How'd it go today?
- Thread starter MasterBlaster
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MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #58,802
I'm sure there was a smile on your face when you said that!
Burnham
Woods walker
My word. Y'all have it pretty easy 
.
My one way travel time working for the USFS, on an average day, was between 45 minutes and 90 minutes. The long days would be twice that. Not so many miles as one might think; but with single lane tracks with pullouts here and there, brushy, rough, and twisty, it was the daily task. Between 100 and 200 miles total per day, average. Not to mention regularly dodging log trucks traveling waaaay too fast for the conditions.
32 years, 10 to 15k miles a year in those conditions.
You buncha wimps
.
.My one way travel time working for the USFS, on an average day, was between 45 minutes and 90 minutes. The long days would be twice that. Not so many miles as one might think; but with single lane tracks with pullouts here and there, brushy, rough, and twisty, it was the daily task. Between 100 and 200 miles total per day, average. Not to mention regularly dodging log trucks traveling waaaay too fast for the conditions
.32 years, 10 to 15k miles a year in those conditions.
You buncha wimps
.
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #58,805
That's a lotta driving - you're lucky to have come thru unscathed!
Burnham
Woods walker
Luck is part of it, for true. Part of it. Strong defensive driving awareness, and just plain skill at the wheel helps, too. I got better through the years at that last part...a survive and improve long term, or perish early sort of situation.
Wood Collector
TreeHouser
Spent Sunday tiding up from my night market on Saturday did about $101.50 in sales which is not as good as previous market nights. Might be helping fix up a cabin later in the year that I saw on my 4 day horse ride down near Kosciusko Nat park
flushcut
TreeHouser
Good bit of fixing on that one.
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #58,810
I like it!!!
We had an absolutely fine 4 days trip in Norway.
Vestlandet is one big motorcycle playground, with just the best roads...lotta fine curves.
Fine weather, wilderness camping and good company.
What more can one wish for.
We had to turn back at one pass, the road was closed by snow.
Killed a couple of bottles of whisky in the evenings and talked.
Real fine time.
Vestlandet is one big motorcycle playground, with just the best roads...lotta fine curves.
Fine weather, wilderness camping and good company.
What more can one wish for.
We had to turn back at one pass, the road was closed by snow.
Killed a couple of bottles of whisky in the evenings and talked.
Real fine time.
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #58,813
Sweet campsite view!!!!
Unfortunately the trip ended in a bad way.
We were driving home from the ferry on the freeway in tight traffic.
Everybody going 80 which is the speed limit.
There was an ambulance parked with lights going, so we slowed down to 55.
Mathias pulled out in front of me in the outer lane, to wave me down in case I wasn't aware of the ambulance and that bit of kindness saved his life.
Just as he pulled in front of me , a german car came up from behind doing 80, hit the car next to me and slewed across maybe 3 feet ahead of me and hit Mathias from the back, TOTALLY disintegrating his bike.
It just exploded in a cloud of debris. Fairing, windshield etc just blew up. We found pieces of it 300 feet up the road afterwards.
He rolled of towards the median and I zig-zagged through the pieces of dead bike.
The German continued down the road.
Thinking that I couldn't do anything for Mathias that the ambulance crew couldn't do better, I set off after the German, because I thought he was trying do a hit and run thing.
Well, it turned out he had suffered total brake failure, so it took him half a mile to stop.
I ran back, absolutely sure that Mathias was a goner.
When I got there, the ambulance crew was looking him over.
So I yelled to ask if he was alive.
He turned his head and said: " well now I don't have to bother selling the bike". ( He has been trying to sell it for 3 months with no luck)
Turned out he hadn't even got a scratch, except for being banged up a bit.
There is wearing proper gear, for you!
The cops that showed up, were really professional about sorting everything out. There were 3 guys in the car that the German crashed into, they were pretty shell shocked.
In fact, those cops did such a fine job, that in the evening I write to the Staion and put in a commendation for them.
I stayed back to help translate, since I speak fluent German, Richard went with Mathias to the hospital, so he could get checked for organ damage.
Gary, I really wish I had put the camera on the BMW, it would have been some spectacular holiday video, when that bike simply exploded.
But then I wouldn't have been filming a boring ride down the freeway anyway.
We were driving home from the ferry on the freeway in tight traffic.
Everybody going 80 which is the speed limit.
There was an ambulance parked with lights going, so we slowed down to 55.
Mathias pulled out in front of me in the outer lane, to wave me down in case I wasn't aware of the ambulance and that bit of kindness saved his life.
Just as he pulled in front of me , a german car came up from behind doing 80, hit the car next to me and slewed across maybe 3 feet ahead of me and hit Mathias from the back, TOTALLY disintegrating his bike.
It just exploded in a cloud of debris. Fairing, windshield etc just blew up. We found pieces of it 300 feet up the road afterwards.
He rolled of towards the median and I zig-zagged through the pieces of dead bike.
