Semi trailer ran us off the road today!
#21
09-20-2009, 08:19 PM
Road Warrior
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Damn...sorry to hear you encountered a dumb@$$ that nearly took you & your wife out. 
It must be the weekend for it because on my way home from my 2009 Fall Colors road-trip (the last 10 miles), I had not one but two dumb@$$'s just pull right over on me, as well. Fortunately my H-D Premium Air-Horn was loud enough to catch their attention when they were 3/4 into my lane. Still trying to figure out how they didn't see or hear me since I was right next to the drivers window.
Glad to hear you & the wife are okay!
For the future, make sure you make note of the Truck #, Trailer # and the company. Then when you get home, call the Safety Office at the Trucking company and complain!
Those incidents should NOT go un-noticed!!!
It must be the weekend for it because on my way home from my 2009 Fall Colors road-trip (the last 10 miles), I had not one but two dumb@$$'s just pull right over on me, as well. Fortunately my H-D Premium Air-Horn was loud enough to catch their attention when they were 3/4 into my lane. Still trying to figure out how they didn't see or hear me since I was right next to the drivers window.
Glad to hear you & the wife are okay!
For the future, make sure you make note of the Truck #, Trailer # and the company. Then when you get home, call the Safety Office at the Trucking company and complain!
Those incidents should NOT go un-noticed!!!
#22
09-20-2009, 08:27 PM
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#23
09-20-2009, 11:01 PM
#24
09-21-2009, 12:36 AM
So the wife and I were traveling down the super slab today to meet up with some friends and we're coming up on 2 semis so, I move over to the passing lane and twist the throttle to get by them, and as I'm halfway past the first semi he decides to move into my lane to pass the semi that was in front of him! It this point I'm sh!tthing my pants and taking evasive manuevers as the dumb a$$ semi driver doesn't even notice me and forces me off on the shoulder of the road at 75 MPH. At this point I've drifted into the center medium which is all grass. I kept my wits about the situation and let off the gas when in the grass and did not touch the brakes until I felt I was once again under control. I'm not sure how I was able to maintain the bike up right but I managed to coast through until I was stopped. Talk about some scary ****. I'm no worse for wear but, my wife really got the bajesus scared out of her. We didn't go after the dumb a$$ cause it took my wife almost 1/2 hr to calm down and he didn't stop because I don't think he ever saw us. Scariest $hit I've ever been through!
I thought because my trke is a bigger target that I would be easier to be seen and would no longer have that problem! Not so! Just the other day I had a woman move over to the left lane just as I was about to pass her; I blasted the air horn and she just kept coming over. All she knew was that she did not want to get stuck behind a truck and she either didn’t know that I was there or she just didn’t care!?! Makes you wonder!
#25
09-21-2009, 01:23 AM
as a truckdriver AND motorcyclist let me part with a few tips when sharing the road with big rigs.
1. never leave yourself in a position where you are beside a semi. while trucks have alot of mirrors motorcycles can be easily lost and forgot about in emergency manuevers and quick lane changes.
2. no matter how loud or bad you think your pipes are they are nothing compared to the output of the car sized engine that keeps that truck moving. engine noise, road noise, radio noise, cb noise, and jackasses with airtraffic controller devices strapped to their head talking on the phone make your pipes and horn useless.
3. never assume a truck is going where their turn signals are indicating. most trucks DO NOT have self cancelling signals and most trucks will veer the opposite direction the are going to turn so the can get more trailer clearance around a curve.
4. ever see pieces of tire all over the road? that comes from what are refered to as "capped tires" or "caps". what happens is that trucks runs so many miles they literally wear the tread out of tire. the structure(sidewalls) still have many miles of use left on them, so companies just have the tread replaced..kinda like a new sole on a shoe. well, like everything else in this world, there are good and bad jobs done on these, and the bad ones are the ones you see littering the road. if one of those caps comes apart and youre directly behind the semi....goodnite irene! even if you escape injury or a crash your paint job and your underpants will need replacing. my experience of losing caps and being behind rigs that do would be to suggest a minimum of 100 yards following distance at highway speeds to be able to react. i know this will cause some inconvienience in congested traffic, but hey, so will a trip to the emergency room.
