SuzukiSavage.com - Print Page

SuzukiSavage.com
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl
General Category >> The Cafe >> stuff in the road..
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1452473035

Message started by badwolf on 01/10/16 at 16:43:55

Title: stuff in the road..
Post by badwolf on 01/10/16 at 16:43:55

Nice 80 mile ride to the range and back today, nice Jan weather for Florida.(But no twisties just straight flat roads with a lot of drivers trying to kill you!) Got me thinking, about the stuff that is just laying there on the road trying to kill us. What is the most memorable debris you have hit, you know the stuff that is just there coming out from under the car or truck in front of you with little or no warning?
I can recall a chunk of 4x4 I hit on my old Yamaha, rode the front wheel after that for a-ways. One night in the rain I hit a dead deer on my Pacific Coast,it was just THERE from under that car. I see chunks of truck tire carcass all over, down here we call them alligators, cause if you drive over them with a car they can jump-up and bite it. I saw a real alligator laying across the other lane once, after I got by it I looked up and saw a 18 wheeler barreling towards it. I waved franticly at him and pointed, then I heard his air brakes come on, I think I made a buddy that day. Don't know what happened to the gator thou.
This site has followers around the world, lets hear what strange stuff you all have hit, or just missed. Kangaroos? Lions? Just plain old t-boning cars or trucks don't count, we have all done that, or close to it.

Title: Re: stuff in the road..
Post by Kris01 on 01/10/16 at 19:46:16

Saw a large black "water hose" coiled up in the middle of the road. I figured it fell out of a work truck or something. Once the "hose" started to uncoil and slither off the road, I slowed waaay down and let it go by. That snake stretched all the way across a 2-lane country road. I gave him plenty of room! ;)

Title: Re: stuff in the road..
Post by MMRanch on 01/10/16 at 19:47:03

There was this 30 lb.dog that started rolling when the front tire hit it , rolled even faster when the bottom of the motor and mufflers passed over it , and by time the back tire got to it - it was rolling fast enough that the rear tire pushed it along instead of hopping over it. Well after I caught on to what was going on , I twisted it open and jumped the rear tire on over the dog.

:)

Title: Re: stuff in the road..
Post by gizzo on 01/10/16 at 20:00:09

I have hit Kangaroos, a wombat and an echidna. That one wrecked 2 4x4 tyres. Some galahs and almost cleaned up a wedge tail eagle. I drove through a storm of cushions when a couch fell off a pickup truck in front of me. The funniest (and saddest at the same time) was a wedding cake on the roof of a car going down the highway (she must have forgotten she put it there) slid off and got smashed to a pulp by traffic ;D.
A funny story I heard happened when a vehicle had been travelling close behind a 2 deck cattle truck. A bullock climbed out the top deck, fell out and landed on the car! Who knows whether that one's true but it's a good yarn.

Title: Re: stuff in the road..
Post by springman on 01/10/16 at 20:38:24

Hey Gizzo. I live in Houston, Texas but some 20 years ago or so I worked for a company that had offices in Australia, one in Perth and one in Brisbane. I had to go call on clients, mainly mining companies throughout Australia. I do not remember the town I was in but I had a very early appointment at a remote site about an hour and a half from the small town at which I spent the night. So at around 6 or so in the morning I was on the road heading to this mine site out in the middle of nowhere. It was a beautiful day, I was the only car on the road so I may have been going a little fast. Way down the road I see what appears to be a man on the edge of the road, as I get closer I see it is a rather large kangaroo. Cool I thought, a real live kangaroo. I thought it was neat and that as I approached it would go back into the boonies. Well, the durned thing waited until the very last second and decided to hop across the road. I slammed on the brakes, did a 360 and then some but somehow missed the kangaroo by the skin of my teeth. I just sat there for a few minutes, made sure I had not soiled myself, thanked God for his mercy, and eventually drove much more slowly to my meeting. :o

Title: Re: stuff in the road..
Post by Art Webb on 01/11/16 at 07:53:58

well if stuff you hit in your car counts, I hit a Hawk once
I guess he thought the car's windshield (or something in my passenger seat) looked tasty
On a moto I narrowly missed a wheel and tire rolling down the road the wrong way
Never did see any 3 wheeled car to go along with it :-?

Title: Re: stuff in the road..
Post by runwyrlph on 01/11/16 at 09:55:25

A few years ago we were in Highland County, Virginia near Bluegrass. The road was covered with little frogs, they were impossible to avoid, we must have smooshed about a hundred.

Title: Re: stuff in the road..
Post by stewmills on 01/11/16 at 10:27:27

when I was a kid, my dad hit a horse while pulling a race car and trailer with a dual cab pick-up. Horse pieces everywhere...

I personally hit a giant buzzard in a little Toyota car. He was so fat from eating a carcass in the road he couldn't gain altitude very fast. Covered about 2/3 of the windshield on impact, rolled over the roof, and then got up and ran off.

My S40, had a lot of close calls, but other than hitting a yellow jacket that landed on my knee and hanging on long enough to sting me, I haven't had any real interactions with nature.

Title: Re: stuff in the road..
Post by Kris01 on 01/11/16 at 13:30:57

283F212F2F23354C0 wrote:

A few years ago we were in Highland County, Virginia near Bluegrass. The road was covered with little frogs, they were impossible to avoid, we must have smooshed about a hundred.

I had that same experience outside of New Orleans except it was giant black bugs. I think they're called Catalpa bugs or something. They were everywhere.

Title: Re: stuff in the road..
Post by gizzo on 01/11/16 at 13:39:59

7576746F68616B6768060 wrote:

Yep, they are crazy. If you see them on the side of the road you can pretty much assume they are going to come your way, not the other. Most riders avoid riding at dusk if they can. That's prime roo hitting time. And in the countryside at night is always risky. I guess like you guys and deer. Except deer are not fuelled with testosterone so when you hit one, they don't get up and punch on.

I rode through a swarm of bees once, Got a dozen or so down the front of my jacket. Not fun.

Title: Re: stuff in the road..
Post by Rodger on 01/12/16 at 17:43:36

A few years ago, I was riding north on I-25 in Colorado, overtaking a pickup truck.. Something just "didn't seem right", so I pulled into the left lane early, when I was still about 1/4 mile behind him. Just as I was passing, a clothes dryer floated up out of the pickup's box, clearing the closed tailgate and disintegrating on the asphalt.

If I'd waited just a little longer to change lanes.....? Like every biker, I've had my share of near-misses/close calls, but that was the weirdest one so far.