Almost hit a semi today

Today I tested out the Spyder's brakes from 65 to zero. I was cruising back from town after working out and a semi pulling a flatbed trailer decided to look at me coming and pull long ways across the highway and park there, blocking all oncoming traffic for a good 2 minutes.

When he did this, I was so close I could see him look at me, then look down at something in his passenger seat, then pull across the road and stop again and look at something in his passenger seat.
I laid on the brakes as hard as I could and hit the clutch on the bike and I'm honestly surprised. The bike didn't move out of the straight line she was in, didn't slide or do anything other than come to a complete stop rapidly. I was probably 20 feet from the trailer when I did stop though.

I am not however, impressed with the horn that I laid down on that sounded like an angry bee to show my displeasure. He backed up for a moment then continued on his way with a car behind me that somehow stopped before I did.

Very happy with the Spyder, not happy with the truck driver.

Thanks for posting this Frost. You could have easily opted not to, thinking this just one of those things one deals with when out there. But it's a good object lesson to us to practice panic braking. I have to admit I have yet to try that. Thanks for the heads up. Oh, and I'm so glad it ended well for you.

Very grateful the car behind you stopped too! :yikes:

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Originally Posted by RICZ

Thanks for posting this Frost. You could have easily opted not to, thinking this just one of those things one deals with when out there. But it's a good object lesson to us to practice panic braking. I have to admit I have yet to try that. Thanks for the heads up. Oh, and I'm so glad it ended well for you.

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I hadn't ordered the extended brake pedal until today, I didn't think I needed it. If I hadn't had my foot squarely on that pedal or if it had slipped for just a second, I'd have eaten that trailer.

GET THE EXTENDED PEDAL. I have mine on it's way as of now. She's not off the road until it gets here but I'm going to be even more cautious. Yay for PTSD and hyper reflexes. It's not the first time that it's come in handy.

The driver actually looked at me, looked at his seat, looked at me and pulled ACROSS BOTH LANES OF TRAFFIC. I have never seen anything like it. It's like he wanted me to hit his trailer.

Probably too busy texting or checking his itinerary. Bad driver too caught up in his own world to be aware of what is going on around him. Glad you were able to avoid his poor driving..... Jim

Glad you're ok.

:yikes:
Glad to hear that it didn't turn out to bay WAYYYYY worse!

Look at it this way: it sure knocked all of the scales off of your pipes! :shocked:

Glad you're okay!
Was on a group ride yesterday and after stopping for fuel, as we pulled out of the station, the enabled rider in front of me on a custom Harley trike stopped dead short (is possible the hydraulic shifter missed or something) and I had to slam the pedal to prevent a rear-ender. Guy behind me said my rear tire came up about 3 inches off the ground! No contact made.
I'll be ordering the extended pedal ASAP.

Glad you are OK.

With my 09 I had to do a panic stop because a car pull out in front of me and stopped. Brakes worked very well. It did surprise me that the ABS kicked in on clean, dry pavement. Never had to do a real panic stop with my 13 STL. But did practise one to see if it would act the same. Worked extremely well. The ABS did not step in. But the floorboard dropped to allow full travel of the brake pedal.

On my 07 VTX 1300, I had done two panic stops before and both times the rear tire locked and slid the bike sideways so I was expecting something like that. I'm very thankful that little bike stops like it does though...why the hell did Can Am give her such a small brake pedal?

Glad you are OK!

Deanna

I had a similar situation a few months ago while on the freeway at 65 mph in the outside lane, when a lady in the left lane next to me decided to change into my lane without looking. As soon as I saw her starting to come toward me, I began braking hard. The problem was, by that time she saw me and also started braking, but continued turning right toward me, so that we were neck and neck while she continued veering toward me. Luckily, I was able to maintain control all the way over to the shoulder of the road, and she finally let off the brakes and pulled ahead of me.

I was very impressed at how quickly the Spyder decelerated under heavy braking with no loss off traction, all the while allowing me to maneuver away from the other driver.