Awesome! One of the best Internet forum posts I have ever read. Thanks for sharing your story.

 

Good read man, gald you got back into what you love and got a bike that you love. Me and the wife are in a riding slump right now, we use to ride every chance we got. I would get home and she would be ready to go, i would eat dinner real fast, change and we were on the bike. Well a few months ago we sterted to not want to ride so much and even traded our main 2-up bike for our 1972 Nova and it now the love of our life, but we kept the XL50. Well in about almost 2 months we have only been on the bike 3 times and in the Nova alot-new toy new joy if you know what i mean, but even when we say we are going to ride, by the time we go the garage we don't want to go. I have the bike for sale right now, but not 100% sure I want to sell it, but will if cash is in my face. We are planning to ride tomrrow so we'll see how it goes. I know what the OP mean about sport bikes as I have had 4 of them and 3 were very fast-you cannot have fun on them unless you are rding like an asshat. Well wish me luck on my slump.

 

Well, had my first unintentional contact with another vehicle today, in 11 years of riding.

I was stopped in the left turn lane, and the woman in front (typical cager soccer mom, stick figure pics of the family on the rear glass of her minivan, etc...) didn't make it through the left turn on the green, she was sticking out a bit, but she wasn't out so far that she blocked traffic.

Sure enough, I see the reverse lights come on, and I figure she is going to back up a foot or two and stop. I give her a one second burst of my horn just to make sure she knows I'm there.

Its not enough...she keeps backing up and now I'm laying on the horn. I'm already in neutral, so I start rolling backwards while checking my mirror. The Prius behind me is paying attention and he has already started to back up to give me space.

I can't move back fast enough, and her bumper hits my front wheel and then actually comes UP onto the tire, and the back of her van lifts up a few inches.

At this point the horn has been going for a few seconds now and I know I'm going over if she doesn't realize what is happening, but just as I figure I'm screwed...she slams on the brakes and pulls forward off my tire.

I have to admit...at this point my hands are shaking from the adrenaline. I rip off my helmet and while I should probably have remained calm, I unleash a verbal tirade of anger that takes at least ten seconds to stop coming out of my mouth. I know that I said something to the effect of:

"What the f&&k was that!!!! Are you paying any f**king attention at all? My horn was on for two seconds and you kept backing up. Do you realize that idiots like you kill people on two wheels every day with your distracted and negligent driving??? You were probably on the ****ing phone weren't you???"

She starts to stammer and back up, and I realize that now I've terrified her, which is not really what I wanted to achieve, but I was full of adrenaline and *furious* that she almost wrecked my brand new bike and could have crushed me under her van if I wasn't able to get out of the way fast enough.

I check my tire, my wheel, and the front fork...there is no damage. She didn't have much weight on the tire at all and everything looks fine.

She starts to speak finally, saying something like "You know, language like that is not appropriate". You could tell she was a mom, even without the family stickers on the back of her van, because she was talking to me like a child.

I responded with something like "Don't even try to lecture me on my choice of words when you just drove a four thousand pound vehicle into me. Get the hell out of here and remember how this could have gone if we hadn't both been lucky today. Next time, focus on the road because you have people's lives at your fingertips when you get behind the wheel."

She offered to exchange insurance info, but I was so furious that I just wanted to be free from the sight of her stupid face, and I could tell that nothing was wrong with my bike.

I went for a long ride after that, and eventually stopped at my local dealer. I had a tech take a quick look at the front end, verify the forks weren't leaking and that the tire pressure was still good. I'm sure that there was no damage, since she rolled up onto my wheel and I was in neutral, so I just let the bike roll back with the van, the only force the van put onto my bike was 100% isolated to the front wheel and tire.

I'm just furious that someone would be so oblivious, but I KNOW better. I know how dangerous things are out there, I've been riding for over a decade.

It was a good wakeup call to be extra vigilant all the time, as the stupidity is everywhere these days.

 

That sounds like something my wife would've done when our kids were little. I know I might have reacted like you too, but I just assume everyone is trying to kill me, so I hope I can stay calm when they actually do get me. Scaring women makes you feel bad, afterwards. Be careful out there.
In today's world, I think we need much louder horns.

 

Yeah, I overreacted and I wish I could have done it differently. Live and learn I guess.

I've had some close calls but this is the first time I wasn't able to evade the other vehicle.

I've only had one accident behind the wheel of a car, it was when I got rearended by a semi on the 405 in Los Angeles and driven 30 feet forward into other vehicles, it was a pretty scary experience, and this thing today took me right back to that feeling of being completely helpless as that semi drove me into the back of TWO other cars, on my horn with the brakes locked and the tires screeching.

I do wish I had reacted differently, but I was seeing red.

 

Better than most for 1st write.... congrats.. and its almost everyday in the Newbie intro section that we get the same kind of comments from new HD owners about they finially get it or why did they wait so long, and most even say they used to blast HD's also..

Now get out there and buy some CHROME for that baby....

 

Congrats on the sweet bike, but a little too Shakespeare w/the narrative. In the future, I'd learn to summarize a bit...

 

Methinks thou doth protest too much.





J/K

 

Long but a good read, nonetheless. Welcome aboard!

 

Great story man, and great looking bike.