That reminds me of the time I got broadsided by some kid on a BMX bike with no brakes. I saw him rolling too fast down a hill toward the street I was on, dragging his feet trying to stop. I was going 25-30, hit the brakes & came to a quick stop, but he managed to steer right into the side of my car. I can still see his pudgy little face pressed up against the glass. If I'd had the window open he would've ended up in my lap. He was ok, even without a helment, but his bike... And my door...
It was a bit scary at the time, but I can laugh about it now. Don't know if he does though.
Off topic, but since we're talking about motorcycles... anyone know of a good motorcycle blog? I like Jalponik and all, but there isn't much on the motorcycle front here.
I've been on it one time, in a car, post-near-death bike accident, and I can say I'm glad to have not attempted it on two-wheels only because of the boneheads riding it. Even in a car, knowing the respect that road is not given had me looking, almost waiting, for someone to be on the wrong side of the road, mid-corner.
Pictures can't show just how tight that road is. I see why it's two-wheeled Mecca for the area, but I've been on better, less-traveled roads in Colorado. Cottonwood pass comes to mind, immediately.
The key is you have to look where you WANT to go. People look where they're going and sure enough, that's where they go.
My wife and I were two-up on a '91 ST1100 in a group of ST's. Mine was called FaSTer MaSTer, and we were known as being aggressive riders. Not stupid, mind you, just not afraid of the road.
We were behind a guy on a couple year newer machine in CO. Holmes was leaned over pretty good, heading into the classic decreasing-radius corner, and when I thought he was fine, then he stood it up, went up a dirt driveway, smacked into a fence, and flipped over, with the bike, onto a large rock.
Two-up, with inherently less clearance and more mass, we still made it through the same corner, at the same speed, though we did scrap more of the right-side peg off than homeboy. We also has a crankcase with less ventilation afterward.
This taught me first-hand, trust the tires. You will drag hard stuff before the tires give up, unless something else is at work. See my earlier comment on the genius behind putting non-absorbent cement powder on diesel fuel spills.
Fookin' Oregonians.
Oh, and some of the best bikes in the twisties are dual-sports converted to canyon carving. I had an XL600V with street tires and slightly tweaked suspension. What it lacked in top speed it MORE than made up for in the corners. Guys with double the HP were always amazed I was with them at the stops on a ride. Yeah...I catch up in the corners...where it's really fun!
@my beater Mercedes lacks reverse: You mention Colorado. I love Indepence Pass. In part as it calls for extreme focus, if you fuck up there you are 100 feet down a cliff and nobody will ever find you.
If you're lucky, you're only 100 feet down a cliff. This just means you had less time to think about it before dying. Some of the drop-offs in that part of the world must have vehicles at the bottom nobody knows about.
Independence Pass...the only place in the state you're pretty much guaranteed to find snow, roadside, in August.
@my beater Mercedes lacks reverse: is that where you stop to get supplies like wagon wheels, axles, and more oxen? I think I buried some of my party there after they died of dysentery...
@my beater Mercedes lacks reverse: I very nearly bought a 86 Honda XL600R to put motard tires on. It's $400. Should I do it? It needs a carb cleaning (I got it to run, BRIEFLY) but is otherwise nice.
It's tools like this that give bikers a bad name. You have to know that everybody who lives up there cringes inside every time they ride that stretch of highway, knowing some fool with a fast machine could take them out, even if they are driving carefully themselves. People crash, things fall off. That's why they have:
Biker got off easy. It's a public road: don't let things get away from you that you can't correct, given your speed, road conditions and sightlines. Plus he's got to pay to repair the truck on top of the rest of it. This guy seems not to have been looking far enough ahead, and got overly committed to his line.
Viewing the photos the rider looks like he did not keep turning with the capabilities of his tires since his riding ability was under the performance capability of the cycle. This is one of the biggest issues in riders veering off the road in a turn even when they don't hit a car.
He probably got target fixated also- look where you want to go, NOT at what you DON'T want to hit.
I have been on the Dragon multiple times- all on 650cc pre-1983 vintage Japanese model motorcycles. This is a road that really demands your full attention and actually benefits for riding a smaller sized motorcycle.
