[GWRR]

Well, got caught by flying road trash today. Large piece of cardboard box flipped up by a dump truck, hit in the air by pickup truck then blown into the left lane where I was traveling on the wing and BAM!. It hit the windshield and then tore off the left mirror. Put some scratches just below the windshield on the fairing. Cost for new mirror is $171.00 and change. It all happened so fast that all I could do was duck behind the windshield. I was going about 60 in a 65 zone.

I write this as a reminder to all how fast stuff can happen and how little control we have over it. Be careful out there.

 

[Ben There]

remember it like yesterday
Mobile Alabama a windshield laying on the road ran over by a pickup truck pulling a flat bed trailer with two sport bikes on it pupped it into the air and onto the front bumper of a green van behind it which sent it spinning into my lane. Got on the clutch and the brakes heavy enough to slow as it slaps into my front tire and folds down to the street. Letting off the brakes and coasting over it I got slapped on the right foot by part of the now flexible windshield. Pulled off to the roadside with the pickup driver and the van driver who both thought I was going to be decapitated. Suffered a small hole in the cowling and a large slash across the toe of my right boot and the sensation of finding the coffee table the hard way in the middle of the night.
trash is out there. Many ladders laying on the roadways in California too for some reason. Be Alert... The world needs more lerts.
Glen

 

[Arn Butt Bill]

I was riding south on I-95 in Pompano Beach, FL about 10 years ago when a northbound Dodge Charger (early 70's vintage) lost his left rear axle. The car flopped to the pavement and went into a brilliant slide (night-time --- shower of sparks) and crashed into the median cement wall. The wheel and axle started bouncing in ponderous leaps and jumped the wall into my lane; boing, boing, sthwap --- over me as I swerved for all my Voyager was worth.
It landed harmlessly on the side of the road; everybody dodged it. Even the Charger pilot got out of the car without a bruise.
Scary though.

 

[Pap]

Last summer my wife and I were coming home from a day ride. We very seldom take the interstste but we did on that day. An 18 wheeler passed us we were going 65 mph when he passed. Right before he turned to get back in the right lane he picked a truck mud flap with the trailer tires and threw it into the air.

It hit the road and bounced into the left front side of the bike. It hit my lower leg and my foot. It hurt pretty bad but that was all. We were lucky that day to. Like was said before, it happens very fast be careful out there.

Pap

 

[Shiver]

Large piece of cardboard box flipped up by a dump truck, hit in the air by pickup truck then blown into the left lane where I was traveling on the wing and BAM!.

About 3 weeks ago, I had a near mirror image of your incident (Right lane instead of left, 65 in a 60, etc.). It's still dark out on the morning on the way to work, so I didn't really see the truck in front of me kick up the cardboard, which was roughly a 5 foot square chunk. Just had time to duck as it hit me on the helmet. Scratched up the windshield some, but nothing broken.

The scariest one was when I just missed hitting a big metal pickup bumper as I was switching to the right lane on a sweeping left curve. It was laying between the two lanes and was hidden by the truck in front of us. Lucky that the wife didn't see that one.

 

[yellowtrike]

This summer, Wyoming over Togwotee Pass, road construction. Made it safely through 15 miles of escorted dirt and just as the sign said, "Thanks for driving safely" a construction truck filled with rip rap came at us. I saw a chunk of rock leave the trailer bed, missed us and our companion motorcycle was well behind us.....he wasn't so lucky. He dodged 6 rocks, the 7th connected with the fairing.

Everyone was breathing a sigh of relief believing we had all gotten off lucky - not so. There was a tennis ball size hole in the fairing and a 12 inch crack.

Still considered ourselves lucky because no one was killed or injured.

Got the name of the construction company and a claim has been filed.

 

[jpwpar]

2003 heading into East Tennessee. We were in the left lane overtaking a car on the right. All of a sudden a very large ground hog came out of the median ducted his head and ran across the road. The left front wheel of the carjust caught his nose. He flipped in the air and missed me and my wifes helments by no more than a couple of inches. No time to react. Scared the willy's out of us both. We were running about 75/80.

