Spyder vs Road Hazard

[NancysToy]

Current wisdom is to follow at four seconds. 2-3 may do it, but it can still be risky. Unfortunately the crowded highways and poor driving habits that are everywhere these days, make those longer intervals difficult to maintain sometimes. Do the best you can, and consider taking a side road or taking a rest break while traffic subsides if things get too crazy. BTW, it is no crime to end up falling farther back in the queue because you follow at the correct distance. Getting there first only works if you get there alive.

[Dan_Ashley]

Current wisdom is to follow at four seconds. 2-3 may do it, but it can still be risky. Unfortunately the crowded highways and poor driving habits that are everywhere these days, make those longer intervals difficult to maintain sometimes. Do the best you can, and consider taking a side road or taking a rest break while traffic subsides if things get too crazy. BTW, it is no crime to end up falling farther back in the queue because you follow at the correct distance. Getting there first only works if you get there alive.

OK. FOUR. Here I go!

[daltmeyer]

OK. FOUR. Here I go!

Its a good idea on these machines. Our 3 tyres will only straddle small items maybe 4" tall or less with the suspension working. Anything bigger youre gonna nail unless you can safely swerve the whole front end around it. This means a safe following distance on our machines should be much more than the usual IMO.

[TexAmRider]

Glad you are OK. Hopefully a quick fix of the bike and you will be riding again.

I had the same thing happen to me the other day on my 2 wheeler. I thought about my spyder afterward. I was entering the highway and a car pulled left and passed me, but quickly got back to the right lane for some reason. No one was behind us. I was in the process of accelerating up to highway speed, when the car pulled in front of me. About that time from underneath the car came a dead (large) dog. The only thing I had time to do was lift myself from the seat and plant my weight on the pegs. I was lucky. to quick bumps and I was over it, without loosing any control. Made it home to clean out my britches and clean the meat and spatter from my bike. Not exactly how the Spyder would have handled that situation, but hey having to wait the few more seconds for the warm up cycle on the Spyder might have taken that particular scenario out of play.

I agree, you have to give yourself more space, but there are circumstances as this that arise.

[jerpinoy]

We're glad your ok. For sure save your day. God Bless us all.

[Flanker]

Well, that sounds exciting! Glad you made it though it OK!

[mwkess]

First of all, so glad you are OK! Hope the damage to your Spyder is not too bad.

[cuznjohn]

there is a old guy that i know and he and his crew were riding on sunrise highway on long island and he ran over a 4x4 in the road. he blew both tires but never went down.

[C3517C]

Thanks to all for the kind words. I can honestly say it helps ease the pain of a beat up Spyder. As for the distance I was following behind the other vehicle, I can tell you it was as good of a distance as anyone can get on a crowded freeway. As somebody said a few posts back "Buffer whats a Buffer? On most highways if you leave a Buffer, With everyone cutting in You'll wind up going backward..." Trust me, this heavy chunk of metal came flying at me like it was shot out of a cannon. I also had vehicles on both sides of me. Even if I had warning that it was coming, all I could do was take it as best as I could. If I learned a lesson it was probably that I should be more responsible with wearing protective gear, which I can't stand when its hot out. Also, the dealer called today to let me know there was a "Good amount" of damage. Stay safe, Have fun.

[KatLen0405]

I just wanted to let you know that reading this thread last week may have saved me from a major accident yesterday. Last week before my hubby and I took off for our ride to Kuttawa, I told him about this post and how we really need to keep following distance in mind and road position. We were driving home yesterday on I41 north, at about 70 mph, in our regular stagger position, me on the right, him on the left. I come up on a pickup truck hauling furniture, a couch and two wing-back chairs. I think to myself "if one of those chairs falls off, that could be bad", and look to my left to do a lane change. Just as I start my lane change, here comes a wind-back chair flying off the truck at me! I didn't swerve, I just adjusted the angle of my lane change and was out of the way in an instant, because I had left enough room between us. The chair rolled and skidded on it's back to the right, so my hubby riding on the left side of the lane didn't have to hardly move to miss it. We were safe, not even shook up, and the first thing I thought about was this thread.


Thank you all. A little reminder about safety never hurts. It may have just saved my life.

[Bob Denman]

Glad to hear that this never became more than a non-issue for you!
It could have made Page One; had circumstances been different!

[kepople]

thanks for posting... i was on the highway yesterday following a truck. I was more worried about the turbulence off the truck than anything coming out from under it. I was close for a while, but fell back. I will make it a point to stay back further.

That being said, another note would be that things flying from under vehicles tend to rise as you know, and so thats another point for wearing a helmet. A hunk of metal hitting you at speed would be very bad indeed.

Glad you came out the other side in one piece.

[d.o.spyder-rts]

What are the safety folks saying about safe following distances these days?
Three seconds?? Two???
I leave as much of a following distance as I can...
If folks cut in front of me; I back off to rebuild my buffer...
But my eyes aren't that great, and I need more time to react to "unforeseen circumstances"

That's a good strategy. I haven't been a certified instructor for a while but unless it's changed, we used to teach a MIN of 2 seconds-adjustable based upon road conditions. Dale

[Dan_Ashley]

I just wanted to let you know that reading this thread last week may have saved me from a major accident yesterday. Last week before my hubby and I took off for our ride to Kuttawa, I told him about this post and how we really need to keep following distance in mind and road position. We were driving home yesterday on I41 north, at about 70 mph, in our regular stagger position, me on the right, him on the left. I come up on a pickup truck hauling furniture, a couch and two wing-back chairs. I think to myself "if one of those chairs falls off, that could be bad", and look to my left to do a lane change. Just as I start my lane change, here comes a wind-back chair flying off the truck at me! I didn't swerve, I just adjusted the angle of my lane change and was out of the way in an instant, because I had left enough room between us. The chair rolled and skidded on it's back to the right, so my hubby riding on the left side of the lane didn't have to hardly move to miss it. We were safe, not even shook up, and the first thing I thought about was this thread.


Thank you all. A little reminder about safety never hurts. It may have just saved my life.

I am glad that our sometimes contentious safety discussions have helped you stay healthy.