5. never leave yourself boxxed in with a truck behind you, they stop too slow and manuever too erratically to be controlable and predictable in emergency braking situations. if the guy in front of you slams on the brakes and you cant change lanes safely youre going to be a statistic.
as a biker knowing what i do about semis and their drivers i simply just stay as far away as i can get, proferable , a speck in my mirrors. however reality dictates that we have to deal with them and share the road. if given the time and space MOST truck drivers will do the right thing as it pertains to traffic conditions.
hope this helps and drive safe.
1. never leave yourself in a position where you are beside a semi. while trucks have alot of mirrors motorcycles can be easily lost and forgot about in emergency manuevers and quick lane changes.
2. no matter how loud or bad you think your pipes are they are nothing compared to the output of the car sized engine that keeps that truck moving. engine noise, road noise, radio noise, cb noise, and jackasses with airtraffic controller devices strapped to their head talking on the phone make your pipes and horn useless.
3. never assume a truck is going where their turn signals are indicating. most trucks DO NOT have self cancelling signals and most trucks will veer the opposite direction the are going to turn so the can get more trailer clearance around a curve.
4. ever see pieces of tire all over the road? that comes from what are refered to as "capped tires" or "caps". what happens is that trucks runs so many miles they literally wear the tread out of tire. the structure(sidewalls) still have many miles of use left on them, so companies just have the tread replaced..kinda like a new sole on a shoe. well, like everything else in this world, there are good and bad jobs done on these, and the bad ones are the ones you see littering the road. if one of those caps comes apart and youre directly behind the semi....goodnite irene! even if you escape injury or a crash your paint job and your underpants will need replacing. my experience of losing caps and being behind rigs that do would be to suggest a minimum of 100 yards following distance at highway speeds to be able to react. i know this will cause some inconvienience in congested traffic, but hey, so will a trip to the emergency room.
5. never leave yourself boxxed in with a truck behind you, they stop too slow and manuever too erratically to be controlable and predictable in emergency braking situations. if the guy in front of you slams on the brakes and you cant change lanes safely youre going to be a statistic.
as a biker knowing what i do about semis and their drivers i simply just stay as far away as i can get, proferable , a speck in my mirrors. however reality dictates that we have to deal with them and share the road. if given the time and space MOST truck drivers will do the right thing as it pertains to traffic conditions.
hope this helps and drive safe.
#27
09-21-2009, 04:07 AM
#28
09-21-2009, 04:22 AM
Wow!!!! Glad you and the Ms. are OK. Bet you were un-nerved. Had a semi run up on me while I was trying to merge onto Interstate. He was laying back and as soon as I merged, he came running on a down hill grade and would not move into the next lane. Had to move back into merge lane to let him by. I would have thought that truckers would be more tolerant of motorcycles, but apparantly not.
Also people on the interstate, are not supposed to move over to allow traffic to merge. Merging traffic is supposed to yield the right of way. I drive a truck for a living and I try to move over if iut does not mean I will disrupt the flow of traffic in the show off lanes. If my moving over is going to disrupt the flow of traffic in the show off lanes/ hammer lanes, then I will not move over. That does not mean I am going to back out of it to let traffic merge infront of me.
#29
09-21-2009, 04:40 AM
Road Warrior
First - Ranger, I'm glad you guys are all right!
Gigantor - Please explain why in the hell do truckers seem uncontrollably compelled to pass each other doing 1/8 to 1 mph faster than the truck in front of them? Why not just stay the F#$k in line. Is that whole 1 mph worth it? Even over a day or week; its squat.
Is this just a way to screw with people? It seems when approuching from behind, i can see trucks following each other, no problems. Then as soon as you get within 100 yards they turn into NASCAR drivers. I think this is the cause of a lot of this kind of close calls.
Gigantor - Please explain why in the hell do truckers seem uncontrollably compelled to pass each other doing 1/8 to 1 mph faster than the truck in front of them? Why not just stay the F#$k in line. Is that whole 1 mph worth it? Even over a day or week; its squat.
Is this just a way to screw with people? It seems when approuching from behind, i can see trucks following each other, no problems. Then as soon as you get within 100 yards they turn into NASCAR drivers. I think this is the cause of a lot of this kind of close calls.
as a truckdriver AND motorcyclist let me part with a few tips when sharing the road with big rigs.
1. never leave yourself in a position where you are beside a semi. while trucks have alot of mirrors motorcycles can be easily lost and forgot about in emergency manuevers and quick lane changes.
