Imagine you are on your Spyder when this happens

[GFrog]

This opened my eyes to the possible consequences of following too close and not seeing far enough ahead; especially on a Spyder or a motorcycle.

Following to close is not worth losing your head.

Have a look at the following sequence captured by my son's dashcam. He couldn't move right due to a Tractor-Trailer in the right lane.

Flying Board.jpg Flying Board 1.jpg Flying Board 2.jpg

Flying Board 3.jpg Flying Board 4.jpg Flying Board 5.jpg



My son's Tucson required a new front bumper cover, new grill, new AC condenser, new radiator and a new hood.

Had he been on a Spyder or motorcycle, he might have ended-up like Ichabod Crane.

[2dogs]

That one would be very hard to predict.

[oldguyinTX]

Holy Cow!! Hope your son is OK.

[GFrog]

That one would be very hard to predict.

You are quite correct. He was too close and didn't have the time or the space to react. There was quite the draft behind the trailer to lift that board.

I suppose it's similar to vehicles ahead of us on the highway who drives over a big rig recap thread or some medium size road kill; if we're too close by the time we see it, there is no time left to react.

That has happened to me in-town before. The car ahead of me drove over a dead seagull and I didn't quite have time to adjust my position and drove my rear wheel over it. Fortunately it was well squished and didn't hit anywhere under the Spyder.

Holy Cow!! Hope your son is OK.

He was driving a small SUV, him and his family were uninjured. The board hit the windshield next, then bouncing over the roof.

[Flamewinger]

I had a similar experience when a Toyota forerunner had two canoes on top of the rack, and they started bobbling and I decided to change lanes and just as I did, they both let loose and flipped up and over and the one fiberglass canoe literally shattered shards where I was behind it.

You have to be constantly watching and second guessing all the other vehicles around you.

[Peacekeeper6]

Here's my similar driving experience, copied and pasted from another forum:

I'm haulen ass up Pyramid Highway with my pickup doing about 70, and a small couch from a truck ahead of me decides this is about the right time and place to fall off. I see it, but there were vehicles on my right side, so I couldn't avoid the impending collision.

Stomped on the brakes, but wasn't slowing down fast enough....

BAM !!!!

After I hit it (at about 45-55 mph or so), I look at my rearview mirror to see if it was still on the road. It was still on the road alright, but the grinding noise from underneath indicated that it WAS STUCK under my rig. I pull off to the side on the shoulder. In the middle of the hot sun, I struggle to yank, pull, kick, etc. this thing off my truck. No success.

I then hop back in the truck and put it in Reverse. Nope. Put it in Drive. Still there. Back into Reverse. Ah....no.

Then, I smell something burning. Apparently, the cloth couch was touching parts of the hot exhaust pipes, and if I didn't act fast enough, it would probably burst into flames any second. I shut off the engine, and like a man possessed, started kicking and pulling REALLY HARD, and even got my handy-dandy Leatherman knife to cut the damn thing to pieces, so that it would slide out easier. I was yelling some choice four-letter words, but apparently that didn't help either.

After I knew that it wasn't gonna catch on fire, I thought about calling AAA, but calling AAA for such a minor event is kinda wimpy {and plus, I didn't wanna waste my call on something like this). Gotta be a better way....

Hmmm. Why don't I just use the jack and lift up the truck?

HELLO?! McFLY?!?!

I did just that, and I easily yanked the couch out of the way. I think I was in a state of panic and wasn't clearly thinking because my two dogs were with me, and sure as hell didn't want them to end up as "crispy critters".

[Peacekeeper6]

Oh, btw, as I got behind the wheel to prepare to take off, not 10 seconds later I see the flashing lights of the Nevada Highway Patrol SUV behind me.

Great. ****en great....

The NHP officer gets out of his car, walks to my driver's window and with a smirk, asks, "So. I see you went shopping for a couch, huh?"

Funny guys, those NHP officers....

[pegasus1300]

Driving north on I 15 just north of the Alpine exit. As I am coming up the hill at Point of the Mountain road kind of crests and you can't see very far ahead. Bam some farmer has lost a bale of hay in the fast lane and it jams up under my Chevette. I try to steer to the side of the road but the car wont steer. The hay bale is jammed under the the car and lifts it high enough that it will barely steer I try to pull it out but no go, so I finally think of the jack and raise it up enough to pull it out. Fortunately there was no real damage to the car. Glad I wasn't on the bike that day.

