Triumphrat

KaHOnas

I was travelling home to Tennessee from Virginia last week in my Miata. In the lane to my right was a flatbed tractor-trailer which, apparently, was used recently to haul some heavy equipment, as evidenced by the large chains and turnbuckles attached. Long story short, a large bolt decided it liked my hood (bonnet?) and windshield better than the trailer. Luckily, not a whole lot of damage to either component, except for the large scrape in my paint and the nick in my glass. My pants had to be changed, though, as it sounded like a gunshot when it impacted.

Now to the point of this message. What's the worst piece of road debris you've ever hit? This isn't the first time I've been hit by a large bolt from a flatbed. I caught one in my Honda about a year ago with the same amount of damage. Considering the sound of both impacts, I am not real keen on the idea of hitting the same thing on my bike. I can't see any way that would end well.

So, chime in. I'm interested to hear your experiences.

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David
Helicopter pilot-type guy
'99 ST in black

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines

Lee

Funny you bring up road debri. A short while ago I hit a truck tire tread with my car. I had no where to go when it popped up. It did $1800. in damage to my car. The tread ripped through the vinyl parts on the car like they were butter.

I have been seeing more and more debri on the roads and they are not being picked up for weeks at a time. The problem is made worse especially if you need an escape area and you happen to ride into the debri field on the shoulder. This is even worse if you are on your bike.

I remember hearing about a family that was devasted when a truck part ruptured the gas tank in the family van. In the time it took to stop the van was ablaze and several children in the van were killed. The father could only save one child and his wife.

__________________

Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear

brgsprint

A couple of weeks back, in the rain at night on I-86 near Elmira, NY. I'm traveling at 70 mph following a car. I'm far enough behind the car that I'm not in the tire spray - not close. Apparently, the car hit something because all of a suddeen, I see something just ahead of me rolling in the road. It's about 3 feet long and looks a foot high. It's black, so I didn't see it until I was very close to it. My first thought was a dog. I hit it square on and it felt too hard to be an animal. It scared me but I stayed up and kept going. When I got home an hour later and pulled into the light, I saw that both sides of the lower fairing of my ST were broken where they meet at the front. There were black rubber marks around the broken area. I assume I hit a rolling truck tire retread. I'm glad I didn't see it a second earlier and tried evasive action. I would have been in trouble if I wasn't straight on when it hit.

I'll wait until spring to replace the plastic. It takes a beating in NY winters, so I'll let the broken stuff take the abuse.

A week after hitting the tire tread, I'm following my wife on a weekend ride on a 2 lane south of Hornell, NY (Rt 414, I think). She made a turn onto a county road and hit a patch of gravel in the intersection. I watched her front tire slide sideways and waited for the low side. It didn't happen. The tire slid sideways for a couple of feet and hit solid pavement and finished the turn! I don't know why she didn't fall. Maybe she didn't know she was supposed to.

Tbirdnz

Other than gravel and sand on the road I've been fortunate to not being involved with bits flying off other vehicles or suddenly coming across debris on the road. We have big penalties here for loose truck loads, that's not to say it doesn't happen.

I used to hate following behind logging trucks that had just chains holding the logs on, I always imagined them snapping and coming off in front of me, I overtook them soon as possible. However don't see many of them either now, logging trucks now all seem to be the steel girder cradle type with their logs firmly secured.

I find sand that's been pitched off the back of a truck on corners the worse type of debris, you can't see it until your tyres start sliding, had one a few weeks ago which had me all pear shaped but fortunately rode it out. My friend behind me also got into trouble with it but also stayed on.

I found when I was enduro riding and came across objects across a track such as a fallen tree was just to go for it, accelerate, lift up the front wheel and jump it. Different situations require different solutions, all too numerous to outline. I just go with instinct.

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Ride on !

Catenaccio

I was following an RX7 out of Mina, a very small town in Western Nevada. The aftermarket glass sun roof came spiraling off directly at me. I hit the brakes and swerved to the right, and the glass just missed me. I can't imagine what a sheet of flying glass would've done to me. It shattered all over the road. Funny thing was, the RX7 driver didn't slow or turn back. The only debris that hit my car was a lug nut. Boy, did it leave a hole in my '78 Olds Cutlass grill.

HiDesert

Nothing of any consequence on the bike, but a Ram 2500 I used to have once shrugged off a sheet of particle board that had fallen in the road. The wind picked it up just as we got to it, and it was standing almost vertically when the front of the truck smacked into it. This was on the highway in a city, so I was going about 65. The board disintegrated, and I was amazed at the total lack of damage to the truck. That was one tough truck.

__________________
'You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3.' -Paul F. Crickmore (SR71 test pilot)-

HiDesert's ride photos

Geimer

Nothing on the bike so far (thank goodness). Almost hit a 55 gallon barrel that fell off of a flat bed truck right in front of me on the interstate highway years ago. My son, driving his Ranger pickup, ran over a truck bumper at night on the interstate. It was big and he hit it squarely. He pulled over expecting 4 flat tires and amazingly, they were all fine. Lots of other folks were pulled over changing tires though. As he finished looking his tires over a cop came along, flipped on the reds and got the thing off of the highway.

Afrog

So far nothing on the bike for me either, but I've been told of a guy who got taken out by some tire tread. It was picked up by a truck and knocked him off his bike. As this occured on the freeway, he also got run over by traffic behind him.

In my own experience in the Jeep, I've driven over a sheet of plywood to straddle it...don't want to hit any nails, and my wake picked it up and tossed it into the grill of the car riding my bumper. Must have given it a good smack because all of a sudden he's twelve car-lengths behind me and slowing.

This gives me a much greater appreciation for the space I give traffic in front of me when I'm on the bike...you just never know what they're going to throw at you.

Frog

Squier 51

I hit a piece of steel plate left on the freeway by who knows what with my car once. It was about an inch thick, a foot wide and three feet long. The car ahead of swerved to miss it but I didn't see it in time. Another reason not to follow vehicles so closely. Ruined one of my front wheels and the tire.

On a motorcycle I have had one get off due to debris. It was grain of some sort spilled on the road by a farmer. Hit it mid turn at about 50 MPH... ouch! Nothing broken but plenty of scrapes.

The scariest "debris" I have seen on a bike was actually in the air. I hit a large bird on my old Kawasaki Z1R at 70 MPH. The 1/4 fairing took the brunt of the impact but the spray of blood and guts covered me from the shoulders up. What a mess!