2. no matter how loud or bad you think your pipes are they are nothing compared to the output of the car sized engine that keeps that truck moving. engine noise, road noise, radio noise, cb noise, and jackasses with airtraffic controller devices strapped to their head talking on the phone make your pipes and horn useless.
3. never assume a truck is going where their turn signals are indicating. most trucks DO NOT have self cancelling signals and most trucks will veer the opposite direction the are going to turn so the can get more trailer clearance around a curve.
4. ever see pieces of tire all over the road? that comes from what are refered to as "capped tires" or "caps". what happens is that trucks runs so many miles they literally wear the tread out of tire. the structure(sidewalls) still have many miles of use left on them, so companies just have the tread replaced..kinda like a new sole on a shoe. well, like everything else in this world, there are good and bad jobs done on these, and the bad ones are the ones you see littering the road. if one of those caps comes apart and youre directly behind the semi....goodnite irene! even if you escape injury or a crash your paint job and your underpants will need replacing. my experience of losing caps and being behind rigs that do would be to suggest a minimum of 100 yards following distance at highway speeds to be able to react. i know this will cause some inconvienience in congested traffic, but hey, so will a trip to the emergency room.
5. never leave yourself boxxed in with a truck behind you, they stop too slow and manuever too erratically to be controlable and predictable in emergency braking situations. if the guy in front of you slams on the brakes and you cant change lanes safely youre going to be a statistic.
as a biker knowing what i do about semis and their drivers i simply just stay as far away as i can get, proferable , a speck in my mirrors. however reality dictates that we have to deal with them and share the road. if given the time and space MOST truck drivers will do the right thing as it pertains to traffic conditions.
hope this helps and drive safe.
1. never leave yourself in a position where you are beside a semi. while trucks have alot of mirrors motorcycles can be easily lost and forgot about in emergency manuevers and quick lane changes.
2. no matter how loud or bad you think your pipes are they are nothing compared to the output of the car sized engine that keeps that truck moving. engine noise, road noise, radio noise, cb noise, and jackasses with airtraffic controller devices strapped to their head talking on the phone make your pipes and horn useless.
3. never assume a truck is going where their turn signals are indicating. most trucks DO NOT have self cancelling signals and most trucks will veer the opposite direction the are going to turn so the can get more trailer clearance around a curve.
4. ever see pieces of tire all over the road? that comes from what are refered to as "capped tires" or "caps". what happens is that trucks runs so many miles they literally wear the tread out of tire. the structure(sidewalls) still have many miles of use left on them, so companies just have the tread replaced..kinda like a new sole on a shoe. well, like everything else in this world, there are good and bad jobs done on these, and the bad ones are the ones you see littering the road. if one of those caps comes apart and youre directly behind the semi....goodnite irene! even if you escape injury or a crash your paint job and your underpants will need replacing. my experience of losing caps and being behind rigs that do would be to suggest a minimum of 100 yards following distance at highway speeds to be able to react. i know this will cause some inconvienience in congested traffic, but hey, so will a trip to the emergency room.
5. never leave yourself boxxed in with a truck behind you, they stop too slow and manuever too erratically to be controlable and predictable in emergency braking situations. if the guy in front of you slams on the brakes and you cant change lanes safely youre going to be a statistic.
as a biker knowing what i do about semis and their drivers i simply just stay as far away as i can get, proferable , a speck in my mirrors. however reality dictates that we have to deal with them and share the road. if given the time and space MOST truck drivers will do the right thing as it pertains to traffic conditions.
hope this helps and drive safe.
Last edited by street_glider; 09-21-2009 at 04:43 AM.
#30
09-21-2009, 05:31 AM
Glad you and the missus came out unscathed RR. Sharing the road with those big rigs can be unnerving at times. I have worked in warehousing for 17 years so I have run across my share of drivers. Some of these guys (and gals) seem like they can barely figure out how to tie their shoes let alone handle a semi. They are one of my biggest fears on the road next to deer. I don't like to be behind them in front of them or especially next to them. They look best as a spec in my mirrors.
street glider: That is a damn good question. I have taken many interstate trips over the years and it seems there is always that one truck that has to be in front. He will go out of his way to pass another but get right back in line and stay pretty much at the same pace he was being behind.
street glider: That is a damn good question. I have taken many interstate trips over the years and it seems there is always that one truck that has to be in front. He will go out of his way to pass another but get right back in line and stay pretty much at the same pace he was being behind.