Aug 1

Post apocalyptic wasteland

adventure, blahblahblah, motorcycle Add Comment (1)

Yesterday, I was going to die. It was all laid out in front of me. It was certain. No limping home from this one, at least that’s what my brain told me. Here’s the setup:

I got on the interstate headed south the 22.5 miles to work. Construction zone ahead with speed limit 55, but I had a mile or so, so I blip it up to 75, and merge over to the left lane (3 lanes here). Mental map of traffic says there is a car to my right, two more and a truck to the far right, and a white car just in front, going slightly faster than me. I see brake lights ahead, where the construction starts, so I left off a bit, now I am doing about 60-65. My attention comes back to the car in front of me, which, apparently, had come to a complete stop less than 1/8 of a mile in front of me. It seems there was a car just in front of it that had stopped under an overpass just inside of a lane shift in the construction zone.

Panic. I pull on hard front brakes, shifting down, little rear brakes, front tire barking. White car is getting close, and I am going to hit them. There is no two bones about it, I can’t get rid of my speed fast enough to stop. I am going to smack right into the white car and there is nothing to be done about it. My brain suddenly presents two options to me:

1) Continue braking, hit rear of car, “Oh God, Here We Go”
2) Swerve to the right, possibly side wipe traffic to right

Option 2 sounded like less pain, so… I let up on the brakes a tad, swerved to the right, waiting for the contact with the traffic… that never came. I flew past the stopped traffic with a foot or two to spare, and I check my right shoulder: no cars there. I’m clear.

I arrived to work (after two more minor incidents) slightly shaken, but all in all, it’s not going to convince me to stop riding.

All in all, every day is more experience. 30,000+ miles of riding for me in all weather conditions and traffic and I still learn new things every day.