I went up to T.W.O. in Suches, GA this morning to meet up with some NC'ers who double as Scooteristas. Namely LM15, Fuzzy, and Midnight Rider. After breakfast I rode with them until about 11AM when I broke off to go visit a friend who lives nearby in Chatsworth. On the way home from there (between Jasper and Gainesville on Hwy 53) I almost met with my undoing. It was another case (I've had several over the years) where after the event was over, I have no idea how I kept the motorcycle on two wheels and out of contact with anybody. I can only surmise that my guardian angel is a hell of a motorcycle rider.
I was running "pack" in position three with five cars on some nice rural backroad. Without warning, the lead driver decides that the car behind him is following to closely, so apparently to teach the driver a lesson he full-on slams his brakes. This was not a "brake check" to get the person off his six, he full-on locked his brakes unexpectedly and stopped in the road. There were five surprised drivers behind him trying to get their vehicles stopped. I thought I had lost the bike. I had reached the conclusion that I was probably either going down, hitting the car in front of me, getting slammed by the car behind me, or all three. But I decided I might as well continue to drive until the crash was over. Somehow I was able to get it stopped (though greatly out-of-shape and in the vacant oncoming lane) and nobody hit anybody.
Then our brain surgeon who was about a 6'-2" 250 lb redneck gets out of his car and walks up to the driver's window of the car behind him and gives the lady driver some of his best gutter talk and drives off oozing with righteous indignation.
Just wow. My fault for not leaving enough room, but I wasn't expecting anyone to just lock down unannounced. The recognition lag of what was happening was a little longer because it was so incredibly unexpected. I guess that is what they mean by "expect the unexpected".
Lesson: Leave some more room for crazy people to do crazy things.
I was running "pack" in position three with five cars on some nice rural backroad. Without warning, the lead driver decides that the car behind him is following to closely, so apparently to teach the driver a lesson he full-on slams his brakes. This was not a "brake check" to get the person off his six, he full-on locked his brakes unexpectedly and stopped in the road. There were five surprised drivers behind him trying to get their vehicles stopped. I thought I had lost the bike. I had reached the conclusion that I was probably either going down, hitting the car in front of me, getting slammed by the car behind me, or all three. But I decided I might as well continue to drive until the crash was over. Somehow I was able to get it stopped (though greatly out-of-shape and in the vacant oncoming lane) and nobody hit anybody.
Then our brain surgeon who was about a 6'-2" 250 lb redneck gets out of his car and walks up to the driver's window of the car behind him and gives the lady driver some of his best gutter talk and drives off oozing with righteous indignation.
Just wow. My fault for not leaving enough room, but I wasn't expecting anyone to just lock down unannounced. The recognition lag of what was happening was a little longer because it was so incredibly unexpected. I guess that is what they mean by "expect the unexpected".
Lesson: Leave some more room for crazy people to do crazy things.
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