scared while riding

[Larry1963]

A funny story, There I was....... a couple weeks ago I was on a group ride, when we come to the end we had ridden about 300 miles, many stops as group rides go. Big lunch and I was heading home alone.

 

Well I got on US 82 which is a good straight road to my house. I kicked back, put my feet up on the highway pegs, set cruise for 70 mph, speed limit is 65, cranked up some old rock and roll and enjoying my ride.

 

Well I was coming up on a semi truck, he must of been doing about 60 mph, so I started to pass him, just as I got to the cab area of his truck, a loud explosion, and smoke/dust everywhere. The pucker factor went from 5 normal riding to a 20+ in a millisecond. After a quick assailment that I didn't have a problem I come to realize that the truck back inner tire blew. The trucked tracked straight and didn't even slow down. So no danger

 

However it woke me up so much and it took a couple hours for the pucker factor to come back down so I could fart again.......

 

I was glad for a big two lane road so I had time to swerve all over the place LOL

[zagger]

At least it wasn't this:

zag

[ReinyRooster]

Wow.....I could see that that would cause some serious pucker!!

[frankd]

Barb and I were down in Mississippi and as I was passing a logging truck on the Interstate, he had a back tire on the tractor explode. I saw shrapnel fly by on both sides of my head, and I was certain that a big chunk of rubber had hit Barb. I was sure glad to hear that it had missed her. Puckerrrrrrrrrrr.

[Sailor]

I was in my car passing another car when their tire blew. Chunks of rubber hit my car and a big cloud of dust flew up. Went home and changed underwear.

[Condor]

I've driven millions of miles over the years.... ya gotta be old to say that.... and I've seen tons of truck tire carnage laying on the highways. Never saw one blow.... until a couple of years ago. I equate it to being struck by lightening...... Probably never see another, but just the one got my attention. Good thing you were passing the truck seeing as how it was one of the rears that went. That stuff can be lethal....

[GeorgeS]

Only one thing to do, stay away from big trucks !

[Larry1963]

Only one thing to do, stay away from big trucks !

 

I do my best to stay in front of them

[Snaggletooth]

Back in the early 80's I was working as an OTR driver for a company that made and delivered concrete and stone siding for high rise buildings around the Midwest. As a driver a pretty plush job. Nice equipment, predictable schedule and home more often than many drivers. Once they started covering a building I could spent several months doing turns to the same job site. On the plus side it was a full load on usually air ride flat beds or drop decks from the Omaha plant to anywhere from Denver to Dallas or Chicago the run the empty trailer back to the Omaha plant for another load then return again. On the downside the concrete and stone panel were huge and heavy loaded on steel A frames on the trailers so at times it was like floating a boat with concrete sails. A stiff cross wind could make a trip rather interesting. The other issue that caused a lot of concern was the job site deliveries. Most all deliveries were active construction sites where I'd have to back through the work sites to get next to the building to get under a tower crane. Many time in the dark. The amount of tire damage I dealt with was crazy. I've found tires damaged by rebar, broken lumber, hunks of broken concrete and stone that were buried in the dirt or mud. It was nothing odd to pull off a job site and find the space between the dual tires packed completely with mud. The worst I found was a brick wedged between a set of duals on the rear of the trailer so bad I had to have the outer tire removed to get it out.

 

Think about it for a second. Following a semi down the road at highway speeds with a brick lodged between the tires. How long would you follow that? Or would you even notice it? Probably not. Imagine the impact of that brick coming off a tire at the speed with your car or bike. Not a whole lot of difference when a tire starts the throw the tread off a low tire even without a blowout.

 

As a rider it made me acutely aware of the danger of following trucks too closely. It made me more active in my truck inspections before hitting the streets. Better visual checks. More tire thumping. More tire pressure checks on any vehicle.

 

For all the effort made to be safe i still had an incident that scared me to death. Not so much as the folks behind me on a highway in Kansas late one night. I was just south of a place called Beto Junction headed back to Omaha on my last run for the week. Hardly anyone on the highway that night. i had a couple headlights on the road behind me and catching up at a pretty good rate. I could tell by the headlight spacing it was pair of motorcycle. It got the point where at times all I could see behind my empty flatbed was the glow of my taillights on their wind screens. They were that close. I had a set of flood lights on the headache rack on the truck for backing thought the construction site so I gave them a couple of flashes to see if they would back off a bit. They did a little, but not much, or not enough to say the least.

 

A few miles later i saw their headlight going crazy. Swerving and dropping back fast, then stopping off the edge of the road. I could still see both headlights so i knew they were still on two wheels. A few more miles down the road I came the truck stop at the junction and pulled in for fuel and a break. As I was fueling up a pair of bikes pulled in for gas. Both dressed GW's. One had a shattered windscreen and the other had a big split in his fairing. I walked over and asked if they had just been following a flatbed. Well, yeah. I asked if they had noticed my flood lights flashing. Well, yeah. Why did you do that? To get you to back off me a bit. You were way to close. They asked me if I'd blown a tire. Don't think so. Take a look. All my tires were up and inflated so the best i could figure was I'd hit an alligator on the road and flipped it up into their path. Back then a dressed GW was little more than a big bike with a WindJammer on it. I think those two guys were as lucky as they could be that night.

