I didn't see it - lesson learned

[Bill Lumberg]

Glad you're okay. It happens. I know somebody (who shall remain unnamed), who, while traveling on the interstate, twisted the right grip and commenced to cruising past the set-and-activated cruise control speed, and forgot that cruise was on down there somewhere. Rolled off the throttle going spiritedly into a turn, and cruise woke up and tried to fire him straight into the retaining wall. It was a moment of genius. That's what I heard, anyway.

 

[Old Guy]

Glad you're okay. It happens. I know somebody (who shall remain unnamed), who, while traveling on the interstate, twisted the right grip and commenced to cruising past the set-and-activated cruise control speed, and forgot that cruise was on down there somewhere. Rolled off the throttle going spiritedly into a turn, and cruise woke up and tried to fire him straight into the retaining wall. It was a moment of genius. That's what I heard, anyway.

I know someone who did that on a Goldwing. He had accelerated a little to get through traffic with cruise set, a semi trailer cut him off, he rolled off the throttle rather than hit the brakes, and the cruise took back over almost putting into the back of the truck. The rider in my story shall remain unnamed as well.

 

[timk]

Did a similar thing a couple weeks ago blasted a 4 way stop at 35. Driver never budged. Thing is I ride that road somewhat frequently. Just in a daze. Not good. I stopped about 30 feet on the other side, gave myself hell,got my head out of my *** and continued.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Gawd I hate when this kind of thing happens. I've always been particularly vocal about red light runners who take out motorcycles. Some years ago, I was commuting through downtown Dallas and this fool is weaving between my lane and the right turn lane not knowing what he is doing. I'm waiting on him to make up his damn mind before I try to initiate a pass. Finally his blinker goes on and he's fully in the right turn lane so I twist the right grip to get past before he changes his mind again. Too bad I was paying so much attention to him and not the traffic signals, because as I roll over the line I notice I've got a red light. Wet brick road combined with a pickup truck coming through the intersection meant I was about to have a bad bad bad day, and eat my words about red light runners. Thankfully the truck swerved, but he did hit the brakes as I was lining up to shoot behind him. I ended up stopped next to him stopped in the middle of the intersection with my front tire pointing at his passenger door about six inches from it.

I could actually feel the weight of the fear, dread, anxiety, and total unbelievable embarrassment of the situation on my shoulders. Stupid stupid stupid. I waved the man on and proceeded to pay much more attention through there from then on.

So yea, I know exactly that feeling of thankfulness of the attentive driver and everything you were feeling about yourself immediately after the incident. Glad we are all around to sit and post about our own stupidity.

 

[dcarver]

I could actually feel the weight of the fear, dread, anxiety, and total unbelievable embarrassment of the situation on my shoulders.

Yes. I understand.

For me, in the moment, something happened which has never happened before. The thought that chances were very high I was about to die flooded my brain. And I was OK with it. Let the thought exit and got on with living. No lockup due to fear. I guess that's a goods thing. I don't know for sure.

Thanks to all who posted, and the purpose of my posting has been fulfilled. Raise awareness, admit mistakes, be honest to self.

With all this said, it's a beautiful day, I'm off work, and a nice ride awaits..

 

[beemerdons]

*******.
Love you.

^^^^^BUMP!^^^^^

 

[yanktar]

...and sometimes, there's not a damned thing you can do except hope and pray.

About 30 years ago, on a beautiful morning, my future wife and I were commuting from Alexandria into DC on my '81 Maxim 650 when, right in front of the Pentagon, a woman in a big, black BMW with diplomatic plates, decided to go left across FIVE lanes from my right. She simply shot across with horns blowing everywhere, not giving two *****. I slammed on the brakes so hard the front wheel was chattering and luckily didn't break loose (straight line, dry road). She missed me at about 60mph by a yard, no more. I have NO idea how we didn't get hit, didn't go down, didn't get killed. I still don't know other than the cosmic dice rolled our way that day. But I had to pull over to the shoulder to stop shaking.

 

[mcatrophy]

... But I had to pull over to the shoulder to stop shaking.

Guess that then you weren't very experienced. No, nothing to do with observation or bike control, certainly no critism.
I used to get into a cold sweat after an incident like that. No longer, I just carry on riding. That's what years of riding does, you get used to it.

But you never get complacent, because then you get dead.

 

[yanktar]

... But I had to pull over to the shoulder to stop shaking.

Guess that then you weren't very experienced. No, nothing to do with observation or bike control, certainly no critism.
I used to get into a cold sweat after an incident like that. No longer, I just carry on riding. That's what years of riding does, you get used to it.

But you never get complacent, because then you get dead.

I dunno. Riding around the highways on DC kept getting worse and worse. I've been down a couple of times, but even going down, landing in the hospital, etc, I thought "Holy ****! This is really going to hurt!" That's the one and only time I've thought "Holy ****! I'm going to die RIGHT NOW!" I had lots of close calls, really close calls down there, but nothing like that. I finally had to stop riding on the DC Beltway because it just got too crazy. The number of close calls jumped by a factor of 30--from once a week to 6x a day in about 6 months. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't have lived it. I said to myself: "Self, this is nuts. Not worth dying for." and drove the cage.instead.

But you are 100% right: one moment of complacency and you're dead or hurt...until the bike is in the garage (and then, if you get complacent, you tip it over, it bangs into your wife's new car, knocks over a can of something that eats the paint off....