What have you run over lately?

[John]

I tried to plow my way through a Chevy pick up while on my bike a couple of years ago. Does that count?

[cloerts]

I saw a 20 foot flatbed drop a 20 foot hay elevator from the top of a load of hay. They forgot to tie it down. The bad part was thier cowdog was tied to the elevator.

[fredintoon]

Fred's last ride

Back in the day, the Royal Enfield Meteor was the XS11 of it's time; it too ran out of brakes & steering 20mph before it ran out of power. My good friend Fred Chivers chose an old Roman road, (Straight, a rare thing in pre-motorway England and not a major road so no traffic to speak of) to see how fast the thing would go. Alas that a van came out of an unmarked crossroad at just the wrong time. The Enfield punched through the van's cargo space and out the far side. Fred stayed inside the van. Closed casket funeral.
Fred Hill, S'toon.

[randy]

Haven't run over anything lately, thank goodness, but I have dodged runaway truck wheels, tire AND rim! on Route 80, my Brother Robert mashed a squirrel on the way to his road test (must have been a lucky squirrel, he passed). And then there was the bat that I hit with my jeep, had to pull him out of the grille, damn those things are ugly up close! Guess I was flying too low for his radar yuk,yuk

[ZXDavid]

Back in the day 1972 me on a 72 H2 and my buddy on 72 H1 were going down the highway about 70 mph when we both spot a small box in the road. He decides to boot it on the way past and nearly got dragged off his bike. He broke some bones in his foot. The small box contained a car battery.

[XSRIK]

Most bizarre memory:
I once almost ran over a loaf of bread on I-10 just west of mobile Alabama sitting pretty as you please in the middle of the interstate at daybreak after an all night riding slog from somewhere in Texas on my old HD lowrider. For some reason it just seemed weird to me, there it was at daybreak just sitting there on the centerline; twist tie and all with no visible damage and not a vehicle in sight in either direction.

In addition, I guess I've run over just about everything that walks, crawls and slithers in 35 years of riding including my big brother after an argument over whose turn it was to ride the 3.5 horsepower Briggs powered Mini-bike circa 1969 model in lime green.

XSRIK

"Never run over anything you could not eat in one sitting"

[gerkenbruce]

Lets just say that a BMW K1200R will out stop a Suzuki 1100 Katana

XSively
Bruce

[desert1]

my hits

Hit a dead fox, allmost hit a brick, almost hit a 4 by 4....friend of mine hit a bear with his HD cut the bear in two,$ 2200. in damage to the Harley. Vince got a few holes in the knees, elbows, dislocations and sprains.
Bruce

[BLUEJEEPLAB]

And then there was the bat that I hit with my jeep, had to pull him out of the grille, damn those things are ugly up close!

I nailed a Dove with my Jeep, they aren't ugly, but Boy, they sure make a huge mess!

[mro]

Have had several near misses on 580 in Livermore last year.
Was on my way to check out a boat for my dad in Concord. Turned off 580 on to the clover leaf to 680, as I was coming around notice a small pipe fitting rolling down the ramp, look up and there’s another 30 or 40 just ahead all coming at me.

Just as I got past em there was a plumbing truck pulled over on the shoulder with the side bins open and nearly empty.

Another time on 580 was in lane 2 going about 65 and a van in front of me hits his breaks, so I went to lane 3. As I cleared the van and could see up the other lane there was a sleeping bag sitting in it. It caught on something right side of bike but luckily came off after just a few feet. Had a vision of it getting wrapped up in the rear wheel.

Back in the eighty's. The first trailer that I had built kept having a problem with the fenders. The brackets would fatigue, crack and fender would start to flop around. About third time had had enough. Built all new fenders and brackets. Fenders out a 1/8 steel (fenders weight about 40 pounds ea) and brackets out a 3/16 and 1/4. Used it for a few months and would check it after each use. Thought had solved the problem. Few weeks later was going north on 880. Left fender comes unglued and is skidding down the next lane. As I was pulling over to stop and get it out of the road a 18 wheeler comes along and hits it with all the wheels on the right side of his rig. Turned it into flat stock.
Dude never even slowed down.


mro

[Pat Kelly]

In Phoenix my roomate and I were heading down the freeway following a guy on a bike. He was behind a pick-up full of boxes. t looked like 2 girls were in the process of moving. A box fall off the truck and explodes. Dishes and silverware (steak knives?) were flying everywhere. The guy on the bike went right through it all. We didn't see any blood so I guess he lived. Wonder if he at least got a date out of it?

[dale_1]

thump thump splat

Most recent to losing memory
just the oddball accounts:

Squirrel on XCaliber a few weeks ago....
Here he was just walking non-chalant across the street, my son and I were going to get the girls from school. I slow drastically.... we were only doing about 20 anyway.... litttle squirrel stops and looks right at me.... goes left ..... stops goes right.... he never heard me say dont do that again..... he does it anyway and I get him with the rear wheel...... Billy laughing says "dumb squirrel" and I start to feel bad for killing this little guy. He took off running into a neighbors yard and I lose track of where he went. After picking up the girls we drive back by to see if we can find him and get him into a trash can or somewhere where the little kids in the neighborhood won't play with him. Can't find him anywhere. Just about to give up and Billy spots a squirrel giving me the "what for" ....... he has a big chunk missing at the end of his tail and here he is sitting in a tree screaming and threatening to eat me. I figured that had to be him...... he doesnt like bikes now and I never see him in the road anymore. See him almost everyday in the tree or in the yard and everytime I drive by on the bike he gets mad and starts acting like he wants to kill me!

next up is the reason my windshield is a little of center.....