[ARtraveler]

Like they used to say on Hill Street Blues..."be careful out there."

[Peteoz]

You are quite correct. He was too close and didn't have the time or the space to react. There was quite the draft behind the trailer to lift that board.
He was driving a small SUV, him and his family were uninjured. The board hit the windshield next, then bouncing over the roof.

He may have been driving too close, Gfrog, but that board was lifting and could easily have landed on one of its corners and headed in the air in any direction, possibly contacting a vehicle that was well back and behind him. You just never know. You can do everything right, and still end up being a victim of someone else’s negligence. Great to hear he and the family are OK
Luck always plays a part, no matter how careful you are.

Pete

[redrazor]

Driving north on I 15 just north of the Alpine exit. As I am coming up the hill at Point of the Mountain road kind of crests and you can't see very far ahead. Bam some farmer has lost a bale of hay in the fast lane and it jams up under my Chevette. I try to steer to the side of the road but the car wont steer. The hay bale is jammed under the the car and lifts it high enough that it will barely steer I try to pull it out but no go, so I finally think of the jack and raise it up enough to pull it out. Fortunately there was no real damage to the car. Glad I wasn't on the bike that day.

I had a Chevy "Shuvit" for a company car back in the early 80's. What a POS.

[canamjhb]

A few years ago traveling in eastern Utah on a 65 MPH 2 lane road. I'm in the lead on my Spyder, friend and wife following on their Spyder with my wife in between on her Goldwing. A truck pulling a flatbed trailer stacked with hay bales coming the opposite direction. As the truck and I pass each other, I saw "something" out of the corner of my eye. Wife sees a hay bale flying over her head. Friend sees the bale explode in front of him and rides unharmed through the flying hay. Some things are unpredictable. And sometimes angels are with us..... Jim

[JayBros]

We must always remember the importance of road strategy anytime we swing a leg over anything that has less than four wheels with a steel occupant enclosure.

[K80Shooter]

I had something similar happen to me one morning in the NE Ga mountain's. We were just exiting a small town and had just went through the last traffic signal so of course everyone was sort of bunched up. The vehicle in front of me swerved a little and as they did something came flying out from under it. Lucky for me it was just a flat piece of cardboard, it did exactly like the one in the video except that it landed flat on my windshield. I'm so glad that we wasn't up to full speed when it happened. I was able to stand up and remove it without any issue.

[Peteoz]

We must always remember the importance of road strategy anytime we swing a leg over anything that has less than four wheels with a steel occupant enclosure.

I don’t think we should limit ourselves to applying road strategy to particular transport modes, Jaybros. That piece of board could easily have spun corner on and pierced a vehicle windscreen and decapitated the driver.

Pete

[Quickdraw]

I got one that's even worse and thankfully I wasn't on my Spydie. About a month ago I was on the highway coming home from golf when this guy passed me towing 2 wave runners on a metal trailer. As soon as he got past me, metal fragments started flying off the trailer. They were all over the place. I couldn't avoid them in my truck so I can just imagine the horror of those things hitting the bike, and me, at 70 mph. Luckily no damage was done to my truck but if I was on the Spydie, it most likely would have not been good.

[JayBros]

I don’t think we should limit ourselves to applying road strategy to particular transport modes, Jaybros. That piece of board could easily have spun corner on and pierced a vehicle windscreen and decapitated the driver.

Pete

Agree, road strategy is important in anything we're riding/driving in or on. Many folks, at least where I live, toss it out the window when driving a cage. That's why I try to minimize the amount of time I spend on high speed, limited access highways.

[vito1943]

Even if you are careful not to follow too closely, something from the OTHER side of the road can still kill you. Many years ago I was driving north on I-35 from San Antonio to Austin to bring my daughter back to college. The road was not crowded and I had no particular concerns as I moved along briskly in my Chevy Suburban. Suddenly from the opposite side of I-35 a semi tractor, without a trailer, had its front axle break. He veered sharply across the median toward my side of the road. I had to decide in a split second whether to brake or accelerate. I chose to accelerate and he passed diagonally just a few feet behind the back of my car, then careened over the service road and overturned in a field. I stopped as soon as I could, and drove across the grass to get to the service road and back to where the overturned truck was. I helped the semi conscious driver out of the cab of the truck and then used my shirt to stop the heavy bleeding from his scalp. Had I not accelerated he would have hit me solidly and likely killed me and my daughter. It happened so fast that my reaction was more instinct than a thought out evasive plan.

