Give squids lots of room

Just wanted to share a story.
The weather finally broke and I went for a ride yesterday. Apparently lots of other riders had the same idea, the roads were full of bikes. However, in Utah there are no helmet laws and lots of people take advantage of this. I think less than half the riders I see don't wear one.:spank:
I was coming back from the canyons during rush hour and I was stuck in a bit of traffic. It was a major road with two lanes on each sides and one wide middle lane for turning. About 100 yards ahead there was a light, there was stopped traffic in front on me and even more behind me.
I was in the left lane stopped right next to a guy riding his spankin new Harley. He was wearing nothing on his head other than his geeky glasses. He had on a tee shirt, shorts and boat shoes. His girlfriend was wearing even less. :squid:
He gets the notion that he's sick of waiting in traffic, and decides he's going to ride the middle turning lane until he gets to the light. I get that moment of "Oh crap, what is he going?" Left blinker goes on, and without even checking his mirror he turns his wheel and starts going into the middle lane.
When he's about 1/2 way in the lane, he jams his brakes. At the same moment a Land Cruiser who apparently had the same brilliant idea comes flying in the middle lane (had to be doing at least 60) and clips his front tire. The guys bars go flying and the bike gets sent right out from under them. The fall onto the ground less than a foot from me right onto their sides. The bike hits the car in front of us, coming to a rest at the foot of my front tire.
I get off the bike help to them out. The Land Cruiser swerved really hard and almost hit oncoming traffic. He came back to see if all was ok. The guy and his girl got some nice rash on their sides.
I waited for the cops, and gave them the report. And while we were waiting the guy was trying to make friends. "What kind of bike is that, a 1000RR?" I had to walk away because I was seriously about to smack the crap out of him. :Flip:

Next time, I won't be anywhere near guys like that. I'll move into another lane. That seriously freaked me out, I almost watched this guy and his girl get completely smooshed.

HOLY CRAP!!! At least the guy came back to see they were ok... Then again, how much damage was done to the car? LAWSUIT :spank: That's the $hit that freaks me out, and great advice. GIVE SQUIDS ROOM!!!

Wow, what a nasty little accident! Glad you're ok...and yeah, I'm glad the dumb yuppie squids are ok What road were you on? I'm surprised it wasn't on the news...local news is getting pretty desperate for stories

Dang man, do you think the dude even has a clue how close to dead he was?

Tremulant said:

What road were you on?

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Foothill and Sunnyside by Emmigration canyon.

The bike was not that bad off. The car seriously just clipped the tire, but the velocity just took the bike out from under him. It got scratched pretty bad on its left and slid into the rear bumper of the car in front of me, then bounced back toward me.
He was not that scared, but the girl was shaken up pretty good. I asked him, "You do realize you almost got killed?" He responded, "Yeah, that was a dumb move."

Here's the map...
We were by the red arrow.

dude that land rover rashed his chopper bro:

,WOW!! That had to be wild man.bet you could use a cold beer right now .if you have'nt allready.i'm guessing you have allready,I know I would need to get the edge off!! Whew,reality can bite sometimes.:iconbeer:

Wonder if lane splitting would have made a difference.

haha. he must have felt like an idiot.

VEGASRIDER said:

Wonder if lane splitting would have made a difference.

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Yeah, it sounds like a perfect application for it.

I wonder if technically the term "squid" can be applied to an HD rider. I think you need a sportbike to be a squid.

Although from what I've seen personally and read about, it seems like there are a lot more accidents on sport bikes than HDs. I wonder if statistically an HD is safer. I seem to recall that the HURT report that cataloged motorcycle accidents did not find a difference between bike type. But that report is 20 yrs old now or something like that.

VEGASRIDER said:

Wonder if lane splitting would have made a difference.

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Illegal here. And really, the drivers in Utah at rush-hour are likely to get pissed enough to hit you. Besides, I would be surprised if that guy would be able to lane split safely.

cv_rider said:

Yeah, it sounds like a perfect application for it.

I wonder if technically the term "squid" can be applied to an HD rider. I think you need a sportbike to be a squid.

Although from what I've seen personally and read about, it seems like there are a lot more accidents on sport bikes than HDs. I wonder if statistically an HD is safer. I seem to recall that the HURT report that cataloged motorcycle accidents did not find a difference between bike type. But that report is 20 yrs old now or something like that.

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I think that report has a lot to do with the type of person riding each. Sport bikers are usually trying to push the limits more, while Harley riders are typically out just riding around. In all reality Sport bikes have better tires, better suspension, better brakes, are lighter, easier to maneuver, are better balanced, and are typically brighter colors (More visible). So if you were to ask me right off the bat which type of bike is inherently safer i would have to go with a sport bike... the rider is usually the problem.

Man, I'm sorry you had to see that. I like Shreveport's idea of having yourself a beer. Good on you for helping out though. Should be good on your karma scales:thumbup:.

Cheers
Mike

abacall said:

Illegal here. And really, the drivers in Utah at rush-hour are likely to get pissed enough to hit you.

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It's true! They will try to hit you! Last summer there was a huge semi rollover on I-15 during rush hour, so traffic was backed up all across the valley (for those of you who aren't familiar with Utah, there is only one freeway heading northbound from Salt Lake and a few random back roads).

So since I-15 was closed down every back road heading north was at a stand-still. So rather than sit in traffic for three hours I decided to ride the shoulder. I got honked and sworn at the whole way, and a truck saw me coming and actually swerved to hit me and forced me off the road! I was luckily able to navigate the hard dirt on the side of the road and get back onto the shoulder, but I was pretty pissed.

Yeah, I've seen it happen to another rider. I was also stuck on the I15 and rode the shoulder with a bike in front of me. I followed about 100 feet back.
Out of nowhere a F350 swerves onto the shoulder to stop the rider in front of me. People here are so aggressive at rush-hour.

abacall said:

Illegal here. And really, the drivers in Utah at rush-hour are likely to get pissed enough to hit you. Besides, I would be surprised if that guy would be able to lane split safely.

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You kind of misunderstood my question, as I am well aware that lane splitting is illegal everywhere, except California where they call it "permissable" rather than use the term legal or illegal.

If the biker was allowed to legally split, or even if he had chosen to do it anyways regardless of the law, would it have made a difference?

I wonder. There are two reasons I am inclined to say no.
One, he was trying to get to the left turn lane, so if he split he wouldn't be able to.
Two, the drivers here are so agressive that be probably would have been messed with on the way.
I do wish we were allowed to here, and the general cage driving population were aware and ok with it.
In Europe people do it everywhere. I thnk drivers there are generally more aware.

I'm not inclined to lane split very often, but I do wish that cagers here in Utah (or the US in general, really) were more aware of motorcycles, and used caution when near us rather than ignoring us or even worse, getting more aggressive.

They're probably just jealous that they're wives won't let them buy a bike. After all, there are only two kinds of men in this world: Men with bikes, and men who wish they had bikes.