The German continued down the road.
Thinking that I couldn't do anything for Mathias that the ambulance crew couldn't do better, I set off after the German, because I thought he was trying do a hit and run thing.
Well, it turned out he had suffered total brake failure, so it took him half a mile to stop.
I ran back, absolutely sure that Mathias was a goner.
When I got there, the ambulance crew was looking him over.
So I yelled to ask if he was alive.
He turned his head and said: " well now I don't have to bother selling the bike". ( He has been trying to sell it for 3 months with no luck)
Turned out he hadn't even got a scratch, except for being banged up a bit.
There is wearing proper gear, for you!
The cops that showed up, were really professional about sorting everything out. There were 3 guys in the car that the German crashed into, they were pretty shell shocked.
In fact, those cops did such a fine job, that in the evening I write to the Staion and put in a commendation for them.
I stayed back to help translate, since I speak fluent German, Richard went with Mathias to the hospital, so he could get checked for organ damage.
Gary, I really wish I had put the camera on the BMW, it would have been some spectacular holiday video, when that bike simply exploded.
But then I wouldn't have been filming a boring ride down the freeway anyway.
robert gray
Treehouser
wow
Mick!
TreeHouser
Jeebus, glad it wasn’t a tradgedy.
Brake failure is unusual in modern cars.
Brake failure is unusual in modern cars.
Both the cops and I checked his brake pedal afterwards.
It was fine.
We concluded that he'd been inattentive, and when everybody suddenly slowed down, hit the clutch by accident.
He kept saying that the pedal just went down without resistance and he tried several times.
We decided not to tell him, he was feeling bad enough and there was only mechanical damage.
His wife broke down and cried when I ran up and told them that Mathias was ok.
They had two old , completely shell shocked, dogs in the car, too.
Bad situation for them all, no reason to make it worse for him.
Those two cops were really ok guys.
It was fine.
We concluded that he'd been inattentive, and when everybody suddenly slowed down, hit the clutch by accident.
He kept saying that the pedal just went down without resistance and he tried several times.
We decided not to tell him, he was feeling bad enough and there was only mechanical damage.
His wife broke down and cried when I ran up and told them that Mathias was ok.
They had two old , completely shell shocked, dogs in the car, too.
Bad situation for them all, no reason to make it worse for him.
Those two cops were really ok guys.
Raj
TreeHouser
Wow! Glad everyone is ok!
Mick!
TreeHouser
Well yes and no, if there is no prosecution and through inattention in the future someone is killed then that is making it worse.
If it’s anything like the UK then no decisions are made about culpability on the roadside anyway.
I suspect the driver will receive an official letter in a while.
pantheraba
More biners!!!
Life is boring and then it's not...glad you guys are OK. Drastic punctuation to a fine trip.
Marc-Antoine
TreeHouser
I feel for you. So glad it ends well.
My brother took almost the same accident two months ago, but in front instead. A truck hit a car on the first lane of the highway to Paris. The car was sent sliding across the lanes, hit a van on the outer lane and came back. My brother went head first in the mess and crashed into the car. He didn't came out unscattered like Mathias though : broken pelvis, broken arm, thumbs folded back, big bruises on a foot, legs, shoulders, head ... Clearly, his helmet saved his live, seeing the impact. He isn't yet allowed to stand up and he still endures a permanent pain.
The bike has its front destroyed, looking like a flat nose truck instead of a Kenworth. But that's a secondary point.
That didn't shut down his bike's envy though, because he already want to buy again the same bike, to the despair of both his wife and my parents.
My brother took almost the same accident two months ago, but in front instead. A truck hit a car on the first lane of the highway to Paris. The car was sent sliding across the lanes, hit a van on the outer lane and came back. My brother went head first in the mess and crashed into the car. He didn't came out unscattered like Mathias though : broken pelvis, broken arm, thumbs folded back, big bruises on a foot, legs, shoulders, head ... Clearly, his helmet saved his live, seeing the impact. He isn't yet allowed to stand up and he still endures a permanent pain.
The bike has its front destroyed, looking like a flat nose truck instead of a Kenworth. But that's a secondary point.
That didn't shut down his bike's envy though, because he already want to buy again the same bike, to the despair of both his wife and my parents.
Spellfeller
Clueless but careful
Holy crow, Stig! Glad Mathias is okay. Had he gotten off the bike to wave you over, or was it knocked out from under him?
Very sorry to hear about your brother, Marc-Antoine. I hope he recovers with no lasting effects!
Very sorry to hear about your brother, Marc-Antoine. I hope he recovers with no lasting effects!
pete mctree
Treehouser
Wow Stig - too close for comfort- he is one lucky boy!!
Sorry to hear about your brother Marc-Antoine - hope he recovers with haste.
Sorry to hear about your brother Marc-Antoine - hope he recovers with haste.
Raj
TreeHouser
Hope your brother recovers fully, Marc!
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