Bonneville America Forums Forums Rider Safety Forums Riding Technique Tubes!!!!

Rode through some of my favorite pieces of the Montana Big Sky yesterday and today. Hwy 200 parallels the Blackfoot river east out of Missoula 50-60 miles, and you cut off south towards the little burg of Avon. Passing through high country meadows and hay fields, rimmed by mountain ranges. Miles of easy going curves.

The lower part is a favorite rafting/tubing section for the huddled masses of Missoula proper. Given that the next 4 weeks serve as summer around here and this being a holiday weekend, I must have met 50 cars/pickups with 4-6 inflated tire tubes for floating "tied" on top, flopping around in the breeze. I met one or two, where pairs of hands reached out through open windows holding the load in place . I kept having visions of being tubed to death, or at least suffering serious discomfort. CIAO!

While enjoying an eggsalad sandwich at the Clearwater Junction rest area, a guy from Minnesota in a beemer t shirt came by for a visit. Seems his son was riding the same roads a few days ago, when a deer crossed his path out in the wide open at 11 am. He slowed down to 40, the deer crossed safely, then at the last moment decided it liked where it came from better, and jumped through his fairing. The son was properly geared up (wearing a triumph vented raptor jacket) is resting comfortably with 3 broken ribs. Father had driven a pickup out from Minnesota to check on son and haul the damaged Beemer back to the homeland.

The aforementioned stories are merely precautionary in nature and in no way detracted from two outstanding days on the road .

Ride safe people...

JH

In the case of those tubes being held on by hands, that's 2 instances where the "tubes" should have been tied.....

So, if I run across cars with tubes on top being held on by hand, I'll get around and in front of those people as sooon as possible to avoid the potential for a huge flying object.

But, what should you do when you come across the potential of a deer hitting you?

Soren

If you see it, slow down, pull in the clutch, and crack the throttle a few times. (If you have louder-than-normal pipes). I've scared them back into the woods a few times that way.
If you don't see it, good luck.
A year or so ago, a guy riding his HD here had one jump off a hillside and land right on top of him.
I don't know how you prevent that.....