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Close calls and near misses

One Mt Hamilton Rd you often see tire marks from drifters. Always wonder when they do that shit, and hope that I don't come across one of them.

Looks like I got more close calls than everyone else combined in this thread so far, maybe my judgment isn't that good after wall, but poor judgement is the point of these stories. One night I was on Capitol Expwy, back from Mt Hamilton around 8pm, fully dark, when a sportbike rider opened up and zoomed ahead. I tried to keep up but he was pulling away. Capitol Expwy has 3 lanes there and I was in no. 2 lane doing maybe 90+, not sure. We were well ahead of traffic and the road ahead was completely open too. I saw him change lane as if to avoid something and immediately after I noticed a car coming out of a driveway on the right. I moved to no. 1 lane to have some space cushion from that car. The surprise was instead of switching lane gradually, that car cut straight across 3 lanes in front of me, probably to get into the left-turning lane up ahead. I moved left to the edge of the center island, braked hard and slowed to about 60 to avoid that car. This one was fully on me due to excessive speed.
 
I've seen those drifting marks on Rossi's Driveway, all over, and up dirt banks.
I have captured a Bimmer fully crossways on my side, offering me his door to stop with, after his spin.
My little monkey didn't have the foreboding threat, of a semi, , ,
 
Was thinking about this thread while ripping through Morgan territory yesterday. Started to think that maybe I'm more lucky than skill. I was doing my best to hug the shoulder, but there isn't much shoulder to hug on that road. Plenty of gravel in several corners kicked up by wheels going off the pavement and my pace was such that I was never caught off guard and able to adjust. But the three vehicles I encountered were all just after blind corners where there was room to react. I wonder what would have happened if we both met at the apex of one of those narrow blind corners...
 
CDONA said:
I've seen those drifting marks on Rossi's Driveway, all over, and up dirt banks.
I have captured a Bimmer fully crossways on my side, offering me his door to stop with, after his spin.
My little monkey didn't have the foreboding threat, of a semi, , ,
Click to expand...
A couple of years ago new road signs went up on Rossi's. They had 25mph signs for the two little tight almost-hairpins about half-way out. I contacted the roads dept and said they needed 15 mph instead, someone not knowing the road with a horse trailer on a extra-cab dually or your average wino-yuppie SUV would have crashed hard. They gave me some specs about curves and all, I challenged them to get in a car or truck and set the cruise control at 25 and do the curves. You'll notice they are 15 now...
 
I gotta say, I've been lucky and fortunate enough to have only one moto accident ever since being M1 endorsed over 3 decades ago. I probably racked up about 300k motorcycling miles along the way.

But yeah, several close calls along the way for sure.
 
I've had a few over the years, between The Summer of Love and last week.

Particularly memorable:

Sunday AM , coming back alone from SMR, sometime when I had my '03 R1...

I'm heading up the Panoramic Hwy just above Stinson, a early 1960s Lincoln Convertible appears out of hairpin in front of me, all 4 wheels with Zero traction, careening in My Lane with about 50 ft to Smash.

I hesitated just long enough to Gas It and Tuck behind the Lincoln on the Inside lane.

As the rusty dusty bucket went under my right elbow I caught a glimpse of about 6 very fucked up Marijuana Stinking Drunk Hippies screaming bloody murder.

I literally felt the rear quarter panel brush my leg as I passed.

Yes, I pulled over and watched them wallowing down the hill
 
I have had a few in my nearly 40 years of riding. The most memorable was riding one winter in the Santa Cruz mountains. I was entering a left handed turn ona small, local road near the coast and found the entire road covered with baby poop slick mud that had been washed over the road from a creek on the right side of the road. I aimed to ride in the semi cleared bit of road that cars had made. But I felt my front end sliding out and to keep my bike upright, I straightened up some and that put me in the middle of all that muck. Which then became a mud filled parking area for people to party in the summer. To keep my bike upright, I put my bike in a full lock slide, riding sideways on my ST with my left foot down and scooping a bunch of mud on the top of my boot. The creek was coming up fast. I managed to get the beast slowed down enough to change my trajectory and since I had traction control, I rolled the throttle on and made it through the muck and back onto the road again. My friends behind me, saw it all and were completely stunned that I didn’t crash. I had to stop and clean all the mud from my boot and the bike.
 
Another time I was southbound on highway 87 at night and took the exit at Curtner. I was going at a fairly good clip when I noticed a car stopped in the middle of the curved off ramp, lights out and the people busily looking at a map. I nailed the brakes and just managed to clear the idiots. The only light they had on was the faint interior light which is how I saw them. Their car was black.
 
Another time when I was riding to a party in the hills above Los Altos I found myself riding sideways again through some very deep gravel in the middle of an unlighted intersection. I’ve never ridden a dirt bike but I always thought I’d be good at it.
 
I recently posted a thread in Moto Pics n Vids about my 2 wheel slide through a turn on Corral Hollow Rd. I'm pretty sure I hit some spilt oil or something...

Here's another one from a few years back on the exact same road. A panel of sheetrock almost took my head off!...

Stay frosty my friends!...

 
I used to take the transition ramp from 85 south to 280 south at a goodly pace. (Most people dont ride their ST1100’s like a sport bike. One time, late one evening in the dark, I was leaned over pretty far, at the apex of that ramp, I saw a huge sheet of sheet metal in my intended path. It was the size of a sheet of plywood. I straighten up as much as I could, given the width of the ramp and my speed at the time, and I made it across it.
 
On 2/8 I was following a KIA SUV on Redwood rd from Oakland toward Castro Valley. I wasn't in a passing mood but grew impatient after following that KIA below my desired pace for a while. When we got to this spot (screenshot below) that KIA turned on his right blinker, slowed and moved right a bit. I thought he was pulling over or slowed to let me pass, said a silent "thank you" in my head, shifted my track slightly left onto the double-yellow and sped up slightly to pass. As I pulled about even with his rear end I thought I saw his left blinker on out of the corner of my eye, and thought that was odd. A split second later my front wheel was about even with the driver door I sensed the left side of the KIA closing in toward me. Without conscious effort I found myself automatically matching the left turning KIA, crossed the oncoming lane and pulled into a dirt shoulder on the left side of the road and stopped along side him. I was momentarily confused by his action, but I backed out of there and continued my way. Shortly after that I turned around where Redwood was closed (at Marciel Gate, 9999 Redwood Rd), saw the KIA still parked there, and noticed a trailhead there which must've been the reason he turned left onto the dirt shoulder there.

eQTt446.jpg


This hazard's fairly common, happened to me twice before, but we often forget old experiences and have to relearn stuff.
 
well Redwood Road almost got me to day just past the equestrian place. I always worry about deer but there are other wildlife to worry about too.
Required emergency braking with a swerve to the right. Don't know if I would have gone down but it could have made the bike unrideable.RWRskunk.jpg
 
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