 

We spent an hour or so talking trucks and motorcycle over greasy food and black coffee while their nerves settled down. i think that experience was burned into their minds for many years later. They realized how close they had come to an ugly ending.

 

So It's just another reason to give a truck all the space you can for safeties sake. Their is no way to predict what my happen out there. And very little time to react when it does happen.

 

So stay alert folks. Be safe.

[bostonlawman2003]

Back in the early 80's I was working as an OTR driver for a company that made and delivered concrete and stone siding for high rise buildings around the Midwest. As a driver a pretty plush job. Nice equipment, predictable schedule and home more often than many drivers. Once they started covering a building I could spent several months doing turns to the same job site. On the plus side it was a full load on usually air ride flat beds or drop decks from the Omaha plant to anywhere from Denver to Dallas or Chicago the run the empty trailer back to the Omaha plant for another load then return again. On the downside the concrete and stone panel were huge and heavy loaded on steel A frames on the trailers so at times it was like floating a boat with concrete sails. A stiff cross wind could make a trip rather interesting. The other issue that caused a lot of concern was the job site deliveries. Most all deliveries were active construction sites where I'd have to back through the work sites to get next to the building to get under a tower crane. Many time in the dark. The amount of tire damage I dealt with was crazy. I've found tires damaged by rebar, broken lumber, hunks of broken concrete and stone that were buried in the dirt or mud. It was nothing odd to pull off a job site and find the space between the dual tires packed completely with mud. The worst I found was a brick wedged between a set of duals on the rear of the trailer so bad I had to have the outer tire removed to get it out.

 

Think about it for a second. Following a semi down the road at highway speeds with a brick lodged between the tires. How long would you follow that? Or would you even notice it? Probably not. Imagine the impact of that brick coming off a tire at the speed with your car or bike. Not a whole lot of difference when a tire starts the throw the tread off a low tire even without a blowout.

 

As a rider it made me acutely aware of the danger of following trucks too closely. It made me more active in my truck inspections before hitting the streets. Better visual checks. More tire thumping. More tire pressure checks on any vehicle.

 

For all the effort made to be safe i still had an incident that scared me to death. Not so much as the folks behind me on a highway in Kansas late one night. I was just south of a place called Beto Junction headed back to Omaha on my last run for the week. Hardly anyone on the highway that night. i had a couple headlights on the road behind me and catching up at a pretty good rate. I could tell by the headlight spacing it was pair of motorcycle. It got the point where at times all I could see behind my empty flatbed was the glow of my taillights on their wind screens. They were that close. I had a set of flood lights on the headache rack on the truck for backing thought the construction site so I gave them a couple of flashes to see if they would back off a bit. They did a little, but not much, or not enough to say the least.

 

A few miles later i saw their headlight going crazy. Swerving and dropping back fast, then stopping off the edge of the road. I could still see both headlights so i knew they were still on two wheels. A few more miles down the road I came the truck stop at the junction and pulled in for fuel and a break. As I was fueling up a pair of bikes pulled in for gas. Both dressed GW's. One had a shattered windscreen and the other had a big split in his fairing. I walked over and asked if they had just been following a flatbed. Well, yeah. I asked if they had noticed my flood lights flashing. Well, yeah. Why did you do that? To get you to back off me a bit. You were way to close. They asked me if I'd blown a tire. Don't think so. Take a look. All my tires were up and inflated so the best i could figure was I'd hit an alligator on the road and flipped it up into their path. Back then a dressed GW was little more than a big bike with a WindJammer on it. I think those two guys were as lucky as they could be that night.

 

We spent an hour or so talking trucks and motorcycle over greasy food and black coffee while their nerves settled down. i think that experience was burned into their minds for many years later. They realized how close they had come to an ugly ending.

 

So It's just another reason to give a truck all the space you can for safeties sake. Their is no way to predict what my happen out there. And very little time to react when it does happen.

 

So stay alert folks. Be safe.

 

That's some story!! Wow, after towing a travel trailer all over the east coast I learned real quick that big rigs aren't your friends on the road and to avoid them as much as possible. The wind they kick up, rain water off the road, vacuum they cause when blowing by you at high speed. I do my best to stay in front of them or well behind them.

[slowrollwv]

When I am on the road and getting close to a truck and hear the tires slapping the road I try to get away from it pronto. It is just a matter of time till it will come apart and I do not want to be around it when it happens.

[LPL John]

Amen. Stay away from trucks

[djh3]

I was on my home from Daytona Speedweeks. Riding south on I 95 it had funneled down to 2 lane construction, jersey barriers on one side, orange barrels on the other. @ trucks tieing up both lanes, back and forth neither making any more speed than the other. Cars stacking up behind. So there is 1 car in front of me and like 3 behind me and about the same on the other lane. Like 20-30 min later it felt like we finally got no barriers, and I think the truck in the right lane made an exit. Finally the car hauler I was behind moved over about the same time we gained a lane. I moved far right and maneuvered to get by this mess. About that time I heard the slap slap and then POW a blow out on the trailer. LOL Karma is a B. Lock up 2 lanes for 30 min and never think about moving over. GRRR