[Wmoater]

I agree riding to close might cause many issues and problems but when watching the video look at the right lane. There’s a sign and he is clearly 3.5 to 4 seconds behind the trailer infront as he passes the sign and we have all been that close many times. Yes 4-5 seconds is better and yes there is no view of anything coming on but yes the board flew up and was not predicted or seen. That’s just dumb luck being in the wrong place at the wrong time. My son is a semi driver. It’s incredible what they see putting so many miles on a year. Just this spring a deer came across a cement center strip wall hit his truck, flew up over the edge of his hood and went threw the windshield of the car passing him. That driver would never have seen it coming and just luck. It would have been devastating on a bike but I see no fault in the driver getting hit. Glad he’s Ok and glad my wife has and never will see this video or I might loose my copilot.

[Peteoz]

Agree, road strategy is important in anything we're riding/driving in or on. Many folks, at least where I live, toss it out the window when driving a cage. That's why I try to minimize the amount of time I spend on high speed, limited access highways.

Yes, we are in complete agreement there, Jaybros

Pete

[FrogmanDave]

Imagine you are on your Spyder when this happens... that would hurt for sure!

[mecsw500]

I got hit on my Spyder when a crash on the opposite side of I-15 threw the debris of the front of a car over the high cement divider while I was in the outside commuter lane. It smashed up the underside of the trike and tore a tire to shreds. Fortunately the nanny kept the whole plot stable so I could pull off into the left hand shoulder. Never saw it coming, it just flew over the 4 foot high divider and appeared right in front of me, no time to react at all, just like that sheet of plywood. It was a front fender, radiator and a whole bunch of cooling system of a car that just appeared, one second earlier and it would have taken my head off.

[grumpyoldretiredcop]

The closest I've come to that is years ago in SoCal; a pickup truck lost a mattress. I was riding a CB750 at the time and just had enough time to stand up on the pegs and lean back. It was an interesting couple of seconds but the bike rode over the mattress.

It's not just following distance, though. Some years ago, my wife and I were at the I80/I5 interchange in Sacramento and a truckload of tomatoes pulled up in the lane to our right as we negotiated a curve to the right. The truck was overloaded and tomatoes began rolling off the trailer into our path! I had no lane change option and could not speed up either due to a vehicle in front of us. The only thing we could do was slow down and get behind the truck to avoid being bombarded and having to ride over slippery smashed tomatoes. The driver, all ignorant (or uncaring, probably the latter) proceeded on his merry way despite a chorus of horn honking from vehicles as he passed. After making our way though the interchange, I was able to lane change and pass him. I waved but don't remember how many fingers I might have used...

Another that didn't directly involve me was riding home in the #1 lane of Highway 101 in the North SF Bay after a shift with the law enforcement agency I worked for. Someone lost a garden shovel onto the road surface somewhere between the #2 and #3 lanes. As car tires ran over the business end of the shovel, it would spin up into the air higher than the roofs of vehicles (step on one and you'll see what I mean!), then come crashing down. It caused a "stepper" chain of sequential rear-end collisions with injuries when a driver braked to avoid the airborne garden gear. Despite being off-duty I stopped and worked the scene as best I could until CHP showed up and it wasn't fun - no radio and this was before cell phones were common.

The point is, pay attention to what's beside and behind you as well as in front!

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

There are three places you never want to be on the road; behind a semi, alongside a semi, and in front of semi. This is stressed in "No Zone" training, i.e., riding your motorcycle in the vicinity of a semi. If you need to pass a semi get in the other lane, stay back and wait for space to open up in ahead of him. Don't worry about the hot heads behind you who want you to get out of their way. When it's clear kick your bike in the ass and pass him as fast as you can. I've gone up to 90+ to get past a semi quick. Flying tread pieces, i.e., "road gators", can kill. You don't want to invite them into your path by driving too closely to a semi.

[askitee]

Yes, encountering that on your spyder has the potential to spoil your day - shake it up at least