Good luck or good management??

MacDoc

MacDoc

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So for once I decided to slab up to the Forks yesterday around 3 pm via 403/410 instead of taking the usual amble up the backroads. I'd been delayed getting away watching the British Open and wanted to make up a bit of time. Not all that fond of riding on Saturday anywhere near the GTA - too annoying.

I'm in the next to fastest lane on the 410 heading north just past the 401 incoming traffic from my right, doing 120 or so ( it's sort of 4-5 lanes wide at that point )....bit windy but nice day - tunes on, traffic is medium heavy Saturday afternoon -

Suddenly get a really sharp burned rubber smell of some sort, check the bike temp - nada - look around nothing I can see but decide to swing over to the right just in case and out of the corner of my eye I see brake lights all over to my left and all sorts of junk - open sleeping bags who knows what else tumbling off the roof of a van and drivers trying to avoid it.

Don't think there was anything that would hurt a car but there was one open red sleeping bag that likely would take down a bike or add 10 years to a riders age avoiding it...white hair overnight stuff, white knuckle stuff.
Fortunately I was a spectator - not in the middle of it as I would have been a minute earlier had I not changed lanes.

He was still ahead and dribbling bits off the roof and swings right but stop ??? naw :rolleyes:- last bit I saw was a good sized sleeping bag still loosely rolled up - likely had been punted around by vehicles as it was pretty big and rolled over to the guard rail.

Last I saw of the van still trailing some rope from the roof and a partial load still on - he had exited and was heading somewhere :confused:

So after settling back into mellow mood ( and a really nice 300k ride during the rest of the day ) I got to wondering what the hell was the burnt rubber smell that luckily prompted me to move over.
I was downwind of the van which was initially couple hundred meters ahead and in the fast lane.
Did a rope bust and then catch under his tire??
Did a vehicle near him brake hard seeing what was going to happen?

Dumb luck - no relation to the event??

I mean generally if something doesn't feel right I'll slow and move over ( shredded tire in PA gave me a bit of warning and also had a similar smell ).

Really ****** that the guy did not even pull over and secure the rest of the load. He could have caused a serious accident even with cars let alone a bike.

Anyone else have dodge em stories?.....just glad I had slowed and moved over...

Luck? Management??.....dunno.
scared-and-sweating-smiley-emoticon.gif


Happy with the outcome tho......and the rest of the ride :D
http://www.gtamotorcycle.com/vbforu...-nice-out-get-out-there&p=2044432#post2044432
 
Good to hear you're safe, and at least it was rubber and not "burnt toast"....
These events get us back on track and out of complacency.
Last thing I dodged (an airborne dump truck) got my scanning and eye lead back to the fore front.
 
Glad everything worked out this time. My dodge em story involves a 6ft aluminum stepladder slo mo ejected from service truck. Thru road constuction, hanging back to avoid the worst of the dust plume. As we re-entered pavement I began closing on the truck but slowed when "something didn't look right" Sure enough the ladder sailed up quite high also doing an endo. All in slow motion.
I hit the ladder (on ground) at approx.45 deg. with my head still tucked behind the clocks, elbows up and @$$ lightly off the seat.
 
I saw a 4x8 3/4 plywood do that off a truck in front of me on the 401 - thought it was cardboard as it wafted up.
Then realized it was a bloody missile as it gained speed and splintered on another lane.

That slow mo is seductive and mesmerizing until you realize Oh ****.!!!

Good riding.to clear it especially at an angle :clap:
 
MacDoc said:
Good riding.to clear it especially at an angle :clap:
Click to expand...

Thanx but it was a lot of luck too. The timing was weird because I couldn't tell if the ladder would land before me and if so would it change direction. I didn't want swerve into the wrong direction(like soccer goalie on penalty kick) so just opted for MX stance and hoped for the best.
 
Glad you are okay. Sounded like the yard sale of the year.

Once happened southbound DVP (just south of Eglinton exit where the curves start). A mountain bike fell off the back rack of a SUV. The tire rubber parts once hit the ground bounced unpredictably. It was all lucky at that point.
 
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Thanks
Yeah I was quite happy to be a spectator instead of player.
Can't believe the idjit did not even pull over to secure the rest of the stuff.
Maybe I'll cruise up and score a sleeping bag :D
 
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I was on 407 the other day and let's say I was in a hurry, so I took the passing lane. Driving my car and thinking about my own. Then all of a sudden - an office chair! Right in the middle of the passing lane. Looked just like someone was hauling office furniture in a open pickup truck and the damn thing got away.
 
MacDoc said:
Can't believe the idjit did not even pull over to secure the rest of the stuff
Click to expand...

