Riding dirt is safer then the street

 I'm now convinced that dirt riding is safer then street riding. Here's
what happened the past two days to convince me of this.

Yesterday, I took a two lane state route home from work because the four
lane is under construction. I'm about half way home, putting along at 55
mph, when I see a line of cars coming towards me. Car number three in
the line decides to pull out and pass the two in front of him. It was
less then 1/4 mile from me to him when he started the pass. At first I
couldn't believe my eyes, so I delayed a second on the brakes. I pressed
both brakes hard, but not hard enough to lock the tires up. Slowed down
to about 15 mph and then I headed for the ditch. When he screamed by me
he was even with the first car in the line. The guy didn't even look
over at me, so I doubt very much he even saw me. Luckily I ride a DR650,
so hitting the ditch was doable. If I was on a 800 pound cruiser, I
would have taken a soil sample. I stopped to make sure my headlight was
working, which it was. Beats me why he didn't see me?

Today, I took my chances on the four lane home, despite the afternoon
road construction. I'm cruising along at about 75 mph right after the 45
mph work zone. A pair of garbage trucks pull out into the left lane to
pass me. The truck in front hit a bump and a wooden palet bounced out of
the back, the truck behind it couldn't do anything except hit the palet.
It exploded into a thousand pieces, and showered me with no less then 20
pieces. I pulled over along the shoulder, looked down and could already
see blood running down my left leg. I had to pull splinters of wood from
my left leg and left arm. I checked out my bike real well, and couldn't
find a scratch on it any where. I called 9-1-1 and told them what
happened, and described the garbage truck to them. The lady didn't seem
the least bit concerned about it as long as I didn't need an ambulance.
She transferred me over to the state police so I could tell them the
story, and before I was even done, he said thanks and hung up on me.

This Sunday I have plans to take a 200 mile trip to Springfield Illinois
to watch the mile, but maybe I should stay home? A week from Sunday, my
plans are to go to Hixton Wisconsin to race in a Vintage MX. The MX race
will probably be safer!


"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and
degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is
worth a war, is worse." --- John Stuart Mill: 

 On May 21, 10:55 pm, AWR7MM...@webtv.net (Mike Corey) wrote:

An occasional road ride is ok. City ride is not ok by any means and
commuting to work riding at rush hours definatelly is not ok, even if
you are riding open roads instead of streets and avenues...

<snip>


oh, he did. He just didn't care about you...



around here it would go like "you don't need an ambulance? well, we
can't do nothing for you" or in other words, "screw you", this said
with a very upset tone.


no, you shouldn't...


A week from Sunday, my

sure it is! No cars coming from the other way and there are only bikes
on the track! Plus, you have heavier protection gear...

-- T