg, WV heading to this years EOM. The truck was approaching coming from the opposite direction as we were both entering an intersection when the outside rear tire on the drivers side blew off and shredded. The bulk of the tire was thrown behind the vehicle, I ducked as low as I could go, but I still got hit in the helmet with a chunk of rubber the size of a golfball and other fragments of it bounced off the windscreen. The noise the tire made when it exploded was enough to scare the livin bejesus out of me. It all happened so quickly that there was no way I could have possibly avoided the retread if it had gone airborne in my direction. Prior to that I had always kept my distance when behind a semi but it never occurred to me that damage could also be caused with an approaching vehicle. It just wasn't my time I guess.....

 

[El Gordo]

You need to spend as little time close to trucks as you can or the tire gaters will get you.

 

[Capt. Bob]

In South Fla. a few years back, a young girl riding in the front seat (passenger) with her mom at the wheel, was impaled by a "form board" steel pin. It had dropped off the back of a construction truck on infamous I-95 in Broward County. The pin entered through the windshield, pierced her shoulder traveling clean through and and pinned her to the seat. Paramedics removed the seat and transfered her to the hospital where surgeons removed the shaft. In the days that followed, two other vehicles were struck by the same type of pins. Its a jungle out there!

 

[krashdragon]

One of my friends is a trucker and also rides...

due to the immense number of retreads that blow off...

he said 2 main things..

1. Stay well back till it's safe to pass and then get your ass past that truck...

2. Make sure there's enuf room in front of the truck when you pull back into the right lane so that the trucker can see you.

I'd be willing to bet any amount of $$$, that most people that pull in front of you are using their side mirrors...

and what's printed on the mirrors? ''Vehicle in back may be closer than it appears"! DUH!

How many peeps actually remember that? Damn few cagers....

Ok, that's IF they are looking at all! Most of them ain't!

My Triumph need a louder horn!

Stay safe!

Mary

 

[eeksnake]

I'm another one that's been unfortunate enough to have been hit by "exploding" truck tire debris while riding.

Just like TheAxeman, the sound scared the crap out of me. I was hanging out on the right side of the left lane (so I could see his right mirror) and behind him by two cars lengths or so when it blew. If I had stayed there, I may have escaped the big chunks but instead, the sight of that "highway gator" being born under the trailer got my attention. For just a second, I got fixated on that... Long enough to drift from the right side of the lane to the center... Right behind the truck. :dribble:

Luckily, only a fist-sized chunk caught the chin of my FF helmet. Knocked the chin vent off and rang my bell too!!!

Gunny to the advice given. If I had been further back, I may have had more time to react... Er, react correctly. :blush2: