Passes & Canyons Blog

Oh my god that was close!

Yeah, we’ve all said that one time or another. So of course there’s a thread on Adventure Rider where folks tell their tales. Here once again I dip into the thread to pass along some other people’s oh-my-god-that-was-close stories.

• I was riding over 8700′ Ebbett’s Pass on Highway 4 in the California Sierras. Came around this corner and there was a big brown cow standing on the steep hillside on my right, and as I approached the corner she lost her footing, slipped and rolled sideways down the hill and ended up in my path. I was able to brake hard and swerve and miss her. Man did she look scared, poor thing! She got up and staggered off to the other side of the road, none the worse for wear.
• Chickens. Crossing the road. True story.
• Coming out of New Mexico on 550 just crossed into Colorado ,came around a curve ,there was three portapotties laying in the road. just had room to go in between two of them.
• I destroyed a barbecue grill with my first bike. I pulled into the garage, put the stand down and as I stepped off I planted my foot in a fresh spot of oil. I fell forward onto the tank, pushing the bike forward, somehow folding the stand again, and falling over. Fortunately it was 1980 and I had a tall sissy bar than folded my dad’s barbecue grill into a neat V shape. I had been riding for approximately one month at that point.
• Dragon fly; not strange at all, but he was still alive and crawling around inside my helmet. He was still distracting me when I nearly struck the moose.
• One dark stormy night in the early 70’s I’d nipped out on my old mans Honda C50 step thru. On the way home there was a queue of cars in front of me so I did what any impatient 17 year old would do and rode slowly past them. Suddenly I was off the bike and sitting on my arse in the middle of the road. Unknown to me, the storm had brought a tree down which in turn brought down some phone lines which were hanging just at neck height. Due to it being dark and raining I hadn’t seen them but luckily I’d been going slowly when I was almost garotted. No harm done apart from a black line on my neck from ear to ear.
• I was riding a ’79 KZ650 (fantastic bike by the way) down I-40 toward Knoxville out of Strawberry Plains, Tennessee when I had to lay on the tank to let a huge goose fly over me from the right. The bird continued on about 6 feet above the road across the median to the east-bound lanes and directly into the path of a semi in the fast lane. The collision occurred behind me so I didn’t see it, but I looked over my shoulder and saw thousands of feathers streaming off the sides and top of the truck as it drove on.
• About two years ago, Hwy 20 between Boise and Idaho City. Came around a left sweeper and the road was brownish and looked like it was moving. Crickets! About a 1/2 mile path, across all lanes. Slippery and gross! Didn’t crash but was a great reason to wash the KLR.
• …..the sun was low and behind me…….a woman was on the ‘sidewalk’ to my side and was looking directly at me, she’s seen me……I got closer and she stepped straight into my path……I hit her at 30mph……..she was ok…….but !!!.. It turned out she suffered badly from a sight defect and was trying to cross the road to a meeting for the ‘blind’ and she didn’t see me for the low sun……..I was riding a police bike at the time……I felt bad……….judge me.
• That was nothing, though, compared to the infamous Chicken Guts Ride, as it came to be known. Myself and a couple buddies were riding bicycles and going pretty hard. We were all in shape back then, just past our road racing primes. Pete and I had dropped our friend Jon on a climb and were out of the saddles pumping hard up the hill when, suddenly, we found ourselves riding through rotted chicken innards spread all across the roadway–the stench in the sun was ungodly. Chicken guts on hot asphalt make for an extraordinarily slick riding surface, and so we were forced to sit back down in our saddles–otherwise, our rear wheels just spun when we pedaled. Even in the saddles, our wheels spun a fair amount and, so we slowed to a bare crawl, struggling to stay upright and hoping we’d get through it before the incline and gravity did their work and we fell into the mess. We made it–the worst of it was 50-75 feet long or so, but it seemed an eternity. We probably should have warned Jon, but we figured it would be more fun to watch and so we did. He made it, too, with plenty of loud curses.

Yes, there are totally unexpected adventures awaiting you out there. Stay alert.

Biker Quote for Today

If you can still hear your fears, shift a gear.

I ran across an article on the Huffington Post titled “7 Myths About Motorcycle Safety That Need To Go Away” and of course I had to read it and see what myths they were talking about. And I guess you have to take into account that the Huffington Post is a general audience publication, not something focused on motorcycling. Because I had to laugh at a few of them. Here they are, with my comments.

1. Bikers Only Wear Leather Because It Looks Cool
Do I need to say anything here? We know this is absurd; totally aimed at non-riders.