I have seen people on road race cycles with race slicks and clip on flash light headlamp, one guy in a wheel chair ~riding~ a VW powered trike that cut both lanes in switch backs, full sized RVs, triple axle dump trucks!!!, Northstar powered and Fieros, Miatas of all stripes, Harley style choppers that had to practically stop in the switch backs because of garbage/no suspension, and even the paramedics carrying a guy away in an ambulance who had launched his GXSR1100 over the side in the last turn before the gas station at the end.
I can only imagine that onboard video cams combined with the ease of posting to the internet has driven far more noodle heads there then ever before.
Two words: counter steer. This is the most needed technique of riding the Dragon at 129/29. 129 past the Dragon is far more relaxing as are some of the roads from that area down to even Murphy, NC
I am in the Middle Tennessee area and formerly lived north of Chattanooga, TN hence the ease of riding over there...
"his riding ability was under the performance capability of the cycle"
This guy was either under-skilled, or just genetically possessing "slow twitch" synapses that predispose him to a "freeze response" in dangerous situations.
...Which I finally realized was my problem, after years and years of attempting to increase my skill level.
Take an Elise up to California's Nurburgring, the canyons of the San Fernando Valley and the ever popular Glendora Mountain Road.
Roads like this are a genuinely bad idea for this exact reason-- amount of traffic and POLICE POLICE POLICE... In case you didn't know, Tail of the dragon is HEAVILY patrolled... or, so I'm told.
Typical fucking cager. How could you negotiate that turn and NOT see the biker coming at you? There's an easy 4-6' for that Blazer to move over and let the bike slip past.
Of course, to potentially save the rider's life, he'd have to put 2 wheels of his precious 4x4 onto the DIRT!
Then again, on a road that curvy, in a vehicle that dynamically inept, he was probably white knuckling at 15 mph just to keep all four wheels on the ground.
@Feds: You're kidding, right? I'm guessing the whole thing happened so quickly that reacting would be nigh-on impossible. Besides, the biker was at least a foot on the wrong side of a double-yellow line and is therefore at fault, period.
Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. was starred
Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. was unstarred
@Mike the Dog: I dunno, blazer driver would have seen bobble head wandering over to his side of the road, but that's only if he was looking ahead through the turn.
@skulldriveshaft: From what I can see of the radius of that turn, I'm not convinced that even looking as far as he could see into the corner the Blazer driver would have had much more than a fraction of a second to react. Even if he did see the guy, he was already turning into the curve himself and reacting by jerking to the right might have upset the balance of the Blazer causing it to lose control also. Besides, why should we expect the less maneuverable vehicle to get out of the way of the guy who was in over his head? This is a good example of why hoonage on public roads is irresponsible. Bike guy should count himself lucky he lived to learn from this.
Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. was starred
Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. was unstarred
03/12/09
It was a bit scary at the time, but I can laugh about it now. Don't know if he does though.
03/12/09
Can't ride it, leave it parked. Simple.
03/12/09
03/12/09
03/12/09
I've been on it one time, in a car, post-near-death bike accident, and I can say I'm glad to have not attempted it on two-wheels only because of the boneheads riding it. Even in a car, knowing the respect that road is not given had me looking, almost waiting, for someone to be on the wrong side of the road, mid-corner.
Pictures can't show just how tight that road is. I see why it's two-wheeled Mecca for the area, but I've been on better, less-traveled roads in Colorado. Cottonwood pass comes to mind, immediately.
The key is you have to look where you WANT to go. People look where they're going and sure enough, that's where they go.
My wife and I were two-up on a '91 ST1100 in a group of ST's. Mine was called FaSTer MaSTer, and we were known as being aggressive riders. Not stupid, mind you, just not afraid of the road.
We were behind a guy on a couple year newer machine in CO. Holmes was leaned over pretty good, heading into the classic decreasing-radius corner, and when I thought he was fine, then he stood it up, went up a dirt driveway, smacked into a fence, and flipped over, with the bike, onto a large rock.
