Friday was nearly a bad day for riding.

[gixxerjasen]

Coming home from work on the FJR on Friday I got to learn something else to be careful about. I'm toodling along down the HOV lane and there's a big slowdown. After creeping along for a bit I come over a rise and see the end in sight. Turns out that some folks thought it might be amusing to cause a five car pile up during rush hour traffic and close down the HOV and two left lanes.

Anway, I'm used to this and as we slog on up we get to the point where the HOV has to merge with the traffic that is also merging over. This is always balls of fun. The HOV lanes in Dallas use what I refer to as the "Picket fence system" in that we have this fencing that separates the HOV from the main lanes but going slow enough you can squeeze a full sized SUV between the vertical fence pieces. If you are uncoordinated then you can simply run the fencing down and it'll usually pop up behind you. It looks like this.



So at the merge point I pull up between the fence posts and look and a driver waves me out...wow, nice guy. What I don't realize is how close to the left fence I am. See that base on the ground? Just as I start to move forward, before I can pull my feet up, my left toe of my boot catches that base. My foot now is stopped with relation to the ground, but is moving backward with relation to the bike as well as the body which it is connected. Thank goodness for boots and retractable footpegs because my ankle swings right through the peg. However, my heel hits my exhaust pipe. For all intents and purposes my foot has now been placed between the immovable object and the unstoppable force. I got lucky though as my foot bent rotated and popped out really before I knew what happened. Hurt like all get out for about five minutes but made me realize how it could easily have been broken. Like I said, one more thing to keep an eye out for.

So, the rest of the ride was pretty much uneventful till I got a few miles from home. We were zipping along at about 70mph and suddenly the traffic in front of me slams on their brakes and we go down to 20mph really quickly. Instinctively I pull to the left as I'm hitting the brakes. Thank goodness because the car behind me finished it's deceleration with the front bumper immediately to my right. No fingers were thrown but I did turn and give him the look of death (concealed by a tinted shield) to which he promptly backed way off and changed lanes.

So, managed to learn something new and then use something already learned to survive another ride home.

 

[mcatrophy]

... I got to learn something else to be careful about. ... So at the merge point I pull up between the fence posts and look and a driver waves me out...wow, nice guy. What I don't realize .So, managed to learn something new and then use something already learned to survive another ride home.

One thing I learned quite a few years ago is that there's always something else to learn. I expect to stop learning only when I'm put in my box.
Congrats on surviving another day.

Ps. My memory now is such that I'm forgetting far more than I'm learning. Oh well ...

 

[wheatonFJR]

Glad you only got a reminder and not the full fledged seminar, complete with flashing lights.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Glad you only got a reminder and not the full fledged seminar, complete with flashing lights.

Well, on the plus side, I wouldn't have had to wait very long. There were three police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck right there. If you are gonna hurt yourself, do it where medical attention can be had pronto!

Yep, after a year of riding I thought I knew it all. After fifteen years of riding I realize that there's so much I still haven't learned.

 

[Ed Sidders]

Glad U R O K I'm enjoying a broken left for at least 3 more weeks----Honey Do---Damnit Woman ! Foot Hurts ! Remember I dropped your freakin lawnmower motor on it a little over a month ago !

 

[gixxerjasen]

Ouch. But, if ya gotta break something, doing it while attending to the honey do list is the way to go. "See woman, told you it didn't need to be done!"

 

[mcatrophy]

... "See woman, told you it didn't need to be done!"

To which she says, "stop moaning, you've still got one good leg. Just get on with it".

 

[gixxerjasen]

Wait, you married my wife?

 

[David Foley]

Ouch! Glad your OK.

 

[garyahouse]

You and I oughta start a "close call" club here on the forum. I was just thinking... how frustrating it is when I'm following a half dozen illegally-dark-windowed SUVs and can't see around, through, or ahead of any of them. I gotta make sure I'm no less than about 4 seconds behind 'em to make sure nothing happens unexpectedly. Ever notice how EVERYBODY tailgates? Usually less than 1 second behind the car in front of them? No wonder people gotta slam on da brakes. No room for error??? During rush hour, the tailgating is like an epidemic. And I'm talking about FLORIDA... land of the old farts. Good grief, half of them are just as bad as the young punks in their pickups and Civics; hurryin' to get home from work.

Jason, glad you're OK dude. Ride safe my friend.

Gary

darksider #44

 

[gixxerjasen]

Geez, I wouldn't figure Spring Hill to be that bad. Tampa, yea, but not up there in the boonies. In Orlando I was determined that 40% of the drivers were too old to drive, 40% were tourists who didn't know where they were going and the other 20% were just pissed off at the 80% on the road. Riding to work from Melbourne to Merritt Island wasn't too bad. I worked the 6pm to close shift. This means that on a 45 minute ride home I'd see 6 cars. That's exactly how many drivers were young enough to still be out that late and not in bed.

 

[garyahouse]

Your right. Tampa's a whole 'nother world. The issues I have are not the crowds, it's just people who don't drive carefully... maybe because they're NOT in Tampa. Perhaps if there was Tampa type traffic around here, people would be a little more careful when pulling out or changing lanes... etc.

By the way, you were saying that before you knew it, your foot bent, rotated, and popped out... Try that 25 years form now, and that same foot will break, rotate, and pop out. Off to the hospital with several broken bones and torn thingies. It's a whole new world when ya get older. So make your mistakes now while you're still flexible. Hey there ya go, in the light of your recent experience, maybe your could change your handle to "Flexible Flyer..."

Eh, who knows.

Ride safe.

Gary