 

[Smitty]

In the mid-sixties, I was riding my BSA home from work on the freeway and following too closely behind a pick-up that kicked up a piece of cardboard about 8 feet square! Blanked-out the whole world, or so it seemed! Went harmlessly over my head, but not w/o giving me a heart attack. Whew! Taught me a lesson about following too close!

A few years ago, wife and I were on a flat, straight stretch of freeway, when, about a half-mile ahead, one car clipped another sending it spinning into the center-divider. It ended up coming back toward me at about 60 mph and across two lanes. Managed to get off on the shoulder before he went by. Scared the crap out of us. Amazing that even in very light traffic and at that distance everything happened so damned fast! Like watching a slow-motion movie until, all of a sudden, here that car was headed straight for us- things sped up real quick!

 

[shuckaduck]

Watch out for hub caps(Chicago in a construction zone) and dumb asses pulling seadoo trailers that they didn't hook up right or use thier chains. Scared the $hit out of me on the "carefree" hiway in arizona. 50/50 chance on which way that trailer is gonna go by itself. I went the right way, car behind me stopped it. Ride safe and stay alert. Tim

 

[tkrider]

Last Friday night I was riding home from work about 9. Cruisin in the left lane of a 6 lane highway just about to make a lane change to get off at my exit and there's a christmas tree bouncing down the highway. Fortunately I had space to manuever. Always be aware.

 

[Buster Crabbe]

Boat,goldwing,highway speed,wind and an ICECHEST. Guess what gets the most damage..

Glenn

 

[Diavalos]

I’ve encountered everything mentioned so far and even had to dodge a plastic pick-up bed liner that blew off in front of me.

The best one happened a few weeks ago. A Ford Excursion passed me on the interstate with a large wooden kitchen table upside down on its roof. I immediately noticed that the table wasn’t tied down. The moron had the tabletop wedged between the cross bars of his roof top luggage rack. :shock: I slowed down and allowed the SUV to get a half mile or so ahead of me. A few minutes later I see brake lights and tire smoke followed by flying wood chips and plastic car parts. The idiot took out five cars unfortunate enough to be following him and didn’t even stop. :x

 

[Jaydee]

Just a few items I've seen laying on the road surface during the past 30 years of driving an 18-wheeler..... extension ladders of various lengths, freezers, refrigerators, dishwashers, chairs, sofas, dining tables, pickup truck bedcovers, car fenders and bumpers, a boat w/o a trailer, all sorts of building materials including steel and PVC pipe, a huge coil of steel that had become unwound like a huge spring, all types of animals and the remains of animal carcasses, the rear suspension of a semi-trailer w/ both axles and 8 wheels attached but no trailer :shock: , a Harley that fell off a trailer around midnite in a rainstorm and laying on it's side on the Interstate......long enough for another 18-wheeler to come along and run over it ( several drivers spent some time looking for the rider until he returned w/ an empty trailer to see the remains of his Harley :lol: :shock: ) and sadly, even a human body. It seems when I think I may have seen it all something new happens. But.............I have learned to "expect the unexpected". Watch out folks and stay alert.

 

[alltimes]

You don't have to be riding for it to dangerous either. You could be at a complete stop.
Many many years ago my 'at the time wife' was sitting at a stop sign on a rural road waiting for traffic to go by so that she could turn on to that road. My 6 month old was in a car seat in the front seat of the car. My ex had her window rolled down. Suddenly she felt rather than seen something rushing by the front of her face, and kaboom. It was about a five lb sugar beet that came off a truck trailer that was loaded over the top that was traveling down the road she was waiting to turn on. It flew through her opened window and hit the inside of the passenger door just under the window and just tore it up. The scariest part of course is that we figured it missed my childs head by no more than 2 in's if that much. If it would have hit either of them they would have been dead without a dought. It was a 60 mph 5 lb missle. Still makes me shake even today when I think about how close I came to losing my child due to some idiot over loading a trailer and the stupid driver that ran it that way.