Close Call Today

[bj66]

I was riding my bike today and almost went down. I was going down the county highway which is in bad need of repairs. Lots of potholes that have been patched with hot mix. The road is rough etc, and the hotmix is a dark black compared to a light gray from the rest of the highway. I was going along driving through the rough patches, when I came over a hill down through a river bottom with water on both sides. For some reason I decided to dodge around one of the dark patches at about 70 mph. I happened to look down beside my floor board as I went around it and I noticed that it moved. It wasnt a black pothole, it was a snapping turtle! The movement was the turtle jerking his head back into his shell. He was about 18 inches in diameter, and I think if I wouldve hit him I wouldve went for a nasty ride, most probobly not on the bike. The top of his shell wouldve been at least a foot tall. I've dodged a lot of things riding, but never a snapping turtle.

[Phoneman1981]

Glad you did not hit the turtle. My Stebel air horn turned a badger around on the way home from Sturgis.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Phoneman1981
miss spelled word.

[bj66]

I missed that turtle by about a foot. The more I thought about it, the more scared I got. I didnt have time to be scared till after it happened. Same thing happened on way home fro Sturgis. I was heading east in the morning looking into the sun. I was in the Mud Butte area west of Faith SD following a couple of cars tooling along at 75 mph. This area usually has antellope so I was really looking to the sides trying to find some. I glanced to the side and didnt see anything, and looked back ahead and caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye. There were 4 mule deer standing on the side of the road facing the ditch looking over their backs at us as we drove by. I cant even tell you if any of them were bucks because they went by so fast. They were less than 20 feet from me. The cars must not have seen them either because they never hit their brakes either. Awhile later I was at some road construction and another bike came up. While waiting for the pilot car I asked him if he'd seen the mulies. He said "Holy ****, I drove right by em and they didnt move. Scared the heck out of me." I said "I know the feeling!"

[uncledj]

Back in the day, my wife (then girlfriend) and I were on my KZ1000, doing about 70, on the freeway, in broad daylight when a group of 5 white tails bolted from the woods and across the road. We went right through the middle of the group, skidding the back tire the whole time. They ran in a line, and we went between #3 and #4.

Nothing I coulda' done, it was just one of those things.

[etcswjoe]

Glad you stayed upright and are ok, we have lots of snapping turtles back home and altough I have never hit one on a bike a buddy of mine did and he said it felt like someone had put a roller skate under his front wheel luckily he was only going about 30 and did not go down.

[ragtop69gs]

I live in an area with a lot of lakes and during the spring mating season there are turtles crossing the roads everywhere, they are thicker than the deer in fall. I must move at least 20 per year off the road, some alive, some not and that's only along the routes I travel often.

[Monty]

I hit a good sized one about 2 years ago. Gave me a little bump, and I heard it crunch as I went over it. Couldn't avoid it. I was following a truck that was pulling a boat, and it just appeared. Saw it after the boat passed over it, so just held on tight & rode it out.

[Marcarl]

Just in my mind,,, just in my mind mind you, riding a road such as you describe at 70mph maybe asking for trouble to start with, but then that is just in my mind,,,, after all, what's the hurry, you are on a scoot aren't you, enjoy the time and be safe, take some time to get there.

As far as the turtle is concerned, the best approach would be to crank on the throttle so to get the front wheel up and over the poor thing, thing is, at 70mph you don't have a lot of torque left to get the job done and so the cranking on the throttle may not be as effective as it might be at 50 mph.

Still a scary thing, no matter how you approach it.

[Eck]

Glad you didnt crash orhit the turttle and that you are OK..

Only thing I can add is safety reminder that you can digest...(or dis-regard in which I hope you dont)..

If you are riding on a well known road that is full of pot holes and is in desperately needed repairs, then you should NOT be riding at 70 MPH...You are only an accident about to happen..

Once anyone gets that "over confidence" feeling and thinks they are in total control... and not paying attention....is when an accident happens.

[Yammer Dan]

I stopped and moved a large Turtle out of the road about ayear ago. Threw him or her back in the river.Big one almost 2 foot across. Good soup...but I don't think it would have been fun to put it in bike trunk....

[aharbi]

Last spring on a group ride just outside of Mena AR I notice the bikes ahead of me started to scatter & zigzag all over the road. They were trying to miss the 30+ turtles trying to cross the road!

[BoomerCPO]

Large turtles can pose a hazard as bad as chunks of tires or deep potholes. Your speed should always match existing road conditions and weather IMHO.

Boomer....who sez dodging a 8 foot alligator in de middle of the road can be as much fun as pushing yer mother-in-law down a steep flight of stairs....

[eusa1]

i met that turtle when i was a kid in the early 70's!!

i had just purchased a spankin new yamaha dt 125 electric start enduro, and only driven about ten miles when i found a turtle about that size in the middle of gravel road... me being a kid i stopped and poked at him with the front wheel and managed to piss him off... well he spun around and bit a chunk out of my tire!!!

i pushed my spankin new bike a mile to the house and learned to leave dem turtles alone and waited a week to get a new tire and ride my new bike.

[BoomerCPO]

i met that turtle when i was a kid in the early 70's!!

i had just purchased a spankin new yamaha dt 125 electric start enduro, and only driven about ten miles when i found a turtle about that size in the middle of gravel road... me being a kid i stopped and poked at him with the front wheel and managed to piss him off... well he spun around and bit a chunk out of my tire!!!

i pushed my spankin new bike a mile to the house and learned to leave dem turtles alone and waited a week to get a new tire and ride my new bike.

 

Snapping turtles are absolutely the baddest turtle on the planet. If they didn't taste so good we would just shoot em and leave em for the gators to snack on down heah.....

Boomer....who has a cousin with only 3 fingers on his left hand thanks to messing with a large snapper....He can still pick his nose purty good with the other hand tho...

[spitfire9]

Glad you're ok and missed that beast. I have heard the advice that if an animal runs in front of you and it's small enough to eat in one sitting, don't risk an accident trying to dodge it. That never applied to turtles, I bet. Or armadillos for that matter.

[bj66]

Glad you didnt crash orhit the turttle and that you are OK..

 

Only thing I can add is safety reminder that you can digest...(or dis-regard in which I hope you dont)..

 

If you are riding on a well known road that is full of pot holes and is in desperately needed repairs, then you should NOT be riding at 70 MPH...You are only an accident about to happen..

 

Once anyone gets that "over confidence" feeling and thinks they are in total control... and not paying attention....is when an accident happens.

 

The road is fixed, they used hot mix to patch the holes. The only problem is our county highway dept. is a sorry excuse for one. They patch and dont do the best job smoothing the patch, so it gets a bit bumpy. As far as the speed on the road, I drive it at least 5 times a week. I was looking ahead at some of the existing patches to get my line when I went by the turtle. Its not that you couldnt drive over the patches, it just is a better ride if you can go around them some of the time. The whole road is scheduled to be resurfaced and has been for at least 5 years. But the county is broke because of all the flooding we have had in past years. Many of our roads are in disrepair. Heck before they patched the holes, they filled them with gravel. That made it a 30 mph road in my truck. You couldnt drive it at all on a bike.