2. Full-Faced Helmets Restrict Your Visibility
Now, this one really is aimed at riders because I’m sure non-riders never even think about it. But I have to object to the statement because I know for a fact that full-face helmets do restrict my vision. I have extremely wide peripheral vision and I can look straight ahead and still see my helmet on both sides. It may not be a major restriction, but by my definition it is a restriction, so that statement–at least for people with very wide peripheral vision–is in fact true. And by the way, that word should be “vision” and not “visibility.” Visibility means being seen by others.

3. Big Bikes Are Great For Beginners
Oh really? Who in the world ever said that was true?

4. Loud Pipes Save Lives
Not even gonna go there. I have my opinions, you have yours, and neither of us is going to change the other’s mind.

5. Drivers Will See You
Again, nobody who has ridden for more than a few weeks would ever make a statement like that.

6. Roads And Streets Are Safer Than The Interstate
Oh, heck no! Roads and streets are where people and animals and stuff can come at you from any direction at any time. The interstate is a more controlled environment and at the very least you can see things farther away. This one is true and is a myth that definitely needs to be done away with.

7. If You’re About To Crash, Lay It Down
OK, here is one that really is a myth, and it does need to go away. Motorcycles are fantastically agile and the chances are that the bike has more capability than you have the skill to extract from it. But if you’re in a life or death situation, your chances are much better if you push the bike to its limits–and beyond your own–than if you deliberately lay it down.

So overall it’s a fair piece with some validity. My only question is who it is really intended for. Those of us who ride already know these things and those who don’t probably don’t care.

Biker Quote for Today

We rode out, we rode back, nobody died. It’s a good day.

I think we can all relate to this one, an Examiner resurrection from October 2008.

No, you may NOT use a portion of my lane just because my motorcycle is not as wide as your car.

Saturday was a terrific Fall day to be riding up on the Peak to Peak Highway and we were there. It got blustery later but in the early part of the day it was wonderful.

Then we headed on down the Golden Gate Canyon road. Along the way I was looking for a good place to stop and get some photos. Coming in our direction was a bicyclist with a few cars behind looking for a safe place to pull around. If I had been driving defensively, as I credit myself with doing most of the time, I should have posed the question to myself, “What if that car tries to pull past the bicycle as I go past?”

But I was looking for a place to shoot some pictures, and I was cruising in the left portion of my lane, so I’ll let you guess the words that entered my mind when that car crossed the center line to come around the bicycle–heading straight toward me. I swerved sharply to the right and the jerk went on his way.

Rhetorically I might wonder, “What was that jerk thinking?” but I know what he was thinking. He was thinking that I was just a motorcycle and there was plenty of room for him, the bicycle, and me, all on the same piece of highway. Wrong!! Wrong, wrong, wrong!!

My motorcycle is a vehicle with the exact same rights to my piece of the road as any other vehicle. He wouldn’t pull that same stunt if I was driving a big SUV or even a Honda Civic. What makes him think it’s OK to do it when the other vehicle is a motorcycle? I was a little distracted already. What if I had been so distracted that I didn’t immediately notice him coming into my lane?

I know I have a responsibility to drive defensively, and I do most of the time, but I’m human. There’s no excuse for my lapse of attention but what the guy in the car did was darn close to criminal. And it was absolutely illegal.

So I’m going to repeat myself: No, you may NOT use a portion of my lane.

Biker Quote for Today

“We all undertake a modicum of risk every time we thumb the starter – it’s just inherent to the sport.” ~Sport Rider~

I mentioned how I have launched my own small campaign against headline writers who describe crashes that involve a motorcycle and another vehicle, even if the driver of the other vehicle was at fault, as a “motorcycle crash.” It seems pretty consistently that my Google Alert for “motorcycle” brings up about two of these offenders nearly every day. So I send about two of my emails every day. I also decided it made sense to send emails expressing approval when headlines are written accurately, in order to let people know someone cares and appreciates their efforts. I don’t often get responses but in some cases I do. I want to share some of those conversations with you here.

Initially I was sending this message: Hi. Just want to ask/raise the point: Why does your headline refer to a “motorcycle crash” when it was in fact a car/motorcycle crash and it was the car driver who was at fault? Aside from being simply inaccurate, this is totally common and gives the misleading impression that motorcycles are dangerous, when in fact the danger is with the car driver. The number one cause of injuries to motorcyclists is cars turning left in front of the bikes.

Predictably, I got some responses from the writer saying an editor wrote the headline, not them.

Dan Sokil, The Reporter: Hi Ken – thanks for the feedback! I actually did not write that headline, all I filed was the text from the scene and my editor entered it into our system, and there has been no official word from police yet about the cause or who was at fault. My editor who wrote that headline is in later this afternoon if you’d like to contact her, but my guess is that was meant to convey that the motorcycle riders were hurt and not the auto ones. Let me know if you’d like to talk to her, and as soon as we have more info we’ll update that story accordingly.

