Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Careless drivers and a near miss...

I got a friend to give me a ride to my mechanic's house this evening to pick up my older Speedmaster. On the way back, with him following in my truck, a VW bug cut in front of me causing me to brake and swerve. I caught up to the moron and let him know what I thought of his driving. His response. " I didn't hit you did I"

So, about 3 minutes later, I'm driving down the same avenue with my friend a car length or two behind me and I'm not sure how I reacted this fast but sensed a large truck swerving into my lane from over my left shoulder. I leaned the bike to the right, and the truck passed me clipping off my left footpeg...

I felt a slight brush of tire or fender on my left heel and the footpeg was gone from underneath my foot and the truck swerved on past.

My buddy who saw the whole thing noted that I didn't even look to the left, just leaned the bike out of the way.

Not a scratch on any other part of the bike...just the left footpeg cleany broken off.

I had an extra one at home and within 10 minutes it was if nothing ever happened.

Anybody else had an instinctual reaction like this that possibly saved your life but is hard to remember how you did it afterwards?

This is what I have to deal with driving in Mexico.

Wow, no THATS scary! I have had a couple of times where I was "on the pipe", and for some reason backed off early, only to have a car pull out from an unseen direction. The hand of God, looking out for fools? Who knows. If nothing else, it seems that you have mastered the unconcious "biker instinct". May the force continue to be with you!!!

Well viajero, I guess driving in the U.S. is not so bad after all. No disrespect to Mexico or Mexican culture, but I always wondered if the US would have been better off taking over Mexico and making it the 51st. state. You know instead of invading Iraq. Think about it, no more border, no more issues with illegal aliens getting hired in the US, families split apart, etc. Seriously though, you are a trooper for surviving on the streets of Mexico. Ride safe.

Aaron, that's just crazy! Glad you're ok! I think most of us that ride as much as we can have instinctual reactions, but maybe just dont think about it much because reacting to possible hazards just becomes second nature.

Soren

I think some drivers in Mexico emulate the Spanish invaders from a few hundred years ago. In Spain, it seems like everyone drives with both feet on the gas, both hands on the horn and their eyes closed.

Yeah, it was a close call for sure!

I've been living in Guadalajara which is a huge city (population approx. 8 million) so I guess it's to be expected with so many cars on the road, but I've found the drivers pretty bad here in any part of the country.

There is no respect for motorcyclists at all and a lot of the motorcyclists (more so the scooters and small bikes) perpetuate this by not taking control of their lane and driving on the side of the road, which encourages cagers to occupy their same lane while passing.

Something else I get a lot is while driving on a non divided two lane highway when there is a long line of cars and tractor trailers coming from the other direction, cars constantly peek out to see if they can pass...many times I've had them continue out once they see that it's "only a motorcycle and he can drive on the side of the road".

Pretty scary driving along at 80 km/hr and having to ride the edge of the road while the car passes in your lane.

I could go on and on about the near misses I've had during my 5 years riding all over this country, but have survived it all so far and I think it's actually made me a better driver.

The other cool thing is that I'm pretty sure I have the only two Speedmasters in the whole country as they were never imported into Mexico.