Driving from Sallisaw to Poteau and just cruising along I see this 18 wheeler coming up, nothing abnormal here..... all of a sudden from the top of his cab probably from the trailer I see what can only be described as "a big green leefy vegatable" flying straight for me. All I could do was duck... it hit my windshield a little to the right at approx 120 (two vehicles at around 60 blah blah blah) After the impact I had to slow down to around 45.... couldnt see thru windshield, faceshield on my helmet was coated in green slime and my shades were dripping this green goo. Zero eye protection and I just rolled into the station about 5 miles from this point (called sunset corner) walked in and asked the guy behind the counter for some windex........ thats when I noticed and he did too that my whole body was covered in slime. I was only about thirty miles from home so I declined the free shower, cleaned everything else up and notice the bent windshield support. It stays bent to remind me never to take anything for granted while riding.

Bird in flight ....... short and sweet:

bird contacts right hand and my Earnhardt leather glove takes a beating.... the guy behind me in a truck slams on the brakes shortly after I hit the bird...... from my viewpoint it looked like a small puff....... In my mirror it looked like a small explosion...... can't imagine what the guy in the truck saw. Feathers everywhere....... he was definitley spooked.

Rental Van:

Going to Houston to visit my bro-in-law years ago..... driving a 14 passenger Ford van, fully loaded with people. 5 or 6 lanes of cars and pickups ..... one in particular just looks like he might be about to something stupid (he is lane swapping like crazy). I am in lane 2...... I adjust my speed a little down to give me lane 1 access and the guy in lane 1 moves to 2. The dumb guy in the truck gets clipped by a little white car trying to jockey for position right in behind him..... truck spins and I announce loudly "everyone hang on".
Now this van is full of all family members of mine and SWMBO's sister's. 14 total people in this van remember? I take my now empty lane 1 and hammer on it, I let everyone know "we're gettin outta here"...... truck spins, car spins, they start clipping vehicles everywhere..... I pass the ensuing mess taking evasive action all the way to the concrete barrier and wham right as we pass the mess this white Ford dually Pickup slams the barrier just as we missed everything. Traffic was so heavy we didn't get a chance to stop. The bright side to this story was right as I noticed the dumb guy in the truck doin stupid stuff we saw a cop sitting on the side of the shoulder shootin radar........ he saw the whole thing. We even got to see it on the evening news. Nobody was seriously injured..... but I really believe if I wasn't so lucky I would have lost most if not all of my family in that incident. If I had hammered a second late we woulda been slammed instead of the concrete barrier. SWMBO slept through all of it, and just about freaked out when we saw it on the news. Her sister kept telling her we should have all been killed. I kept telling her to shut-up. Sherri slept through it she didn't need to know anything else.

That to the best of my ability is all the really strange ones.

[Dragonrider]

Re: thump thump splat

Originally posted by dale_1
Squirrel on XCaliber a few weeks ago....
Here he was just walking non-chalant across the street, my son and I were going to get the girls from school. I slow drastically.... we were only doing about 20 anyway.... litttle squirrel stops and looks right at me.... goes left ..... stops goes right.... he never heard me say dont do that again..... he does it anyway and I get him with the rear wheel...... Billy laughing says "dumb squirrel" and I start to feel bad for killing this little guy. He took off running into a neighbors yard and I lose track of where he went. After picking up the girls we drive back by to see if we can find him and get him into a trash can or somewhere where the little kids in the neighborhood won't play with him. Can't find him anywhere. Just about to give up and Billy spots a squirrel giving me the "what for" ....... he has a big chunk missing at the end of his tail and here he is sitting in a tree screaming and threatening to eat me. I figured that had to be him...... he doesnt like bikes now and I never see him in the road anymore. See him almost everyday in the tree or in the yard and everytime I drive by on the bike he gets mad and starts acting like he wants to kill me!

Watch out for that squirrel...he's just plotting his revenge!

I know what I'm talking about!

[dale_1]

squirrels

Yessir, thought about that when I started writing my story.

The worst joke I ever told.........

I ran over a chipmunk the other day on my motrcycle..... didn't wreck it but it felt a little squirrely.

Don't remember where I heard that one.... I might have read it from your stuff Dan. Long time back.

[eroellig]

Not my story....

.... as I haven't riden so much as a mile yet, but a friend of mine almost got killed a couple of years ago. This one is more of a "What has run over YOU." type of story.

He was riding along on his HD in South Carolina, minding his own business (isn't that how most of these stories start out?) There was a car or pickup towing a trailer coming from the other direction. Obviously, a family was moving. Paul didn't think anything of it until the mattress from the top of the pile on trailer fell off and slammed Paul at highway speed. Paul doesn't remember the rest of it first hand, but a man who was behind him came to visit in the hospital and filled him in.

The bike basically low sided from the impact. The engine guard kept the bike off of Paul's legs. Paul rolled lengthwise quite a number of times. No gloves, no brain bucket. EVERY knuckle was skinned and bruised. He had a bruise of the brain and gave him an altered personality (and not for the better) for 3 or 4 months. He also had a major artery in his leg get torn and he almost blead out into his own leg. If the person who was behind him hand't had paramedic training, it is very probable he wouldn't have survived.

It cost less than $3K to fix the bike. I forget how many MULTIPLE $100,000 it took to fix Paul back up.

After hearing that story, SWMBO says I can go play with my bike any time I want as long as I wear a brain bucket.

Eric