I told Dan I didn’t need to speak with his editor but would appreciate his passing my concerns along.

I also got this from Tara Becker at the Quad-City Times: Hi Ken…thank you for your email. I’m not sure who wrote the headline on the story, but I will pass along your concerns to my editor.

To a third similar response I replied: Perhaps you might make my point to your editor on the basis that it inaccurately presents the accurate story you wrote.

This reporter replied that he did speak with his editor and he thanked me for pointing it out.

Next was Brian Day, with a newspaper group in the Los Angeles area.

Brian: The description of “motorcycle crash” is not intended to assign fault or imply motorcycles are inherently dangerous, it it simply a description of how Mr. Gomez died. It is not an inaccurate description. To say the incident the rider died in a “car crash” or “SUV crash” would be inaccurate and only create confusion, as obviously, Mr. Gomez was riding a motorcycle at the time, he was not driving a car. Saying someone is in a motorcycle crash does not imply, in any way, that they are at fault. Merely that they were riding a motorcycle, which was involved in a crash.

As far as the cause of the crash, police are yet to determine which party is at fault. “The investigation is ongoing,” as my story states. It’s premature at this point to say the woman driving the SUV was at fault in the collision. While the involved SUV is believed to have made a left turn in front of the motorcycle, the cycle was also described by authorities as travelling at high speed.

I certainly understand your feelings, and I hope you find this explanation satisfactory. Take care.

Me: Thanks for responding Brian. I’m particularly interested in your comment about it being a motorcycle accident because he was on one. That’s a little different perspective than I had been using. Still, considering that it was a multi-vehicle accident I think to refer to it only in terms of what the dead guy was on still is less than fully accurate.

Also this from Stephen Frye at the Oakland Press: Thank you for the note. The use of motorcycle in the headline of this story was due to the fact that the driver of the motorcycle was injured and the story was about him being hurt.

Not at all satisfied by those answers, I replied to Stephen: Thanks for the reply but let me ask you this: If the car had hit a toddler on a tricycle would you have referred to it as a tricycle crash? Omitting mention of the car makes it look like the biker just crashed all by himself.

Stephen offered this follow-up response: In that case, I would have mentioned the toddler, which is key to the story. In this story, the key element is the motorcyclist, who was hurt, and the secondary element was that he was from our area, Milford. Rather than say Milford motorcyclist, I broke that up to say a former Milford man was hurt, making the motorcycle part of the crash a secondary part of the headline. Thanks for sharing your input. Many considerations go into the headlines and it is a challenge to convey key details of a story in as brief a way as possible.

I had a good bit of back and forth with DeAnn Smith, Digital Content Editor with KCTV5. First she had this to tell me: We initially were told that it was a single vehicle crash involving a motorcycle. I have no idea what occurs in most crashes but in this case the car driver wasn’t at fault. In this case, the danger was from a motorcycle that didn’t operate properly.

I replied: So you’re never glad to hear someone got hurt or killed but at least it was not the driver at fault. In the vast majority of cases it is.The number one cause of motorcycle fatalities is drivers turning left in front of a biker. The standard explanation: I didn’t see him. Well, maybe you didn’t look, or maybe you were fooling with your cellphone. My main point, however, was that in many, many instances the headline calls it a “motorcycle accident” even if it involved a car and even if the driver, not the rider, was at fault. I’ve initiated my own small campaign to bring this idea to the consciousness of the people writing the headlines–and I know it is not always the reporter who writes the headline. So hopefully I’ve brought it to your attention sufficiently that if you find yourself in that situation in the future you will think about what I’ve said. Thanks.

And she replied: My brother was in two motorcycle crashes. He nearly died in the second one. Both were his fault.

And of special interest was the response I got from Wayne Roustan, at the Sun-Sentinel, when I thanked him for a good headline: Thanks for the feedback. Ironically, later that day, on my way home, on the flyover ramp connecting westbound I-595 to southbound I-75, I was nearly run off the road and into the concrete barrier wall by two guys driving an estimated 80 mph (at least) on motorcycles speeding between the two lanes of traffic that was going about 55-60 mph. The first guy cleared my mirror by inches before I swerved to the right.
It’s about the 10th time this has happened to me. I’ve videotaped a couple on my dashcam, but not this latest one. Back in 2009, I was westbound on I-595 alone at 2 a.m. when a white ninja bike came up on me from behind doing about 100 mph before passing me. Scared the crap out of me. I remember it because the rider was wearing white leathers and a white helmet. The next night one of my videographers brought me videotape of a crash from the same stretch of I-595 going eastbound. A car was rear-ended and burst into flames. The driver survived but the biker didn’t. The video showed debris of a white ninja motorbike and an FHP trooper was carrying a white helmet and white jacket.
I don’t know if it was the same biker who buzzed me the night before but…
So, I’m thinking it goes both ways and there’s plenty of blame to go around.