Years ago I was in buddies car. Pulling unsafe loaded trailer. Cop pulled us over and wrote ticket to that effect. Did not make us re-arrange load. Just gave ticket and waved us on. We were young and stupid. The cop was just stupid.
 
MacDoc said:
So after settling back into mellow mood ( and a really nice 300k ride during the rest of the day ) I got to wondering what the hell was the burnt rubber smell that luckily prompted me to move over.
I was downwind of the van which was initially couple hundred meters ahead and in the fast lane.
Did a rope bust and then catch under his tire??
Did a vehicle near him brake hard seeing what was going to happen?
Click to expand...

someone in front of you locked up the brakes = burning rubber, glad you made it through safely
 
In California, a three-seater couch fell out of the back of a moving truck on an LA Freeway in front of me, was far enough behind to change lanes.

Up in Rosseau, a plastic patio chair fell off the back of a pickup truck, the girls sitting in the back of the truck looked in horror as I had to swerve to avoid it. This was on 141, so I was already going at a pretty good clip, coming up on the truck... :eek:

My buddy and I were shift driving on our 20-hour run to Florida and it was my turn in the middle of the night through the Virginia mountains. No lights whatsoever, and to keep myself from falling asleep, I changed lanes just for the hell of it. Less than 30 seconds later after a blind turn, I drove right past a deer standing in the lane I had just changed from. Didn't see it till the last second, and it didn't move an inch - we would have hit it for sure if I had stayed in that lane. Definitely luck was on our (my) side.
 
I've had deer pop out of roadside brush north of Toronto. luckily I wasn't going too fast there and was able to slow down enough for them to cross. As mentioned in the other thread I've been behind a junker blowout in MD with wheel parts everywhere. But there I was in another lane.

I try to gently stay away from anything loaded with loose objects - bikes, roof rack stuff, trailers or truckbeds fulla junk... whatever. You never can tell how someone's secured their load.
 
Macdoc,

We must of been within minutes of each other. I saw all the sleeping bags all over the highway.

He got off on Bovaird Dr, as his trail of debris was sprawled across Bovaird Drive as well.
 
I've got a few to add...


  • Riding down Rossland Rd. in Oshawa when all of a sudden something peeled off the roof of the contractor's van in front of me... turned out to be a large piece of sheet metal gracefully sailing through the air. It landed on the sidewalk safely. It was good fortune that nobody was there, as this piece of sheet metal would likely have cut them in half. Lucky for me that I was a few hundred feet behind the van. Lucky also for the mother pushing her baby carriage down the sidewalk a few hundred feet farther down the road. I couldn't catch the van to warn him, as the light turned red after he went thru the intersection.
  • Cruising down the 407, when all of a sudden a huge piece of ductwork came out of trailer being towed by an SUV and skidded down the slow lane, coming to a stop in the middle of the lane. I pulled along side him, honked my horn and pointed to his trailer but he continued blithely along, lost in some fog or daydream. This piece of ductwork had an opening about 3 feet square and was about 4 feet long so you can imagine what might have happened if a vehicle had been following too closely behind! I called 680 News to report it pronto... they are pretty good at notifying the proper authorities about these things.
  • Driving down the 401 near Whitby. A transport truck had just lost the entire tread from one if its tires, and this huge rubber "alligator" got run over by a Toyota Yaris. I saw the rubber as it was spit out of the back end of the Toyota, became airborne and hit the vehicle travelling behind. Luckily it wasn't a motorcycle and nobody got hurt.

Be careful! Its a jungle out there!
 
Geez - didn't think it was that far north but my mind was on the debris. Clean crew must have been shaking their heads.
••

Staying away from junkers???....yeah

My son was wondering why I was being more of a hooligan than usual coming over the Skyway - told him after I was staying ahead of an incredibly overloaded ( sitting way low in the back ) pickup stuffed with junk and moving fast and weaving - just was not going to be behind him under any circumstances.
Ya gotta wonder....
I've seen a few with mattresses held down with a single string and the mattress lifting off at least a foot off the front of the roof.
 
Geez guys....it's back roads for me today..:rolleyes:

I was a bit concerned about deer last night. Moon was so nice tho....will be again this evening but need the liner I think.
 
Worst one for me was hitting a HUGE rock (at least 4" tall) on Hwy in Buffalo. Shot my front end up, shook like a ***** when it landed, but saved it. Can't believe it didn't dent my rim, I hit it at 120.
 
I wasn't on my bike but I had to dodge a couch in the middle of the QEW(in my car) just before 427 awhile back.
...looked very out of place, wouldn't surprise me if I saw the Simpsons family running to it:D
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