They happen every day when riding. They may be major, or minor. I have not laid my bike down 'YET'. I have been riding since April, and logged 5k+ miles thus far, and continue to rack them up every day. (its that 55mpg i love!).

On the freeway, some caged lunatic is always there to remind me they are bigger and heavier and will run my @ss over.

At intersections I look both ways, always. So I slow down a little when I am approaching a stale green light, rather go slow all the way home, than being rushed away on a gurney.

On to my thread... Today, I was sitting at a red light. Watching the other directions lights. Left in it nuetral. Light turns Yellow. I leave it in nuetral, where as normally i shift to 1st and hold it. Light turns RED!.. I shift while turning my head to verify for my well being no one else is coming. WHHOOOOSSSHHH. A peterbuilt dump truck with trailer went blasting thru, a good 2-3 seconds after being RED. He was doing about 40 mph. Plenty that had i pulled out, he would have stopped eventually....from the grinding noise of a bike stuck under his truck. My heart started beating again, with great big pumps. Wow. for another day of making it alive.

Whats some of your close calls, near misses, ?

 

Ive had that exact situation happen to me...well almost exactly.

I was at a red, getting ready to turn onto a main 30 mph road that crosses town. There were some war protesters (like 4 fat old people) with picket signs in front of the courthouse. I leave it in gear almost everywhere in town, cause i live in a pretty small town, lights are pretty fast. Anyway, the turned, and for some reason i didnt go right away. Right as the clutch grabbed, a town car of some sort just breezes through the red light, and i noticed he was looking at the protestors. I had a weird feeling like it wasnt my time to get smashed by some idiot..im not very religious, but it really made me feel weird, like why did i not go?

Anyway, when i got home, i started thinking about what had happened, and ended up working myself so much that I almost rode back into town (8 mile trip) to go back and go ballistic on the protestors. I hate protestors...with a passion, especially war protestors. People are dieing to protect THOSE PROTESTORS COUNTRY, and all they can do is bitch....****** hate at that!!! If i woulda got hit...yeah...i needa just let it go i suppose.

 

i can only think of one specific really close call that i almost ate it in.. but durring the summer when i ride its pritty much every day that i get cut off or have someone pull out infront of me... and 99% of the time in not even speeding ... it pritty scary really but i think those situations make us better riders/ car drivers because we become more alert and cautious everytime we have a "close call"

 

I'd say most of my close calls have been my own fault. my 3 trips to and from home (total of 2400 miles on the highway) all were without incident from other drivers and the only issue I had was when my bungee net broke and my bag nearly locked my rear up at about 80mph.

ok but here's mine:
Riding on my first bike - nighthawk 550 I was doing some backroads and came in too hot and used too much rear brake. it locked up and skidded and luckily caught again but it slapped my leg real hard. I swear I thought I broke it. I did the same thing about a week later minus the smacking my leg. I saved it easier this time around... I hate those straight lever rear brakes.

On my superhawk - I'm sure there are countless times of people blowing yield signs and treating them like merge's cutting me off, starting to change lanes not seeing me. Biggest incidents that stick out were when riding at Tuggles Gap we were doing a run down the hill and there were 2 cars in front of me that were going much slower then I. well I got up to them at a short straightaway which I thought was plenty of room. well as soon as I got into the other lane 2 cars came around the turn at the bottom of the hill about 100yds away... I quickly snuck in between the cars I was passing but it definetely was a pucker moment. There's been quite a few times coming around turns and I see gravel or something on the road right in the turn and I have to try and get her upright or pray that I don't go down. The front slipping is not a good feeling at all. That's all I can think of right now

 

i haven't been down yet :knocksonwood:, but i have had several close calls:

1. Riding my GS500e on I-395 into Washington, DC in the far left lane (4-lane highway). A driver in an SUV with the cell phone in the left hand cut across 3 lanes of traffic and nearly misses my front wheel by about 10 yards. I hit the brakes b/c i see him out of my peripherial vision. I speed up around him and flick him off.

2. Coming in an off ramp from the highway and onto a road merging traffic decides to go into my lane. Again on the GS500. The cars push me out of my lane and i move onto the shoulder (thank god there was a shoulder). I speed past them and infront of the car at the intersection and keep going.

3. Now on my 600rr i'm going to work in traffic on 495 inner loop toward Tysons. i'm merging with traffic and there is a lot of stop and go. I'm going about 25 mph and keep looking behind and to my left for a spot to merge in. Again out of my peripherial vision i notice brake lights. I pull the fronts in like a rookie and lock up the front, sense the lock-up, release, lock-up again, release and then press hard for the brake. This happened very quickly and i was very thankful i didn't lose balance. I almost had a close encounter with the Mazda3 in front of me. She saw me in the rear view with a look of relief. She was also kinda cute, i then through the shocker as i passed and went to work.

4. More recently, today i was going to work and took a slow corner in 1st (i usually take them in 2nd) and hit the gas a little too hard. The felt the rear tire come loose and held it through the turn trying my best not to throttle-chop it. There were also cars entering in the lane just to my left. Came out ok and went to work.

i know the last two were completely my fault, but i learned a lot from those and i'm very thankful that i didn't have to go down to learn from both situations. There also have been many (4-5) times where i 'felt' like i was taking a turn too fast and i target fixated on the outside of the turn. Thanks to the several HPDE's i've taken i was taught to look where i want to go (through the turn) - so i did it and leaned a little more to get through the turn safely.