That pretty well sums up the response I’ve had so far. I intend to continue my campaign. It may make a tiny difference. I’ll pass along anything particularly interesting that comes out of it.

Biker Quote for Today

Squids: Cleaning up the gene pool one wheelie at a time.

Since I posted about my small personal campaign to get headline writers to stop calling car/motorcycle crashes “motorcycle crashes,” I have been sending emails out at the rate of about two a day, although I have only gotten one reply. If I get more I’ll put together a post with the back and forth.

Of course in so many of these crashes the fault has been with the driver of the car or truck, and as we all know so well, often they have been distracted by stupid things like their cellphones. I’m sorry you idiot, my life is more important than your damn phone call.

So I figured I would make Neil Tohill at Southside Motor Factors happy by posting this infographic he sent me, complete with a link to their site. Not that any of you reading this will frequent their store (they’re in Ireland) but the web crawlers will pick up the link and that will work to their benefit. But I’m not doing it to make Neil happy, I’m using the graphic because it has good, relevant information. That’s the gold standard when it comes to viral marketing: offer something that promotes your company that people pass along because of its own inherent value.

Here’s the graphic. It’s really long, so keep scrolling. I also had to shrink it down to fit width-wise but it should still be legible.

Biker Quote for Today

I live with fear every day. But on weekends I leave her at home and go ride my dirt bike.

Raise your hand if you–like me–are really tired of reading headlines about “motorcycle” crashes that are in fact car/motorcycle crashes that were caused by the driver of the car.

I have Google Alerts set up to bring me articles with the words “motorcycle” and “biker” and every day there are stories about crashes that involve motorcycles, many of them involving serious injury or death. Far, far too often the headline presents the story as if the only vehicle involved was the bike, and that is bound to lead the casual reader to assume that motorcycles are more dangerous than they are. “How come there are so many motorcycle crashes? Those things should be called murdercycles.”

Take today for instance. In just one Google Alert email for “motorcycle” there were these headlines:

• Driver enters plea in fatal motorcycle crash
• Two injured in motorcycle crash on Highway 26
• Two injured in motorcycle accident in Towamencin
• Man dies in Marshfield motorcycle crash
• Man killed and woman critically injured in Lyon Township motorcycle accident
• One person injured in a motorcycle crash

As it turns out, in three of those instances it does appear to have been a motorcycle crash, with the rider at fault. In one case the cause of the accident was as yet unclear when the story was published.

In the other two, however, the first and third in that list, the crashes involved cars and in both cases the drivers were at fault, having made left turns in front of the bikers. You really don’t get any sense of that at all from the headline, do you?

So I’ve decided to try to do something about raising consciousness. In both of these cases I sent the following email to the writers:

Hi. Just want to ask/raise the point: Why does your headline refer to a “motorcycle crash” when it was in fact a car/motorcycle crash and it was the car driver who was at fault? This is totally common and gives the misleading impression that motorcycles are dangerous, when in fact the danger is with the car driver. The number one cause of injuries to motorcyclists is cars turning left in front of the bikes.

I did this just a short while ago and have not received any replies but if I do get something I’ll come back and add in what they have to say. I intend to do this routinely from now on. Maybe you might consider doing the same when you see this. We need to do what we can to get it through people’s heads that far too often it is the driver, not the biker, who is reckless and causes harm. Sure this may be akin to sweeping sand off the beach but we need to at least try to make a tiny dent. Just my opinion.

Biker Quote for Today

Death rides. Ride faster.

I heard at the recent ABATE District 10 meeting that the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) was awarded the contract to administer Colorado’s Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program, but the other bidder, Lee Parks’ Total Control is protesting that award.

Let’s recap.

The MOST program is paid for out of extra fees each of us pay each year when we renew our motorcycle registration. The program has passed most of that money along to motorcycle rider training programs to keep their prices for their training programs as low as possible, with the intent that this would encourage more riders to get trained.

With little oversight, however, it developed that some of this money was not being used as intended and so the state decided to hire a contractor to oversee the program. Bidders on the contract were Total Control and the MSF, both of which are curriculum providers. And therefore, in some people’s minds, awarding the contract to either would be a conflict of interest.