Two-up, with inherently less clearance and more mass, we still made it through the same corner, at the same speed, though we did scrap more of the right-side peg off than homeboy. We also has a crankcase with less ventilation afterward.
This taught me first-hand, trust the tires. You will drag hard stuff before the tires give up, unless something else is at work. See my earlier comment on the genius behind putting non-absorbent cement powder on diesel fuel spills.
Fookin' Oregonians.
Oh, and some of the best bikes in the twisties are dual-sports converted to canyon carving. I had an XL600V with street tires and slightly tweaked suspension. What it lacked in top speed it MORE than made up for in the corners. Guys with double the HP were always amazed I was with them at the stops on a ride. Yeah...I catch up in the corners...where it's really fun!
03/12/09
03/12/09
If you're lucky, you're only 100 feet down a cliff. This just means you had less time to think about it before dying. Some of the drop-offs in that part of the world must have vehicles at the bottom nobody knows about.
Independence Pass...the only place in the state you're pretty much guaranteed to find snow, roadside, in August.
03/12/09
03/12/09
03/12/09
03/12/09
THE TREE OF SHAME
03/12/09
PROOF
wondering how people can tolerate the annoying
PROOF
in the picture getting in the way of things
PROOF
See, isn't that bothersome?
Oh, I'm forwarding this to my friends at the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, lol.
03/12/09
03/12/09
He probably got target fixated also- look where you want to go, NOT at what you DON'T want to hit.
I have been on the Dragon multiple times- all on 650cc pre-1983 vintage Japanese model motorcycles. This is a road that really demands your full attention and actually benefits for riding a smaller sized motorcycle.
I have seen people on road race cycles with race slicks and clip on flash light headlamp, one guy in a wheel chair ~riding~ a VW powered trike that cut both lanes in switch backs, full sized RVs, triple axle dump trucks!!!, Northstar powered and Fieros, Miatas of all stripes, Harley style choppers that had to practically stop in the switch backs because of garbage/no suspension, and even the paramedics carrying a guy away in an ambulance who had launched his GXSR1100 over the side in the last turn before the gas station at the end.
I can only imagine that onboard video cams combined with the ease of posting to the internet has driven far more noodle heads there then ever before.
Two words: counter steer. This is the most needed technique of riding the Dragon at 129/29. 129 past the Dragon is far more relaxing as are some of the roads from that area down to even Murphy, NC
I am in the Middle Tennessee area and formerly lived north of Chattanooga, TN hence the ease of riding over there...
03/12/09
"his riding ability was under the performance capability of the cycle"
This guy was either under-skilled, or just genetically possessing "slow twitch" synapses that predispose him to a "freeze response" in dangerous situations.
...Which I finally realized was my problem, after years and years of attempting to increase my skill level.
My motorcycling experience: 1980-1996, R.I.P.
03/12/09
*PROOF*
*BLAMMO*
*BOFFO*
*SMACKAROO*
03/12/09
03/12/09
03/12/09
03/12/09
03/12/09
It's too crowded, too complicated. Renting an Elise for this particular road is stupid.
[www.mulhollandraceway.org]
Take an Elise up to California's Nurburgring, the canyons of the San Fernando Valley and the ever popular Glendora Mountain Road.
Roads like this are a genuinely bad idea for this exact reason-- amount of traffic and POLICE POLICE POLICE... In case you didn't know, Tail of the dragon is HEAVILY patrolled... or, so I'm told.
Rent an Elise and go to an AutoX to thrash.
03/12/09
Motorcycle replacement - don't bother buddy
Seeing if Chevy Trucks are really built "Like a Rock"...
... the hard way! - Priceless!
03/12/09
Of course, to potentially save the rider's life, he'd have to put 2 wheels of his precious 4x4 onto the DIRT!
Then again, on a road that curvy, in a vehicle that dynamically inept, he was probably white knuckling at 15 mph just to keep all four wheels on the ground.
Fucking cagers.
03/12/09
Heart click to you, allways supporting bikers, even if the sucker is no knee-dragger.
03/12/09
03/12/09
But then we wouldn't have this great thread.
03/13/09
What's a cager?
03/13/09
03/12/09
[killboy.blogspot.com]