Lucky Today

[Way2Fast]

While out riding today I suddenly came upon several large pieces of concrete laying in the road. The car ahead of me was able to straddle them and I managed to swerve around them. If I were on my Spyder I don't think I could have avoided hitting the concrete unless I ran off the one lane road into a ditch. If the front wheels on the Spyder straddled the concrete chunks and if there was enough under vehicle clearance to get over them (very doubtful) the rear wheel would surely have hit them possibly causing loss of control. :dontknow: The thought of what might have happened sends chills up my spline. In instances like this a regular motorcycle can be a lot safer to ride !

Richard

 

[matusky]

ugh.... that sucks!

What was a bunch of concrete doing in the road anyway? what dumba$$ left their tailgate down!?

 

[billclemen]

Glad you came through the challenge OK. Something to think about for all of us. I guess getting on the shoulder of the road (if available) might be more of an option on the Spyder since with the 3 wheels one would have been less likely to have lost control (having previously lost control on a conventional motorcycle in just such a scenario.) In any case, glad you got through it and have you washed your shorts out yet?

 

[hevnbound]

I remember early on when I first got my Spyder, there was a good sized pot hole in front of me. Very quickly I thought to myself ...........; "hmmmm, just put the pot hole in the middle of the front two wheels and miss it!!" :a18:

You know what happened! I totally forgot about the rear wheel being in the middle. :yikes: Other than an abrupt awakening and a bruised ego, everything worked out. :

 

[BajaRon]

There is always a scenario where any given vehicle is at a disadvantage. Pedestrians and bicycles get run over on the shoulder, semi's get blown over in the wind. And there is always that meteor with your name on it.

To compare the overall safety of the Spyder with any 2 wheeler is an exercise in futility. The few instances where a 2 wheeler has advantage are always dependent on enough rider skill to take advantage of the advantage. These are heavily outweighed when you take the total picture into account.

You are assuming that you will always be able to avoid those concrete chunks. But if you were not able to avoid them which ride would you rather be on? While it is true that you might lose control no matter which one you were riding, it is extremely unlikely that you would retain control on any 2 wheeler. It is much more likely that you would retain control on a Spyder.

I ride both and I will continue to ride both knowing the hazards involved with both. There is no doubt in my mind that my Suzuki M109R will always be the more dangerous of the two by far.

 

[Star Cruiser]

I think it is just a matter of what you are used to and not many are used to the Spyder the way that 35 years on a motorcycle or a car have done for us. I also would have thought (like in a car) to straddle the obstacle. Perhaps if it felt more like a bike I would have tried to swerve and miss it. I don't have a two wheeler anymore so once I am fully integrated with the Spyder, I will do what is best for the new machine

 

[BajaRon]

I would say the natural tendency would be to straddle on the Spyder as you always have the visual of 2 wheels out in front.

The Spyder doesn't have a lot of ground clearance to cosmetic body parts, a fair amount more to critical, structural parts. So straddling will be a judgement call based on all the factors at that time.