That much is pretty straightforward. From there it gets really twisted. My associate, Matt Wessels, had intended to present a comprehensive discussion of the numerous claims and counterclaims regarding the MSF and MOST but after I ran a post quoting some of what Matt had told me, I received an email from Robert Gladden at the MSF claiming that much of what Matt said is untrue.

“Based on the words I see here I can guess who is likely sources are and they have long history of making similar false claims about the MSF,'” said Gladden.

I replied to that email making the point that I had asked the MSF for comment and had not heard back from them, but that Matt and I would welcome the opportunity to speak with them. The reply to me was “Our media department received your inquiry and are working on a response, we are waiting for a few more pieces of the puzzle to come together.” That was May 15 and the last I’ve heard.

However, more recently I checked in with Matt on this and he told me, “Concerning the MOST issue, taking to heart that last email that was sent to me, I saw I needed to keep digging, and have been doing just that to unearth this incredibly convoluted history. Gotta set the records straight and finding the people with an accurate account of what happened a decade and a half ago is very difficult, however, should have something soon.”

So now you’re up to date.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycling is not, of itself, inherently dangerous. It is, however, extremely unforgiving of inattention, ignorance, incompetence, or stupidity.

I’m going to share a secret: When I don’t have any thoughts on something to write about I fall back on a few tried and true topics. This is one of those times. It’s time for the latest in strange things bikers have hit, courtesy of the Adventure Riders forum.

We all know there are hazards on the road out there. Here are some that other folks have actually encountered.

• Wile E. Coyote. Riding an HP2 I had just bought in Denton Texas. Just outside Midland Texas on I-20. There was a ton of traffic and it was gusty as hell. :eek1 I tucked in behind an 18 wheeler and then a dickweed got right on my ass. I got closer to the semi but the wind buffeting was making it rough at 65-70 mph we were running. I eased over into the center of the lane where it was much smoother and started to back off the semi. Just as I did the semi trailer seemed to do a slight swerve and it caught my attention. Just then a coyote came rolling down the dead center of the lane like a rolling pin. The truck rolled him and all I had the time to do was grab a breath and relax. I felt a slight thump as I rolled right over him mid-section. I heard the ass behind me lock them up but didn’t look to see what happened. I was just ecstatic that I didn’t go down and was alive. I laughed till I was crying. Strange days in West Texas!
• Around 3am, while driving in left lane of an interstate and in a very dark rural area, a male jumped up from tall grass in the center median. He was shirtless, in jeans and had very long hair. He ran into my lane while swinging a sock over his head, with a heavy object inside. He missed me and I missed him by inches, swerving sharply right to avoid him- scared the hell out of me as I tried to maintain control with left and right sliding.
• Went to pick up my wife’s then new CM400A, and we stopped for dinner. parked next to the car, and took off my helmet. Bike was still idling. Put my helmet ont he mirror, and it started going forward. I was dumstruck on what to do other than hobble along with it and finally cut the engine, after i hopped the curb and hit the door.
• Years ago on a long ride up to the Yukon in very heavy rain I’m sure I was passed by a forty ton goldfish. I found somewhere to sleep soon after that.
• Just recently had the contents of the rear axle on a semi spat at me, almost took me out for keeps.
• I came around a tight dirt corner and had just enough time to see him before I ran him over. Stretched out six foot long bull snake, but they look like rattlers from a dirt bike. He arched a horseshoe like in a cartoon. Scared the crap outa me.
• My face…….. After learning why rebound valving is important and slowwwwwwwwwwly sliding over front fender as 1984 CR125 plodded merrily along in 5th gear.
• It was a flying armadillo. While riding through LA (lower Arkansas) one night late, the Ford Explorer in front of me swerved towards the shoulder. Well, an armadillo LAUNCHED from his R rear wheel straight towards me. I was riding up pretty high on a 1100GS. It came directly over the windscreen and I was just able to duck or it would have easily taken me off the bike. I was pushing on to Texarkana but after that I stopped at the next motel.
• Me… About 1/2 mile in to the start of a desert race along with about 400 others. I killed my bike on the start and was near the back of the pack, wound out on my 1989 CR500 trying to make up for lost time (I had the hole-shot the year before). Too late I saw a big rock and nailed it straight on. Flew over the bars and bounced – several times. Ended up sitting upright facing forward. A split second later the lights went out. My bike hit me square in the back. I woke up looking at the sky wondering when the feeling would come back. Luckily only a concussion.

You know the deal: be careful out there. You never know what might be around that next curve.

Biker Quote for Today

If you think riding gets the adrenalin pumping, try getting a wasp in your helmet.